Start thinking about an honest answer to a straightforward question: what have you got to show for your efforts, in your life to date and how do those results compare with what you set out to achieve?

A big question! But, it's not all that important what the answer is - the key point is that, regardless of what has gone before, you can re-ignite your drive today. Just like, when you have 'one of those days' that you can redeem by doing something important at five o'clock in the evening, you can starting doing what needs to be done any time.

And, of course, answering this question brings with it a good old-fashioned dose of self-awareness.

As if 70,000 useless (or often toxic) thoughts wasn't distraction enough, we're becoming ever more adept at deliberately (albeit mindlessly, like everything else we do) heaping distraction upon distraction. For starters, there's email - the fact that the average response time to an email is less than 30 seconds: so, there you are, having decided that you'll deliberately focus on something important, only to willingly allow yourself to be sidetracked be someone who has probably CC'd fifty people to cover his own ass!

Then there's mobile technology... any time you're stuck behind an erratic driver, you can be damn sure he or she is engrossed in conversation on their mobile or cellphone. And I recently observed an articulated truck driver, who was letting his truck gently roll forward in slow moving traffic, look up from his texting just in time to avoid running over a pedestrian.

We all have had similar experiences and, perhaps, at times, we've been guilty ourselves from time to time. But, if you'd like more than anecodatal evidence for this further twist in our own self-inflicted death-by-a-thousand-texts, look no further than the US National Transportation Safety Board. Yeah, they're concerned that electronic devices are "increasingly becoming a factor in accidents" - but they've particularly highlighted the case of the texting helicopter pilot, who was so engrossed in texting that he forgot to refuel his aircraft... four people lost their lives. Are you, albeit text-by-text, slowly losing yours?

We all have them - they come in all shapes and sizes - and, if we're to get anywhere in life, we need to overcome them. For ease of discussion, I'm going to divide them into two main categories: the real challenges (like the boss-bully, paying the mortgage, losing a key piece of business, wayward children... of all ages!) and the challenges in your head (perceived inadequacy, anxiety, low self-esteem... make up your own list!).

How we cope with the real challenges is defined by the ones in our head - get your head right and you're best placed to handle everything else. The problem is that, unlike the real challenges, all of which pass, the ones in your head are like squatters in your brain - they won't go away until you eject them - and, for most adults, they are pretty much permanent fixtures.

It goes without saying that the challenges in your head are not real - they're in your head. It doesn't matter why they're there, it doesn't matter what scarred you in the past, it doesn't matter what you think about yourself - thinking about yourself is what's doing the damage. Stop thinking. Take action. The resident evil in your head is there to stay - you can't unlearn your stored knowledge. But you can learn to ignore it by paying attention to something real - like, reality for example! - in doing so it'll sure feel like the squatters have gone.

Paying attention to reality rewires your neural pathways - there's concrete emprical evidence that this is so - and reroutes your traffic. You simply construct a big, slick by-pass (flyovers and all). Once your mental traffic starts cruising down that highway, you're in tip-top shape to meet all the real challenges head on. In that sate of mind, you'll soon realise that some of those real challenges aren't actually real at all - in dealing wiith them they are, strangely enough, dealt with!

For example, actually talking (and being fully present whilst doing it) to a wayward teen, a dissatisfied client or an audience of a thousand people (who would normally frighten the living daylights out of you) produces a totally different result from your normal mindless, reactive behaviour. Actually focusing on (as distinct from worrying about) doing something (appropriate) about your finances will sort them out (I know about this!).

Living your life, instead of sleepwalking through a stupified version of it, makes life worth living. It also makes you realise that, in fact, there's only one real challenge - the one in your head.