Ask yourself if what you're doing, at this moment, in time is the most appropriate thing that you could be doing right now.

This may be a quick tip or a slow tip! - depends on whether you know what you're supposed to be doing in the first place!! By that I mean, have you established, in your own mind, your overall priorities (no more than five)? If you haven't, you can't answer the first question.

Until you are sure of your (general) direction, you cannot be sure that you're making best use of your time, energy and attention. After all, it's possible (often probable) to be extremely focused whilst doing the wrong thing.

I'M NOT PREACHING

I've toyed with the idea of writing about this for a while. My reticence relates to the fact that people don't like being preached at and, certainly, in the last seventeen years, I've done my best to try to avoid it.

Okay, having said all that, I'll make my point. If we should be striving to operate in a clear state of mind, we'd be better off not drinking alcohol. A single glass of wine clouds the mind. And, indeed, the fact that alcohol is a depressant doesn't help much either.

You'd be amazed at the number of successful business people who don't partake or who are studious in how they go about limiting their intake of alcohol. Or, perhaps, you wouldn't be amazed at all. Those with a clear and focused mind are those who are most successful and, indeed, often very happy with it.

Alcohol is simply another one of those moment to moment choices that we need to make in the pursuit of exceptional living.

The right frame of mind is a clear one. Thinking positively is potentially delusional or, at the very least, will get you into hoping for the best rather than doing your best. Indeed, some commentators would contend that positive thinking was one of the primary causes of our economic meltdown. And, of course, the alternative to positive thinking is unthinkable! Negative thinking, self-doubt, worry, anxiety, stress and fear are states of mind that only an idiot would choose. There are lots of idiots about.

The foregoing presupposes that we have a choice when it comes to our state of mind. Normally this choice is made for us subconsciously and automatically. This is simply the manner in which our minds evolved. But what got us through the day 10,000 years ago won't make our 21st century lives a success. At best, we'll continue just getting through the day. We have to start exercising choice for ourselves.

Imagine deliberately choosing to focus your energy and attention on something that you don't want to happen, thereby increasing the chances that what we don't want to happen will happen? This is worry. This is something we're good at. Indeed, research suggests that we're much better at focusing on what we don't want to happen than focusing on achieving our objectives and goals. Madness! And, madness it is. If our minds control us, not the other way around, we are mad. I cannot think of a better definition of lunacy.

To break this obscene habit of an adult lifetime, we need to start deliberately and consciously start exercising choice. We need to choose - moment to moment - to focus on what is going on, rather than what is not going on and what we don't want to happen. We need to divert our attention from the resident evil in our head - the 70,000 daily thoughts that well up from our subconscious - and start paying attention to reality.

Reality is what you can see, feel, hear, smell and taste before you start putting your own interpretation on it. Reality is pure experience of the moment. Deliberately choosing to experience reality cultivates a clear mind, one free from self-destructive thought, one available to focus on what needs to be done to get us to where we want to go in life. In other words, we need to deliberately take steps to free our mind - every day or, indeed, a number of times every day. We need to come up for air from the rough and tumble of ordinary life. In doing so, that ordinary life will become extraordinary.