PP 605: Live Your Purpose with Lani Kamauu Yamasaki

“Live your passion. Find out what your purpose is and live that purpose with passion and joy…. this creates positive productivity.” –Lani Kamauu Yamasaki

Are you happy and satisfied with your life right now? If you feel that emptiness, then you are yet to live your purpose. Find your balance and let go of the things that burden you. Your passion is a map that takes you to where you’re meant to be. This episode will teach you how to follow that map, plus a bunch of practical tips to make your journey a little bit easier. Live your purpose. It’s the only way you can say you’ve lived to the fullest.

HIGHLIGHTS:

01:49 Building Bridges
05:32 Repurpose What We Have
09:08 Finding Kuleana
18:50 When You’re On the Wrong Road
28:00 The 30-Day Abundance Challenge
35:46 Outsource
44:55 Building Social Legacy
48:26 Work Life and Balance

Resources:

PP 593: Be a Social Purpose Entrepreneur with DJ Chang

Books

The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Spiritual Creativity by Julia Cameron

Inspirational Quotes:

“Our ancestors had to understand how to co-create …how to live with nature… how to be abundant through nature and that means that they came from a place of stewardship, and not domination over nature.” –Lani Kamauu Yamasaki

“It’s not about comparing, it’s about finding your unique purpose in the world…your unique gift.” –Lani Kamauu Yamasaki

“I think that to be true to our soul to our spirit, it shouldn’t be that men can vocalize what they want, and women can’t.” ­–Kim Sutton

“There is a journey to acquire wisdom; there is a journey to learn how to be happy –Lani Kamauu Yamasaki

“There is such a thing as healthy boundaries… so that we can live in balance and we can thrive. –Lani Kamauu Yamasaki

“Abundance comes with self-care.” –Lani Kamauu Yamasaki

“Think about the value of your hour.” –Kim Sutton

“It was not necessarily lazy, but it was poor time management.” -Kim Sutton

“What we’re really looking at is balance in nature.” –Lani Kamauu Yamasaki

 “When we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing. It doesn’t feel like work anyway.” -Kim Sutton

“Live your passion. Find out what your purpose is and live that purpose with passion and joy…. this creates positive productivity.” –Lani Kamauu Yamasaki

About Lani:

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki builds social legacy programs which enhances community wellness and stewards our global commons. As a Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner, social business development consultant, personal development and certified integrative nutrition coach, educator, and artist she is passionate about teaching lōkahi practices. Lōkahi means harmony in Hawaiian. As a wellness practice, it is considered the Hawaiian ancestral wellness blueprint and describes the interdependence between the God(s), nature and humanity. Lani is also the founder/host of Live Lōkahi – a podcast debuting October 2019.

Website: https://laniyamasaki.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LiveLokahi/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lani-kamauu-yamasaki-3a8a0869
Podcast: https://laniyamasaki.com/podcast/

EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:

“Live your passion, find out what your purpose is, and live that purpose with so much passion and so much joy, because this truly brings you positive productivity.” 

——————

Kim Sutton: Welcome back to another episode of Positive Productivity. This is your host, Kim Sutton, and today I am thrilled to be introducing you to my friend, our guest Lani Yamasaki. Lani lives in Hawaii where she combines Hawaiian and global wisdom practices for personal growth families and legacy builders, and there’s so much more that she does. But I have to tell you, before we even jump into the conversation, I love every conversation that Lani and I have because it’s a mix of spiritual in business. Is that the best way of saying it, Lani? Like, that just makes it sound very loose, but it’s so much deeper than that, but I hope you can see that in the conversation that we have today. And as always, I look forward to whatever feedback that you provide. But without further ado, Lani welcome. So much to Positive Productivity. I feel like this should have happened years ago.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Oh, Aloha. Kim, I am thrilled and honored to be your guest today. So thank you for having me.

Kim Sutton: Oh, you are so welcome. Lani, for listeners who don’t know you from anywhere before, which would be hard for me to believe, but can you give a better introduction than the one I just provided? Let people know where you came from, and what you’re doing today.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Oh, my gosh. I think you gave a beautiful introduction and basically, I describe myself as a bridge builder between cultures and bridging between the road of spirituality and science. And by doing this, I love building legacy programs. So building legacy programs means that I work with communities to bring their visions to life, to create self sufficiency. And this is focused on having a spiritual foundation, and being of service to nature, and the community so that we can build true sustainability.

Kim Sutton: What I found so fascinating when we were doing work together, like early on is that I didn’t realize, especially with the work that you’re doing in Hawaii, I mean you’re native Hawaiian, your ancestors are Hawaiian. Just how much the communities had been impacted by the mainlanders coming over. The devastation to the land in to the culture as a whole. And I love how you’re introducing corporations to the culture and bringing it back in. Could you share more about that?

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Sure. Well, you know, we, Hawaii is the most isolated archipelago in the world and that means that anything that comes in here that is not native from our land here does have a significant impact. And this work really is about, well, where do I begin? I want to talk about my true work, which is to teach people to be a facilitator of lokahi. And lokahi is the practice, the Hawaiian practice of integrating the realm of spirituality and being of service to the community. And the ʻāina or land and nature. So this process really is about helping people, being a catalyst for people to come home to their true purpose in life. And that true purpose in a traditional Hawaiian sense should include, certainly include being of service, so that the next generations will have an ability to thrive, and to have abundance.

