We're still dotting our is and crossing our ts in preparation for setting your mind to achieve the goals that are best for you. Best for you embraces best for others too - because we live in an energetically interactive universe.

Certainly in my part of the world, Christmas is almost upon us. The break - and the year end - provides us with an opportunity to reflect and look forward. Planning - in the manner in which we're exploring how best to do it in this series - is the essential part of looking forward... but looking forward to the outcome, rather than how you're going to get there.

In preparation for next week's video - which is in preparation for the year ahead - you might start thinking about what ingredients would be in your happiness and success cake! For, just like baking, to get the best results, you need to be prepared to the extent that you have your list of "wants".

Unlike baking a cake, all you'll need is the ingredients and a clear picture of the outcome... because, if your mind is set in the appropriate fashion, the method will look after itself.

So, what is your list of ingredients?

At best a misnomer, at worst a myth, the concept of work / life balance is foreign to those who adore their work. In visualizing or internalizing success and happiness, many people discount the extent to which work plays - or should play - a vital role in who we are. It's sad that, surveys suggest, most people would give up their work if they won the lottery. In other words, they only do what they're doing for the money. And, if that's the case, of course you'll want to achieve work / life balance - because your work is a chore getting in the way of the fun you'd like to have.

For happiness and success to be all that it should be, we need to imagine how our work - or the work we might like to do - can be exciting and energizing for us and of true benefit to others. If you truly love what you do "for a living", you'll never have to do another days work in your life. There's a world of difference between a labour of love and the normal struggle that the 81% of people who "hate their job" endure every working day of their lives.

So, first of all, you need to embrace work. If you think you don't like what you're doing, either change your attitude or your job - your life is full of choice! When you've got your head around the joy of working, everything else falls into place. If your working in one of those organizations that values long hours in the office (not necessarily long working hours... there is a difference) or values stress (in some organizations, if you're not stressed, you're obviously not needed) redefine your role by doing your job to the very best of your ability and alter others' expectations to enable you live your life to your way of thinking. I've seen it done time and time again by people who thought it would never happen.

The point I'm making is that work / life balance is not a balancing of the clock - it's a balancing of the mind. It's not about 9 hours at work and 7 hours at play - it's about 16 hours at play... work / life balance, like every other problem or challenge we have in life, is in your head. And only you can manage what's going on in there. That is what videos 6 and 7 will be about!