Dear friends,

I hope you all are doing well and that you had a great Halloween! Now that the spooky season is over, and everything is dwindling down before the big holiday season, I want to share some advice. This is the time of year where it gets dark out at 5 PM, and work gets piled up on us. We get lazy and cold, the weather doesn't make us want to be productive, and that tends to lead to negative thoughts/mindsets.

Today I just want to talk about taking things one day at a time. It's easy to get caught up in everything and make yourself more stressed than you need to be. Trust me I get it, it is easier said than done to get yourself calmed down while you are stressing out over a bunch of things happening in your life. It's easy to get caught up in a bunch of things instead of actually being in the mindset to get all of that stuff done. That's okay though because everyone goes through that.

Life is full of many things. Whether it be emotions, people, work, activities, sleep, entertainment, or whatever, it can all pile up on us super quickly. Sadly, we can't stop time or turn it back to go back to those days when things were simpler. Lately, I've been in huge funks. I keep thinking about how fast time has been moving the more I grow up. I can't go back to playing outside in the snow with my brother on a snow day. I can't go back to the fifth grade when all I had to worry about was who I was going to sit with on the bus for a field trip. I can't go back to middle school, and honestly that's okay because why would anyone want to go back to middle school? Regardless, I think you all get my point.

I get caught up in my past a lot, and that really screws me up in the present because I can't live in the moment. There's times where I just want the week to be over with, and then next thing I know it's the new year. It's easy to get yourself into these roadblocks because it's mostly up to you to fix it. Sure, friends and family may be there to distract you and help out, but in the end you are the only person who can get yourself out of your head. Sometimes in life, our worst enemy is ourselves when it comes to stress. We try to take things on all at once because we think we can do it. We put more on our plates because we think we can handle everything the world throws at us.

Life is short, and it's important to take a step back and take a deep breath. It's necessary to take a look at the big picture instead of micro-analyzing every little thing happening to you. Take life one day at a time. Ever since I got to college, I write my weekly schedule into a journal on my desk, so I know what I have to work on each day. Under my schedule I put a little "To Do" list of any assignments or things I have to do for the week.

Doing this has really helped me take things one day at a time. This doesn't mean all of my stress goes away, but it does help me focus on what I have to do each day. I highly recommend doing this in some form of way to keep you organized. It doesn't necessarily have to be writing out your week in a journal, but this kind of thing can be helpful.

I really hope everyone is enjoying life and doing well. Please take care, and I will see you all next week with a new article. Peace!

Your Friend,

Al