Our ho‘ohana on Ho‘omau; causing the good to last wouldn’t be complete this month without thinking about strengths, for there is so much vacuum-packed goodness in them.

You proactively and intentionally cause the good to last in your strengths,

• By being sure you are employing them, i.e. by picking the right work for you. If you agree with David Allen’s definition that work is “anything that is not done yet” you clearly understand that this is much bigger than being about your job.
  

You proactively and intentionally cause the good to last in your strengths,

• By capitalizing them and building on them, allowing them to work their magic in opening other doors for you. With the way this innately works for you, you can trust you will be stepping in the right doors.
  

When you are a manager, you proactively and intentionally cause the good to last in your strengths,

• By turning this strength-nurturing talent you have, into your management strength, doing the same thing for the people you manage, i.e. you employ their talent, putting them in the best work environment possible for building on their strengths.

Everyone has talent, a kind of internal wiring that naturally makes us more effective at certain kinds of things. When you harness your natural, born-in talents in a manner which is visible for others and tangible for you, those talents become what we think of as our strengths.

As a quick review, Ho‘omau is the value of persistence and perseverance. Now let’s review the language of your own intention: The deeper dynamic of ho‘omau, and the self-coaching within it is fairly simple.

If you are going to persist and persevere at all, if you are going to continue to try again, or perpetuate a state of anything, cause the good in your life to last.

Don’t bother with the other stuff.

Another way to look at this: That “other stuff” you don’t bother with is more commonly referred to as your weaknesses. When you ho‘omau to reveal your strengths, you are either

a) making your weaknesses irrelevant because your strengths so effectively dominate, i.e. they are constantly in play, or

b) turning what you thought was a weakness into an ever-building strength which was simply dormant before you figured out how to put it on stage. For instance, this is what happens when you go from an unsuitable job to one which makes your heart sing.

So your weaknesses:
Are they a) irrelevant, and should not dominate anyway, or are they b) your dormant strengths, and you need to employ them?

What is the good in your life that is all about you, and your capacity for bigger and better things? Which of your talents do you want to capitalize on, getting them to be even better, and turning them into strengths?

In the managing with aloha philosophy we often talk about the four-fold capacity that is our gift of potential as human beings, and thinking about these four different areas is a good way to do your own kind of mind-sweep. Your hidden talents lay in your un-tapped capacity.

You have

Physical capacity ” as a for instance, there are advantages in youth, and there are advantages in age. Which are you primed and ready to take advantage of, and how? Big playing fields in both youth and in age, and thinking about your first-impulse answers to this can uncover some possibilities for you.

Intellectual capacity ” as a for instance, we each are stronger in certain learning styles, and they tend to drive our choices. What kind of learner are you? What do you long to learn about, and you just haven’t started to yet? Why not?

Emotional capacity ” as a for instance, we can seize amazing amounts of new energy from our emotions. Joy, appreciation, even sadness and grieving: Which emotion is propelling you to more intuitive action these days in valuing your relationships? Do they reveal a strength for you in caring, or in empathy?

Spiritual capacity ” as a for instance, think of spiritual as being in-spirit, as being inspired. How are you most creative? In which situations that you have placed yourself in, do you find you become more inspired and excited about new possibilities? When do you get most of your ideas?

Put yourself there. Ho‘omau.

My language of intention for you when I say “Ho‘omau” is this:

Continue in ways that cause the good in your life to last.

Reveal your strengths, and make your weaknesses irrelevant.

You know what to do because you, and only you, truly can know what makes your heart sing.

So put yourself there, do it. Ho‘omau.

I trust in your capacity, and I believe there is more room there, for it is palena ‘ole, without limits or boundaries.
When it comes to your capacity, the only limits are those which you impose on yourself.
I believe in your ability to fulfill your capacity with the abundance of aloha, for I believe in you and your innate goodness.
(See what managers believe in.)
I believe in you.

So live your life in the best possible way. Ho‘omau.

Related reading in Managing with Aloha:
—
Kevin Eikenberry’s favorite passage on page 136 begins “I stand firm and unmoving in my belief that someone who calls themselves a manager of people must be a learner”” and it relates to your intellectual capacity being filled the right way with learning.

—One of Dave Rothacker’s favorite passages is on page 149 for it talks about the “bounty of Ha‘aha‘a” and how you open your thinking with the value of humility. It relates to how this emotional capacity can find abundance.

—One of Christopher Bailey’s favorite passages is on page 23, for it shares a story of aloha which relates to believing in yourself and what you are meant to do.

Related reading offered here for you on Talking Story:

Ho‘omau and your Language of Intention

Ho‘omau: Cause the good to last

Strengths and Values.

Identify the strengths of those you manage.

Muses, Mentors, and Self-Talk.
The instinctive, natural selection of wanting.

What it means to “Look to Your Source”

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