Aloha Ho‘ohana Community and learners one and all!

If you are newly joining us, Rapid Fire Learning is another way we “take 5” here at Talking Story: It happens on the last weekend of the month. Jump right in! If you’re one who likes learning of the backstory, you can catch up with a fuller explanation of what it’s all about here: Rapid Fire Learning Returns to Talking Story. Click on the tags near the post footer to skim through previous month editions.

I’ll go first, and I invite you to join in. Use the comments here, or send me a trackback from your own site. Tumble something, or tweet yours one-by-one in the Twitter 140 if you like!

My RFLs for Mei ~ May, 2010:

These are top-of-mind for me:

1. Helping people isn’t as easy as you might think. If they aren’t self-motivated to help themselves, shift or change in some way, what you offer them is like blowing in the wind.
2. We rely on computers way too much today, both in working and in the  living of our day to day lives. I’m part of the problem, for I definitely have come to rely on computers excessively: Now that I have a mac I never shut it down unless I’m about to get on an airplane. Thing is, I’ve also learned this won’t stop for me, and what I must do is reallocate some of my usage.
3. That simple, one-word question “Why?” sent me on a variety of different explorations this month. I learned to revisit it thanks to learning about Simon Sinek, and his Golden Circle (TED Video here).
4. Endings create voids which are the spaces in your life for new possibilities. It’s good when you are ready to fill them, and quite unnerving when they’re empty for too long, so I’m learning to be better prepared (i.e. more proactive, with projects waiting in the wings).
5. I am, and have always been more impatient than 99.9% of the other people in my life. As long as that’s been true for me, my learning to deal with it continues, especially because I actually like the impatience of discontent, very much so.

My Ho‘ohana Take 5: This is what I have given my ‘Ike loa focus to in May:

I have become such an RFL addict that I now do it twice: Above in the stream-of-consciousness way, and this second time, for the Hawaiian value of Mahalo: “Living in thankfulness for the elements of life which make it most precious to us.” My thankfulness in this next set is for Talking Story as my “mothership” for this blog has become very important to me, as a HUGE factor in my monthly learning.

You can do your Take 5 in Learning with ‘Ike loa (the Hawaiian value of knowledge seeking) however you wish: No Rules, keep it useful for YOU.

Or you can share in my approach with this Ho‘ohana Community immersion! These are my top 5 take-aways particular to 5 of the Talking Story conversations we have had in recent weeks. Did you gain different impressions here? I would love to hear about them!

1. From: Monday is for Managing with Aloha
   I wrote two new ebooks in recent months, and ironically, what that writing process revealed to me was that I personally need more of Managing with Aloha back in my own concentrated focus more than ever. This decision, to dedicate Mondays to MWA on our Talking Story editorial calendar going forward, feels very, very good!
2. From: Beautiful Confidence
   Funny how photo-blogging can be so very provocative. This was my shortest post in May, and it generated the most off-the-blog discussion for me with managers: We all seem to feel confidence is essential in management, but it is maddeningly elusive no matter how much we are actually “in charge.”
3. From: Speaking. I LOVE it. That’s why I charge for it
   This post returned me to some of the business model discussions we had back in April, for it talks about how incorporating “free” into your business offerings can backfire on you despite the best of intentions. Money has a lot of baggage, but it does add respect and credibility to the work we do, giving it more tangible worth. Be okay with getting paid; you deserve it!
4. From: PÅ«‘olo Mea Maika‘i: Playlists
   PÅ«‘olo mea maika‘i is ‘a bundle of good things’ you return home with. Things you feel are gifts. I had connected the Hawaiian kaona of this to honoring my now substantial blogging archives, and the process of working with them anew is proving very fruitful, helping me make some new decisions with the subtle coaching of older perspectives I’d best not forget.
5. From: The Real Problem with Leadership
   How fascinating this has been, and continues to be! I wrote it as a plea for self-leadership, for I so tire of the blame game that happens, and yet when people talk about this post with me, they still want to talk about other people!

Your turn! RFL-ing and Taking 5 is way easier than you think

This month-end weekend posting will always look like a long one, appearing to be very ambitious, but it really isn’t —it’s a recap of my keepers, and so it actually gets written very quickly. Once you get into your own RFL/ Take 5 habit you will begin to experience that too. As with most learning, you’ll be slower in the beginning, but you pick up speed!

So jump in. What have you learned during this month of May?
We learn so much from each other when we share it!

We Ho‘ohana together, Kākou,
Rosa

Added help to that RFL of looking up from the computer and into real life… This is the time of year that strangers will bravely knock on our door to ask if they can pick the plumeria which spills from our trees in the front yard. So many graduation or wedding lei to be strung in May and June, or to adorn the resting places of loved ones this Memorial Day Weekend, and we, and the trees, are happy to help in the celebrations. A joy to be in the yard now, for the scent is so fragrant, and the sunny day is still Spring gentle instead of Summer strong.