Discovering Your Sweet Spot: A soul-searching guide for life

About the book

In a society increasingly driven by the  manic pursuit of externally visible rewards, this book not only  underscores the need for greater purpose in our lives, but also  elaborates on the inner journey of self-discovery that can help us  create a truly meaningful life.

Written by a leading life coach, the book  discusses a path for personal transformation that has worked for  several others in discovering higher fulfillment, deeper  relationships, better balance and greater peace and happiness in  their lives. Founded in the belief that skills for being happier can  be acquired, the inspirational insights shared in the book will  empower you for the rest of your life.

Further, integrating the life lessons  grappled with by the author, the book discusses the powerful balance  between the apparent opposites of taking charge and letting go, doing  and being, giving and receiving, and passion and detachment, towards  discovering our personal sweet spot in life – the place where there  is tremendous personal fulfillment, lightness, balance and happiness.

Advance praise for the book

"The profound insights offered in  this book will nourish your soul and set you on a life-long path for  experiencing deeper happiness. A must-read for anyone seeking answers  to the most important questions of life."

~  Jennifer Read Hawthorne, co-author, #1 New  York Times bestseller Chicken Soup for the Woman's Soul and The  Soul of Success 

"A well thought out personal  guide to coming home to one's own source of fulfillment, Rajiv Vij  has combined his personal life experience along with his years as a  personal life coach to show how self responsibility combined with the  inspiration of a newfound life purpose grounded in helping others, is  truly the path to personal mastery. I recommend this book to anyone  yearning for real change, and for those who could use further  inspiration to take the next important step toward manifesting their  true life's work."

~  Paula Horan, PhD, Reiki Master and author of Fierce  Innocence and Core Empowerment 

"This neat, well written volume,  talks about inner transformation and how this leads to a life that  has deep meaning. Success - as defined conventionally - is a  by-product of such transformation. It is a great reminder that our  potential is unfathomably immense. We have to know this, acknowledge  it and tap into it."

~  Srikumar Rao, PhD, TED speaker and best selling author, author of Happiness  at Work

Excerpts from the book

On deeper purpose of life

The deeper purpose, it transpires, is the  same for all human beings – it circles around undertaking the inner  journey of self-realization; of building greater self-awareness and  deeper understanding of who we essentially are; of conquering our own  fears and anxieties; of experiencing love and compassion in all our  dealings; of learning to be present in the moment, and eventually  transcending ourselves. Once we grasp that and make it the central  theme of whatever we do, the notions of happiness, balance, and  legacy are no longer beyond reach. It does not matter what you do,  but with what intent you do it that makes the real difference. Once  we embrace this purpose, it reflects in how we conduct ourselves in  whatever we do – in our professional and our personal life.

Such an alignment with a higher purpose  results in staying committed to the process with the purest  intentions, without any attachment to the result. It provides us with  a higher meaning in everything we are engaged in. Consequently, we  are less focused on how far we reach in achieving the external goals  in life, but far more on the joy of being on the right path in our  inner journey. Every activity in our day becomes an opportunity to  make progress towards fulfilling this purpose – an interaction with  a customer is then guided by a genuine desire to serve, without  constantly eyeing possible personal gains; playing with our children  is the time to love and nurture growth, with no expectations of  controlling their thoughts or aspirations; volunteering for community  activities is led by a deep sense of interconnectedness with fellow  beings, without any judgment of success or failure of the effort.  There’s never a moment then that’s devoid of the possibility of  focusing on observing our own thoughts, emotions and actions, or  dissolving our ego, and in the process living more consciously.

