Little things - stupid little things - can easily annoy us. And there's no great harm in that if we immediately put a brake on it. But one unconstructive thought all too easily leads to another... and another. So, if or when you find yourself heading down one of those little alleys - which can so easily turn into a big slippery slope - put the brake on. Take a couple of moments to breath, to listen, to smell, to taste, to be, for real, in the here and now.

Consider the benefits of mental fitness. For starters, healthy mind and healthy body go hand in hand - a tuned in mind will, quite literally, tell you what to order of the menu in a restaurant. It will tell you when you've had enough of all the things in which we should only indulge in moderation. Research also tells us that a tuned-in mind makes physical tuning more efficient and effective. Focus on what you're doing when you're taking physical exercise and you'll burn fat quicker and build lean muscle more efficiently.

Mental fitness enables you realize that, despite all the apparent evidence to the contrary, there is no such thing as stress. Sure enough, the physical downsides of stress are real: heart disease, digestive malfunction, immuno-deficiency, hypertension... but they all stem from a vivid imagination, albeit an automatic one. The stress response unleashes a flood of bad into our system - mental exercising (meditation) has the exact opposite effect.

Mental fitness ensures that you're mind is fit for purpose which means, of course, that you need to have a purpose in mind. Purpose is informed by a fit and tuned-in mind, in just the same way as a clued-in mind will tell you what to eat and not to eat, a fit mind informs our goal-setting. This simply removes all the constraints of normal thinking and, so, we begin to see ourselves succeeding like we've never succeeded before. And, once we see it in our minds I, we believe it, we expect it to come to pass.

Bearing in mind the extent to which a fit mind will transform your life, you need to ask yourself the question (every day) "What am I doing today to further my mental fitness?"

• Purposefully focus - it doesn't come naturally, we're actually "wired" to not focus
• Set goals in a way that energizes your subconscious into focused effortless action
• Make your very best decisions and solve problems with ease - your brain can do this effortlessly
• Banish stress - we're ordinarily "wired" to be stressed