Alonui

“Wherever you are, make sure you’re there.”
— Dan Sullivan

What are the good habits which empower you, and make you feel stronger?

One of my Hō‘imi reflections was this: After a ten-year investment ‘dabbling’ in social media, I realized it didn’t qualify for me as a ‘good habit.’ Not Flickr or Instagram, not Twitter or Tumblr, not LinkedIn, not Pinterest, not any of them. Not even close.
[Archive Resource Reading: Looking back to Hō‘imi Forward.]

Life is short, and I’ve come to realize that my good habits should be focused on human elements like well-being, happiness, quality of life, control of emotions, socialization and presence. Where do those feels-good satisfiers come from—how do they actually happen in my life?

Nine times out of ten, the answer is that they happen up close and in person, where all five senses are firing away on all cylinders, boosting our awareness in their sensory, deeply perceptive way. The feelings are lush. Tuned-in. Human. Elemental. Meaningful. Special and fulfilling.

Compared to the flighty, more scattered distractions of social media, the goodness for me in recent years has been with working (my all-inclusive word for how Managing with Aloha directs my life, i.e. my Ho‘ohana), the travel which gave me time with family and friends and opened up more sense of place experiences, and gardening for both its beauty and the joy of patiently watching life grow under the care of my own two hands. All required me to be ‘up close and in person,’ giving the all of me, and ignoring digital screen time save for my Ho‘ohana related work.

Thus the phrase I’ve chosen to theme 2019 is Alonui.

Alonui~Presence

You know ‘Alo’ as our inner word pairing for Aloha: Alo + ha.

Alo, demeanor and presence + ha, the breath of life, combines into the uniquely personal Aloha Spirit we each can share with the world.
[Archive Resource Reading: What is the Aloha Spirit? It’s you!]

‘Nui’ is an amplifier. It boosts, expands, and lengthens concepts, and will mean ‘much’ or ‘more.’

Alonui will have our 2019 kaona (hidden meaning) of full presence. Wherever we are, we’ll make sure we’re completely, intentionally, and generously there.

With every value immersion we undertake this year as a Ho‘ohana Community, my first question will be, how can I be fully present within the goodness of this value?—How do I receive? My second question will be, how does this value make me interact with others, and communicate better?—How do I give?

There are so many benefits. With presence;

We hurry less, scurry less, and chill more, curbing anxiety.
We learn to enjoy patience, which helps us learn to savor.
We still ourselves by tuning into all 5 senses: We hear, we see, we smell, we touch, we taste. We begin to separate those sensations and appreciate each one individually, and new experiences and challenges no longer overwhelm us.
We learn to concentrate and focus our attentions better; less scatter-brained distractions, less feeling out-of-touch.
We make personal connections faster and more intimately; we broaden our professional connections with more complementary curiosity.
We give the gift of ourselves to others, and find they reciprocate in kind.
We take more initiative, because we’ve learned to rely on our own talents, strengths and intuition more than we had previously—we’re no longer watchers; we’re doers.
We learn more inclusiveness, and experience a greater willingness to share what we have, because we have the empathy of what we’ve just felt like through our own immersion.
With all this new learning, we also experience unlearning, for we discard convention in favor of more personal freedom. We don’t settle; we welcome in experimentation.
We ask more questions, and we listen better to more fully understand the answers we may be given.

“Watch a pig wallow in the mud. Watch a chicken take a dust bath. They know how to feel the earth and be a part of it. They stretch out their roots just like plants do, just in their own way.” —Farmer Joe Medeiros

“Here’s the deal. The human soul doesn’t want to be advised or fixed or saved. It simply wants to be witnessed — to be seen, heard and companioned exactly as it is.” —Parker J. Palmer

These are the value immersions ready and waiting for us this year:

January-February 2019: Mahalo (thankfulness): Now published —Mahalo, “Way of Living.”
March-April 2019: Nānā i ke kumu (well-being)
May-June 2019: Pono (integrity)
July-August 2019: Ka lā hiki ola (hope)
September-October 2019: Aloha (love)
November-December 2019: Ho‘ohana (industriousness)

By the time we cycle back to Aloha in September, we’ll have 8 robust months of exploring our Alonui presence through our receiving and giving…can you imagine the influence that can have on our personal well-being?
[Archive Resource Reading: Value Your Month for One — You.]

“A value of the month program feels strategically proactive as we look ahead toward months that currently seem pretty distant. It is also immediately practical and sensible: In working two months at a time, we break our big picture vision into 6 chunks of more manageable mission-driven work effort.”
—From our Ho‘ohana Community TinyLetter

2019, I’m ready for you, and so is our Ho‘ohana Community.

We Ho‘ohana Kākou, together, and within the abundance of our Aloha Spirit.

Postscript:

I am doubly excited about Alonui because of its direct connections to our 9th Key Concept, Palena ‘ole: We will talk story about this more as the year unfolds.

Key 9. PALENA ‘OLE:

Palena ‘ole is the Hawaiian concept of unlimited capacity. This is your exponential growth stage, and about seeing your bigger and better leadership dreams come to fruition. Think “Legacy” and “Abundance” and welcome the coaching of PONO into your life as the value it is. We create our abundance by honoring human capacity; physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual. When we seek inclusive, full engagement and optimal productivity, any scarcity will be banished. Growth is welcomed and change is never feared; enthusiasm flourishes. PALENA ‘OLE is an everyday attitude in an ‘Ohana in Business, assuming that growth and abundance is always present as an opportunity. Given voice, Palena ‘ole sounds like this: “Don’t limit yourself! Why settle for ‘either/or’ when we can go for the ‘and’ and be better?”

Site category for Key 9: Palena ‘ole

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter:
Talking Story with the Ho‘ohana Community.