Can you recollect the detail of the last couple of conversations you've had? Do you know what people were actually saying? Can you guess what they wanted out of the interaction? Or, like most of us, were you preoccupied with your own thoughts and with your own prejudices in relation to the others involved in those conversations? We constantly prejudge - we're actually wired to prejudge because it makes life predictable - but when we are prejudiced we see nothing, here nothing and react instead of act. So, the next more than casual conversation that you have, consciously decide to leave your prejudices at the door and really hear what is being said, really empathize and connect with the other person, become an expert listener... something that's effortless for anyone who is really present.

Doing all in my power - a phrase that I use a couple of times in today's video - is not a call to some form of superhuman effort. We rarely doing anything "in our power" because we live our lives on autopilot, mindlessly. If the University of Chicago is correct - and almost twenty years work on my part in this area would suggest that they are being a little generous to us normal crazy people - that we only employ 1% of our mental capability or focus in each moment-to-moment of our lives, then we could hardly be described as doing "all in our power".

But I really and truly can do "all in my power" when I'm all here, rather than all over the place, when I am actually really and truly present in the moment, fully focused, consciously aware, free from the shackles of my own normally dormant mind. This starts with me looking after myself - ensuring that, before all else, before everyone else, I look after my own state of mind. This is the first and most important thing that I need to do - each day, each moment. The moment that I let my own state of mind drift, is the moment when I start effortlessly start slipping down that slippery slope towards abject mindlessness and the misbehaviour that goes with it. It only takes one wayward moment to open the door to a flood of nonsense - almost exclusively surging from my own inner well of nonsense - that leads me and those with me at that moment down into the depths of normal crazy reactive behaviour.

You and I have to be selfish - not in the way that that word is normally used - but selfish in terms of the time and energy we devote to developing, honing and maintaining a clear and present state of mind. This is - has to be - our first priority. If it is not, we're then not capable of having any priorities at all - we're worse than useless - we're a danger to ourselves and everyone else who happens to come within our sphere of influence.

But if I look after myself, then, in each here and now, I turn up, I am present... and my presence has a positive impact on everyone around me. Some may be buried up their backside to the extent that they don't notice - others may be a little exhilerated by the fact that somebody - anybody - has bothered to sufficiently turn up to pay a little more attention to them, what they're saying and what they have to offer. And, if I only had a positive impact on one person (other than myself) today, that would be a day well spent.