when tomorrow’s not today?” These brilliant words came from the mouth of my 8-year-old nephew, Nick. So often we worry about troubles that have yet to arise without realizing the time and energy we are wasting.

It took me until my 40’s to realize that you have a choice: you can stress about what might happen, causing yourself a lot of potentially unnecessary angst, or you can focus on what is happening right now, and let tomorrow happen tomorrow.

I’m not suggesting you deny reality; it’s still important to prepare for potential outcomes. But is grieving a loss (be it a job opportunity, a second date, or the life of a loved one), that hasn’t occurred the best use of your time and energy? Imagine the loss doesn’t happen – you’ve worked yourself up over nothing. If the loss does happen, you’ll have plenty of time to deal with it then. In the moment.

You have a choice. Devote negative energy worrying about a problem that may never happen, or focus on the beauty of now. I’m so grateful that my nephew has already embraced this lesson.