Kim Sutton: Do you think that should be the same for humanity as a whole?

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: I do, I do. And really, Kim, if we look back to ancestral practices worldwide, the only reason why we’re here today, you’re really globally here today, is our ancestors had to understand how to co-create, I mean, how to live with nature, how to be abundant through nature. And that means that they came from a place of stewardship and not domination over nature. Does that make sense?

Kim Sutton: Oh and absolutely make sense. And listeners, Lani and I just recorded a show for Lani’s podcast, Live Lōkahi, and I was having a brain fart. I wouldn’t use those words on your show, Lani, but I put on my own and where I’m going with that is, I actually had a guest on the podcast whose name I also can’t remember a couple of weeks ago, and she was talking about how she’s working to make products out of seaweed, and out of different types of green, like not just her but, Oh I can’t remember right now. But after getting off the call with her, I was looking around our house and how much waste we actually have. I’m looking at my son’s desk right now, and I see an aluminum can and a big plastic water bottle. And both of those, after getting used, will just be tossed. I mean they’ll go into the recycle bin because we do have recycle here, but it’s not giving back to nature.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Well, you know, as soon as you said this, I immediately thought of products that are being used to recycle these, you know, cans and plastics. And if you look at a fleece for instance, fleece jackets, fleece jackets are made from recycled plastics. There are a beautiful accessories that are being made using cans, as well. I think we’re an amazing point in time when we are looking at, how do we repurpose what we have? Right? And how do we cut down the waste. And I think that this is certainly leading creativity and that is very, very important in terms of living in relationship and in harmony, in the natural world.

Kim Sutton: Absolutely. So someday, I’ve been advised on the podcast lately to stop saying someday, but someday I have a dream house that I will live in someday, and I see, because I do a lot of visioning work. That’s not the word I’m looking for, but I will walk through my house with my eyes shut, like I can feel the carpet underneath my toes and smell how the house smells, which is unlike my house right now, which just smells like hot kids for the summer (laughs). I mean, even here in Ohio, you know upcycled barn wood used for the flooring and sliding barn doors. I know that sounds very rustic, but I can see it, and I want to bring back as much as I can. Just starting at the house. I mean, I was an interior architect before. I want solar panels on my roof.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Yes.

Kim Sutton: It cost a lot to keep electricity going for seven people.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Oh, yes.

Kim Sutton: And if I could just power my family with solar panels, my husband wants one of those big wind turbines in our backyard, and I nixed that. And no, no, I imagine too many dead birds off that. That’s not Positive Productivity, but even just starting, you know, our house and I see it everywhere. I mean, I love seeing people who come on to the grocery with their cloth bags that they reused.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Yes.

Kim Sutton: Listeners, if you could please go over to the show notes page thekimsutton.com/PP605, and tell me how you remember to take your bags back to the store. That would be amazing because we have dozens of these cloth shopping bags, but they never make it back.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: I know. It’s so true. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to, you know, I’m here at the cash register and I realize I forgot the 10 million bags I have in my car. I mean, just a little short note on that too. I think that, you know, so many of us who are invested in making sure that we protect our resources, things as simple as hooking that bag to you, that becomes really important. So I’m watching myself, right? It’s like, I need to practice what I preach and that looks like it’s a minor thing, you know, in terms of the bags that we’re talking about. But that’s actually pretty major, right?

Kim Sutton: Oh absolutely. And I want to come post, but anyway, we’re getting so much into environmental here. I love every conversation that we have because we go so deep into spiritual, which connects to purpose, which connects to our professional life.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Oh yeah.

Kim Sutton: Would you mind sharing some of your heritage, and how that has worked its way into your career?

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: So Kim, part of me finding out what my kuleana is, and kuleana is K-U-L-E-A-N-A. That is Hawaiian for your mission  and that could be your linear mission as well that comes through your DNA, that comes to your ancestors. And so for me, I’m like you, Kim, I do what I’m passionate about, right? I can’t spend time on what doesn’t fuel my fire, doesn’t light my soul up. And so, when I began to understand, when I went on my journey and I began to understand who my ancestors were and what they did, it really helped me to make sense of what I’m here to do, and who I am. And my ancestors came from, by and large came from a priesthood and it was their role. When you come from the priesthood, it really is your role to make sure that the community has their needs taken care of. They also served as visionaries for the aliʻi, or the ruling class. And really the responsibility of aliʻi or the ruling class is again to make sure that community has what they need and that nature is taken care of. So, I in essence am following in the footsteps of my ancestors in terms of doing community outreach, my work is about Living Lokahi. Lokahi being the Hawaiian practice of living in relationship with the Creator, with God, with nature and humanity. And in that process, helping people to come home to themselves, helping people to find out what they’re passionate about, helping people to come to their why and understand their kuleana, or the mission in life. And I follow my ancestor’s footsteps in building legacy programs, yeah.

Kim Sutton: You know, when I was on your show, to this show, but we talked a little bit about finding your purpose on your show, but I would love to hear what you have seen with your community, with your clients as far as finding their wife, finding their purpose. Has there been any, you know, repetitive themes as to how they actually found them?