On  the power of our thoughts

Furthermore, there’s an interesting  insight about the universal intelligence that resides throughout our  body. We already know that this intelligence forms the basis of  functioning of all aspects of our body – be it the circulatory,  digestive, neural or the hormone system. We don’t run our body,  this intelligence does. The interesting thing is that this  intelligence spread across our body cannot tell the difference  between an actual physical reality and a mere thought. Thoughts are  treated by the subconscious as real and they bring about the same  changes in the subconscious as an actual physical event. The  subconscious mind does not judge between ‘good’ and ‘bad’,  ‘positive’ and ‘negative’, it essentially gets to work with  the agenda to actualize the thought into new reality. Thus, a genuine  threatening situation or fearful thoughts – both cause a similar  stiffness in the body; actual gulping of a tasty juice or the mere  thought of it salivates our mouth equally; practicing basketball on  the court or repeatedly visualizing the shots in our mind has a  nearly identical impact on the muscle memory. That’s how  visualization techniques work so well. When we visualize ourselves to  be healthy, abundant, calm and joyous, the neurons carry those  thoughts (as if they are real) and make our body begin to feel that  way.

What you are comes to you

We do not attract in our life what we  want but who we are. In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s realization, ‘What  you are comes to you.’ Our inner state dictates the thoughts and  feelings we have. While we can work with affirmations and positive  thoughts, it’s our core state of being that has a dominant impact  over both, our actions and the inner reality we experience. The  energy vibrations we attract are the ones that are synchronous to the  energy vibrations we are operating at; the reality we experience is  linked to the level of consciousness we are living with. The more  conscious our state of being, the greater the chances of our becoming  a channel for transmitting to – and receiving from – the  collective universal consciousness. We experience greater harmony in  our life then and things just happen effortlessly.

The sweet spot

The sweet spot can also be understood as  the zone where things fall into place effortlessly and in complete  harmony between our inner being and the external universe. It is the  place when we feel balanced in every way – between, work and  family, physical and emotional well-being, mental and spiritual  growth, personal progress and supporting others, giving and  receiving, and loving and being loved. It’s the zone where we feel  challenged but in control, where we are learning and growing but are  not overwhelmed, where we are open to new experiences but have the  wisdom to assimilate them into our understanding.

Experiencing and living connected to this  sweet spot impacts every minutest bit of our existence. At work,  operating in the sweet zone translates to being engaged in a  profession or a vocation that we love, enjoy, and find meaningful and  rewarding. The work challenges and stimulates us and yet we feel  confident and supported in being effective. If we enjoy the  profession but don’t find it meaningful, we will sorely lack the  sense of fulfilment. Similarly, if the work is meaningful but not  rewarding enough, our frustration builds up. If the work is too  challenging and we are not confident about achieving our goals, we  feel overwhelmed; if it’s too easy, it becomes boring.

About the author

Rajiv  Vij is a life coach and works with leaders from business, public  service and the social sector, across Asia, to help them discover and  fulfil their potential. Driven by  a deep desire to seek greater meaning, Rajiv gave up an exciting  corporate career to start a new life as a coach. He made this  conscious choice towards better facilitating his personal journey of  self-discovery, and through coaching, actively helping others with  theirs.

Prior  to starting his coaching practice in 2006, he served as Managing  Director (Asia, Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe) for Franklin  Templeton Investments. Rajiv graduated as an engineer from the Indian  Institute of Technology, Delhi and earned his Post Graduate Diploma  in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata. His  website is www.rajivvij.com.

Twenty-five  percent of the author’s proceeds from this book will be donated to  Parivaar, a humanitarian organization focused on children, based near  Kolkata.

Rajiv  Vij’s articles

Rajiv  writes a blog on the journey of personal mastery and has also been  contributing regularly to The Speaking Tree column of The Times of  India.

Here  are links to some of his articles:
1. Overcoming the Crippling Thoughts of ‘Why Me?’
2. Yeh Dil Maange More
3. The Grand Illusion
4. Altering Your Karnic Cycle
5. Are You Following Your Calling?

Where to buy

Published by Hay House, and initially  being launched in India, the book is already available on a number of  online stores in India. To place an order for your copy:

For delivery within India,  through Flipkart, please  click here

For  delivery outside of India,  through Hay House, please  click here