Often when students come in for a meeting, they are carrying these giant backpacks crammed so full, I joke, “Is there a body in there?” They laugh, and once in awhile, one will say, “It feels like it.”

I was thinking today about a backpack as a symbol for each day. If yours is huge and full of stuff, it is often difficult to find what you need inside. The weight of it throws you off kilter. Your shoulders and back hurt. You wonder, do I really need to carry all of this?

What about sitting down and taking everything out of your “backpack day”? Sort through it. Decide if it really serves you, or if it just fills the time.

It is hard in this age of YOLO (You Only Live Once) to take things out and not put them back in. I had a student once tell me that he hated to go to sleep at night because he thought he was missing something. Yet, because he was up so late every night, he was now so sleep deprived he was sleepwalking through his days and was missing all kinds of good things anyway!

Think about it this way: if you empty your backpack and then only put in what you truly need, your experience of the day will not only be more pleasant but you might also encounter something that could make your life amazing….and you won’t miss it.