How does life look through the 'pleasure, passion and purpose' lens?

ILooking at my life I am happy about what I’m doing and the direction I’m heading in at the moment. I want to gain the skills and networks to create tools that will help further the revitalisation of Te Reo Māori and the continuum of Mātauranga Māori. I’m passionate about seeing my tamariki grow up with an understanding of their culture and who they are where they come from. I believe there is an opportunity to utilise the power of the web and technology to create fast access to tools for educating our people and way of contributing to the continuum of Mātauranga Māori. I see Dev Academy as a great launchpad to kick start me on that journey.

From the 'discovering values and higher purpose' exercise.

What are your core values?

This is a really good question and one I find difficult to describe through writing. I grew up with Te Reo Māori as my first language and my culture is part of who I am today and how and what I value. Rāngatiratanga, Manakitanga, Kaitiakitanga, Whakaapa, Hauora,Whānau, Pūkengatanga, Whānaungatanga are some of my core values.

What do you stand for?

What do I stand for? Thats is another really good question. I stand for building a better future for my tamariki and the next generation. I want to do that by contributing to the growth and survival of my culture and helping others. I would also love to learn more about sustainable clean energy and technologies. That is an area I am passionate about and would love to get more involved with looking after our environment and Papatuanuku, maybe create a programme or technology that can help that cause one day.

How did you find the resilience ideas and meditation exercise?

I found it quite hard trying to focus on a bad experience from the past as I feel I have mostly if not completely let them go. I do find reflecting on some of those experience as a regular teaching or reminder of something I don’t want to see happen again or keeps me motivated to press on with the challenges at had. I guess it’s a way of trying to take the positive from the negative, and vice versa. I do like the concepts of this book about not letting your emotions get in the way of how you experience things and trying to be more mindful in the process. I think some of the teaching of the book have started to rub of in real life. For example, the other day at work during a meeting there was a pretty ugly situation that happened where the facilitator of the meeting (who happens to be the boss of most people in the meeting) started asking for input from everyone and was quick to agree with what you had to say but in some way added or corrected your opinion. This happened to me a number of times during the meeting. I’m the type of person that usually wears his heart on his sleeve, as in if I’m angry, happy or frustrated etc, it is usually pretty obvious to others through my expressions or body language. I have always been taught to be honest even if it means disagreeing with others as long as I was being honest and fair within myself. Anyway when this person started pretty much shutting me down, I started to feel myself get frustrated or angry, I thought of the breathing technique and managed to sit their and acknowledge those emotions and let them be, without letting them show and get in the way of my thinking. I found myself being able to more effectively contribute and explain the reasoning for my view. I left that meeting reflecting on the experience smiling to myself with a small sense of achievement and also thinking about the other possible outcomes if I had let my emotions get the better of me.

Any other musings?

I believe this chapter touches on what most people strive to do in regard to their working life and life in general, that is finding something you are passionate about or makes you happy and to try make a living doing it, and that getting paid to do it is only seen as a bonus. I think this changes all the time in someway or another. Life is an interesting journey. If I had it my way I would be spending each and everyday eating, laughing and going on adventures with my whānau and tamariki. I think my overall goal in life is to try and be a kind and honest person to everyone and everything, including myself. Like the ocean life will always have it’s ups and downs, good times and bad times. I think it’s not what you do that makes an experience but its who you do it with, people and kindness are our greatest assets.