“Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.” — Albert Camus

Hawaii is a special place for me.

We were there for a little over two weeks this time, long enough to settle in, slow down, and remember what life feels like without urgency. But Hawaii isn’t new to me. Not even close. When I added it up, I’ve spent roughly six months of my life there over the years. It’s become less of a destination and more of a second home. A place that consistently gives me a certain type of energy.

There’s something about that combination of water, wind, and the sound of waves that rearranges the internal pieces. Maybe it’s the pace…its definitely slower.  Maybe it’s the light. Epic sunrises and sunsets. Maybe it’s what happens when you can hear your own thoughts without everything pushing back.

Or maybe it’s simply this: Hawaii doesn’t let you live anywhere but the present moment.

Standing on the North Shore again, watching 20 and 30-foot sets roll in, watching the lineup of surfers commit to waves most of us wouldn’t even walk into I felt the same thing I’ve felt each trip: Presence is not a luxury. It’s a requirement.

Here’s what the four pillars reminded me during these past few weeks:

Physical Wellness

Being in Hawaii always shifts how I think about the body.

When you watch surfers, paddlers, freedivers, and true watermen train, you realize something quickly:
They aren’t training for aesthetics. They’re training for reality.

The ocean doesn’t care about your ego. Or your goals or excuses. It responds only to preparation and presence. Surfers need balance, core strength, mobility, endurance, patience, and quick decision-making all at once. Paddlers spend hours crossing channels that test stamina and grit in ways a gym will not. Stand-up paddle boarding looks simple…until you realize it’s a constant negotiation with instability.
Every sport in the water is a direct connection with nature, and nature doesn’t give do-overs.

You have to be there. Fully. Mentally and physically. Because if you check out, even if just for a moment, the ocean will remind you and in certain situations you don’t get a do-over.

Watching that year after year has changed how I think about training as I grow older.

Train for real life. For the moments that demand strength you can’t fake, stability you can’t shortcut, endurance you can’t manufacture. You have to approach it in a way that fits your life over time. By building adaptability, not just performance.

Because most of the challenges we face. Things like stress, conflict, loss, transition, pressure aren’t solved by a bigger bench press.

They’re solved by resilience. Consistency. Balance. Breath. Awareness.

Everything the ocean teaches.

This week: Train like life depends on your presence. Because in many ways, it does.

Mental Wellness

If there’s one thing Hawaii reminds me of every time I go, whether for a week, two weeks, or the months I’ve spent there over the years, it’s this:

The ocean has its own sound and rhythm. And when you’re close to it, your mind begins to match it.

There’s a reason you can sit on a beach, hear nothing but waves, and feel something inside you relax. It isn’t imagined, it’s physiological.

Research now shows that spending time near the water, blue spaces, is strongly linked with better physical and mental health, with people reporting lower stress, better mood, and higher overall wellbeing than those living inland.

But it goes even deeper than that. The sound of the ocean itself changes your nervous system.
In a study examining how natural sounds influence stress, researchers found that listening to water triggers the parasympathetic nervous system. The body’s “rest and recover” mode which leads to measurable reductions in stress markers. It’s a built-in reset button.

Nature calls this “soft fascination,” a state where your brain is gently engaged but not overwhelmed. It’s the opposite of doom-scrolling, multitasking, or just holding on through a packed week. It’s presence without pressure.

The ocean teaches it beautifully:

• It doesn’t rush.
• It doesn’t cling.
• It doesn’t fight for control.
• It returns, again and again, to its natural flow and state.

And somewhere in that rhythm, your mind finds its way back to itself. Mental wellness isn’t about thinking more, it’s about thinking less, so that clarity has room to show up.

So this week, try giving yourself a small piece of that ocean rhythm. Something that lets your mind move and flow like water. Allowing you to find that clarity like the waves do.

Financial Wellness

I was reading a story about Jack Johnson while we were over there. A kid from the North Shore who grew up surfing Pipeline, who planned on spending his life in the ocean, not on a stage. He’s announced he’ll be back on tour this summer, and coming to Blossom in 2026, right here in our backyard. I found his music right after college and I’ve been a fan ever since. There’s something grounding about him. Something simple in his music.

Jack’s life took a turn he never planned. He was a competitive surfer long before he was a musician. Music wasn’t the dream he has said, it was just something he did between sets. Then came the accident at Pipeline. A wipeout that ended his competitive surfing career and opened a door he never expected. Music moved to the front, almost by accident, and a global career followed.

But the part of his story that has always struck me the most isn’t the career shift, but the choices he made after success found him.

Jack could have become a commercial machine. He could have chased bigger numbers, bigger sponsors, and bigger stages. He could have squeezed every possible dollar out of his fame. The industry wanted that. The market would have rewarded it. Yet he never cared.

In fact, he once joked: “I’m not driven by the business part of it. It’s just not where the joy is.”

For him, wealth was never the money. It was time. It was connection. It was being home in Hawaii, raising his family, surfing the same breaks he grew up on, and making music with the people who bring out the best in him.

His producer is his neighbor. His bandmates are longtime friends. His tours are intentionally limited so he can be with his family. Even the profits often flow back into environmental nonprofits and community projects because, as he’s said, “If you’re lucky enough to make a living doing what you love, you should try to give something back.”

That’s wealth in every sense of the word.

Jack Johnson could have made ten times more money if he wanted to. He could’ve followed the traditional definition of financial success. To maximize, expand, scale. Instead, he chose a different path: define wealth on his own terms.

A life rooted in his special place. With the people he loved, doing what brought him joy on his own time.

Maybe that’s why his music feels the way it does. Like breathing fresh air, or seeing a morning sunrise, like a reminder of what matters. He writes songs from a life built around presence, not more. Around values and not how much he made on his last tour. Around relationships above anything else.

Jack reminds us that wealth isn’t how much you have, but how intentionally you use what you have. And sometimes the richest life is the one where you say no to more, so you can say yes to what matters.

Spiritual Wellness

“The ocean is a place where you go to learn. Because it teaches you.”- Master Navigator of the Polynesian Voyaging Society

Every time I go back to Hawaii I tend to think about this quote. Maybe it’s because Hawaii is literally one of the most isolated, yet inhabited, places on the planet. You don’t often thing about it, but it’s 2,000+ miles from the nearest continent. You feel that distance the moment you step off the plane.

When you’re standing on a cliff, or at the top of Haleakalā or Mauna Kea, it’s impossible not to feel small in the best possible way. That feeling that the world is big and we are relatively small. For me it provides perspective.

A moment that reminds me I’m part of something bigger than my own thoughts, stress, or schedule.

That’s what nature can do. Awe can do.

That vast ocean creates a kind of reverence. It pulls you back into yourself and beyond yourself at the same time. It’s a good reminder that you don’t have to be in the middle of the Pacific to feel that.
But you do have to give yourself the space to find it.

And In The End

From all of us at The 9:03 Collective: thanks for reading. Keep showing up. Stay curious. And never forget that the clock is running, so make it count.

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Until next week — keep building your moments. The Journey Team & The 9:03