I had the opportunity to listen to Joey Bada$$’s new album “2000”, and from start to finish, he put together a body of work that I could consider, in my biased opinion, the album of the year. Joey shed light on multiple topics ranging from survivors’ guilt (my favorite tune), mental health, motivation, and self-belief/self-awareness.

I’ve listened to “2000” over six times, and I hear something completely new with every listen. However, I’m writing this blog to dig deeper into a bar/line on the song “Where I Belong” where Joey raps:

I know that nothin’

last forever

like the past and

future doesn’t exist,

I know it’s now or never

but focused on the

present, know my

presence is a gift

His verses hit home because I tend to focus on past traumas, failed business ventures, heartbreaks, and opportunities I didn’t dare to take a leap of faith. I’m slowly learning to have patience with myself and taking my past as an instrument to build wisdom and valuable experiences to deal with my present. The past doesn’t exist (it’s only a memory of the past), and the more we live in the past, we open the door to mental fatigue/depression. If you are not using the past to strengthen your present, forgive yourself and keep it moving.

My number 1 archnemesis is living in the future by creating problematic thoughts to solutions that don’t exist. No one knows what tomorrow brings because tomorrow isn’t promised. When looking back at many of my past plans, I can confidently say that 99.9% of them didn’t end up how I envisioned achieving my worthy ideal/goal.

In conclusion, living in the present is by far the best thing one can do. Your last day on earth could be tomorrow, so it would be a damn shame if you died and never lived for today. I’m not claiming to be a guru on “living in the present,” but every time I feel my mind drifting too far back/forward, I forcefully correct myself back to the present.