Rosa Say's Blog: Managing with Aloha, page 16
January 1, 2015
On the 8th Day of Christmas: Hope
Aloha nui my friends, happy New Year!
It is the 8th Day of Christmas, and I invite you to celebrate the virtue of Hope with me:
HopeWe start our year with beauty, for hope is such a beautiful thing.
Hope is an attitude about the best of possibility becoming real.
Hope looks at all the good that is true about the present and assumes it will ho‘omau, be perpetuated into our future — and then some.
Values or Virtues? Both.
What small actions can you take today, to feel the virtue of hope give you its positive expectancy and sense of optimism?
Which values help you to turn on this light of hope when you practice them?
Project Christmastide: Christmas 2014 – Epiphany 2015Project introduction: Values or Virtues? Both!
On the 1st day of Christmas: Wonder
On the 2nd day of Christmas: Prayer
On the 3rd day of Christmas: Grace
On the 4th day of Christmas: Gratitude
On the 5th day of Christmas: Faith
On the 6th day of Christmas: Peace
On the 7th day of Christmas: Humor
December 31, 2014
On the 7th Day of Christmas: Humor
Aloha nui my friends, happy New Year’s Eve!
It is the 7th Day of Christmas, and I invite you to celebrate the virtue of Humor with me:
HumorWithin virtue, we set our hearts free, and humor may be one of the best examples of that!
This comes from Proverbs 17:22 “A cheerful heart is good medicine.”
Laughter fills the holidays, and no one can tell me our ability to laugh at ourselves is not character-building and virtuous.
Values or Virtues? Both.
What small actions can you take today, to feel the virtue of humor fill you heart and soul?
Which values help you to experience your good humor when you practice them?
Project Christmastide: Christmas 2014 – Epiphany 2015Project introduction: Values or Virtues? Both!
On the 1st day of Christmas: Wonder
On the 2nd day of Christmas: Prayer
On the 3rd day of Christmas: Grace
On the 4th day of Christmas: Gratitude
On the 5th day of Christmas: Faith
On the 6th day of Christmas: Peace
December 30, 2014
Managers are Readers
Here is a promise, from me to you. As 2015 arrives, I will not nag you about making resolutions.
I will follow-up however, and keep talking about piloting projects. Have you chosen one yet?
In case you missed it: Piloting Projects: Job One is You.
If not, here is an idea for a personal project that will help you flourish all year long within the value of ‘IKE LOA (link to the book excerpt) ~ [also the value of our current Value Pairing]:
Become a reading machine.
Here are 3 short reading suggestions to get you started and leave you inspired:
From Austin Kleon of Steal Like An Artist fame: How To Read More.
From media strategist and business writer Ryan Holiday: How To Read More – A Lot More.
From the MWAloha Archives: A Discipline with Reading.
Number 4. is up to you: Pick a book and start reading. Easy as that :)
Extra credit (because I tend to batch in 5) is another from Ryan Holiday: Read to Lead: How to Digest Books Above Your “Level”
Austin Kleon’s reading desk: No electronics!
He says he designed it to resemble a library study carrel.
On the 6th Day of Christmas: Peace
Aloha nui my friends,
It is the 6th Day of Christmas, and I invite you to celebrate the virtue of Peace with me:
PeaceIf we sow the seeds of virtue, we cultivate fertile ground for peace.
If we seek to understand and not condemn, to take the high road versus get even, we uncover how alike we are much more than we are different.
We all want peace.
Values or Virtues? Both.
What small actions can you take today, to feel you have this virtue of peace?
Which values help you to experience peace when you practice them?
Project Christmastide: Christmas 2014 – Epiphany 2015Project introduction: Values or Virtues? Both!
On the 1st day of Christmas: Wonder
On the 2nd day of Christmas: Prayer
On the 3rd day of Christmas: Grace
On the 4th day of Christmas: Gratitude
On the 5th day of Christmas: Faith
December 29, 2014
On the 5th Day of Christmas: Faith
Aloha nui my friends,
It is the 5th Day of Christmas, and I invite you to celebrate the virtue of Faith with me:
FaithI have some trouble with the concept of fate, but I do believe in having faith as something that empowers us to create our own destiny.
There is faith in the divine and the spiritual, faith in others and in self, faith that good will always defeat evil — I choose to believe in every variety and aspect of it.
To have faith, I think, is to believe in your own ability and strength.
Values or Virtues? Both.
What small actions can you take today, to groom your virtue of faith?
Which values help you to cultivate your virtue of faith when you practice them?
Project Christmastide: Christmas 2014 – Epiphany 2015Project introduction: Values or Virtues? Both!
On the 1st day of Christmas: Wonder
On the 2nd day of Christmas: Prayer
On the 3rd day of Christmas: Grace
On the 4th day of Christmas: Gratitude
December 28, 2014
On the 4th Day of Christmas: Gratitude
Aloha nui my friends,
It is the 4th Day of Christmas, and I invite you to celebrate the virtue of Gratitude with me:
GratitudeThere may be no mightier force in our lives than learning to live in thankfulness for all we are and all we have been given.
An attitude of gratitude is an attitude of Aloha;
The ‘breath of life’ within you is meant to be shared in appreciation, thankfulness, and gratitude.
Values or Virtues? Both.
What small actions can you take today, to demonstrate your attitude of gratitude?
Which values help you to cultivate your virtue of living with gratitude when you practice them?
