Seven Steps to Leading Your Best Life This deeply engaging story is filled with powerful and practical life lessons that will open you to new possibilities and transform your life forever. “Discover Your Destiny will move you and show you how to have the life you’ve always wished you could live.” - --Richard Carlson, author of the New York Times bestseller Don't Sweat the Small Stuff “A captivating story that teaches as it delights.” - Paulo Coelho, author of The Alchemist on The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari “Nothing less than sensational. This book will bless your life.” - --Mark Victor Hansen, coauthor of Chicken Soup for the Soul on The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari “[A] catalyst for transformation...that urges us all to awaken from living a mundane life to a masterful one.” - --Debbie Ford, bestselling author of The Dark Side of the Light Chasers, The Right Questions, and The Best Year of Your Life Seven Steps to Leading Your Best Life This deeply engaging story is filled with powerful and practical life lessons that will open you to new possibilities and transform your life forever. ROBIN SHARMA is a globally respected humanitarian who, for over a quarter of a century, has been devoted to helping human beings realize their native gifts. One of the top leadership and personal mastery experts in the world, he advises companies such as Nike, FedEx, Microsoft, Unilever, Expedia, GE, HP, Starbucks, Yale University, PwC, IBM Watson, and the YPO. His #1 international bestsellers, such as The 5AM Club , The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari , The Greatness Guide , and Who Will Cry When You Die? have sold millions of copies in more than ninety-two languages and dialects, making him one of the most widely read authors alive. Discover Your Destiny Big Ideas to Live Your Best Life By Robin Sharma HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Copyright © 2006 Robin Sharma All right reserved. ISBN: 0060833017 Chapter One A Spiritual Emergency Life does not listen to your logic; it goes on its own way, undisturbed. You have to listen to life; life will not listen to your logic, it does not bother about your logic. -- Osho I could feel the coolness of the metal against my head. How could it have come to this? I was actually sitting in a shabby motel room with a gun pushed up against my temple, ready to squeeze the trigger. Sweat was pouring down my forehead and my heart was beating wildly. My hands were shaking uncontrollably. No one knew where I was. No one seemed to care anymore. I had nothing to live for. So I was preparing to die. I could see the headline of my obituary right now: "Dar Sandersen, international hotel entrepreneur, divorced father of three, dead at age 44 -- by his own hand." But as I closed my eyes and said a final prayer aloud, something unexpected -- no, miraculous -- happened. I began to feel dizzy and fell to the floor, the gun dropping out of my hand. As I lay there, motionless, a blinding white light began to fill my body. But before you dismiss my story, please know that I've always been a very grounded and reasonable person. Nothing like this had ever happened to me before. I'd always chuckled on hearing stories of the mystical, deeming them flaky and irresponsible. I didn't -- and still don't -- talk to angels, nor do I run my life according to the daily position of the stars. Yet, I cannot discount or deny what happened to me in that motel room only twelve months ago. Was it an experience of the divine? Was it a spiritual awakening? Was it simply a physical reaction to the extreme stress I was experiencing? Truthfully, I do not know. What I do know is what happened there set into motion a series of events that have transformed every element of the life I once knew. The light grew brighter and brighter. Soon, my entire body began to shake, as if I were experiencing a massive seizure. Sweat flowed out of me in torrents as my arms, legs, and torso trembled on the cold and filthy floor. This continued for what seemed like an eternity. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, came these words that pierced the deepest part of me: "Your life is a treasure and you are so much more than you know." That was it. Once these words flashed across my mind, I stopped shaking. I just lay there, in a pool of perspiration, staring up at the ceiling. I had never felt such internal peace in all my life. I was completely in my body, fully within my heart. Life is a treasure and you are so much more than you know . After a while, I slowly rose to my feet and packed up my belongings. Something deep within me had shifted, though I can't explain it -- I just felt it. I no longer had an interest in taking my own life. Maybe that voice was right -- maybe I did have much more within me than I was currently aware of. Generally, when we face hard times, we think the way we see the world reflects the way it really is. This is a false assumption. We are simply viewing the world from our hopeless frame of reference. We are