Why did you get up this morning? Surely it wasn't to go through the motions!

Take a few minutes to ask yourself: "Does what I'm doing turn me on?" "What does turn me on?" "What am I doing that has nothing to do with being turned on?"

We're not talking about selfish pleasure, we're talking about purpose. One day without purpose drifts into many. And life without purpose isn't living.

I'm intrigued by the latest research on visual cognition - how we perceive our world through our sense of vision. What has been discovered is that we use exactly the same mental machinery - the exact same regions of our brain - for both perceiving reality and for visual imagery.

The point is, in visualizing something you have yet to achieve, your mind cannot distinguish it from reality - your behaviour, dictated as it is at a subconscious level, will reflect your perceived reality. As a result, you become more focused at doing the things that need to be done to achieve what you want to achieve.

A DAY ABOUT DOING

In conversation with a client recently, I asked if she could, hand on heart, say that she felt inspired and motivated each day. We all hope that we're motivated on a regular basis - but how many of us can point to times when we felt truly inspired?

In the event, my friend answered in the negative - fairly predictable given that the routine of daily life mitigates against both inspiration and motivation. The automatic way in which the normal mind works almost ensures that such lofty ideals are rarely within our reach.

But my client leads a senior management team. My question to her was in response to her question: "How can I motivate and inspire my team?" The answer is obvious. You can't - unless you're motivated and inspired yourself. Any attempt to do so from a normal state of mind is not only bound to fail - worse, it is bound to be seen for what it is: a false attempt at getting people to believe what you don't truly believe yourself.

Leadership is called for in all kinds of ways: children look to their parents for leadership (whether or not they're prepared to admit it!); management teams look to the boss; the Saturday morning football team looks to its captain - you'll find the need for leadership all around. Indeed, aren't you supposed to be leading your own life!

Let's take the concept of leadership at that most basic of levels: leading your own life. Because what's required of you to do that is exactly the same as what you would deploy in the service of others looking to you for leadership. Leadership needs to be inspirational because only true inspiration truly motivates. Inspiration isn't simply the preserve of artistes - Science Magazine bemoaned the lack of scientific inspiration over recent years as compared to the prolific inspiration of the early twentieth century - making the point that modern scientists, in thinking too much, don't leave room for inspiration.

Inspiration is a daily thing - a normal attribute of the normal daily life... of abnormal people. People who are tuned in - not to the noise in their heads but to the reality of a world brimming with ideas and opportunities. Inspiration is what ensures that abnormal people not only know the right thing to do - they do it right. Inspiration is what makes abnormal people stand out from the crowd. Inspiration will make you a great leader - of your own life... and the lives of others.