Project Christmastide: Christmas 2014 – Epiphany 2015Project introduction: Values or Virtues? Both!
On the 1st day of Christmas: Wonder
On the 2nd day of Christmas: Prayer
On the 3rd day of Christmas: Grace
December 27, 2014
On the 3rd Day of Christmas: Grace
Aloha nui my friends,
It is the 3rd Day of Christmas, and I invite you to celebrate the virtue of Grace with me:
GraceThis is one of my favorite words, and oddly, because I can’t define it well.
However I don’t need to, because its goodness just is.
I can only wish I feel it more, experience it more, and give it more.
I once heard grace called “unmerited favor” and I love that.
I want to be gracious, always.
Values or Virtues? Both.
What small actions can you take today, to groom your demeanor of grace?
Which values help you to cultivate your virtue of grace when you practice them?
Project Christmastide: Christmas 2014 – Epiphany 2015Project introduction: Values or Virtues? Both!
On the 1st day of Christmas: Wonder
On the 2nd day of Christmas: Prayer
December 26, 2014
On the 2nd Day of Christmas: Prayer
Aloha nui my friends,
It is the 2nd Day of Christmas, and I invite you to celebrate the virtue of Prayer with me:
PrayerThere is so much comfort in the thought that someone bigger than ourselves may be listening, and may care.
There is comfort knowing we always have someone to talk to about anything and everything.
I do not shy from admitting I can use those comforts.
Values or Virtues? Both.
What small actions can you take today, to groom your practice in prayer?
Which values help you enjoy your virtue of prayer when you practice them?
Project Christmastide: Christmas 2014 – Epiphany 2015Project introduction: Values or Virtues? Both!
On the 1st day of Christmas: Wonder
December 25, 2014
On the 1st Day of Christmas: Wonder
Merry Christmas my friends!
It is the 1st Day of Christmas, and I invite you to celebrate the virtue of Wonder with me:
WonderTo have an inner capacity that can always make room for awe and wonder is such a blessing.
To return to child-like innocence and acceptance, to be rendered speechless, and have it feel good and right, never helpless.
To not have all the answers but feel it is perfectly fine not to, to just have wonder.
~ ~ A year ago, quite likely again today: I wish you Christmas Moments.
Values or Virtues? Both.
What small actions can you take today, to groom your sense of wonder?
Which values help you enjoy your virtue of wonder when you practice them?
Project Christmastide: Christmas 2014 – Epiphany 2015Project introduction: Values or Virtues? Both!
On Projects: Piloting Projects: Job One is You
December 24, 2014
Values or Virtues? Both!
The question of “values or virtues” has a single answer for me: Both, please.
Whether taken separately or enjoyed together, values and virtues compose a healthy helping of goodness, and I love revisiting one of our Managing with Aloha traditions at this time of year, our Twelve Aloha Virtues.
They are
Hope,
Freedom,
Humor,
Prayer,
Vitality,
Wonder,
Trust,
Faith,
Grace,
Gratitude,
Joy, and
Peace.
I offer more thoughts on them as a grouping on that Resource Page here at MWA Central, yet I readily admit to you that page is one I consider a snapshot in time rather than a definitive answer on the value of virtues.
Values & Virtues is an ongoing study for me, and a very delicious one. They are a Palena ‘ole kind of thing (Key 9; growth in unlimited capacity) and they are encouraging, for to study them is to immerse oneself into much more good than bad, like a cleansing bath in some hot tub of positive energies you can float on.
Here is a pretty matter-of-fact definition of both that I recently found:
“Values are what is important to you. Virtues are your good points. Many times, your virtues will stem from your values but not always. I am sober which is a virtue but not because I value sobriety. I simply don’t enjoy drinking. I think they are both equally important. If you have no values, you will only have the virtues that come easily and naturally for you. If you have values but no virtue, you’re just a hypocrite because if you act according to your values you will gain virtue.” — Kuji
Well said, don’t you think?
Last Christmas I made myself a promise, and I want to end this year and start the next one by keeping that promise.
I am an organizational kind of girl, and my promise was to align the Twelve Virtues of Aloha with the 12 Days of Christmas, as my ‘form and function’ plan-of-intentions to wallow in as 2014 became 2015. It was to be my final project this year!
Last published: Piloting Projects: Job One is You
For a virtue to become a true character trait, it must happen.
I agree with Kuji: There must be self-propelled actions which stemmed from our values to produce the kind of moral character we will be proud to call our own, as we recently spoke of here: Values are Shaped by a Heritage of Doing.
Thus I can think of nothing better, than coupling my daily affirmations between December 25th (the 1st day of Christmas) and January 6th (Epiphany, or Three Kings Day and 12th Night) with values-propelled actions I commit to making happen, so our Twelve Virtues of Aloha will result.
We start tomorrow, and I do hope you will join me.
Oh, and I have another promise, from me to you: Each post will be very short and to the point these next 12 days. I will not be burdening you with much reading at all. Just a few words and images of virtue-inspired sharing, with any actions taken completely up to you. Indulge in spirit-spilling. You can be creative, and you can also think small: Small actions can count for so much!
For today, simply be of good cheer in all you do, infecting everyone around you in your holiday spirit. When I think of you reading these pages, that is certainly what you do for me — thank you!
Postscript: In theming our Christmastide 2014-15 this way, we are also replacing instead of adding — our virtues-inspired 12 Days of Christmas will give us an alignment break to our recently started daily affirmations.
