I'd never seen anything quite this beautiful. The water was crystal blue and the sand off the Oahu coast appeared like wispy heavenly clouds. A tranquility that was teaming with life as fish darted in and out of the reef. This peaceful sight was eclipsed only by the near absence of sound, a quiet serenity broken simply by the sound of my breathing.

This wonderful experience was almost missed, given away, forfeited. It almost didn't happen! All because of some fear based inner monologue. Inner monologue is the voice inside your head that talks to you everyday. Sometimes I refer to it as our internal board of directors. Most of us listen intently to this voice. Some of us talk back (you've seen those folks). It's the voice that cheers us on to our greatest victories and saves us from danger. On the flip side that same voice stops us from taking good risks and fans our fears.

You see, I had never been scuba diving before in my life. While I was up for the adventure, my inner monologue had other ideas. The voice kept reminding me that (a) forty plus feet down was a loooong way, (b) the tank wouldn't give me enough air, and (c) I was doomed if I made a mistake at the bottom. I listened and didn't go down for the first dive. I was even more distressed as I consider myself somewhat self aware and immune to such thoughts. Apparently not. As we motored to the next dive site, and after some goal focused thinking, I found a way to crush the voice, trust the equipment, and trust myself. Have you let your inner monologue stop you?

"That's too difficult, I'm terrible at ______, It would take too much time to complete, I'm afraid they'll say no, or I'm not good enough." These are some of the random negative thoughts that go through...