At lunchtime - either today or tomorrow - give yourself ten minutes to get out of where you work and go for a stroll. Don't walk somewhere to do something - like the bank machine to get money, or the coffee shop to get a sandwich - just go for a stroll for the sake of going for a stroll. For the few minutes that you're out strolling, try to look, listen, feel, smell and taste what's going on - one sensation at a time. Don't think about what you're experiencing, don't judge it, don't evaluate - just experience. Come to your senses - you've five of them, use them.

Every time I do anything, I have a choice to make... and I mean every time and anything - from breathing in and out to making a major presentation, from chewing my food to talking one-to-one with a client. The choice I have to make is, on the face of it, an incredibly simple one: I can choose to be aware of my actions, aware of my feelings, aware of my surroundings, aware of the people I'm with, aware of what's going on... or I can choose to be "blissfully" unaware (ignorance apparently passing for bliss!).

An incredibly simple choice? Yes it is - but if I'm not aware that I have a choice to make, how can I choose to be aware? The challenge with which I'm faced, every time I do anything, is that my mind is designed to make this moment-to-moment choice for me automatically, without bothering my conscious awareness. Why would I need to be consciously aware to drive my car when I can do it automatically? Why would I need to consciously be aware of chewing my food when I, again, I can simply do it on autopilot?

The problem I have is that my autopilot - yes that is a technical psychological term - takes over everything, does everything for me, leaving me unaware of my ability to choose to be aware. Like any autopilot, mine needs programs - an aircraft flies on autopilot by virtue of how the autopilot has been programmed - the autopilot doesn't have a mind of its own! My autopilot uses tried and trusted programs that were configured during my formative years. They are tried and trusted because, over the millenia that have led to 2015, they have ensured that, mostly, we make it through the day without doing ourselves any great harm.

But making it through the day is not the same as living - surviving doesn't mean that I thrive. What I need to do is decide - make a conscious choice - when I need my autopilot (because it has many and varied practical benefits) and when I need to fly my life manually. I need to make a conscious choice as to how and when I pay full attention (or even some attention!) to what is going on now so that, now, I do what I need to do, in the best possible fashion, to achieve my objective for now and move myself forward toward my desired "nows" - normally called by goals or objectives which, although in the future, are created by my engagement now.

The purpose of my writing these few words now is to alert you to the fact that, now, you have a conscious choice that you can make in any now.

You may or may not be interested - if you're a consultant or coach, a HR leader or working in leadership development or talent management. Following four years' development, I've embarked on a gentle process of launching psyberCoach... psyberWhat? Have a look here...