Many years ago, I ran a programme at Land Rover called ‘Do Something Different’. It was for all the team leaders, shift leaders, managers and directors, and was deliberately provoking them to think and act in novel ways – not to cause chaos, but to encourage them to realise that they could improve their work and lives if they extended their ‘toolkit’ of techniques to deal with their own reactions and to work with others effectively.

It’s still a phrase that I need to remind myself of every so often. We all have a tendency to repeat behaviours or ways of thinking about things even though we know they don’t work for us.

We complain about stuff, but it doesn’t change what’s happening. We tell the kids off for their untidy bedrooms but the bedroom doesn’t stay tidy. We put a task off because it looks too big to tackle and it never gets done, or we do it reluctantly and prove to ourselves that it’s hard work.

Our minds are terrible masters but wonderful servants. They will send us into automatic repeating patterns even if we know they don’t work for us, but they can also look for answers to questions we ask them. If you ask the right question, it’s amazing what answers you can find.

So the simple solution is to go away from the situation that’s not working and ask yourself: ‘ How could I tackle this in a different way?’ or ‘How could I make this easier for myself?’

Just the act of moving away from the situation starts to give you some perspective and breaks the repetitive pattern. And I can still be delighted by some of the answers I get to the questions.

So next time you feel stuck or realise that you’re just repeating a pattern that’s not useful, do something different.