Nothing is as real as reality - and yet we're actually wired not just to miss it but to create our own pale version of the real thing. That's how we miss what's going on, fail to spot opportunity and, generally speaking, put our foot in our mouth when we open it!

Getting real means doing your damned best to see the moment - this one - for what it is, not what you think it is. So, wherever you are now, stop, take a couple of deep breaths, look around you - have a proper look; feel what's in front of you (a steering wheel, the table-top, the paper in your hand) - give it a proper feel.

Come to your senses - you have five of them, use them to get real... now.

OK - a little light relief! I was interviewed recently on the subject of leadership - the Universite de Savoie specifically wanted me to talk about "transformational leadership" - a whole body of research and literature which could be summed up by saying that great leaders are people with vision, empathy and emotional intelligence - a rare combination that implicitly demands presence (as in presence of mind).

I've met a few transformational leaders in my time... mainly clients, only ever worked for one during my "salaried" existence. But one of the "leaders" that sticks out in my mind is a guy whom we will call John - mainly because that's his real name and he needs to be exposed!!!

On the day John became my boss in the life assurance company I worked for at the time, he brought me into his office for what he described as a pep talk. It was short, sweet and to the point - John explained that "All your successes will be mine and all your failures will be yours!"

Transform that!

Today's video explores three direct consequences - problems that you will experience today - of not making sure that, at least as the day starts, you're in the right state of mind. However, the consequences of being an idiot - anybody who doesn't grab a hold of their own state of mind can be aptly described as such - are far more long-lasting and fundamental than just the unnecessary shambles of the ordinary daily "life" of an "ordinary-minded" person.

Most people, when I meet them for the first time, bemoan the perceived "facts" that there are things wrong in their lives, without realizing that's all that's wrong is their own attitude or state of mind. This is something that we control ourselves - nobody nor nothing else exerts control over your state of mind: other people (difficult people, people who want to unload their problems onto you, people pursuing their own personal agenda to your detrminent) and external events (financial difficulties, health problems, family discord, business problems) present us with challenges - sometimes major challenges - but they do not control your state of mind or attitude - they don't even exert any influence over it: how you feel about what's going on and that manner in which you react accordingly is entirely down to you, it is entirely a matter of choice on your part.

You might suggest that making a different choice is easier said than done and it is - but only because the normal choice we make (to be annoyed, stressed, frustrated, bewildered) is automatic - something that our mind does for us and has been doing for us all our adult life... but only because we have failed to stop it, only because we have failed to take control our of own state of mind.

There is nothing wrong with your life and world that won't pass - everything passes. There is nothing that cannot be appropriately dealt with by you, yourself, in the appropriate state of mind. There is nothing that you cannot overcome, nor is there anything you cannot achieve in the appropriate state of mind. That appropriate state of mind is one of purposeful focus, born out of deliberately developed mindfulness. You are the only person who can take the necessary steps to develop the appropriate state of mind. Everything is in your own hands.