Aloha again from Hawaii!!! Wish you were here. Seriously, I wish everyone could have the opportunity that blesses my life every year of taking a 2-week vacation in Hawaii, Paris, the Caribbean, or the mountains of Utah. If you haven't every tried a 2-week vacation, I would strongly encourage you to plan to do so soon. If done right, it can have a huge, positive impact on your business and wealth. Let me explain.
I'm guessing that most of you take your vacations 1 week at a time. This is a big mistake. The goal of a vacation should be a renewal of your energy so you can be more effective and more efficient the rest of the year. In most cases, a one-week vacation cannot accomplish this. Why not? Well, if you work hard all year and need a vacation to relax you, then the first 2-3 days of your vacation will be spent coming down off of your stress level. The last 2-3 days, of course, you are thinking about what you need to do when you get back home. So you really only have 1-2 days of true relaxation. That's just not enough.
Now add 7 days to your vacation. This is an additional 7 days of pure relaxation and for most people 8-10 days of total relaxation is enough to reinvigorate you for the next 12 months. And while you are on vacation, BE ON VACATION! If you have to answer emails (which I don't recommend), then answer them early in the morning and preferably only 1-2 times a week. If you have properly set up your business/investments then you will have no problem avoiding emails completely for 2 weeks.
I know, some of you are noting that I am writing this while I am on vacation. Yes, but not because I have to. Because I want to. I want to share this experience with you while it is fresh with me. Let me share a few of the relaxing activities of this past week.
My partner and his wife joined my wife and me this year. (Think about the potential tax benefits from doing this!) Early on in the trip, we took a fishing boat out of Kona. About 20 minutes into the trip, I caught a 160-pound Marlin. We tagged it and released it as there was no way we were going to eat 160 pounds of fish over here.
Later in the week, we did a couple of scuba dives. The last one we did was a night-time dive to watch the Manta Rays. This was truly an amazing experience, as four giant rays did what I can best describe as a ballet for us while we were sitting on the ocean floor about 30 feet under the water. If you ever get the chance to do this dive, don't pass it up. It is truly spectacular.
Then the next day, we took a trip down to the southernmost part of the island to see the green sand beach. Yes, it is really green sand. Amazing!
Today, I took a serious bike ride from Waikoloa to Waimea, something I have tried before but the wind knocked me off my bike. I fought my way through it this time and made it to the top (about 10 miles on a steep incline with serious wind). The reward at the top was my favorite Hawaiian diner, the Hawaiian Style Cafe, where I had a pancake as my reward (yes, just a single pancake and I didn't even finish it – their pancakes are 9″ in diameter) before heading back down. This is the only ride I have ever done where the downhill portion was tougher than going uphill. The crosswinds twice blew my bike a foot sideways and I barely hung on until reaching the bottom.
Hope I didn't bore you too much with my travelogue. And I really hope you take the opportunity to take a 2-week vacation soon. It's the best. If you are worried about the cost of such a vacation, anyone can become financially free with the right education and the right wealth strategy.
Well, that's all from Hawaii. I'll write again next week when I'm back in Phoenix.
Warmest regards,
Tom
