There is no doubt about it. At some point (or, perhaps, many times) today you will discover that your mind is somewhere completely different from where you actually are or from what you're actually doing. It appears that we're almost hard-wired to be distracted.

Therefore, you need to get into the habit (habitual behaviour is bad but a good habit is much better than a bad one) of stopping yourself and reminding yourself who's in charge.

Your head may wander all over the place - it is as if it has, quite independently, a mind of its own. You need to constantly remind yourself that you're the boss. Your head needs to be where you've chosen it to be.

Chatting with a couple of the neighbours last week I discoverd that every parent with young children couldn't "wait 'til the kids go back to school". At the same time an older couple down the road are "looking forward to their holidays" next week and our next-door neighbour informs me that "the skiing season will be upon us in no time".

None of these poeple is living in the moment. And, if you're not living in the moment, you're not living.

I know, from talking to quite a few of my clients, that many still find themselves struggling as a result of the fallout from what is the longest recession, in recorded economic history, in the developed world. Times are hard. And times may be hard for some time to come. There is nothing you or I can do about the global economic environment. As an aside, of course, that's not quite true. On the basis that consumer sentiment, business confidence, markets and whole economies move on just those things - sentiment and confidence - if enough ordinary people got their head out of their ass, things would be different.

Let's leave that aside for now - I'm not trying to move mountains. Today, I'm more interested in waves. At the moment, the seas are choppy - there are lots of big waves that, from some, threaten to consume, to overwhelm. What we have to do, not as ordinary people, but as extraordinary people, is surf those waves, ride out the storm, keep our head.

To keep your head you have to be extraordinary. Ordinary people don't lose their head, they never had control of it in the first place. To be extraordinary is to be focused, mindful, present, alert, unperturbed by today's challenge in the sure and certain knowledge that all things pass - the good, the bad and the ugly - everything arise and passes. What you and I have to do is do our very best (not in the way ordinary people use that as an excuse for failing) to do just what needs to be done and not feed the monster of ongoing negativity or doubt by giving it any of our energy.

We don't need to be positive - there's a school of thought that strongly suggests that blind positive thinking got us into our current mess - we need to be present. Presence is a state of mind, it's not something you have or you haven't got - it's something that you cultivate by being clear-minded in the moment. Just like the champion surfer is one with the sea, you need to simply ride life's big waves - they're just the storm before the calm.