Finding Your Deepest Fulfillment - Lessons From Hawaii 

Written by Michelle Shelton

July 4, 2023

My family has been blessed to travel to Hawaii for the past two years. It is a place of inspiration for me, where I connect more deeply to my heart and to the world around me. 

I am inspired by the story of the people who have lived there for generations, who sailed thousands of miles across the ocean to discover new islands. People who faced the uncertainty and the unknown. People who had a deep respect and understanding of the strength and power of nature, who neither tried to control it or hide from it, but understood, respected, and harnessed it. They lived with hearts open to the beauty and possibility of what the adventure might bring into their lives and the generations after. As a result, they built a culture and community in the heart of earth’s paradise. 

Our world is missing some of this open-hearted approach to life. We protect and control much, hoping to avoid pain, loss, humiliation, and grief. But in this protection, we lose connection to our potential for our own paradise, our deepest fulfillment, whatever that looks like to us. 

Fulfillment is a tricky thing. It’s a two sided-coin and on the other side is vulnerability, the possibility for rejection, hurt, and pain. Much of our world is deeply guarded against vulnerability. My dad used to say, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Obviously, it is good that we learn from our mistakes, adapt, and change. This is essential to our survival. I’m not advocating we stop doing that. 

But maybe we are too quick to say “Never again,” too quick to protect from future hurt. Maybe instead of learning, “that hurt, I’ll never do that again” we can learn, “I am strong and capable of recovering when I get hurt.” Instead of asking, “how can I avoid that in the future” we can ask “what actions align most with my values or purpose?”

How would your life change if you lived from your courageous heart? What would you do differently if you believed you are strong and capable, that pain and setbacks are temporary, that recovery is always possible, that not only CAN you do hard things but that you were MEANT to do hard things, that paradise sits on the other side of these turbulent seas? What paradise could grow inside of you?

These are the lessons I learned from Hawaii.