What Your Big Ideas Do Best

Your big ideas are kÄ“ia lā

Here’s a leadership thought I’ve been kicking around in my self-talk with the old muse lately, and I’d like to get it out as a conversational talk-story if it gets you thinking too.

In short, it goes like this:

Our big ideas don’t have to change the world.
They just have to move it along.

I think that we often saddle our ideas with unreasonable expectations, feeling that an idea isn’t that great (and it can’t be a leadership idea) unless it’s going to change the world somehow.

That’s like saying that everything in our world at the moment isn’t good enough, and so everything has to change. We know that’s not true. There is good we want to be constant, and long lasting: We actually prefer it doesn’t change much at all. There are many things we want to remain simple and uncomplicated, and the prospect of change can mean an evolutionary variation we aren’t prepared to handle yet (or simply have no desire for).

Keep your expectations about ENERGY

And that goes for your ideas too. They are probably bigger than you are giving them credit for, and you need to go all-in with them instead of delaying them, or dismissing them too soon.

What your biggest ideas do best, is become great for today [kÄ“ia lā is about today, the here and now.]

Let’s connect the Alaka‘i dots…

What we’ve said about leading, is that it is a verb all managers do (you too).

We’ve said that leading creates energy: It’s the 30 that gets us the other 70 (and the no.2 in our Take 5 game-changing). The managing we will then do, is  to channel that energy we have created in the best possible way, bringing it to optimal usefulness.

Optimal usefulness is probably way more important to us today than tomorrow. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow, we can only guess. However we do know what is happening all around us today; today we can work with.

Make movement your best goal

Creating energy doesn’t necessarily mean we have to change the world.

Creating energy means we have to stimulate movement of some kind, so that we simply get things moving enough to get momentum going, momentum which keeps us inspired, and  actively engaged with the good work we do today, letting tomorrow take care of itself.

For after all, we’re here today, living and working with our Aloha in the here and now. Why not enjoy our energy creation for today, with more presence and Ho‘ohana intention?

And you know how we’ve been talking story about Aloha lately, and how love is a strengthener for us? We can connect this thought:

Going all in TODAY is loving something (your idea).
Going all in TODAY is being passionate about your idea gone big.
Going all in TODAY is doing everything on-purpose, as idea-critical.

When you love a leading idea deeply enough,
where you concentrate on it fully with a sense of urgency,
and you succeed in “moving it along”
you’ll be strengthening it.

As you strengthen it,
you’ll be preparing yourself a whole lot better for tomorrow.

You’ll have fed off your own leadership energy.
The ‘something’ gone big might just be you!

So give your ideas a break, and stop expecting them to be change-the-world big.
Ho‘o [make something happen] instead. Move it along.

Be a Ho‘ohana mover and Aloha lover; someone who works with full intention kÄ“ia lā (today).

That will be very cool.

Your big ideas will be kÄ“ia lā

If we all do this, bring full intention to handling our today, we’ll be getting stronger together. We’ll get strong  enough to love tomorrow a whole lot more when the time comes, and whatever tomorrow brings with it.

And you know what? That might change us.

Cross-posted: A slightly shorter version of this article appears on Say “Alaka‘i” at The Honolulu Advertiser today: This one includes a few more connections to some additional discussions we have had here on Talking Story.