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Yes, Kim? Yes. And like yourself, I think so many of us are raised to pursue, how can I sit, to keep up with the Joneses, you know, to climb the ladder, you know, whether it’s social or corporate ladder. And the majority of times, this is what my clients have reported to me. And certainly it’s my experience pursuing external gratification does nothing for evolving your soul to evolve spiritually, to actually come home to yourself and to your true purpose, and how you’re here to be of service. And the common theme is a lot of despair, even feeling suicidal because somehow you’re not meeting the cookie cutter expectations, right? Of society. And so certainly a lot of despair and a lot of depression, right? And when people actually are, what’s important in Hawaii and other traditional earth-based cultures is working with your elders, or being mentored by your elders. Because these are the wise people that bring in that love and nurture your soul to feel that there’s a safe place to express your dreams, and to find your unique place in your unique purpose in the world, right? In comparing yourself. It’s not about comparing, it’s about finding your unique purpose and road, your unique gift. And again, how you can be of service.

Kim Sutton: I love it. So, I can’t remember if I’ve shared this on the podcast before. Listeners, you know, I have a tendency to repeat. But a few weeks ago, I was taking my 13 year old son to meet a few friends, and he had a little bit of a fit when I pulled into the parking lot at the park where his friends were, and he told me to just stop. And it was actually because his friends lived in a, I don’t even want to say better neighborhood, just more expensive neighborhood than we do, and they’re drive more expensive cars and he didn’t want his friends to see our van. I let him know when I picked him up, how very disappointed I was in him, because the fact that they might drive a different car from this decade versus ours from three decades ago, it doesn’t mean anything to me.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Yep. Well that’s external, right? That’s external.

Kim Sutton: Right. But even I, when I graduated from high school, I saw myself working up the corporate ladder in an interior architecture firm, and being at the top, and then making lots of money and living in them, you know, a big loft like Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze in Ghost. You know, I wanted, you know, making millions in Manhattan. And I thought that’s what life was all about. It took me a couple more decades to realize, no, it’s not

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Kim, I totally get it, and you know, I totally get that. And that’s why the work that you’re doing is so important, right? Helping people to find their why, and helping them to create a spiritual foundation in their life and serving as a catalyst, serving as a catalyst for people to come home to themselves. Because you know, when you look at what’s going on in the world right now, there’s also such an increase in addictions, including opioids for instance. And I don’t know what to think, it’s because people do not know their purpose. And that is a very depressing thing to feel like, you’re simply existing, but you have nothing that really brings you true joy, and that’s what purpose brings you.

Kim Sutton: Oh my gosh. You’re speaking right to me on that one. Dave, my husband he is U.S Air Force Vet. He got injured in the service. Before the service, he could do just about anything physically. I mean, I can hear him in the kitchen right now making dinner, but I know if I were out there, I would hear his knees knocking on the cabinets because of his back injury, and yes, I’m getting a little confrontational here, but the VA has been known to have issues with prescribing opioids.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: I know that. I mean, I know that because I work, you know with veterans as well. The Island I live on, Hawaii Island has the largest population of veterans. And suffering from PTSD, and going back to having a spiritual foundation, right? What we’ve found is that, what helps to release and heal PTSD from war is being in nature. Knowing your ancestors, understanding the history of your ancestors, the genealogy, understanding what they did and how this affects you, and what your purpose might be. And so, we have found that, and also engaging in cultural traditions and practices that these things, whether they are not traditional rehabilitation for PTSD are actually more effective for healing. And first of all, I have so much respect for Dave and what he experienced, and the family that you’re raising together. And the fact that you said he’s cooking dinner, that is huge. That is huge because I’m kind of detracting right now. But in a traditional Hawaiian fashion, that shows that he is so balanced in his masculine as being that warrior, right? And so balancing the feminine, and that he’s taking care of his family and he’s cooking dinner, and that is equally important.

Kim Sutton: Oh it is. He’s amazing for that. I don’t want to take any light off of him for that, but I had to say that’s been a struggle because in finding the purpose, so much as society has been on, you know, this is the male role. I mean we’re in 2019, as that the recording of this, we’re in 2019, and we’re still trying to break out of the typical male rules versus female rules, you know.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: I know.

Kim Sutton: If we counted on me for dinner every night we’d be eating chard, chard, whatever on any given night, and I’m not beating myself up on that, like, I think it’s hilarious. I have finally after 40 years learned how to make scrambled eggs without any brown parts.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: You know what, Kim, your talents lay elsewhere and I just want to bring that home again, right? The importance of knowing your gifts. I mean, Kim, have you spend all your time cooking in comparison to doing, I mean your, you have beautiful work that you have with your podcasts, you know, Positive Productivity, and the support that you give to so many of us in terms of team building, and making sure that we have the support that we need so that we can rest and rejuvenate. That’s the true work, that’s your true work.

