Bring Constants and Change to Ho‘omau Agreement

Ho‘omau with the Rule of 3 Ho‘omau is the Rule Changer: On Mista...

Bring Constants and Change to Ho‘omau Agreement

Change is overwhelming; that much is a given.

Charles M. Bow, columnist with the New York Times, tweeted “Lord, I need to pace myself. Trump and his shenanigans are going to do me in if I don’t,” a sentiment I can totally relate to.

It’s no secret that I am a Trump resister turned #BeAloha activist, however it’s not just about Trumpism —it’s the overload I’m feeling in trying to keep up with the challenge of learning what America2017 will really turn out to be, and more. Change is firing on all cylinders, unless you’re living with your head under a rock someplace completely disconnected from the news of the day.

For instance… I’m fascinated by the whole existential drama the media now wallows in, since President Trump has declared war on most of them. I’m not a journalist, however as an author, blogger, newsletter writer, Ke Ola Magazine columnist, and the founder of Ho‘ohana Publishing, I do think of myself as a publisher, and can relate to their distress. And what a case study in articulating and asserting values, and rallying for value alignment! As former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer is trying to advise the press, “It doesn’t matter whether the president is praising or criticizing you; your job is to be neutral, fair, and accurate.”

From Human Rights Watch World Report 2017: Demagogues Threaten Human Rights, Trump, European Populists Foster Bigotry, Discrimination

After Trump’s “America first” fist-raising inauguration speech, I took the time to reeducate myself on what ‘populism’ in fact, really was all about. Objective research and reading was necessary. The word may sound like it’s ‘popular’ however it’s not exactly positive, and not what I want as a citizen. “A better antidote: responsive and responsible leaders.”—from the World Economic Forum, A 10-point guide to responsible leadership in the age of populism.

At The Atlantic, Derek Thompson gave me pause, in publishing “The Dark Side of American Optimism, and the Bright Side of Rising Pessimism about the American Dream.” Yikes! I used to think pessimism was always wrong, or at least ill-advised, however Thompson reminded me that there are no absolutes, and objective context is always necessary for sound judgement.

All to say, I am working on my skill building with “The 3 C’s of 2017: Change, Congruency, Critical Thinking” too, just as I asked you to do. It’s tough. Mostly, it’s time consuming.

A cartoon Ian Bremmer captioned, “Remember: People fall prey to their biases because they don’t want to put in the effort to overcome them. Not because they can’t.”

Sometimes, jumping into the fire is necessary for timely learning.

In my case, I’ve chosen to get more involved and hurl myself into the change spurred on by “the present regime” of our US governance, as astrophysicist Katie Mack refers to it. In response to the “alternative facts” controversy stirred up by Kellyanne Conway, Counselor to the President, Mack tweeted that “In the present regime, both science and basic observable fact are political. If you advocate reality, it’s impossible to sit this one out.”

I agree, for business became political as well, starting the day Trump had announced he’d run for office. As I pinned to my Twitter profile page, “Be fearlessly authentic in standing up for your #values. ‘Don’t talk politics’ no longer applies. Clarity in values expression does: #BeAloha.”

However I’ve certainly no plans with running for office! I believe that much is possible when you work from within your circle of influence, and there’s no place I’d rather be than stage-center with Managing with Aloha and the Ho‘ohana Community!

Which brings us right back here, and to HO‘OMAU, our value for the months of January and February 2017: Ho‘omau; Love the one you’re with.

The way I ‘pace myself’ is with the practices of value immersion and value alignment.

With value immersion, to ‘pace myself’ is to go ‘all-in.’ It’s keeping my thoughts about, and beliefs in Ho‘omau at the surface of whatever deep-dive my thoughts now engage in, political, newsy, work-related and otherwise:

“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.”

With value alignment, to ‘pace myself’ is to stop regularly, and question the healthiest, best context of those thoughts through my Ho‘omau filters.

Value alignment helps us shift information overload from the subjective to the objective, and from the not relevant to the relevant. Value alignment brings us to manageable, desirable agreement:

“VALUE ALIGNMENT frames our key objective — To align the actual behaviors of a workplace culture with the values we say we believe in from an intellectual and convicted point of view: We believe in this value deeply, and therefore, this is what we consistently do, or aspire to do; this is how we will behave.”

The value of HO‘OMAU in particular, helps us reckon with the very important agreement we’ll come to, balance if you prefer, between the Constants we uphold, and the Change we can then accept and incorporate into our lives—into living and working with Aloha.

A cartoon by Sandra Boynton she captioned, “Difficult things can be accomplished given enough enthusiasm.”

With Ho‘omau, define your Constants, and accept your Change.

Will having a brand new president, ‘rookie administration,’ and a Republican majority in both houses of Congress affect every American citizen? You bet, and it will affect us globally as well.

Will those things affect the majority of what determines the quality of the life you lead? Probably not.

One headline last week read, “Trump to kill Public Radio, National Endowment for the Arts, and National Endowment for the Humanities,” meaning they may lose budget dollars, or even their lifeline funding. However, will that stop everyone else from supporting Public Radio, the Arts and Humanities? Nope.

You make the choices which affect you most, and I would argue, are much more important. The Serenity Prayer advises us well;

“Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to change the things I can,

And the wisdom to know the difference.”

Thinking about that caused me to send out this tweet a week ago: “I may need to revise these ‘3 C’s of 2017’ to ‘Congruency, Critical Thinking’ and COURAGE, Koa in Hawai‘i.”

Change is going to happen. What’s more important is how you deal with it.

I’ve been promoting the skill-building of Critical Thinking with you, because I firmly believe that’s where you will gain “the wisdom to know the difference.” I believe in the innate Aloha goodness of all human beings, and that we’re extremely capable— we are Ho‘omau tenacious, Ho‘omau resilient, and Ho‘omau flexible (another great Rule of 3 for Ho‘omau we can count on!).

When it comes to defining our Constants and accepting our Change, we’re in charge.

Don’t ever forget that.

Use your own Ho‘omau value immersion these first two months of the year, to define these two things for yourself:

1. What are the constants I will fiercely protect, and perhaps, work to improve upon?

2. What is the change I can get excited about, and rally behind with enthusiasm?

Answer them personally, professionally, or both, and you will find the process to have a steadying, and comforting effect on you. It’s a Ho‘omau kind of thing, and it’s fantastic.