This means living your passion. This means setting aside time everyday to work on what you love.

This time will do you wonders. As you do what you love, you will find great enjoyment (I know I have), and you will improve in your craft.

The teenage years are a perfect time to get good at something that matters to you. And this ability may be just what you need to form your path.

But a teenages’s life can be hectic. So how does one find time to live your passion?

Simplify

When you do less things, you have more time to live your passion. So simplifying isn’t about sacrificing but making room for the important stuff.

So how does a teenager simplify? Everyone’s different, but the most common usage of time involves activities such as clubs.

This means that you might have to quit things you enjoy to focus on things you enjoy more. You have to analyze your life and determine what is and what isn’t worth your time.

Create Time

If you are truly passionate about something, you will want to spend a lot of your time doing it. So besides simplifying, you should also create time to do what you love.

This may mean waking up early or sacrificing time that you used to spend watching TV or playing videogames.

It is worth it in the end, as your passion provides value that other activities can’t.

It’s time that there’s an answer to our problems.

It’s time that we stop surviving and start living.

It’s time that we drastically reduce stress.

It’s time to get enough sleep.

It’s time that we are healthy – both physically and mentally.

It’s time that we stop blindly conforming, and make our own path.

Teens need a manifesto.

I know it was for me. I dreamed of playing varsity soccer and was lucky enough to play as an underclassman. I can safely tell you that it’s been – and continues to be – one of the best parts of my life.

Don’t think that making a varsity sport is easy though. It takes hard work, some skill and – most importantly – determination.

And it’s not for everyone. Some people just aren’t cut out for sports or competitive sports. This is fine too. Playing JV sports, playing with friends, or developing fitness in other ways is great.

But for those who are willing to take on the challenge, making varsity is awesome. It’s a great boast to your confidence and a great way to explore your talents for sport.

So here is a guide to making varsity:

1. Practice, practice, practice

This one should be obvious. Getting good at anything requires focused, consistent practice, and this is particularly true for sports.

So practice daily. And don’t just kick or throw a ball around. Focus on a particular skill that you want to improve.

For example, I did drills that focused on improving my crossing ability. By the time tryouts came around, I could cross the ball much better than before I had started my training.

2. Hone your body

Practice is great for technical skills, but without a fit body, you won’t be able to compete. How fit your body needs to be depends on the sport, but in general there are some basic attributes that you need to develop:

• Endurance
• Speed
• Strength
• Flexibility
• Agility
• Acceleration

These aspects are key to almost any sport, and without them, varsity will be hard to make (even with skill). Therefore, you should work hard on developing complete fitness during the preseason.

3. Communicate with your coach

It’s important to develop a relationship with your coach, and to figure out what he wants from you. This means asking him or her questions like “What do you want in a player?” or “What do I need for this position?”

By communicating with your coach, you can figure out what you need to do to make the varsity squad. Additionally, your coach will remember you when it comes to tryouts.

4. Connect with your teammates

If you want to become a varsity athlete, hang out with varsity athletes. If you surround yourself with them, you will better understand what you need to work on to make varsity.

And being friends with them can help during tryouts. For example, they may choose you to be in their group when things are divided up.

5. Get a training buddy

Sometimes it’s hard to train on your own. This is why you should attempt to get a training buddy.

This person can either be attempting to make varsity or on varsity. Either way, they have to be motivated and hard working. They should push you and teach you.

6. Show You’re Committed

If your team has a meeting, go. Optional practices or conditioning? Go and try your hardest.

Showing commitment shows you want to be on the team. So your coach and teammates will want you on the team.

Commitment could be the deciding factor when you are competing with a player during tryouts who is as skilled as you or a little more skilled. Often coaches will pick the player who has shown the most commitment.

Adults blame hormones and the teenage environment. “It’s natural, it’s just this  period of time in his life,” they say.

I disagree. I believe that if teenagers find their passion or passions we will stop being confused. We will stop getting in trouble because we are too focused on what we love. Life will be better, so we won’t be unhappy.

Your passion is the thing that you want to be doing. It’s something you love through thick and thin. It’s what you want to be doing in your free time.

It’s something every teenager needs to discover to find true peace and happiness. It’s something we need to discover to lead meaningful lives.

Everyone talks about “living your passion” meaning using your passion to make money. This is great, but being a teenager I think you should ignore this.

Let your passion by anything. It doesn’t matter if you think you can use it to make money or not. You don’t need to worry about your career as a teenager. You need to learn what you love; that’s what’s important.

