One of the things we’ve said about Nānā i ke kumu is this:
(If you are just joining us, Nānā i ke kumu is the Hawaiian value of source and truth, and you will find a more complete definition in my Day One Essay for October.) |
Today
I’d like to look at “both source and capacity to learn” in another way, as constants (source) and as change (capacity to learn). At any given time, and with any given effort, we are working on one or the other: Either we are
- Working to maintain our healthy constants, or
- Working to effect a change we desire.
Further, it is in effecting a desired change that we experience our most elevated experiences with learning.
Are you okay with Change?
Are there certain proverbs or quotes which became aha! moments for you when you first heard them? This was one of mine:
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That made so much sense to me!
It made sense both in my own experience with when I vigorously resisted change and when I embraced it.
It made total sense when I thought about those successes and failures I’ve had in trying to champion changes that others resisted accepting no matter how good I thought the change sounded, for aha! it just didn’t sound that great to them.
Said simpler, it wasn’t their idea, and they thought it was a lousy idea.
The worst possible Change? To your Constants
Over time —over many frustrating hours logged as a well-intentioned manager— I came to realize that there is a certain kind of change that we resist most of all, and that is the change that in some way threatens to violate our constants.
What are our constants? Our constants are those things connected to our source: Our constants are those things we depend on to keep us centered, grounded, whole, and feeling healthy. When I list them they will look familiar to you…
- Your Personal Values, for they drive your behavior —your best-possible, self-attuned behavior.
- The truth of your Ho‘ohana, your intention with doing worthwhile, and self-led work (versus the work of someone else’s plan).
- Your Strengths. Your source and your truth is about what is absolutely right with you, about every strength which individually and collectively help you feel vitally and forcefully strong.
- Your awareness of all these first three things as solely about YOU as a complete package, and as a very, very good one, and then...
- Your Connections. Life is not a solo proposition; we human beings were not meant to live alone.
Yep, they are the same things we talked about last week that wait for you when you find you must “go to the well.”
This is not to say that these things cannot and do not change; they can, and at times they will. Changes in your source are profound and fundamental however, and in fundamental change there is always learning (more on that coming up!)
Choosing Embraceable Change
Now there is a difference between the water of a well you drink from to feel nourished and replenished, and the water of a well you board up or drain because it’s become stagnant or tainted, isn’t there.
Change can be partial and incremental:
You drain the tainted water, and you board up the well to deal with it later, who knows when.Change can be complete and significant:
You clean and refurbish the old well, and you make it so the water it holds will be nourishing for you from now on.
In either instance, you are the defining factor, and you are making a choice.
Either instance can be a decision you are entirely happy with, and thus ‘embraceable.’
It’s all about you making a choice, your choice.
Choices, by Akuppa on Flickr
You Choose, or I’ll Choose
Sometimes you are the only one who cares about that well (the one that needs to be changed). However, (and get ready, you’ve heard this before too…) we human beings are not meant to live alone, and more often than not, others have an opinion about that old well too. If you don’t deal with it, you might find that they will.
If you beat them to it in proposing and acting on your well-improvement program, it’s initiative, and you’re being proactive.
If they beat you to it in proposing and enacting their well-improvement program, it’s their initiative, and you may be put in a position of being reactive. Accept or resist.
Choose to Learn
And then, wonder of all wonders, there is learning.
Their idea at first.
However you like it! Their idea = Your room for greater capacity, where none of your true constants and sources are being threatened.
Better yet, perhaps room for capacity where you constants are elevated and fortified.
You are not just a follower who has decided not to buck the change.
You are a learner who wants to embrace and own the change, folding it into your evolving and growing source.
Nānā i ke kumu at its finest hour of collaborative learning.
You are the wellspring.
Shall we review?
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These are the words I want you to remember in October, making them
Say this with me:
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Next Tuesday: Our Nānā i ke kumu study continues with A Truth-Fed Philosophy of Leadership.
We will Ho‘ohana together, Kākou.
~Rosa
Want to learn more? I have had some feedback from long-time readers asking me to connect the dots back to some of our older lessons, especially for when my Tuesday-to-Tuesday publishing schedule presents them with windows of opportunity for more journaling. This postscript is in response to that request.
Suggestions from the Archives of Ho‘ohana Publishing: These have to do with this idea of enlarging your capacity for growth.
- Palena ‘ole: Discover your 4-Fold Capacity Create abundance by honoring capacity; physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual.
- Kākou work is “just more enjoyable.” Is there job re-engineering going on where you work?
- In Search of the Ultimate Freedom How much have you thought about your freedoms, and the different ones you have? This one also talks about the process of journaling ~ it’s a twofer!
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