Take a few minutes to observe and examine an everyday object - something that you think you see everyday but something that you probably have never truly looked at. Look at your chosen object in minute detail. Don't analyse, judge or evaluate what you're looking at - just look.

Everything that we perceive is coloured by our preconceived ideas - our stored knowledge - to the extent that we never actually see what we're looking at.

You cannot see what life has on offer if you've become so blind.

YOUR 2013 ACTION PLAN

1. Do small things differently - every day. Brush your teeth or shave with 'the other hand'.
2. Keep asking yourself how you're feeling - if you're centred or all over the place.
3. Meditate - meditate - meditate.
4. Switch off the work-noise in your head as you leave your place of work each evening. Being successful is not confined to work!
5. Take a couple of minutes in the evening to replay the day's events in a non-judgemental way. Regard it as would a disinterested observer.
6. Treat others the way you'd like to be treated.
7. Take a deep breath before you react to anything.

I am constantly intrigued by the behaviour of senior business 'leaders'. They approach their work in the time-honoured fashion of applying conventional wisdom (as if those two words had any right to be next to each other) to what needs to be done. Commonly used tools like SWOT analysis, benchmarking and competitive analysis are applied - to evaluate their businesses against all the other mediocre businesses! I say mediocre because, if 96% of people are ordinary and only 1% of senior management teams is not dysfunctional, what are thay comparing themselves to? And why bother?

Of course, these paragons of wisdom ensure that all the latest tools are also used to develop the skillset of their key people - tools like 360 Degree Feedback which enables you discover what all the other lunatics think of you. I say lunatics because, if the ordinary person only uses 1% of their brainpower, they're hardly in control of their own mind!

And I'm amazed at how often I'm told "Oh we have experts that evaluate our people use Myers-Briggs." I wonder do they know what they're doing to their poor people: Myers-Briggs was developed by a mother to help her understand her difficult teenager. Two out of every three people who do the Myers-Briggs test end up with a different evaluation if a second test done in quick succession to the first. And, of course, the Myers-Briggs test evaluates personality. Now, if your personality is the sum-total of your stored knowledge as it refers to your own self-image, what is being evaluated - and why bother?

Management theories are broken - look around you at the corporate world and try to find some evidence to prove me wrong! All the new corporate success stories - the Microsofts, Apples and Virgins of this world - are anything but ordinary businesses. So why bother trying to be ordinary? Why bother comparing yourself to other ordinaries? In fact, if you're just going to go through the motions in 2013, why bother getting out of bed?