We talk a lot about balance…equilibrium, being centered, staying grounded. But balance isn’t just about standing still or keeping things even. In Hawaiian thinking, balance is dynamic. It’s alive.
Too often, we try to pull one Hawaiian concept out of the larger web and hold it up on its own. But our values don’t work that way. Kuleana, ʻohana, aloha, none of them stand alone. They live in relationship with one another, the same way courage and compassion, respect and pride are interwoven. Each value feeds the others. Together, they create the fabric of how we live, lead, and care for ourselves, our communities, and our ʻāina.
At the center of this web sits kaulike, or ho’okaulike, the ongoing practice of maintaining equilibrium between all these moving parts. It’s not a destination but a way of being.
Modern business life doesn’t make balance easy. We’re trained to think in quarters, in metrics, in P&Ls. Short-term cycles that reduce us to numbers and deadlines. That focus drives productivity, but it also drives burnout.
We prioritize speed over alignment, growth over sustainability, and outcomes over well-being. In the race to stay ahead, we often lose sight of what it means to be in balance…with ourselves, our teams, our values, and the land and community we’re a part of.
In a Hawaiian worldview, kaulike recognizes that balance is never permanent. You don’t find it once and hold it forever, you maintain it through constant awareness and recalibration.
Our kūpuna understood the interplay between the small and the vast…ka mea ʻiki a me ka mea nui, the little things and the big things. The four, the forty, and the forty thousand. True balance comes from paying attention to both. From zooming in and zooming out, from holding the micro and macro perspectives together.
This way of seeing reminds us that leadership and business decisions don’t exist in isolation. Every action has ripples (even the ones we attempt to externalize) financial, emotional, environmental, generational. When we expand our lens, we make wiser, more sustainable choices.
Bringing kaulike into business starts with shifting from reaction to reflection. It means taking time to pause, reset, and recalibrate…for yourself and your organization.
And don’t forget: balance requires others. Kaulike isn’t a solo act, it’s a collective practice.
I’ll be honest, it’s one I’m still learning. As a friend once told me, “your pendulum swings farther than most.” Maybe yours does too. But no matter how far it swings, we all have the ability…and the responsibility…to bring it back to center.