Every day, every second, life is whooshing past at an alarming rate. And it goes on getting faster and faster. I once asked an 84-year-old man if life slowed down as you got older. His reply was unprintable but he explained to me in no uncertain terms that no, it didn’t. It carried on getting faster. I sometimes wonder if we aren’t picking up speed for take-off, if you know what I mean – a sort of run-up before we leave. But the Rule, if you want your life to be successful, happy, fulfilled, meaningful, jam-packed with adventure and reward, is simply to get on with it. And I’m sure you do or you wouldn’t be reading this.

So, how do we get on with it? Well, the easiest way is the same way we would get on with anything else we know we have to do. We start with setting a target (a goal, an objective), make a plan, formulate a set of actions to take us towards the target and then, well, get on with it.

Imagine you were a project manager for a big company and they wanted you to organize, say, an exhibition. You would begin with clarifying what you wanted from the exhibition, what it was supposed to achieve (for example, to sell 100 items or to give away free gifts or to drum up 20 new customers). This gives you something to aim for. Then you would formulate your plan – booking the stand, arranging the staff, getting stuff printed, etc. With the plan in place, you would work out what you needed and then get on with it.

Life isn’t so different. It’s a project – albeit on a vast scale and much more important than an exhibition stand.

I’m sure you get the idea. You have to get on with life, but it is so easy to wallow if you don’t have a goal (or goals) and a plan. It’s very easy for the days to blur into each other if you’ve no idea where you are going or what you want to achieve.

None of this, by the way, need take away any spontaneity from life if that’s what you’re thinking. I don’t regard life like a work project, honestly. I do see it as a challenging, rewarding, exciting, rich and diverse, unexpected and rather fantastic experience. But you have to give life a bit of thought if you want to get the best out of it. Without that thought, the days will blur. Without that thought, it’s easy to find yourself adrift – floating downstream.

I used to think that whatever turned up would be fine. I was a sort of adventurous fatalist – I would be ready for whatever challenge was thrown my way. But increasingly I see the huge advantage of having a goal and working towards that rather than drifting aimlessly. It makes it so much easier for good things to happen.