You need to constantly keep an eye on yourself - because, immersed as we are in a normal world, peopled by normal people, we are constantly being induced to return to normallity - mindlessness.

So, throughout today, stop yourself every so often and ask yourself "Where am I?" Chances are you won't be mentally where you physically are! But asking yourself the question is all it takes to prod yourself back towards a clear, focused and purposeful state of presence.

We're in deepest winter here at present - as, indeed, is much of northern Europe. My friends in Ireland constantly say to me "But you guys know how to cope with snow." That is not, necessarily true!

Outside the entrance to our house is a large, circular, piece of road around which five houses are arranged. Four fifths of this circle is in bright winter sunshine - so all the snow and ice that we've had over the last week has disappeared. The remaining fifth is like an off-road, rutted mess of deeply forzen ice and snow.

This morning, for the second time in three days, the same person has managed to come visit one of our neighbours and get stuck in the ice and snow - quite a feat considering you have to deliberately drive into it! On both occasions, the air has been filled with the stench of burning rubber - to no avail. On both occasions, a farmer from down the road has been called upon to tow the idiot out.

I'm thinking of asking her when she's calling next so that I can sell tickets for the spectacle!

In the next couple of days, it will be seventeen years since I started doing what I now do. In my first two-day workshop, in November, 1996, I first broached the word mindfulness to a group of participants. Some said to me that what I was doing was 'far out' - some said to me that, no doubt, in time, what I was doing would become mainstream. That time has arrived.

In the past two weeks, I have been approached by three multi-nationals who specifically wanted to talk to me about mindfulness - how their leaders and senior teams could become more mindful. One of the world's leading newspapers, The Irish Times, is currently running a whole series on mindfulness. I've even had accountants and lawyers mention the word to me, off their own bat, over the last few months. What has happened?

For starters, many leading businesses are now realizing that their greatest opportunity is in their people. You may counter that, surely, much is invested by large organizations in people development - but most of that 'investment' has been in what might be described as typical and traditional management education. To exemplify what I'm getting at, the Regional President of a world-class organization recently received a request from one of his General Managers - could he participate in a six-week MBA programme at a cost of $45,000? It came highly recommended. The Regional President's response was "Spend a couple of days with Willie Horton - it will be far more useful... and much cheaper!"

Established management theories are broken. Look around at the economic landscape and tell me otherwise! Leadership in business - or in any area of life, for that matter - isn't about what you know, it's about how you deploy what you know and, in the process, how you create the environment in which others excel. Leadership is about presence - and presence is the outward evidence of mindfulness.

Secondly, the more people regard what has transpired over the course of the last four years - the deepest and longest recession in recent times, the more people have realized that much of so-called normal behaviour is mindless. At best, mindless behaviour leads us around in ever-decreasing circles. At worst, people get hurt.

Mindfulness leads to all good things. Mindfulness enables us not only be present but, in our presence, ensure that we are doing just what needs to be done to lead us and those around us ever onwards and upwards. Mindfulness is the key to everything. Isn't it wonderful that we appear to be entering the age of mindfulness.