Kim Sutton: That’s why my dinner gets burnt. What usually happens is that I take the laptop out to the, you know, put it on the Island next to the stove, and then I get engrossed in emails, or in building funnels, or you know, conversations with clients, and then, oops, I’ve smelled something that I shouldn’t be smelling. I mean, I have burnt pots of water.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Well listen, number one to me, as long as you’re not hurting anybody–

Kim Sutton: Right. My house still stands because I do not cook.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Yeah. I know we’re making jokes about this, but thank gosh you know your gift, and you’re pursuing it. You know, that creates so much more positivity in the world. Then cooking a fabulous lunch or dinner seriously, if that’s not your gift.

Kim Sutton: Absolutely. So when you’re working on something that is not your gift, that is not what you should be working on, how do you feel?

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: I just can barely do it. In fact, I’ll tell you, I’ve been self employed for 30 plus years and then when I’ve gotten to the point in relationships where everything’s, you know, humming and it’s beautiful, but all of a sudden I’m given projects that just do nothing for my soul. My entire energy field goes down, I feel like dead weight and I can’t think, I honestly feel like I’ve been shut down. And so, I have learned to just say thank you so much for the opportunity, but this is for someone else and not for me.

Kim Sutton: I know that I stress the importance of sleep, like, a lot on this show, but when I’m working on something that I absolutely love, I lose track of time. I find myself at 5:00 o’clock in the morning, still working and I’m like, Oh, I guess I should go to bed now. But when it’s something that I really don’t want to be working on, oh I’m, I’m exhausted. I don’t even want to get it. I just wanna, I just want to go to bed right now.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Yup. I mean, that’s my experience too. My husband will come in and say: “Okay, you know what? It’s 2:00 o’clock in the morning. It’s three o’clock in the morning.” But I’m the same way, and it’s because I feel that we are being fueled by passion. And not only that, I feel that, I know that I’m being guided from a higher source. You might want to see God, or divinity, and my ancestors. When I’m in that zone, I’ll call it that divine zone, I’m not tired because I am being guided. Is that your experience as well?

Kim Sutton: Oh absolutely, absolutely. And this year, January 1st, 2019, I gave it all up to God.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Oh.

Kim Sutton: Show me where I’m supposed to go, just tell me. And unlike every single other year in my business, I’m not trying to control it this year, and you and I chatted a little bit off the air, and this year’s been fun. It’s been a roller coaster that’s positively looking at it, and everything as far a season, a reason, or lesson. And I’m seeing that, but I know, and I talked to God about it very regularly. I know that things that have happened that I haven’t appreciated happening, I knew I need to appreciate because they taught very valuable lessons that I’m going to be working, well then I’m already implementing, you know, I mean, I’ve said: “No.” Okay, well that’s not in our scope right now. We can do additional contract for it, you know? And even as far as in my personal life, I’ll even pick up my husband here when something’s not working, being more vocal about it. And that’s where, I might be stereotyping women here, but I think I’ve seen it a lot more often with women than with men, that will often bite our tongue

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: I agree.

Kim Sutton: And okay. Full disclosure, I’ve been in very high creative mode, and creative meaning, working in WordPress on my site. So I’ll have been marathon listening to Top Chef on Bravo.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: I love Top Chef.

Kim Sutton: Absolutely love it. I’ve gotten through five seasons in a couple of weeks, but I’ve been listening to people I haven’t been watching, okay. Like, but I’ve also gotten a lot done by the way, listeners, if you didn’t know about the shop and the member center, so you can become an affiliate are both now up, and you can find the links in the show notes. But anyway, one of the things that was really interesting to me, and I’ve heard this many times before, was that when a woman vocalizes her opinion, and I’m just going to say the word, so listeners, if you’ve got your kids with you, you might want to turn it down for a second. But when a woman vocalizes her opinion, it’s not uncommon for her to be called a bitch, which I just detest every letter of that word. But if a man expresses it, he’s just, you know, confident.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Yup.

Kim Sutton: I think that is so part of my mouth again, turn it down again. I think that’s so shitty.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Yeah.

Kim Sutton: Sorry to be cussing on my show with you because you’re such a beautiful soul, and I feel like I’m tarnishing you with bad words like that, but I think that to be true to our soul, to our spirit, it shouldn’t be that men can vocalize what they want and women can’t.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: I agree with you, I totally agree with you, and you know, Kim, you are an amazing model in terms of, number one, being real. Because by being real and allowing people to learn about your vulnerabilities, and challenges, and great learning moments, I don’t call them mistakes, they’re all learning moments.

Kim Sutton: I should have a PhD in learning moments.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: I think I do.

Kim Sutton: We need to get some graduation caps, and some, you know, some massive diplomas for our wall.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: I’m with, yes. Let’s look into that.

Kim Sutton: Yes.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Certainly look into that. But see, by being this vulnerable, this is like the role that our elders have, right? It’s like, it’s saying there is a journey to acquiring wisdom. There is a journey to learn how to be happy, and it includes situations that are less than, but it’s real. And as you say, it’s the potty word, right? It’s the F word. It is. So you are being a true role model, and yeah, I often wonder, you know, I did go to a women’s college, and I’m still in awe that we’re still in a situation where women, authority of women in leadership roles are still called the B word. And I think we’re here to help change that, Kim.

Kim Sutton: Me too. Me too. You and I did not get our PhD from the School of Hard Knocks, because that sounds too rough. But let’s say it’s the PhD from the school of life.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Yes.

