How in control are you? There's only one thing in your life over which you have absolute and total control - your own state of mind. Control that and you'll greatly influence everything else.

So take a moment, ask yourself who's running the show - you or your useless thoughts? Chances are you'll find it's the latter.

Stop paying attention to the noise in your head. Pay attention to now. Get up from whatever you're doing and go for a short walk to clear your head.

You've only one challenge in life. Sure enough you may feel that your job or your relationship poses a challenge. You may find the business or economic environment challenging at the moment. But, like even the good things in life, all these apparent challenges arise and pass away - they are no more than speed-bumps on life's highway. But boy will they slow you down if you let them.

The only challenge you have in life is managing your own state of mind. Managed effectively, a clear mind can take all those other apparent challenges in its stride - and move on, effortlessly, towards the prize.

Yet it's all too easy to abdicate responsibilty for our own state of mind - it's always somebody else's fault - the bankers, the politicians, the system. Those things are what they are, part of the background scenery. They are the excuses normal people use when they've failed to take control of their own minds.

But take control of your own mind and all else changes.