Become aware of your conditioning It is said that by time each of us reaches age of 5, we have heard word “no” more than 40,000 times! Can you remember a parent or parental figure telling you to 'be careful' every time you went off to school or to play? Now I am not suggesting for a moment that making children aware of life's dangers isn't a great approach to take as a parent. What I am saying is as a grown adult, become aware of any childhood conditioning that may be holding you back from taking intelligent risks.

Have you ever experienced a time where there was something new that you desperately wanted to try, but for some unidentifiable reason you couldn’t bring yourself to give it a go and you regretted it afterwards? There is a good possibility that this could be linked with your early associations with risk taking. Just remember that we don't always have to play life on safe side. Often our greatest triumphs come from daring to engage our courage.

Love game

The secret to taking chances is to reconnect with fearless little person inside of you. Make life fun again by reawakening inquisitive parts of you that yearn for growth. Rekindle your drive to be more and do more. Start doing things for pure joy of experience. Climb a tree, play hide and seek with your work colleagues and if you pass a puddle on street don’t step around it, jump in it!

If you can capture this enthusiasm for living you won’t have to worry about prizes. Your life will become prize.

Copyright Damien Senn 2005. All rights reserved.

Damien Senn is a Life and Business Coach as well as a fully qualified Chartered Accountant. He helps professionals, artists and entrepreneurs create compelling futures.

He is the author of the 'Senn-Sational Success Journal' and has developed his own coaching model called the 'Senn-Sational Success System'.

Oh, and here's a not-so-secret secret: if you are paying attention, chances are good that your partner will be affected and grateful enough to start paying more attention as well. See how that works?

Just as some people expect to have meaningful family dinners with television blaring, some folks attempt to have feel-the-earth-move sex while conjuring grocery lists or project memos in their heads.

Not possible.

By bringing mindfulness to bedroom and beyond, you will also bring a greater sense of intention and focus, and your body will do a lot better when your mind is on same page. Instead of following those magazine articles that tell you "what do to in bed to drive him/her wild!!!!!" it would be more beneficial to focus on what NOT to do. In other words, do only that which you are doing, and nothing else.

The next time you get lucky, get mindful. Be Right There, fully immersed in your sensations, connections, and loving communications with your partner. Put your whole heart--and mind--into it.

Now, that's sexy.