Grab a piece of paper and a pen. Write down two or three things that you'd like to experience in the coming days... perhaps over the coming weekend. Write them down as if you mean them! Handwrite what you see and how you feel. Handwrite what you hear and what you smell. Start talking meaningfully to your subconscious - it is the part of your mind that plays the Director's role in your life.

• Purposefully focus - it doesn't come naturally, we're actually "wired" to not focus
• Set goals in a way that energizes your subconscious into focused effortless action
• Make your very best decisions and solve problems with ease - your brain can do this effortlessly
• Banish stress - we're ordinarily "wired" to be stressed

Last week, between meetings, I was walking down Dublin's Fitzwilliam Street when a whole squadron of swans gracefully flew, just above roof level, right up the middle of the street - a marvellous sight - and one that, as far as I could see, nobody else had noticed. Just like the previous morning in Geneva Airport, I am 100% sure that, in the glasshouse that doubles as the Departure Lounge, I was the only person to notice a pinky-peachy sunrise - Monet could not have done it justice.

Our lives are full of beauty but, normally, we simply don't notice - in exactly the same way that our lives are filled with opportunity, something you will never see if you wander around eyes wide shut. Being able to open your eyes, strangely enough, opens your mind. And, once opened, it's damn difficult to close it again. Which can pose something of a dilemma...

Over the years, a couple of my clients - no more than a couple - have "seen the swans" and become so immersed in the beauty of life that they lose their focus. Focus is like a mini-series: it comes in, at least, two parts! First of all, we need to learn to focus in the here and now - The Power of Now that Eckhart Tolle speaks of. And that is where one can get lost - lost to the point that one forgets the second episode... focus is not just about living the moment, it's about living the moment mindful of our purpose: our purpose for today, for this week, this business quarter or financial year, our strategic purpose or, dare I go so far, our purpose in life.

Seeing the swans is part and parcel of being present in the moment - but don't get lost in life's beauty. Life is real, life is earnest - a man or woman's got to do what a man or woman's got to do! That is what mindfulness is about, that is what focus is for... otherwise we're no better than a dog sniffing the next lampost!