There are roughly 250 working days in a year, meaning a 40-year career looks like 10,000 days of doing work of some description. 10,000 seems a big number, until you realise 140+ of those days have already passed since you sat eating turkey at Christmas.

Just pause for a moment. What have you done with the first 140 days of your working year and how would you assess the results they've created for you? Which version of you showed up to work?

It's easy to focus on organisational structures, corporate cultures and operational protocols and convince ourselves that it's external factors that determine the versions of ourselves that are active and present once we've clocked in, but the critical factor comes from within. It is our personal working mindsets and the ways in which we react while we do the jobs we do. And sometimes when we're working we're really not ourselves.

Think for a moment about yourself, operating at your very best; those memorable times when you were switched on, active and the things you delivered made a difference to the people and customers you work with. They've happened to all of us.

• How were you thinking in those moments?
• What beliefs were at play, that underpinned your focus?
• How did you react to the people and circumstances around you?
• Where, when you think about it, was your head at?