Take a couple of minutes to consider the following questions: What do you think of the people or persons whom you have encountered in the last hour or so? How did you feel as a result of interacting with them today? Do you feel your day is moving forward or backward as a result of these interactions? Or are you simply going around in circles? What do you think of your own performance in the last hour or so? Has it been what you would like it to be, as distinct from what you might have expected it to be!? How do you feel about facing into the next bit of your day?

I know this is an exercise in looking backwards and we're supposed to be in flow, in the here and now. But we do need to keep evaluating how we're doing: not to beat ourselves up, certainly not to feel bad about our performance but to ensure that we keep ourselves on our toes. Because you never know what opportunity is waiting to be embraced in the next now, you need to be fully ready to embrace it!

Attitude impacts everything: from how you react to what's going on now to how you go about doing the key things that you need to do to get you to where you want to go. And, unless you take deliberate and disciplined steps to set and then manage your attitude throughout the day, it will be set for you, automatically, by your subconscious mind's so-called autopilot... and that is not a good thing!

Without deliberate intervention on our part, our mood, state of mind or attitude is dictated by our deep-seated thoughts. The mood that I'm in at this moment in time is the direct result of whatever garbage from my formative years that my subconscious has wandered into this morning. The probability is that it will be negative and, as a result, I will be, before I even get going, in the wrong state of mind do to whatever I should be doing. But, even worse, the mood that has been automatically "chosen" as a result of these thoughts is the catalyst for choosing which thoughts I think in relation to what is happening in this moment which, in turn, will augment my current mood. It's the classic vicious circle - the process by which we continually sabotage our chances of success.

Why would my mind be so self-destructive? It's a valid question and one which is answered by the simple fact that our slowly evolving mind is totally unsuited to 21st century living. It is designed to enable me make it through today (without being eaten by the proverbial man-eating tiger)... my happiness and success simply don't enter into the equation!

As I've said, deliberate and disciplined action is required of us to ensure that we adopt the correct attitude to each moment of our daily lives. That action is meditation... for meditation disengages that so-called autopilot and allows us fly the 'plane ourselves. It allows us choose the appropriate attitude, mood and state of mind... it enables us fly!

If you're even a casual visitor to this Ezine you will know that your life is what you make it. But that's not by dreaming big or setting exciting goals. It's by doing what needs to be done now to achieve those exciting goals and your ability to do the necessary is all down to your state of mind right here, right now.