Stop yourself at regular intervals throughout the day and check to see if you're paying attention to what is actually going on around you or whether, like most minds on autopilot, you're drifting through the day thinking about God knows what, wishing you were somewhere else!

It's interesting - if that's the right word - the number of people who look forward to the weekend or who can't wait for their holidays. People who spend their day clock-watching (the net effect of which is, of course, that time seems to move much more slowly!) - a few years back one individual actually told me that the only way it could make it through his working day was to think about the holidays to come and, on the very day he would return from holidays, he'd start planning and even booking his next one. And, then, when he would get away on the much anticipated holiday, he'd spend the first few days trying to calm down and, from mid-holiday, would start counting down the days to when all the bliss would end!

Subconsciously, of course, the mind is always looking in the rearview mirror - buried up to its neck in the past, thinking it's the present. And, if your conscious mind is constantly looking forward to somewhere where you are not now, then you're never here now, are you? Of course, you could be worse off - you could even be more "normal" - you could be looking forward to the future with trepidation - worrying about what you don't want to happen! Only a fool would pour their vital energy into what they don't want to happen!!

The point is, very little of us turns up to the here and now and, as a result, our life passes us by in procession, from one missed moment to the next. If you're not here you're not able to spot opportunity, you're unable to take proper action, you're drifting. Divorced from your own life, you're as good as dead.

So, today, let's resolve to not let our lives pass us by. Let's resolve to turn up to the here and now - regardless of how mundane or repetitive the here and now might appear to be. Let's resolve to be on our guard as much of the time as possible, ready, willing and able to embrace opportunity when it presents itself. Of course, our resolve will be seriously strengthened if we actually do something about it... like ensuring that, before the day gets going, we've taken a few minutes to place our wayward minds in the reality of the present moment.