Don't Forget to Live in the Moment

After taking another six months off work to travel - this time with a specific goal in mind - it is fast approaching that time when I need to think about a job, about a career, about a life. To be honest with you, the thought has been weighing heavily on my mind, seemingly growing heavier with each passing week...

You knew how to do it. You knew how to live life, and you never had any regrets. Not one.

Recently I have been thinking about the future. My future.

After taking another six months off work to travel - this time with a specific goal in mind - it is fast approaching that time when I need to think about a job, about a career, about a life.

To be honest with you, the thought has been weighing heavily on my mind, seemingly growing heavier with each passing week, with each passing day, with each passing hour, to the point it is becoming all I think about.

I have just travelled all the way down from Mexico to Panama, and in doing so I have seen and done some of the most amazing things of my life to date, yet there has always been a sentence hanging over my head, the monkey on my back, and because of that perhaps I haven't appreciated my trip as much as I could or should; I know I haven't been living in the moment.

For the past two months I have been filming and working with A Brit and A Broad, a new travel video blog and YouTube series, working as hard as I have ever done in my life, working for my future.

And after two months of filming, after two months of non-stop go go go, it was time to slow down and relax again, it was time to remember why I travel; it was time to turn off.

The last seven days I have been living and sailing on a boat from Panama to Colombia taking in the San Blas Islands on the way, without a doubt one of the most beautiful areas I have ever been to, and I can happily say for the first time in a while I managed to relax, I managed to turn off. No internet, no phone, no worries. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter; it could wait. Life; it could wait.

I don't know why but I thought, I hoped, that after a week things would have changed, that everything would have magically sorted themselves out.

Well, they did change.

The first thing I found out after my radio silence was one of my closest friends, a friend I met while travelling, unexpectedly died while I was away.

He was 30, fit and healthy, and no one knows how, or why, he died.

This was a guy who always had time for people, regardless of who they were or where they came from, and he always had a smile on his face, one that truly touched the eyes.

This was a guy who did everything right. He owned his own flat and car, he had money in the bank, he had a career and a future. For him, he was living his life.

Yet when it came to his holidays, he always wanted to do the one thing he loved the most; travel. Nothing made him happier.

When it came to travelling, he learnt how to leave his burdens on the baggage carousel and enjoy himself. He knew exactly how to live in the moment, and I know he had no regrets. Not one. How many of us can say that?

I know it is hard not to think about the future, not to worry about it, but for me I am going to start trying; I know it is what he would have wanted.

If there's one thing Justin would have said, one piece of advice, it would have been this: "Don't forget to live in the moment; you'll never know if it will be your last."

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