Get strategic with your life.
Tūmatauenga is most commonly known as the atua (god*) of war. 'Te Hokowhitu a Tūmatauenga' was the name for the Māori Battalion during WWI & WW2; 'Ngāti Tūmatauenga' is the New Zealand Army and 'Te Whare Tū Taua' is the School of Māori Martial Arts and Weaponry.
If you're not into that, not a fan of fighting or violence, you'd be forgiven if you thought you don't identify with Tūmatauenga within you. I'm a passivist, I get it.. I don't like violence one bit! I've never had a physical fight in my life (and we're gonna keep it that way).
But Tūmatauenga and war aren't just about violence, chaos and conflict... those are the result of what's really going on:
strategy.
There are other things that go into war like greed and power struggles etc. but they cover that in the news, so I'll leave the job of spreading fear and mayhem to mainstream media..
War is about strategy; if you can outthink, outsmart and outperform the enemy - you have the upper hand and you're the dominant force. I'm not gonna say you win, because nobody wins in war. Even when you 'win', in the bigger picture - it's a loss.
Anyway, we all know and apply strategy to our lives, right? Strategising how to stream all your shows online and still get enough sleep; thinking of ways to get your household on the healthy/nutritional eating waka (canoe); scheming how to motivate yourself to get up and out to the ngahere for a run with Tāne in the mornings...
Some might have a better strategy than others, some might have an outdated plan for their current situation while for some, 'no strategy' is the way to go.
I used to identify with the last group; I loved being known as go with the flow, chilled, relaxed and unfazed. I made no plans, outside of mahi and sport. So, everything was spontaneous and last minute, it was so much fun.
Well... it was fun, until it wasn't..
Living life with that strategy became a bigger and bigger obstacle for me as I grew into different phases of my life. As I moved into different job roles and set new goals for myself - my old programming and strategies had become obsolete and were starting to cause some real problems, especially on my mental wellbeing.
Like Pāpā Arapeta Einstein, one of our Te Arawa kōeke (elders) would say,
“the level of thinking that has brought you this far in life has created some problems that this level of thinking cannot solve.”
If you've clocked life and reckon it's impossible for you to give anymore than what you are currently, awesome. But if you're not where/who/what you want to be - demand Tūmātauenga from inside you and constantly develop and improve on him! Improve your strategy. The strategy to live your best life, to get your mahi finished, to get/give/have/do and be all the things you ever wanted to be..
If you don't know where to start, I got you - type:
"how to become _______, how to do _____, how to learn ____" into Google and that's your first step. You don't need to see the whole path, just the first step.. once you're there, focus on the next one, and the next... small steps towards the big goals.
Be strategic about which thoughts, experiences and feelings warrant your investment and deserve your time, make the adjustments and slowly but surely, enjoy the experience of living your potential.
Kei aku rangatira, tēnā koutou. Noblest of all noble people, thank you.
Hana
*God of war and the essence of war itself.
**Not sponsored by Google.