Stop for a moment. Remind yourself why you're doing what you're doing. Of course, if you're doing something innane or inappropriate, stopping to remind yourself will stop that nonsense! We all need to remember what our priorities are... because it's all too easy, through being overwhelmed by the apparently urgent, to forget.

I was recently chatting to a client - one of a number of family members who, together, run a long-established funeral directors. He told me that they had, over a protracted period of time, had enlisted the services of a management consultant who was helping them restructure the business. I wondered what that entailed.

"Well, one of the key things he did was restructure the management team" he said "and, most recently, he suggested that I be given a new title: Business Development DIrector."

I suggested that that was a novel concept and wondered how that works in the undertaking business. "How, exactly, do you undertake (no pun intended) business development in the undertaking business?" I asked. " I suppose you hang around emergency wards or morgues! A new twist on ambulance chasing!"

He admitted, of course, that nothing really had changed as a result of many months consultancy fees... nothing except, of course, the management consultancy fees!

You may have noticed, in last Wednesday's Ezine, that we're in the middle of migrating our emailing to a new system. We're right in the middle of this at the moment. As a result, you are going to receive an email asking you to confirm that you want to continue to receive this Ezine every week. All you'll have to do is click a link. If you don't want to continnue getting the Ezine, ignore the email. If you do, click the link... if you don't, you will no longer receive the Ezine (without signing up again).

Today's Ezine is the second last Ezine that will be delivered through our existing system - so keep an eye out for that reconfirmation email. Any questions? Ask me by replying to today's Ezine email. And thanks for your continuing support.

Like children looking forward to Christmas - which is just eight weeks away! - we all wish, hope and want for more out of life. I'm not talking about a new car, bigger house, exotic holidays or anything like that although these things often appear on people's wish lists. I'm talking about wanting peace of mind, financial comfort, happiness, work/life balance... all those good and admirable things.

The problem is that wishing for a better quality of life doesn't happen of its own accord - you've got to take the necessary steps to bring it about. More often than not, however, to quote an email from a client last week "life keeps getting in the way" - day-to-day stuff saps our energy and we often end up doing things that fill our day but get us no nearer to our dearly-held objective. We know that there are things - not even big things - that we really need to do but don't do them.

Is it lack of determination? Is it that we don't believe we could have a better life when so many people appear to be struggling? Is it laziness? It's lack of focus - focus on the exact nature of what we want. If we know what we want - if we can feel it in our bones - it makes all the difference to the part of our mind that's in the driving seat - our subconscious,

You don't achieve anything by wishing, hoping or wanting, you achieve it be seeing, feeling, hearing, smelling and tasting what it would like to be there... as if you already were. This won't wave a magic want to ensure that what you visualized will come about. Rather, this will focus your mind so that, in the heat of the moments of everyday life, you will start doing the things that you need to do to progress towards your objectives and start cutting through the nonsense that's getting in the way.