Kim Sutton: Yeah. Okay, listeners, I need to share this with you because I shared it with Lani before we recorded her show. So, I was dealing with something earlier this week, and let’s just say that I was a little bit angry, and I didn’t want to smack something in my house because I don’t get angry very often. But when I do, I get really angry. So we had this bush in our backyard and it needed to come down, and my husband in his pain, he just wasn’t getting to it fast enough. So rather than, you know, hit something in my house with my anger, I went out, bought a chainsaw and took the tree down myself. So, I have affectionately dubbed that chainsaw therapy, and I had to tell you it worked so well, so well. But I do need to let you know that the bush needed to come down because June bugs were attacking it. It was interrupting my podcasts, Lani, they were flying. I hope there’s no like symbolism for June bugs, but they were flying into the windows and like during podcasts you can hear that–

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Oh my gosh.

Kim Sutton: I’m going to feel really bad if there’s some beautiful symbolism behind June bugs now.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Well, okay, so I think that every creature on the planet has their place, right?

Kim Sutton: Just not in my backyard.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: It’s what you’re bringing to mind is a dear friend who is a master gardener. And she would say, I’m going to create two gardens. One is going to be for you, bug kingdom so you can go and do what you want, but don’t go crazy in my garden because this is where we live and this feeds my family. So these are my boundaries. And Kim, I’m listening to our conversation. To me, there’s a lot of discussion here around boundaries.

Kim Sutton: Oh there are, I actually just added a Pinterest board called boundaries, the theme of this year.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: I love that, I love that because you know, especially those of us who are, I’m going to use your terms, who are, you know, chronic givers and this is what women are enlarged, right? We just keep on giving, giving there is a such thing as healthy boundaries so that we can live in balance, right? So that we can live in balance and we can thrive.

Kim Sutton: Absolutely. Okay. This is so not necessarily appropriate to be sharing about, but men, if they shave their face, you know, they might not shave over the weekend, but you can guarantee you if they’re professional, or they’re shaving can describe everything, right?

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Yup.

Kim Sutton: But women, they will give up so much of themselves that when it comes to shaving their legs, it’s not necessarily so high on the list. So we put the same priority into, you know, having shaved legs is the mandate. Having a shaved face and gave ourselves that time every day.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Wow. I tell you what, or even, or even the ton of he, right to do that. Doesn’t need that, to do something that we really want to do. That Kim, that would be, that would be so healing. They’ll be so nurturing.

Kim Sutton: Yeah.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: You want a challenge? Do you want to do a challenge with each other?

Kim Sutton: Yes, absolutely.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Okay.

Kim Sutton: Yeah. If you’re listening well into the future, we are recording in July of 2019. It is hottest heck here in Ohio, and actually while we’ve been chatting here, my phone just lit up weather.com he advisory until 10 o’clock I’m like– I can hear him, Abraham Hicks, joy, joy, joy. But it’s like, we have a pool pass, but I would be embarrassed to go right now, I’m just putting it out there because of my legs, but we seriously do we need to challenge?

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: We do. Okay.

Kim Sutton: I will be challenging with my shave legs.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Okay. Okay.

Kim Sutton: You can choose whatever you want, but what do I want to know? I want you to share with listeners. And listeners, I want you involved, I know this episode isn’t going out for a little bit, but I think I might make this a recurring challenge, a 30 day challenge that you commit to that act of self care whether you’re a man, or a male or a female, what does that one act that you’re going to commit to everyday for the next 30 days?

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: I love that because to me, you have a 30 day abundance challenge, and to me abundance comes with self care. Okay, so okay, what am I going to do that I have not been doing that I started to do and I stopped? Okay, I’m being really vulnerable here. I am going to make a commitment now that I will go walking four times a week because that is my meditation process.

Kim Sutton: Okay, Awesome.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Yeah. You notice I’m not calling that exercise. I’m calling that just walking, that is my meantime. That’s when I integrate my ideas. That’s when I received my inspiration and that’s really healing for me.

Kim Sutton: Positive Productivity is not about perfection, Lani, you know that. Listeners, you know that if you’ve been listening for a while, I just want to give a perspective, some perspective, I’ve slacked for the last week. This morning, I was trying to find my journal, which I haven’t. I’ve been journaling since I was eight, but I haven’t turned it in the last week or two because I could not find my journal, it was under my bed.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Oh.

Kim Sutton: Yeah. I had to go dig my journal out from underneath my bed, but when I got it out and I used it, Oh my gosh, It just felt delicious. I can’t explain it any better than that. It felt, because everything that was doing in my head just spilled onto the pages, and got out of my head, and it just freed up that space to do what I needed to do.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: I love that description of delicious. I can feel that, and what you’re reminding me of is, have you heard of morning pages?

Kim Sutton: I haven’t. I want to know more.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Okay. It’s from a book called The Artist’s Way, and then the morning pages are when you wake up, you have your journal and that’s the first thing you do, right? You don’t go and make a cup of tea. You just literally bolt out of bed and you start writing what comes through you. Now, when I was in that practice on a normal basis, I can’t tell you how therapeutic, and how healing it was, and how some of my best ideas came. So it’s called morning pages, and I did that for years. And I have to tell you, I stopped when I began to caregiving my mom. And it’s just because when you’re caregiving old elders, and just like caregiving children, you’ve gotta be really present, right? So, I stopped that, I had to tell you, I really miss that. It was amazing what came through you straight from the dream time.

