I've no idea who said that, if you've more than five priorities, you've got none - but it sounds like good advice. But, given that we're all a little normal and, therefore, a little crazy, let's keep things really simple.

Given your big goals (don't like the word, but you know what I mean) what are the three most important things you need to pay attention to today? I haven't asked what do you need to achieve today, nor have I asked what specific things you need to do... these minor by-the-ways will be looked after if you honestly answer my question. Take a minute, jot down the answer. Let it guide you for the rest of the day.

Never mind pistols at dawn... how about shopping trollies at 10.00am! Next time you go shopping, give yourself plenty of time - not just to purchase the necessaries but to be entertained. You will find (all true anecdotes coming up) people fighting over heads of lettuce (as in pulling the disputed head of lettuce to shreds) when there are dozens of lettuce on the stall; shoppers trying to drag someone away from the "10 items only" checkout, having counted a "two for the price of one" special offer as two items (meaning that the offender had eleven items!); people driving trollies over each others heels in a fight over who was in the queue first; shouting and screaming in the car park over a single parking space, when the carpark is almost empty; people eating fruit (small, medium and very obviously large) that they haven't paid for, whilst they shop; shoppers fondling every single peach before deciding to buy none... I could go on and on.

I should point out that all these things did not happen on the same day, nor in the same shop. But, after all these years, I am now beginning to understand a CEO that I worked for many years ago... in the run-up to Christmas, he decided to visit a supermarket, alledgedly for the first time. Having piled his trolly high, he arrived at the checkout to the realization that one has to queue. He was having none of slumming it with the rif-raf... he simply abandoned his trolly and walked out!

If you don't deliberately take steps - right now, today - to ensure that you are in control of your own mind, your mind will control you. I'm not attempting amateur dramatics, what I've just said is a psychological fact of life. Indeed, it is what has got us to where we are as a species. But, have you ever considered that, having got here, we've no idea what to do next?

Evolutionary psychology - if there are any creationists reading this... sorry (for you, that is) - has broadly established that the modern mind developed over a period of between 1.8m and 10,000 years ago - if you were a computer, your last software upgrade is now 10,000 years out of date. And I mean out of date - because evolutionary psychology states, simply and starkly, that the human mind is totally unsuited to living in the 21st century. Sure enough, your mind is designed to get you through the day. But, is that really enough? Is it enough when you could, by choice, effortlessly live happily and successfully every day (instead of heaving to and fro on life's choppy seas)?

As a responsible adult, which would you choose? To get through the day on auto-pilot or to take the controls and have an extraordinary life? Only an idiot would choose the former... but the research of many great minds has come to the conclusion that there are plenty of idiots around. The question is: are you one of them? What have you done, so far today, to grab a hold of those controls? What choices have you deliberately taken, so far today, to master your own mind? If your answer is "nothing", it doesn't matter. What matters is what you do next...