What I Learned in Hawaii | Jack Canfield

Hi, I'm Jack Canfield and I'd like to share some things I learned on my recent Hawaii vacation that I think might be valuable for you too. Now before we begin, just a quick reminder that I recently hit 100,000 subscribers here on YouTube and I'm celebrating by giving away a free ticket to my One Day to Greatness Live event where you can work with me in person for one life changing day of unlocking your full potential. So make sure to check the description box below for all the details and to learn about the other prizes in this giveaway. You know, because I travel so much for all the seminars, workshops and training and speeches I give, as well as all the time I spend writing books or recording new online courses and video blogs like this one that I'm doing right now when I'm home My wife was becoming upset about the lack of time we were spending together and she suggested we take a month long vacation together to reconnect and deepen our relationship with each other. So what we did is we rented a house on the ocean in Maui, Hawaii for a whole month now. At first I was nervous about being away from my work for a whole month, but with the success of our online programs that don't require my live presence every day and the ability to pre record video blogs and social media messages, it turned out fine. I made an agreement with my wife that I could write and handle critical emails for a maximum of two hours a day and the rest of the time I would spend with her. As I reflect on the month, here are some valuable insights and lessons that I learned that I think might also be valuable for you. The first is that once we made it a priority and made the decision to do it, I was able to find all kinds of ways to make it work. My fears of getting too far behind on my emails and writing projects, not being there to make important decisions for the future of my company, being bored without my work, and so on all turned out to be unfounded. In fact, I was able to delegate more of my work to others, realize that something simply didn't need to be done, practice saying no to more people than I usually would, and see that my high standards of perfection were sometimes getting in the way of having more time to simply be and to enjoy my life. And I was able to live into the belief that sometimes good is good enough. Now I've been home for over a month now and I'm still living a more balanced life, getting more sleep, exercising more, saying no more often, and delegating more and my life is so much more balanced now. Another big lesson I learned came the day we drove over to the south side of the island to go to Makena Beach. We had heard about a place called La Perouse Bay, just a little beyond Makena that was a great area for snorkeling. So we decided to explore it. And when we arrived, it was around 2:30 in the afternoon and it was partly cloudy and there was a strong wind blowing and it was a lot of strong surf now. Plus, the entrance into the water required walking barefoot over a lot of somewhat sharp, uncomfortable looking rocks, not sand. Now, my wife was all gung ho to go into the water anyway, but I decided to stay on the beach and read while she snorkeled. Now, my reluctance to get in the water was further strengthened as I watched her struggle walking over those rocks as she got into the water. So I felt very content to find a place to sit on a log that had been washed up onto the rocky shore and read a book. But after a few minutes, she had swum quite a distance and then she started waving and screaming, jack, you have to come in. It's amazing. And I just waved her way with a no way waving of my hands like this. But she then swam back all the way to where I was and she yelled out, it's so amazing. It's the best snorkeling ever. She said, it's like being inside an aquarium. You have to come in now. Because she had taken the time and the effort to swim all the way back to convince me, I decided to brave the rocks that I had to walk over and stumble over to get in. And in fact, it did turn out to be extremely uncomfortable. But I'm so grateful I did it. I had never seen so many different varieties and sizes of fish, and there were so many of them, sometimes in schools of 100 or more. And some of the fish were 2ft long and so colorful. And the coral reef itself was amazing in its size and its colors and all the different kinds of coral that were there. Now, we must have spent more than an hour swimming around in this magical wonderland. And I have to say, there was one of the top visual experiences of my life, and I almost totally missed it due to my not wanting to experience the discomfort of the rocky entrance into the ocean. And what I learned from this is how many times I've said no to something that I was invited to do because of how I assumed it would be uncomfortable or it wouldn't be worth the time and the effort. Now My wife is almost always up for any kind of adventure. She's always hiking, she's swimming in the ocean, going on spiritual pilgrimages to India, Nepal and Bhutan, and coming back with great, great pictures and amazing tales of our experiences. Now, as a result of that day underwater, I've made a commitment to say yes more often and assume something good will come from it. And I would encourage you to do the same thing. Now, another thing I learned during our month off was about how to deal with fear better. Whenever we went snorkeling, which we did a lot, I would always have the fear of these sharks coming up. Now, unfortunately, years ago, I had seen the movie Jaws, and sometimes later a friend of mine said, whenever you enter the ocean, you enter the food chain. I wish I'd never heard that. So whenever I would get into the ocean, I would be aware of this fear of sharks that would emerge unbidden into my consciousness. And to make matters worse, while we were on Maui for the month, there was a man who was bitten by a shark while swimming in the ocean, and he bled to death. So it would seem a fear of sharks made rational sense as well. But two things changed that. The first is that I was seeing a chiropractor about two or three times a week while we were there. And it turns out he's an avid surfer, and he'd been surfing nearly every day on Maui for about 20 years. And when I asked him if he was ever afraid of being bitten by a shark, he replied, no. He said, if you know the rules, you'll be fine. So I asked him, what are the rules? He said, simple. Don't swim in the morning and around sunset or any time after that. That's when the sharks feed. And don't swim too far out from the shore. Sharks are basically fearful, so they attack when things are murky and you can't see them coming. Also, don't swim in the estuaries where there's runoff from a stream entering the ocean because the muddy water makes it hard to see the sharks. And they know that you can't see them and they're going to sneak up on you, so you're safer when you swim in groups was another rule. He said. Now, the man who'd been bitten by a shark and bled out had broken three of the four rules. He was 60 yards out in the ocean, he was swimming in the early morning, and he was swimming by himself. So by following all of those rules, I felt much safer swimming in the ocean, gaining more information about the reality of any risk, rather than letting your imagination run wild, always lessens any fear. The other thing I noticed when I focused on increasing my awareness was that anytime I was scared in the water, it was because I was thinking about or imagining a shark. And based about what I know about fear is that it's created by imagining something bad happening in the future. So whenever a thought or image of a shark came into my consciousness, I simply refocused my awareness back to the present moment and on the beautiful fish and the coral that was all around me. And after a few days of that intentional practice, along with following the rules my chiropractor taught me, I always felt totally safe in the water. Now, if the fear had continued, I could have also used tapping, which I've talked about in previous videos, to release the fear. But I never had to do that. Anyway, I hope what I've shared with you will inspire you to say yes more to the potential adventures in your personal and your professional life, and not to let fear stop you from having a lot more fun and success in your life. Now, I'd love to hear some of your thoughts after watching this video. What potential learning and fun have you been saying no to because you thought it might be too uncomfortable or too scary? Or maybe you have a story about when you did step out of your comfort zone and did something amazing and was really great. You're glad you did it. So go ahead and leave a comment or a story below with your answer. I'd love to read what you have to say and remember that everything you want that you don't have is sitting right outside your comfort zone and you have the power to step outside it anytime you wish. Now, I hope you found this video helpful, and if you did, please make sure you like it, share it with a friend who may need it, and if you haven't already done so, subscribe to my channel for more videos like this one. And you can check out some additional resources on how to step outside your comfort zone by visiting my website@jackcampfield.com thanks again for watching.