How to Find Your Passion

Discovering your passion is easier than you think. You need to explore and look at yourself.

Below are some questions that will help you discover your passion:

What do you love learning about?

The best way to discover what you love is to learn about everything you can. Then you can discover what you love learning about.

A great way to get started is to look at what things you read. What nonfiction books do you read? What magazines or blogs do you subscribe to?

For example, I discovered that I have a passion for videogames. I read multiple gaming magazines, check gaming websites constantly, and read books on gaming.

If you don’t read, start. You will find that you like reading once you find something that interests you. And if you are reading, read many different topics and you will find some that interest you (and are potential passions).

What do you love doing?

Secondly, pay attention to what you love doing. What do you find yourself doing in your free time? What would you love to do?

I found that I love to write. Most people I know considered fiction writing assignments a bummer, but I would churn out 17 pages (in elementary school).

Pay attention to what you love.

What Are You Good At?

If you are good at something you often enjoy it (though it’s not always the case). What unique talents do you have? What do your friends ask you to do for them?

You can find what your good at by trying different things. Use every opportunity to try something new. When you find something your good at, you often develop passion for it.

Note that people often get good at things because they are passionate about them. If you are good at something but not interested, it’s not your passion.

Finding your passion is an important step towards finding your own path. When you find something or multiple things that you truly love, you can start building your life around them.

What a great thing it is to wake up and do things that you love (even if they turn out to only be hobbies). This is one of the best parts of life, so finding your passion is essential as a teenager.

But the farther I progress in life, the more the message rings true. Being yourself isn’t important. It’s vital. It’s vital to finding inner peace and happiness, and it’s vital to finding your own path.

Being yourself isn’t easy. Some people hate you. Some people will think you’re weird or even crazy. But once you get used to the fact that everyone won’t like you or think you are normal (whatever normal is), life opens up. Life becomes so much greater.

No longer do you feel like you have to belong. If you enjoy certain people, and if they enjoy you, then you can become friends. You don’t need to to conform to a group because you aren’t that group; you are yourself.

No one has the same blood as you, and nobody has the same experiences. You are truly unique. No one can take that away from you.

It’s tempting to be fake or to attempt to be cool. But you won’t make true friends that way. And you won’t find happiness that way. You can attempt to run away from your true self, but it’s impossible.

So be yourself. Stand up for what you believe in. Don’t do what you know is wrong. Don’t change into someone you’re not.

It’s not easy for teenagers. You are stuck in a world where at times it seems everyone is a critic. It seems like you have to do certain things to fit in, to avoid ridicule.

For some of us, it’s incredibly hard. But you can do it. You need to.

Make the decision to be yourself. At first, it’s frightening, but as you become used to it, it’s enlightening. It’s the greatest feeling in the world to simply be yourself.

This is why many of us attempt to identify with groups. The jocks, the preppies, the nerds, etc.

Groups aren’t bad. They allow you to find acceptance and build confidence in yourself. They allow you to feel like you belong.

You are probably in a group because you are like the others in the group and enjoy their company. But you are more than just a cliche. You are a unique person, different than everyone else.

So finding a group that you relate to is great. But you aren’t done. You need to do some exploring to find out more about yourself.

How to Find Yourself

Finding yourself isn’t tangible. You won’t one day wakeup and say “I am Jack and I know exactly who I am.”

Who you are changes. And this is a good thing. As you find out more about the world, as your experiences shape you, you will change.

You will never stop finding yourself.

As a teen, you are just starting to explore the world. You will likely be confused about who you are. This is completely okay and natural.

Being a fellow teen, I have discovered a few ways to help you find yourself. Again, this is not a tangible discovery but a never ending process of change.

Hang out with different groups/people.

As I mentioned, finding a like-minded group of people is a great thing.

But to only hang out with people from your group is a mistake. Branching out to other people or groups of people is a great thing.

Firstly, it allows you to grow as a person. Hanging out with many types of people allows you to see things from different angles.

It allows you to find out more about yourself. When you explore different ideas and viewpoints you can find out what you agree with and what you don’t.

Secondly, knowing how to deal with all types of people will greatly help you in life – whether it be socially, in politics, or in business.

When you talk to people with an open mind (and let them speak without your biased interruptions), you can learn how different people think. Even if you disagree with the person’s view, you can better understand why they think that way.

This skill will help you get along better with people, and allow you to develop compassion for people from many different walks of life.

By hanging out with different people or groups you can find out much about yourself. You can contrast your thinking with others, finding out how you think in the process.

