Aloha e everyone and welcome to Nani Notes. This newsletter is printed once a month and my intent is to reach out and touch you in friendship and inspire hope for a brighter day. The tidbits of wisdom we will share are for you. Use what you need and discard the rest. There will be times when I shall ask an expert to comment on issues or questions you have requested. Feel free to email me anytime and I will do my best to respond before days end. Send mana ‘o anytime. (Thoughts)

Happy Valentines everyone!
Enjoy,
Nani

This February issue addresses Leadership tools of meditation-tenacity-personal essence

On Leadership: "Good leaders don't wait for official blessings to try things out. They're prudent, not reckless. But they realize a fact of life in most organizations: If you ask enough for permission, you'll inevitably come up against someone who believes his job is to say "no". So the moral is don't ask. Less effective middle managers endorse the sentiment, "If I haven't explicitly been told "yes," I can't do it, " whereas the good ones believe, "If I haven't explicitly been told no, I can." There is a world of difference between the two points of view." Colin Powell b. 1937 American Army general, joint Chiefs of Staff and U.S. secretary of state.

Point of reflection: Which leadership style as outlined by Mr. Powell project you?

When challenge/problems/disputes arise what is your first instinct?

Mine is to turn and face the wind, meaning turn and face them head-on. There is a Chinese proverb that says;
“The wind does not know what the willow knows”

We are exploring the realm of Leadership from a cross cultural perspective. One of the key questions to always ask as a leader in most situations is "is this true?" If it is deal with it, if not deep six it. Why? Because when you shine the light on an untruth by giving it time, you give it a sense of validity. Grandpa told me to, "throw the rubbish away." Senator Allen Simpson of Wyoming used to say, "an accusation left unchallenged becomes truth." When you are in a high profile position in particular this has become a truth. Just note the news and its unconfirmed sources reporting and 30 second sound bites. In my opinion, it is moments like these that our own "personal credibility detectors" come into play.

In University Of Life & Hope Leadership system we define INTEGRITY as doing what is right when no one is looking. This is straight up and simple. Only man complicates this when words are manipulated to get ones own way and not thinking of the consequences for others. Tragically we just saw the head of BBC in London resigned after an investigation where an individual committed suicide over inaccurate reporting and the clamor from the public as if it were truth. Multi- tragedies...one rumor!

Point Of Action: Does the public have a responsibility to check out rumor and innuendo? If yes, does the public bear some responsibility when an individual is driven to end their life (as in England) or a career is ended based on rumor? I will print your answers next month. Hint: credibility detectors!

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Master speaker and incredible writer Burt Dubin, president Speaking Success System, is our guest writer this month. Burt is a master teacher an incredible human being and someone I am so delighted to call friend.

He has graciously consented to write on Meditation, Divine Essence and Tenacity. These are topics many of you have asked me about and I knew Burt with his study, experience and candor was the best man for the job. Enjoy the words of a master thinker.

How You Can Unite
Meditation, Divine Essence
and Personal Tenacity to Serve
Your Highest Purpose on This Earth
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© Burt Dubin/Personal Achievement Institute

1. Meditation:

Meditation is a sacred practice. Shamans, gurus, priests, medicine men and other wise beings have practiced meditation for over 5000 years. In the 20th century, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi popularized one form of meditation he named Transcendental Meditation, (TM). This is a simple form of mantra meditation, easy to learn and to do.

We meditate by sitting quietly, eyes open, and concentrating on an image such as a mandala, or a candle, or sitting with closed eyes, and, in either case, repeating a mantra. A mantra is not a word. A mantra is a sound. Different sounds, repeated over and over and over again, affect energies within the body, each in its own way.

There are many ways to meditate. In most instances, you sit quietly. Teachers may recommend different postures. These include the lotus position in which the Buddha is often depicted. Diverse cultures recommend various deployments of the fingers. (one example: thumbs and forefingers lightly touching, palms up.)

When we meditate, we slow down our brain waves. We change them from the beta state, (22 cycles per second in normal waking consciousness) to the alpha state (11 cycles per second.)

This slower vibration opens up access to the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind, in turn, opens awareness of our otherwise inaccessible higher consciousness. To higher consciousness as well as to universal intelligence.

2. Divine Essence:

When a person's intentions are pure, they surrender selflessly to their higher purpose in life. They surrender themselves in the service of the creator of us all. Diverse cultures variously call the creator God, some Allah, some the Great Spirit, some Our Heavenly Father, some use various other names, all meaning the supreme intelligence, the creator of the universe, of all that is.

In this state of surrender, a person is in touch with their divine essence. Having pure intentions, they are harmless. They are interested only in higher service.

On the other hand, some people who develop access to their higher powers, use their higher powers for selfish, negative and harmful intentions. (Darth Vader types.)

Your intuition may be trusted to inform you, to warn you of people with negative and evil designs. These people are to be resolutely avoided.

3. Bulldog Tenacity:

When we unite the practice of meditation with surrender to our divine essence, we are likely to be empathetic, loving, and harmless.

And if we are to advance ourselves in the relative world, the temporal world, the ordinary world of people, places, and events, a third quality is required.

This quality is bulldog tenacity. Do you know the nature of a bulldog? A bulldog is tenacious in defending its master and the master's property. Their teeth lock onto the presumed invader. Their grip is an iron grip. That iron grip prevails even in death.

This means that when your intentions are noble and worthy, when the outcome of your intentions somehow contributes to making this a better world, you are to have bulldog tenacity. You are to never, never, never give up.

You are to "pay any price, bear any burden" to bring your intentions into objective reality. This is the way to justify the space you take up and the resources you consume while you draw breath.

This is the way you make a positive difference in the lives you touch.

This is the way you make yourself a role model for others. And, most important of all, this is the way you leave a lasting legacy.

Burt Dubin, president
Personal Achievement Institute

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This is cute and I couldn't resist! I do not know the author.

Everything I need to know about life, I learned from Noah's Ark...