Hawaii is filled with so many inspiring things to see and to do.

Pi Hea Trail, Kauai, Hawaii (click for video)

When I land here and step out of the plane - everything is magic. It’s the same everytime I return. It’s as if I cannot BELIEVE my good fortune to be able to LIVE in this place. So few people call Hawaii their home for any length of time, it’s really a phenomenal state of being to live here and experience some of what Hawaii gives.

For me - I feel the most inspiration when I’m either in the water or hiking up a trail on one of the many mountain hikes.

I could talk about the water of Hawaii, the ocean, the streams, for hours… many future posts coming on that subject…

The mountains are so soul-inspiring that it’s like another world. I remember the first time I came through the Pali tunnel which cuts through a part of the Ko’olau mountain range in the Northeast part of the island. I was driving and yet I could barely focus on the winding road. The beauty, the absolute amazingness of the mountains and view is enough to cause a car crash. There are some bad accidents that seem to occur often there.

Hawaii is so beautiful and so special that you might ask yourself like I do… “Am I cool enough to be here?”

And though it feels like home because it’s so welcoming, you may never really feel like you belong. You KNOW you’re going home at some point, and as much as you’d like to call it home it usually isn’t on your first visit. But, I’ve been there for 6 years off and on and this time, it’s HOME!

The video I wanted to share with you today was made a few years back on a visit to Kauai, “The garden isle”. Kauai is incredibly lush with vegetation and there is little development. It’s a favorite for most people as they envision that this is what they expected Hawaii to be like. There are a couple small towns around the island, but overall the island maintains it’s old Hawaiian charm.

I stayed for 3 days during this trip and I always go to some of the same places each time I visit.

This heavenly place is located near the “Little Grand Canyon of the Pacific” also known as Waimea Canyon on the West side of Kauai. There are signs to “Pi Hea Trail” from the main road and it’s not a very far walk to reach this spot. The trail goes on from here, but I usually just stop and stare for a half hour, eating a fruit snack if I had the foresight to bring one.

This is a great vantage spot to view the Ni’ihau mountain range as the short hike goes by this cliff where the view is just awesome. We were at cloud level and then we noticed there were clouds climbing up the ridge and soon they crested over the top and enveloped us in cloud mist. If you’ve never been standing in the clouds before you must experience it. This happens at many of the mountain peaks on Oahu, Maui, and Kauai. I’ve not been to the Big Island but I imagine it’s similar.

When it’s hits you it feels like a cool, fresh spray of the finest mist. It is not at all overpowering… very light, crisp… an absolutely amazing experience that you can’t miss during your lifetime.

Come to Hawaii and stand in the clouds!

CLICK >> Video of Cloud coming over ridge in Kauai >

[ Video is about 10MB and should download quickly with a fast connection ]

Kauai is AWESOME!

Isn’t it?

Best of Life!

Life is all about being as optimistic as possible. Being optimistic leads to success.

If you’re not happy 90 mornings out of 100 when you wake up you are missing out on so much. I know that’s the reason a good portion of you are reading personal development blogs - for tips on making yourself happier and more optimistic when you’re down or not feeling quite up to par. Though I’m nearly always in a good mood I notice that sometimes - for just a half-hour, or maybe for a few hours - I catch myself in a mood that’s “less than great”.

Happiness can be in terms of financial success, emotional well-being, spiritual connectivity, physical energy and wellness, success of projects you’re doing, both personal and work-related, family happiness and cohesiveness… Optimism, which is about your future state of happiness and about the control you might have over events in the future flows from happiness.

There are many areas of success and happiness that lead to optimism. If you are successful in one area of life, that might carry over into other areas or it may have nothing to do with your happiness in other areas of your life.

So, during the times I catch myself in a mood that’s pessimistic or not positive, I might do this exercise. I find that I do it about once per week, but it’s good for every night before you go to sleep if you need it! It’s easy enough.

Step 1:
Take out a clean piece of paper or a notecard. Start writing everything you can think of that is a “positive” that is going on in your life since the last time you did this exercise. Write anything that has the power to make you happy a little bit.

Step 2:
No step 2, that was it.

When you write - don’t write straight down the page or on every line. Turn that paper or notecard everywhich way and write large, write small, just write, write, write.

When you’re really thinking about it - there are so many things that go well for us that we tend to gloss over. Write the smallest things that you can think of… things like, “I saw a sign for gasoline that was 2 cents lower today and filled up, saving me 26 cents.” Or, “I almost tipped backward on my chair and fell over, but I caught myself in time.” Or, “I had pizza yesterday, WOW that was good!”

There are so many things you could mention if you give yourself some time. I usually don’t need more than 10 minutes before I find myself in a great mood remembering things I’d already forgotten from the same day and the days past. EVERYTHING COUNTS, don’t eliminate something because you think it wasn’t positive ENOUGH. If it was on the right side of the negative - positive balance beam then it was positive.

See how many you can come up with in 10 minutes. If you don’t have 20, keep going. EVERYONE has 20 or more. A positive might be that you didn’t have a sickness or an accident in the last 5 days, yes? Or, that you didn’t lose your job. Or that you helped someone with some good advice… anything counts just so you can jot it down and remember the good feeling you had as you experienced this positive thing in your life.

Now, here’s something I did only a couple times - when I was in a really bummy mood that came and went for a few weeks (after a break-up). I saved all of my notecards and put them up on one wall where I could see them all the time right behind my notebook computer that sits on my table. Invariably, I’d be thinking about something and glance up at the notecards and something would catch my attention -and I’d remember that positive thing again. I’d probably read some more since they were all there in front of me. It really picked me up and helped keep me in a consistently happy state.

As I sit here really frustrated because my hosting account dashboard at Godaddy.com is loading each page over the course of about 17 minutes and I’ve even turned off images so all it needs to load is text - This might be a good time to write my own notecard… (click to enlarge)

For me - this was all it took to get me feeling good again. It’s really difficult to be pessimistic or angry or sad about life when you have about 20 things that recently happened that were positive. It works for me everytime. Try it!

Send photos or photoshop creations of your paper or notecard / index cards and I’ll edit this post and put them in here along with your name, email or whatever you wish.

Best of Life!