Try Different Things

Me and you are lucky. We are at a point in our life’s when we can explore nearly anything we want. Try doing that when you have a family and a full-time job (it can be done, but it’s much harder).

By exploring, by trying different things, you can learn what you like and what you don’t. And by doing so, you are learning more and more about yourself.

Don’t be stupid. But don’t be afraid to try new (safe) things. You never know what you might learn about yourself.

Learn Your Personality

Everyone’s personality is different so yours won’t perfectly fit any description. However, you probably have some characteristic traits, and learning about them is helpful.

The best way to judge your personality is to ask people who know you well. You probably have a general idea of your personality, but it’s biased. Your friends and family can probably tell you things about yourself that you never paid attention to or thought of.

Your personality will probably change though. If you’re shy right now, joining clubs and socialising will probably make you less shy. And just because your talkative and extroverted doesn’t mean you won’t become more reserved.

However, it’s rare that you’re personality will change completely. Your personality is nature, and while it’s fine to tweak it, changing your personality completely isn’t usually good. You will feel fake, like you’re a different person rather than yourself.

All of these things will help you learn more about yourself. You are in a point right now where you are starting on or looking for a path in life, and understanding who you are (at least at the moment) will help you determine where you want to go and how to get there.

Take myself for instance. I went through school, stressing over doing the work. Exhausted from school, I would spent my free time browsing the Internet or playing videogames.

My life was boring and routine. I knew I needed to make a change when I compared my life to a 5 to 9 job, and found it had too many similarities.

High school is definitely important. But one of the biggest downsides to it is how structured it is.

Teens are eagerly learning about themselves and learning about the world, but school doesn’t cater to their interests. It doesn’t allow you to explore your passions or learn what interests you. It doesn’t give you the freedom to do what you want to do. (Note that college is much more suitable to exploring).

So explore on your own time. I decided to dedicate time everyday to explore. I chose in the morning (because I wake early) and after I am done studying and doing homework after school.

The results were wonderful. I became enthusiastic about life, instead of just trudging through it like a zombie. I became happy right now; I didn’t have to tell myself that I would be in the future.

I rediscovered my passion for writing, for reading. I discovered open-minded thinkers (on the Internet), minimalism, and simplicity. I discovered Zenhabits, and my love for Zenhabits and my passion for writing and helping people led to the creation of zenteen and this manifesto.

What a brilliant, amazing, awesome change it’s been. I implore you to try doing the same. Your passions may turn out to be completely different then mine and that’s fantastic. Or you could just prefer to learn (also fantastic). The truth is, when you give yourself free reign to explore, you don’t know what you will find.

How to Explore

Set aside just ten minutes a day. Increase the time as you can, but always explore for at least five or ten minutes. Use this time to explore things completely selfishly. Don’t do any homework, don’t stress. Close yourself off from the world, and explore whatever comes to mind.

And remember the weekends. Use this time wisely to explore.

What you find, no one can guess. But if you follow what interests and excites you – whatever it is – exploring will make you happy.

It will allow you to take back your teenage years, to enjoy them again. At least, that is what I’ve discovered.

But few teens meditate. Why? We want to reduce stress and feel better. I think we don’t seriously consider it, and think that it involves shaving your head and studying it for years.

To meditate you don’t need to learn any fancy posture or repeat a mantra. There are completely natural meditation techniques that you probably have even done before, without thinking.

1. Sound

Listen to the sounds around you or focus on one sound. Let other sensations fade and focus only on sound. Don’t close your eyes, as it’s better to let sound take over your vision while your eyes are still open.

This technique is perfect to use while sitting outdoors.

2. Visual

Look at one object or just start straight ahead at the view. Focus on what your looking at, and only what you are looking at. Think of the objects texture, it’s color, everything about it.

3. Breath

Breath in deeply and slowly, then out. This technique is great because it can be practiced anywhere. Whenever you find yourself getting stressed, just breath slowly. Even professional athletes use this technique before playing a game (I bet they don’t know it’s meditation).

And there are other ways to meditate. The only important thing is that you be. You don’t think, you don’t do. You are just there, in peace.

The main reason for these issues is we want control. We want the things in our life to turn out the way we want. We want perfection and we want a fairytale (whether we know it or not).

Take some things we complain about. “I have a bad teacher.” Of course you do. You have had many teachers. A few were probably good even great. Most were probably average. And some are going to be bad.

I know we don’t think we want life to be perfect. But when we complain of the little things that go wrong, when we strive for perfection that doesn’t exist, we are saying life should be perfect, and that’s not the case.

Things will always be different than what we ideally want. That’s life.

You can fight these little things. You can get stressed by them.

Or you can forget them. You can let life flow.

Let’s use an example. As you are walking to get to your desk, you hear another student talk to her friend about your shoes. She says that they are ugly. You could stress. You could boil in anger at your desk, wondering how to get back at her. You can think about how maybe your shoes aren’t so nice after all.

Or you can let it slide. She’s being a jerk. Don’t worry about it. Move on.

Note my own personal example: I was placed in a class that I absolutely hated. The teacher sucked, and I didn’t like any of the students. I choose to pout for many months of the year.

But eventually, I dropped my bad attitude. The teacher was actually pretty good. I enjoyed talking with fellow students. The class turned out to be one of my favorites.

If I had just flowed, instead of taking a negative attitude, I wouldn’t have wasted all that time. I wouldn’t have stressed and complained.

How to Make Life Effortless

Flowing isn’t easy at first. We are too used to going against the current. But once it becomes a habit, it becomes effortless.

The key is to consciously tell yourself to forget about controlling every little thing.

Look at things differently. When it comes to insignificant things, accept them the way they are. Often, changing things just for your sake won’t help anyone.

Learn to be less annoyed. Understand that everything doesn’t go right, so prepare yourself for things that go wrong. You aren’t perfect, so other human beings aren’t either.

Letting the current take you is effortless. Swimming against the current is hard. There are times when swimming against the current is necessary and admirable. But much of the time it’s easier and better to go with the flow.

I used to be incredibly stressed. I was stressed about grades, what people said about me, my body, my future, etc.

There were days when I felt it was impossible to go on. Days were I trudged miserably through life. And I saw many other teenagers doing the same. Surviving each day. Not living. Not happy. Not exploring. Surviving.

Life shouldn’t be like that. I don’t care that the teenage years are considered a “stressful time.” The amount of stress some teens are under is ridiculous.

Not all stress is bad. Short bursts of stress are natural and can help you. But long-term, constant stress isn’t good or natural. It damages your health, and can make your life hard and miserable.

I’m on a mission against constant stress. I understand that eliminating all stress is impossible (and not desirable), but I know that it can be reduced. I know because over time I’ve transformed from a severely stressed teen into a much peacefuller one. I am still stressed occasionally, but not nearly as often.

4 Steps to Reducing Stress

1. Know What Stresses You

Starting right now, take note of what stresses you. My main stressors were missing the bus, arguing with people, and grades.

Knowing what stresses you is huge. Once you understand what you’re up against, you can formulate a plan to elimiante or reduce the effect  of the stressor.

2. Deal With Your Main Stressors

Dealing with the things that stress you most will reduce much of your stress. But how?

Every stressor requires different actions to defeat: I stopped missing the bus when I started waking up early. I avoided useless arguments (though arguing sometimes is important). I worked daily on my grades and stopped procrastinating. I became prepared for tests, stopped getting zeros for missing homework, and stopped studying till late in the morning.

Once I defeated a major stressor, my overall stress went way down. For example, when I stopped missing the bus, my morning stopped being a race to meet the bus, and I don’t have to deal with my mom yelling at me anymore.

When you are stressed you often react to events with anger and less patience, stressing you out further. By removing major stressors, you greatly reduce this domino effect of stress.

So how do you remove major stressors?

First follow step one and understand what gives you stress. Then write your major stressors down. Now develop a plan to tackle each one individually.

Use the Internet for help. Search for ways to alleviate your problem or talk about your problem (and ask for help) on online forums. If all else fails, feel free to contact me.

3. Flow

You can often defeat your major stressors, but it’s impossible to individually eliminate the little things that cause stress.

But unlike major stressors, they aren’t a big deal. In fact, they probably shouldn’t stress you out at all.

Stress often comes from our own lack of control. We want the little things to be one way, and they often aren’t. And when they aren’t, we stress about them.

When you forget control, when you let things flow, you will become less stressed. Forget the little things. Let them flow past you like water. You will be less stressed.

4. Be Healthy

Stress often comes when we fail to do the essentials well. Eat well, exercise, drink water, and get enough sleep.

If you master these essentials, you will find that your stress will become reduced:

You won’t be as unhealthy (so less bills). You will do better work. Your relationships will be better. These essentials don’t directly influence stress, but they greatly affect your well-being, which greatly influences stress.