Kim Sutton: So what if you have your walk? I have my shape legs, and then we commit to each other that we both do morning pages.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Oh, my gosh, you will help me out. I would love that. I would love that, yes.

Kim Sutton: I want you involved. There will be, and it’s going to be very informal, 30 day self care challenge, but I’m going to put morning pages as one of those given, you can choose the other activity that you do, but the morning pages, yeah.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Kim, thank you. I’m so grateful for that because, you know, again, those of us who, especially as women who are self employed, who are taking care of families, right? This is, we need to have these types of venues so that you know, the ideas can continue flowing. Because for me, I start to feel off balance when I want to inflow with so much energy and ideas, and the morning pages is such a great venue to release that energy into something, into a creative flow.

Kim Sutton: That’s exactly where I was when I had to find my journal today. Like, I was about to explode. I was trying to decide if I wanted to say implode. I think either one would work right now, but I knew I had to find it because I just had to get it out.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Yes.

Kim Sutton: I mean, you’ve already said that you get ideas out there. I mean, I was getting ideas when I was getting my chainsaw therapy the other day. I offer no guarantee, but I am so fascinated. I have already shared this with Lani. I would love to look into what it would take to be one of those chainsaw artists, you know, getting the big log in–

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Yeah.

Kim Sutton: –creating art out of it and I, sorry, to you log artists, whatever your official title is. But I’ve never found it so attractive in the past, you know, very attractive in the past. But I just got so much out of the power of the chainsaw on my hands. I have never held a chainsaw before this week. I was like, darn, this feels good (laughs).

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: (laughs) I have not, I have not. But what I love about what you’re saying is that you just found a way to harness your energy and to be constructive in it.

Kim Sutton: Absolutely. And I managed to take down three quarters of this tree bush thing without any logs falling on my head.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: That is really being in harmony, and are you going to use the logs? Are you going to cut them into smaller pieces for firewood and recycle them?

Kim Sutton: We don’t have a fireplace, and we’re not allowed to have bonfires in our backyard. So we’re going to look into where we can, you know, who can use them.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: I just had a flash when you said that, you know, many times they’re roadside stands and people just put their firewood out there, and say, you know, 25 cents for, when they just leave it out by their, I don’t know if you’re allowed to do that, but you could go to a campsite and do that, or you can leave it out in your front yard. But I had a sense that this magnificent tree finding new life would be so awesome.

Kim Sutton: Yeah, okay. Nature’s beautiful. This wasn’t as much as one of those magnificent trees though. But our lawn guy, and I love that it’s sort of segwaying into this. The lawn guy said he would take care of the branches for us, but that was, you know, to sort of segue over from the recording that we just did on your show, we were talking about outsourcing and how it’s so important to get those tasks off our list that we shouldn’t be doing ourselves. Our lawn was suffering, and you know, we will look at our business and realize that there are just some tasks that we need to let go. But often we won’t even look at our personal life for those tasks that just need to be let go.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Oh.

Kim Sutton: And so, one of the first things that I decided, I didn’t even talk to Dave about it, I just realized that every time you went out and mowed the lawn, it would take them down for two days because it just hurt his back so much. So it’s like, eh, I’m just going to look, you know, let me find somebody who can do it. The investment is so minimal to have somebody come, he’s on a riding lawn mower and he gets it done in 10 minutes.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: I love that. And you know, what I look at is that as you move forward, the tasks that don’t serve you at your best in highest good, you’re actually helping other people to meet their purpose, to create abundance in their world on things that they love to do.

Kim Sutton: Absolutely. I mean, it’s supporting his family and then, it’s just going through to whoever he supporting just support their purpose, yeah. Well, I would love to know, what is one task, personal one task professional that you would outsource today?

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Oh, bookkeeping.

Kim Sutton: Oh, I’m right there with you. We need to find somebody.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Yup. And then personal. Huh? I actually, that’s an, what would they outsource? Okay. I mean, I actually like cleaning my house (laughs) because it’s, you know, it just allows me to, like, I feel like my soul becomes shinier in the process, but I would like to, I would outsource more of that because we have a large home, we have our opposites within our home, and so I would outcast that.

Kim Sutton: The smell of Pine-Sol, makes my husband hot (laughs). So, I would actually bring in a cleaning agency that would constantly be cleaning our house and made it more like Pine-Sol 24/7. In a good way, like, he loves this smell of Pine-Sol.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Well, it smells so clean, right?

Kim Sutton: Yup.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: When you asked me that question, I actually had to think hard. I mean, the business part of outsourcing was no problem, but the personal part, it was hard. And maybe it’s because that’s a good checkpoint. I think I’ve got a pretty good support systems personally.

Kim Sutton: One of the most recent things that we’ve started doing is actually ordering our groceries, and we’ll either go to the grocery and pick them up, like, they’ll bring it out to the car, or we’ll have it delivered to our house.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Oh, my gosh.

