At every single soccer practice this past season, my coach said, "Man, I'm in the middle of something special." And he was right. We set several records and won the conference outright. But, more importantly, he understood how important it was to live in the moment and enjoy the environment that he was in. A lot of times in life, we look back on an event or a previous memory and say, "Wow, that was a great time." But often, we aren't aware enough to know when we're in the middle of something great. Especially in today's society, everything moves so fast.

Whether you're in high school, college, or working eight-hour shifts, we're all rat-racing, just trying to get to the next stage in life. We're just passing through. This rush is amplified during the holidays. Cooking, cleaning, shopping, seeing family members, etc. I think we could all use a slowdown. Life's short and we focus too much on the rush and not enough on the moment. For these reasons, I believe that we need to learn to embrace the moment.

One of the biggest lessons from "How I Met Your Mother" is about living in the moment. The great Ted Mosby taught us how important it is to know when you're in the middle of something great. When he tells his kids about when he met their mother, he says, "When I met your mother, I knew I had to love her as much as possible because I knew I wouldn't have her for very long." Ted was in the middle of something good, and he was going to enjoy it as much as possible.

We all need to be aware of this. Undergrads, this is the best time of your life. If you're madly in love with your significant other, love him/her as much as possible. If getting that 4.0 is what you love, enjoy studying as much as possible. Know that never again will you have the chance to live so close to your peers and enjoy their company. Unless you go to grad school, you're never again going to be in an environment where you have a chance to educate yourself as much as possible every day. Understand that, right now, you're in a good moment. That paper will get written. The tests will be passed.

Lao Tzu said that, "If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present.” Be at peace. Live in the moment. You may ask, "But how do you live in the moment?" And my answer is to be like Nike, "Just do it." Be aware the next time you get that warm fuzzy feeling in your stomach when you're out on the town with your lover or when you're about to devour that Taco Bell quesarito and enjoy the crap out of it. That's how you live in the moment. Just acknowledge it.

So, this Christmas, live in the moment. When you're sitting around the dinner table and bickering with your family, understand how special it is that you have people to sit around and argue with, and realize that they all might not be there next year. Enjoy the nostalgia and reflect on the past good moments and understand that you're in a good moment right now. Slow down and wait for your great moment, you'll know when it's here, and when it is, enjoy the moment as much as possible.

Then, when you look back on that moment, and instead of saying, "Dang, that was a good time," you can say, "Man, I enjoyed the crap out of that moment." And you'll have no regrets.

"There are just some kind of men [or women] who're so busy worrying about the next world they've never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results." - Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird