In Conversation with Cdr Bimal Raj

About Cdr Bimal Raj

The author Cdr Bimal Raj (retd) served in the Indian Navy for 17 years. An engineer by qualification, he veered towards coaching and training after his Navy stint.

He is an Internationally Certified and multi-award winning Executive Power Coach and has several other certifications from Blair Singer Training Academy and T. Harv Eker.

He has a very interesting podcast titled “Awkward Talks” where he talks about things that are important but are not discussed openly. As of now, his podcast is listened in over 25 countries across the globe.

Bimal coaches high-performance teams, CEOs, and business owners across the globe. He also has extensive experience working with Parents and has helped hundreds of them navigate the delicate art of parenting right.

His favourite people to coach remain ‘Teens’ and often conducts his signature Teen Warrior Programs to empower the future generations.

As an entrepreneur, he has helped set-up 3 start-ups.

At the core, Bimal is a son, brother, husband, father, pet-dad, and friend.

LiFT: Tell us about your book, the journey of writing it and its content?

Cdr Bimal Raj:

About my book –
WHAT NEXT is part self-help and part autobiography. It is an invitation for you to journey with me through the incidents that turned my world upside down and the strategies I applied to overcome them. It is not a book on magical makeovers so much as it is a book that offers tried and tested techniques that can magically reprogram and transform the mindset.

Written in a light conversational style so that you connect with the events in the book, my hope for this book is that you experience the lightness of being that comes when one can see a light at the end of a dark tunnel.

The Journey –
Becoming an author was always on my bucket list. During lockdown, I had a lot of time and I decided to pen my thoughts. Didn’t know where to start. That’s where my best friend came in. She kind of pushed and harassed me to write the book. Once I decided to write, I started getting up at 3.30 am and wrote for a couple of hours. I feel that is the best time to write. There was pin drop silence, and I just had my two cats sitting near me judging me.

The content –
I have had the privilege of going through multiple events in my life where I had to start my life from scratch. My book highlights the learnings and takeaways from each of these events that upended my life every time I thought I had turned a corner.

The book is like my life: humorous, gut-wrenching, relatable, and motivating, all at once.

LiFT: Why you chose this title?

Cdr Bimal Raj: I chose this title because that was the starting point of overcoming all my challenges. Till the time I blamed myself or someone else or even God, I only got more and more frustrated. Its only when I asked What Next, did my whole outlook shifted from what happened to what is possible going forward.

LiFT: When did you realize that you want to be a writer and what’s your inspiration behind it?

Cdr Bimal Raj: As I mentioned earlier, being an author was on my bucket list, but I did not think that I had it in me to become one. It was my friend who not only believed in me but pushed and prodded me till I started believing that as well.

LiFT: Where do you see yourself ten years down the line in the world of literature?

Cdr Bimal Raj: I haven’t really thought about it. I may write another book but only if I am internally led to it. I don’t want to write for the sake of writing another book. My book did hit Amazon bestseller for a while. So maybe in 10 years, I may write another book that does the same

LiFT: How much do you think marketing or quality of a book is necessary to promote a particular book and increase its readers?

Cdr Bimal Raj: I think it is crucial to have good quality and marketing, especially for normal people like me. The world does not know me or what I have written. Therefore, it is important to make them aware of the existence of my book. Once people read it, they may recommend it to others as well.

LiFT: What is the message you want to spread among folks with your writings?

Cdr Bimal Raj: My message is simple. Life will keep throwing lemons and curve balls at you. There is nothing any of us can do about changing that. What we can do is to learn how to overcome those challenges and keep moving forward. Once you learn how to do that, then even the sky is not the limit for us. If we don’t learn it, then we will be stuck in life due to one or two incidents.

LiFT: What do you do apart from writing?

Cdr Bimal Raj: I am an award-winning Executive coach and I find joy in coaching and helping people with that. I am also a podcaster and I love to talk about topics that are not discussed openly through my podcast on Spotify called Awkward Talks. The topics range from Menstruation to Suicide, Loneliness, Marital rape and many more. Besides that, I spend time with my wife and daughter and my two cats.

LiFT: What are the activities you resort to when you face a writer’s block?

Cdr Bimal Raj: I take a complete break and don’t even think about writing. I do everything else for a while and at one point, there will be nudge from inside to write again. Once that happens, then thoughts and ideas flow easily.

LiFT: What are your suggestions to the budding writers/poets so that they could improve their writing skills?

Cdr Bimal Raj: I have not attended any book writing workshops or courses. I feel that they make it very mechanical, and process driven. Your book should be an extension of who you truly are. So, my advice is just start writing. It could be about your life, could be about something you are passionate about or it could be fiction. Don’t worry about how it will turn out into a book. I just started writing about one incident from my life. Then it became two and then three and before I knew it, it was flowing.

Click here to order Cdr Bimal Raj’s Book – What Next? – The Art of Bouncing Back