Each day has its challenges, there isn’t a way to avoid them. With the ever-changing environment of day to day life, it feels like every couple minutes has its own problem, its own issue, whether it be school, friends, sports, or just personal issues. My way of dealing with the challenges of life is just to go outside, do things I enjoy, and live life in the now.

In this article by Forbes.com, the most common regret of adults in their life is overworking themselves, spending time thinking about uncontrollable things, and taking time out of the relationships that you love.

“Am I going to be successful?”

“What’s the best job to support me?”

“Am I going to get accepted to go into a 4 year college?”

When your mind is self-destructing itself over something uncontrollable, it wastes valuable time that you have on Earth. Living life in the moment is hard, with the worries of the future and the memories of the past, sometimes it’s difficult to focus on what is happening around you, instead of what’s happening in your head.

Life is hard sometimes, there is no way to sugarcoat it. When life gets rocky, doing things I love and truly living the present helps me balance out the concerns in life. While this can be hard, pushing all of your thoughts and worries aside just for an hour, that hour is bliss, everything in your mind disappears. For me, that means going outside and just having some fun with friends and family. It means grabbing a football and throwing it around with my dad, meeting a friend to kick around a ball, speeding through the Balboa Peninsula on my bike, going to a football game with my friends, or just heading out to the beach to swim. It means hopping on a bike, getting into the mountains and having an epic downhill, twigs scraping my legs, bugs flying into my mouth, and dirt kicking up behind me to make a sandstorm of joy, truly living in the moment. Getting out of the state of unease and into the mindset of euphoria is freeing, and that helps me survive the changing environment of the world.

“I think life on Earth must be about more than just solving problems…It’s got to be something insipiring, even if it is vicarious”

–Elon Musk

Life is short. Each and every second you reflect on life, life gets shorter and shorter, and you start to lose valuable years of life. From when you were bor, to 18 years old is 6,574 days, or 157,788 hours, or 9,467,280 minutes, or 568,036,800 seconds. Each passing second of stress, worry, and anxiety is another second of your childhood that has passed, there isn’t a re-do, no going back in time to enjoy your past. Every day has its challenges, it isn’t just a breeze. My way of dealing with these uncertainties is to live like there is no tommorow, don’t stress on the trivial, and to enjoy the time you have in the present. To live life in the now.