Kūlia i ka nu‘u
Kūlia i ka nu‘u is the Managing with Aloha value of accomplishment and achievement.
The literal translation for Kūlia i ka nu‘u is “strive to reach the summit.” Those who have this value continually pursue improvement and personal excellence. For them, the most satisfying competition is with their previous selves: They consider their life and everything within it to be a work in progress, and they enjoy the effort. ‘Hard work’ is good work when it employs the energies of striving and reaching higher.
From Managing with Aloha, 2nd Edition (Chapter 5 preamble):
Kūlia i ka nu‘u
Achievement and accomplishment
Pursue personal excellence
Be your best
“Strive to reach the summit”
Take note of how Kūlia i ka nu‘u (as Chapter 5) builds upon the values we have already learned of in chapters 1 through 4:
—Kūlia i ka nu‘u. Define what achievement is for you, and strive to the highest summit of accomplishment there is.
—Pursue personal excellence. Be the best you can possibly be.
—Seek achievement which allows you to Ho‘ohana, work with purpose and intent, within ‘Imi ola, a life lived for its highest form.
—You will find you Ho‘omau; you persist in a way that will cause the good to last, for in striving for the best, you have become your best. As you grow, your Aloha has captured more abundance to be shared with others.
With Kūlia i ka nu‘u, We Strive
As has been our habit, we kick off the month with a brand new Kūlia i ka nu‘u essay shared with Hawai‘i Island’s Ke Ola Magazine. It is titled, With Kūlia i ka nu‘u We Strive, and can also be found on RosaSay.com.
The essay shares why I had chosen Kūlia i ka nu‘u as this value name and Language of Intention for Managing with Aloha:
“There are three different Hawaiian words used for the value of excellence and achievement in Hawai‘i today: Kela, Po‘okela, and Kūlia i ka nu‘u. It’s a very good example of how kaona, the hidden meanings often employed in ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i, our language, affects what we do, by extension of what we actually mean when Speaking with Aloha, our 3rd Aloha Intention.
Kaona, however, can be tricky. Good business takes fewer chances.”
—Click through to read more: With Kūlia i ka nu‘u We Strive
Our Kūlia i ka nu‘u Value Immersion
Once you have read the essay, ask yourself this question: “How do I strive?”

Journaling is an easy way to begin a new month of value-aligned focus on Aloha Intention.
As a journaling/self-coaching exercise to prepare for the next two months’ value immersion with Kūlia i ka nu‘u:
1. Answer the question, “How do I strive?” in whatever your stream-of-conscious way, with whatever initially comes to mind, be it personally or professionally, just for you, or with your team at work.
2. Second, if not clear in your initial response, ask yourself why, “What is behind this for me; why do I strive in this way?”
3. Third, set your intentions: What do you hope to achieve in the next two months time? Answer as relates to your striving, and thus, can be supported by our value immersion here on ManagingWithAloha.com with the Ho‘ohana Community.
NOTE —If you are reading this posting through completely first:
My new essay for Ke Ola and RosaSay.com suggests a 4-Peak progression you can consider. Alaka‘i Managers are encouraged to kūlia sequentially and consequentially.
Don’t skip it or forget! With Kūlia i ka nu‘u We Strive
To review what ‘value immersion’ is all about:
“Immersion means to go ‘all in.’ When you choose a value for your workplace culture, you align it completely — in everything you do. VALUE IMMERSION is flexible and adaptive when it has your constant attention: When confronting change, you realign and audit your value integrity in every strategic juncture. Remember: You can change your values too, growing them as your culture grows.”
—Via our value alignment vocabulary here: Curating Value Alignment.
I look forward to sharing these next two months with you, as we delve into Kūlia i ka nu‘u to learn more, know well, and strive higher together.
We Ho‘ohana Kākou!
~ Rosa
Postscript: Anxious to jump ahead this coming weekend? 1. Be sure to take the related links embedded above, then 2. Discover more connections by reading our Kūlia i ka nu‘u Archives.
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Preview the updates in Managing with Aloha, Second Edition, just released Summer, 2016
Managing with Aloha, Bringing Hawai‘i’s Universal Values to the Art of Business
Our value immersion study for the months of March and April 2017:
With Kūlia i ka nu‘u, We Strive.