I sent out the first issue of Ho‘ohana ‘ÅŒlelo (my monthly e-letter) this morning, and within it I made a very important announcement: I will not be continuing my publishing of Managing with Aloha Coaching in 2009 to make way for my two BHAGs this year. Yep, time to get back in gear with Big Hairy Audacious Goals.

There is a bit more in the preface of Ho‘ohana ‘ÅŒlelo for the benefit of those who primarily keep in touch with me that way versus on the web, but here is the excerpt which explains it for those of you who are not e-letter subscribers. I am sharing it here too because you might wonder what happened to MWAC, as I have linked there regularly.

More importantly, I do NOT want to leave you high and dry without a“Value your Month, Value your Life” plan of your own.

(Skip down to the next major heading “What I left out” if you do subscribe and have already read this.)

From Ho‘ohana ‘ÅŒlelo:

Rough as it has been, 2008 was a good teacher, dealing out
some tough love in the teaching.

Are we listening? Are we learning? I do not believe that we in business, and in
life, can continue the way we have been operating if we are to thrive again,
and prosper in ways which will be good for us as soon as possible. I do believe we can change, and I do believe our change can be for the
better.
 
In recent weeks I have asked you not to rely on any cycle, and to make room for a better vitality. I need to practice what
I preach too, and I feel I need to lead. So the first thing I will do in my
yearly planning, is a stripping away of the non-essentials which can be
masquerading as worthy Ho'ohana work, when in fact, they are sneaking in some
auto-pilot, some laziness or complacency so that mediocrity can find its
foothold and get comfortable. I make more room for the good stuff.
 
In years past it's been a no-brainer. My value of the month
program would never, ever be the casualty, for Managing with Aloha is about managing by values, and is mission more than book: Even
my beloved Talking Story came on the
chopping block. Well, we've now had five years of "Value your Month, Value your
Life" and it's time to move on. I will not be writing a value of the month
program for the Ho'ohana Community in 2009.
 
Don't stop eating just
because I stop spoon-feeding
 
I still believe in the greatness of a value of the month
program, still recommend every workplace adopt it, then truly live and work
it, but I must move on in my leading, both self-leading and idea-leading. If I
don't, I will let you down and let myself down.

"Value your Month, Value your
Life" has taken up an awful lot of room on my calendar and in my days, and for
me personally, it has to go. I will never ever stop my own living that way, and
I have already assigned myself a value to work on in each month of 2009 as I
have done with you these last five
years, but as of 2009 the Managing with Aloha Coaching container for it
as a community program will remain available to you as archives, but will not be newly updated.
 
So what am I making room for?
 
I am making room for much more realistic progress with accomplishing these two important goals
well before year's end, both of which are not brand new, but got shelved when
2008 began teaching me, and I began listening:

1. I will
   be writing my second book.
2. I will
   be launching a third business entity named Writing with Aloha.

What about SLC and Ho'ohana
Publishing?
They continue, but they will shift.
 
This letter has been long enough, and I will tell you more
as we go forward. That will be another change you will see from me.
 
This, our Ho'ohana 'ÅŒlelo newsletter you have subscribed
for, will continue, but it will not be on the same Day One recurring pattern
each month. I will instead be writing to you when I have new developments to
share, or when I do wish to better communicate with you than I have been. In
one way, we all have a love-hate relationship with email, however I sense we
are all more dependent on email these
days -it's become another no-brainer of sorts, and I simply feel it is more
effective for us both.
 
I anticipate you will hear from me more than you
have been, not less. My messages can be shorter. That is my intention: To be more timely and responsive (versus
pressed for time as I prepare value-based coaching essays for a coming month as
it has been). I also want to do more project work versus program maintenance so that there
is room for the new idea generation that better leadership is all about.

I am excited about 2009, and I hope you are too.
I
also pray this is not a let down for you, and that you will keep your
subscription going to see where my new calendar plan will take us.

Between our emails, please continue to join me online at Talking Story (it's back!) and at Joyful Jubilant Learning (JJL Day One Essay for January).

If you need some help with setting your own personal value of the month plan in motion, visit my most recent article for Say "Alaka'i" at The Honolulu Advertiser blog I am now writing (essentially, Say "Alaka'i" is the first pilot project of Writing with Aloha): Hau'oli Makahiki Hou: Hawaiian Values for 2009

While
it was written for our Hawai'i newspaper in tone, you know I do not
write solely as a Hawai'i-based reporter or journalist, and what you
will find there would be the universal structure of "Value your Month,
Value your Life" were it to continue. As I explain in the article
linked above,

All of which can free you up too,
to work on the best year you have ever had. Let's keep doing that together.

What I Left Out

What I forgot to say, but it probably applies more to you who read me here anyway, empathizing with my webby ways, is that my letter today triggers a LOT of publishing updates I must do online, most of what must still be done. For instance, if you click to MWAC now there still is no ending in explanation, and I must quickly update my Ho‘ohana ‘ÅŒlelo page too so new subscribers aren’t misled.

I will start to work on all of that now. Right now. Mahalo nui for your patience, and please know that if things still look confusing elsewhere the decisions and writing here at Talking Story will trump them all, okay?

For 2009, Talking Story IS the place you can best find me, and know for sure what I am up to.

Gosh it feels great to write that again!