Kim Sutton: Yup. So that alone, and I know, there may be some listeners who are like, well that’s an unnecessary expense. I just want you to think about, and I’m not talking to you on this Lani, I’m talking about the listener who’s questioning the expense. I want you to think about the value of your hour, and if you’re going to the grocery, well first, you have to drive there, then you had to find a parking spot. And depending on where you live, that alone might be a big headache. Then up and down the Isles, and I don’t know about you, but I always get behind the slow people and I had to remind myself, that so person will be you, so give them grace. Then you have to stand in the checkout lane, find your spot and drive home. I mean, a decent sized grocery trip for my family when we’re doing, like a week, week and a half of grocery shopping could easily two hours.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: I believe that and the reason why I’m, you know, I kind of made that little sound comment earlier is because I realize my contrast, we live in the country and so the grocery store is five minutes away. You never have to battle for parking and you’re in and out, right? However, when I go to Oahu, we’re the capital of Hawaii is, I know that experience that you’re talking about, and I try to go a place of, okay, I met meditating in traffic, I’m meditating while standing in line, that kind of thing, you know? But then I began to realize that that was taking so much energy out of me that could be placed towards better things. So, I commend you on outsourcing the groceries.

Kim Sutton: Well, you and I are getting together in a couple months in San Diego, and I’ve actually been thinking about, okay, how can I order what I need for those four to five days that I’m there because okay, plug to Instacart, I can use it wherever I am. And this podcast is now sponsored by Instacart, you know, and there will be a link in the show notes for anybody who’s interested, but seriously, rather than paying for hotel food for four days, five days, I mean, I’ll just order from Instacart, have them deliver it straight to the hotel and done.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: I want to learn from you because you know, okay, this is such Positive Productivity, what you just talking about right now. I want to learn how to do that because I agree that that way we will be nurturing our body, and we’ll be having time to spend with those that we want to, and take advantage of being together.

Kim Sutton: Absolutely. I’m on a kick right now of raw veggies and hummus. Now, I don’t know if this is the healthiest cake, but it feels good, so I’m doing it. I was thinking, you know, for lunch that’s so easy. And again, I don’t know the nutritional value people, I am not a nutritionist, but given the alternative here in Ohio, I can get a bag of mini carrots and the thing of hummus for a total of $4 versus you know, hotel food.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Yeah, I’m with you. And can I tell you, I think I make really good hummus. And Kim, it is so easy and you can do it with the kidlets just get your either dry beans, oh, I’m sorry, I’m turning this into a recipe. So let me just say that is such an easy thing to make.

Kim Sutton: Can you provide the recipes so that we can offer to the listeners in the show notes?

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: I would love to do that. So I’m going to send you a link for that, okay. I’ll create the recipe and you can put in your show notes.

Kim Sutton: Absolutely.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Right, it’s nutritious, it’s not that expensive to make and it gives you a lot of energy, and once you start making your own hummus, can I tell you you’re not gonna want to go back, Kim. And the price point is so much better.

Kim Sutton: Oh, that sounds amazing.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Yeah.

Kim Sutton: We were on lazy family food for too many years. That’s the best way I can describe it. And when I started eating out there and showing the kids what I was eating, you would think that the raw fruits and vegetables are the desserts that they’ve been, you know, longing for.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Oh.

Kim Sutton: They just stand in line and wait, can I have a Spanish? Can I have another piece of spinach? Can I have a cucumber? Can I some other strawberries? Can I, Oh no, I don’t like carrots, but can I have some broccoli?

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Oh.

Kim Sutton: Yeah, yeah, no, we should have had a frequent diner card for the McDonald’s drive through (laughs).

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: (laughs) Wait, okay. You said something earlier, you said about lazy, you know, lazy food or lazy family food, something like that. Can I just say though, there’s so many things that you can do. That is what I call my lazy food. And that includes making me a large vector hummus, making large batches of munchy veggies. I mean, just large batches that gives you such a variety of food that, yeah, once you make it, it’s done and then you just open up, you know that. And so, to me that’s lazy and that you get it done, and then you have this amazing array and you just kind of graze, right? It’s like, you don’t have to make another meal again, you’ve already did it. And we do the same thing in terms of large batches, two different soups. So I think it’s not lazy, I think we have to call it smart. I think it’s–

Kim Sutton: I like that, you know, it was not necessarily lazy, but it was poor time management because I didn’t leave time to go to the grocery store before I would pick the kids up from daycare. Listeners, I would love to give you the three kid grocery store challenge. I will escort you and my three kids through the grocery any day. And then you’ll see why I would do McDonald’s before I would do the grocery.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: I think that people cannot judge until they’re in the place of, in this case, parenting with three young ones.

Kim Sutton: Yes. And it’s not that my kids being misbehaved, I just want to make that clear. But let’s just pick on one of my daughter who shall remain nameless, she is fascinated by butts (laughs). So this happened on multiple occasions standing on checkout, I’m paying attention to what the other two are doing, she’s ahead of me and I look up, just turned to see her grabbed the butt at the person in front of us, and they’re just like, Oh, how do we explain that?

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: You know? I mean, I’m sure you just said, well, she’s a young child, excuse us, you know.

Kim Sutton: Like, she’s fascinated by the texture of your shorts (laughs).

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: True interior designer, Kim (laughs).

