I recently had a discussion slash debate with a friend about the way we prefer to lead our lives. I, for one, like to “live in the moment” and he likes to “plan ahead”. People often link the idea of “living in the moment” with “having no direction in life”, and I strongly disagree on that notion. I think my friend thought that I prefer to have no direction in life, and therefore he insistently tried to change my views. Nevertheless, he didn’t. He said that I am thinking negatively by thinking that I will die today, because of that fact that I would like to “live today like there is no tomorrow”. But I think that he is THE one thinking negatively by putting it that way. I just think that many people are so concerned with adding DAYS to their life… that they forget to add LIFE to their days. If you have ever found yourself at home thinking about what you need to do at work, or at work thinking about things happening in your personal life, you know how distracting it is. Living in the moment means you are totally immersed in an experience. The past is history. The future is a mystery. The only time we really have is now – just this moment.

How many times have you said to yourself “Wow, today sure went by fast”. It seems that our lives are so complex and so full of things to do that we forget to feel the moments that together make up a day. Moments are lost amid the clutter of everyday and they become blurred by the activities we invent. It seems like activity is more important than the moments in which they occur. When you stop and think back on the events in your life that you vividly remember. Those are the events where you were living in the moment. Even though years have passed, you can still remember the details. That is how I would want to live my life; to make each and every day memorable. Living in the moment is easy during special times in your life. Your first kiss. The day you graduated college. Your wedding day. However, most days don’t contain special events, and unless you learn to live in the moment, worry, fear, resentments or other distractions will rob you of your life.

Another issue that my friend and I disagreed on is the fact that I “want to earn just enough to lead a comfortable life”, while he on the other hand said that I “should always work for more than what I need”. My opinion on this is tied up to living in the moment as well. There is this compulsion that some people have of always wanting more before they can be happy – more money, a better house, a fancier car, a better spouse, etc. Those people never get to a place of arriving – or enjoying the moment. Sometimes, we have to stop and ask ourselves “What if this is as good as it gets?” And when you do, majority of us will realize that we had spent a huge part of our lives fantasizing about the future, when things would get “better”. When we let go of requiring that the future be any certain way… Poof! We suddenly become happy, satisfied and content with what we have now.

My idea of living in the moment is not calling out 5 consecutive days from work just to go to the beach. It is not splurging my entire salary on 5 pairs of shoes, and then not having enough money to pay for my bills. It is not missing a very important presentation in school to drive down to the beach and get a tan. My idea of living in the moment is simply following your urge, your instincts, without second-guessing yourself or worrying about the circumstances ahead of you. If a day calls for a really expensive meal at a fancy restaurant. Hey, why not? If a friend crossed the line with you and you want to get mad and say something back. Hey, why not? Because you might never get that moment or that chance again. The truth of life is that all we really have is today. Yesterday is only vapor and tomorrow will never come. Today is the time line of your life and each moment contains the essence of your being.

I don’t want to live a life of “just plans” and live today for tomorrow, because if I keep on doing that, I will I never get to live today for today. I just believe that doing our best at this very moment is what puts us in the best place for the next moment. A man is truly free only at the moment he chooses to be. How our discussion concluded? Neither of us has changed our views, and it will be an ongoing debate for God knows how long. One can alter another person’s decisions, but one cannot truly change what another is made of. Principles are not meant to be pushed or argued about. That’s why they are called principles. Like I never fail to say in the end of anything that I have to say, to each his own.