Most of us want more out of life. That doesn’t mean that you’re unhappy with what you’ve got. Indeed, the secret to happiness is already having what you want. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t strive to scale higher heights of happiness and success because you can’t stand still in life.

But there are those who are completely unhappy with their lot in life – in fact, most people contend that they are unhappy in their job, a staggering number of people worry about financial issues and then there are some who are simply and often deeply unhappy with themselves as persons.

However, you will nothing out of life by wanting or by being dissatisfied with things as they stand. The one thing that is stopping you getting something different out of life is the blindingly obvious fact that you tend to do everything the same. Keep doing the same things and nothing’s ever going to change. If you want change in your life, you’re going to have to do actually change your life!

But what? Like all great journeys, changing your life starts with the first step. A tiny step will suffice because what you’ve got to do is recondition your mind – to get yourself used to the idea that, in every single thing that you do in life, you have a choice to do something new, something different. Perhaps the most powerful exercises that I propose to my personal development clients is that they use the very routine that has anchored to their current life to dismantle the habitual, repetitive patterns of behaviour that have so constrained them, their perspective of life and the boundless possibilities that life holds for them.

I suggest this same exercise to you. Break routine by using your routine. Every morning, you will find yourself with a load of little chores that you’ve done in a routine way all of your adult life. However, if you do something as simple as brushing your teeth with the hand that you don’t normally use, you will have reached two, potentially life-changing, milestones. First of all, you will have awoken yourself to the fact that, in everything that you do in your life, you can exercise choice. This realization will enable you break every single destructive habit that has been holding you back in your life. Secondly, by virtue of the fact that you will be brushing your teeth in a different way, you’ll have to pay more attention to the task. The super-successful call this ‘focus’. Focus means paying attention – to whatever it is that you’re doing right here, right now.

Your life is lived in moments – each moment that you pay attention develops your ability to be fully focused, fully aware of what has to be done when changing your life calls for real action – not the routine reaction of the normal person whose life will never be truly lived.