Looking for That “Sweet Spot”

It is how we choose what we do, and how we approach it, that will determine whether the sum of our days adds up to a formless blur, or to something resembling a work of art.” ―Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi

My husband is a sports nut, especially in regards to baseball. So around our house, particularly now with the playoffs, the TV is often turned to a baseball game. And if a game isn’t on, he tunes into sports talk radio to catch up on the latest. Because of his passion, certain exotic words and phrases float around our house. Phrases like slugging percentage, RBI’s, and pitching rotations. And from time to time, there’s a reference to the sweet spot.

What’s that? I asked. Tom defined the sweet spot as “a particular spot on a baseball bat that when the ball is hit from that point, everything lines up perfectly. And it’s as though there is no sense of impact, no effort on the part of the batter, but the ball sails out of the park.”

What if there were a “sweet spot” for our creative lives, a place from which we do our best work—and it comes effortlessly? Peter Bregman believes that “We all have a sweet spot where everything seems to flow; where we feel happy, competent, in sync with everything around us, [and] uniquely talented…” David Spangler states that the sweet spot is “the state of mind in which we experience the most joy and satisfaction in being ourselves. And from that place of pleasure and joy…energy arises to flow out into our day…”

So, the sweet spot does exist, surfacing when we are ourselves, doing what we love and are meant to do; and when we are in sync with everything around us.” It is being “in sync,” I believe, where we run into trouble. Life gets too crazy sometimes. Our plates are too full, and we wear ourselves ragged. Our emotions get the best of us, and we find ourselves out of harmony, out of balance.

In her book, The Sweet Spot, Christine Carter suggests ways we can re-establish that balance and work from our places of greatest strength. These ways include  developing habits which enable us to re-energize, unshackling ourselves from clutter, cultivating relationships, and the willingness to get out of our comfort zone from time to time.

The sweet spot is elusive. If it were not so, every pitch to a batter would result in a home run, every artistic step we took would be brilliant. But we can try to grow closer to the place where we are at our best. That place where we breathe deeply and feel at peace. Sometimes it can be as simple as finding time to take a walk outside or sharing a laugh with a friend. For me a place of great comfort and also great energy is writing with my writing group. Some mornings I find this place at my writing desk. What about you?–Lucy Adkins

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