Kim Sutton: So really it wasn’t due to bad behavior, but also they would, they would run up to other people’s shopping carts and start critiquing their meal choices (laughs).

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Oh, my God (laughs). But let’s be blunt here, right? How many of us don’t silently do that when we’re waiting in line and seeing what’s going on in the grocery belt?

Kim Sutton: Oh my gosh, I do it to my own cart.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: I do too.

Kim Sutton: Yeah. But, Lani, what are you most excited about in the next 90 days?

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Oh my gosh. What I’m most excited about is, oh, okay, I’m looking forward to traveling soon to seeing some of my favorite people. But beyond that, I have just joined a team of extraordinary people that are beginning of women’s initiative, and I can share more later at some later time. But I’m excited about, Kim, you know what it’s like when you meet somebody for the first time, but you know that you have a relationship, that you have a kindred sense of knowing each other, and you feel comfortable, and you feel like you trust them, and your vibe is just so beautiful and harmonious.

Kim Sutton: I mean, like you and I?

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Yes, like us. So I just came from a retreat in California, and meeting people for the first time. And the leader of the retreat, and she’s in her 50’s and just an amazing, amazing business person. This was by far the best business meeting I’ve ever facilitated in my entire career, yup. And what I’m looking forward to doing is, co-creating with his amazing group of people because our project is about creating works of Lokahi, building social legacies that are going to benefit the future generation, so that’s what I’m most excited about. And thank you for asking.

Kim Sutton: Oh, you’re still welcome. Where can listeners find you online, connect, and get to know more about you?

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Oh, well by site is, it’s of course it’s W-W-W-L-A-N-I-Y-A-M-A-S-A-K-I.C-O-M, and Kim, may I share more about Live Lōkahi, as well?

Kim Sutton: Yes, please.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Okay, so this is something that came in. I have been, well she is like my marketing guru, and she’s encouraged me to share my Live Lōkahi, it is a free booklet on learning traditional Hawaiian values and practices that are spiritually base so that we can live more harmoniously, not only with the natural world, but within the spiritual world and their community, and that is called Live Lōkahi, and you’ll be able to download that on the site.

Kim Sutton: You just talked about living more harmoniously with nature. And I feel bad now for sharing about my chainsaw therapy.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Don’t, don’t, don’t. Please don’t. To all of Kim’s listeners, really, you know, she had shared with me, and she shared with you that it was because she was having a challenge with June bugs. And so that is a reason why she decided it was time for the tree to have a new life form. So that’s how I took it. Kim.

Kim Sutton: Well, I also had to put out there that the neighbor, one of our dear neighbors has a few grandkids who always love to come over and swim in her swimming pool, which should have been filled up a month and a half ago. But these June bugs are all over her yard, and she hasn’t been able to fill up the pool yet because of these bugs.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Aha.

Kim Sutton: So you know, they’re not just in our yard, but they’re in hers too, and I felt bad. You know, they can find somebody else’s yard to live in.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Well, what we’re looking at is we’re looking at a balance in nature, right? And so it feels like, and it sounds like there is an imbalance, right? And that is really the essence of Live Lōkahi, is living in balance in the spiritual world with humanity and in nature. So great learning moments, right?

Kim Sutton: Yes. I have one last question for you based upon that. Do you believe there’s a such thing as work life balance?

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: I do. I do. Do you want me to elaborate? I’m laughing because Kim, you and I have talked about this. Those of us who are passionate about what we do, it may appear to others that when we stay up to 2:00 o’clock, and 3:00 o’clock in the morning, they were out of balance, but in actuality we’re harnessing the energy from creator, from God, from our ancestors, from our inspirations to do our work. I actually think that, that is fine, however, I think that there is a negative and positive polarity and if we’re to keep on moving in that transaction and do that consistently, we live in a human body. It will eventually wear out our adrenal glands and wear out our bodies in general. So I think that there is in balance in that as well. This just being mindful, right about what our body is telling us.

Kim Sutton: Absolutely, and when we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing, it doesn’t feel like work anyway.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: No, it’s play Kim, isn’t it? It’s a high form of play.

Kim Sutton: Yeah. Lani, I want to thank you so much for joining me today, and listeners, I would love for you to come and comment on this episode with Lani, which you can find it at thekimsutton.com/PP605. But also you need to head over to iTunes or your preferred listening platform, and subscribe rate, and review Lani’s podcasts, which is Live Lokahi, right? Lani?

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Yes. Thank you so much Kim. It’s going to be debuting in August 1st.

Kim Sutton: Which is perfect because the show will come out after that.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Oh yey. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much.

Kim Sutton: We’ll put the link in the show notes and then you can go and subscribe on your preferred listening platform.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Oh, Kim, mahalo for having me. You were just such a joy bubble, and every time that we come together and talk, I’m so infused with so much energy and joy, so thank you. I’m just so honored to be here with you today, mahalo.

Kim Sutton: You are so welcome, and I’m having a temporary brain fart, you’re welcome in Hawaiian, but Lani, do you have a parting piece of advice or a golden nugget that you could offer to listeners.

Lani Kamauu Yamasaki: Yes. Thank you, Kim. I want to say that, live your passion, find out what your purpose is, and live that purpose with so much passion and so much joy, because this truly brings you positive productivity.

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