• Breaking Down The Words
• The Deeper Meaning
• Practical Applications
• Conclusion

Man Climbing a Steep Rock Mountain

Kūlia: means to strive, to endeavor, to push oneself beyond comfort. It’s an active, deliberate, even painful exertion. It’s the choice to lean into the struggle, to embrace the uphill climb despite the pull of gravity, or in our modern western softness, the seductive ease of complacency. Our ancestors who repeated these words understood that striving is the crucible where character is forged.

I ka: “To the” implies direction, a purposeful aim. And obviously it’s not enough to strive aimlessly, you must orient yourself toward something. You must decide on what it is you are striving toward. Living without an aim is like hopping on a plane with no clear destination. But who would hop on a plane like that you ask. Well an even better question is, who would live their life without a goal. How many people do you know, and maybe if you will be honest, parts of yourself, that do not have an ultimate goal or aim.

Nuʻu: The summit, the highest point. In Hawaiian culture, the summit isn’t just a physical peak but it is also a symbol of excellence and alignment with one’s purpose. It’s the place where you stand closest to the divine, where you fulfill your kuleana (responsibility) to your community and to those who walked the path before you. In this sense then the “nuʻu” is sacred and a place of clarity and triumph.

Together, these words point toward the human need to exert yourself relentlessly toward the highest point of your existence. Life wasn’t all romantic back in the old ages. Back before social media and iphones, our ancestors still struggled with shallow pursuits and fleeting desires. To aid the transition of men to boys and instilling the discipline needed to move through the world as an adult, tribes would have the boys undergo "rites of passage." Young men would be ordered to climb the highest cliffs on the most treacherous passes, overlooking the ocean. Then jump from the far up heights into the surf below. It was hard, terrifying. It challenged physical strength, mental aptitude, and spiritual belief. Similarly we must climb the mountain of meaning, even when the path is steep and the air is thin.

Woman Wearing Keep Going Top Stretchin in the Park

What does it mean to strive for the summit?

Striving for the summit is a call to reject the downhill slide of ease, the gravitational pull of mediocrity that tempts us to settle for less. The gravity of mediocrity is the procrastination on taking that jog around the block when you told yourself you were going to be healthier this year.

The ancestors knew life is a struggle and an uphill battle against chaos, distraction, and despair. So whether we think of gravity as physical or psychological, it wants to drag us down in both ways. The nuʻu is also not just the highest place, but the highest state of metaphysical vibration, kūlia implies an active choice to embrace the uphill climb, choosing to take the harder path which often demands sacrifice but promises real true growth in your life. This is the major differentiator from humans and animals. Animals will not sacrifice the part to preserve the whole.

Yet striving alone is not enough because it must be directed. This is why i ka matters so much in this saying, the direction matters. The adage doesn’t say “strive for a summit,” or "strive for many summits" it says "strive for the summit." This means there must be a decision to aim at one singular summit.

We know the meaning of the word “decide” comes from the Latin word, decidere, which is actually a combination of two words; de + caedere. caedere means to cut, and de means off. So this literally means to cut off from any other possibility.

And this is the hardest thing in most people’s journeys of discovery on their own potential. Deciding on what the heck are you supposed to aim at? It's easy and understandable to become overwhelmed with the sheer amount of summits that are available to climb across all the categories of life. But, we all have a calling inside of whether we are in tuned to it or not. And it is usually one which is aligned with the reduction of human suffering in this world. And it it is not just your choice but your duty to aim at the one that most effectively utilizes your unique strengths to create the most impact. And if you come up with a few, gravitate towards the one that most deeply touches your soul. And if that is too hard too, just pick ANY of them.

A wise friend used to tell me when I would come to her with questions like, which route should I take, from time to time, to “Just pick one, and move. You can always change later”.

And she was right. (she usually is)

This is because the path to the nuʻu is rarely smooth, goals that seem promising but lead nowhere, that are actually part of the journey. It will feel like failure sometimes, because you’ll work so hard for something and realize it’s not the goal you wanted after all. But if you remain agile, adjust, pivot, and keep moving forward, you will reach whatever it is you are trying to achieve.  

When you look at anyone that you admire, inevitably you admire them because they are successful. You watch successful succeed and the unsuccessful fail over and over again. And what is the difference. The difference is, the successful among us delay gratification. They bargain with the future.

They sacrifice.

The people who win at life are the ones who are willing to start over, and over, and over again with no loss of enthusiasm. They Kūlia i ka nuʻu. That’s the real secret. So look for any nu’u that calls forth your highest self, that pulls at your soul, forces you to grow and shed your excuses, take the first step and then keep moving forward.

At the end of your life, when you face God, the divine spirit, universal consciousness or whatever you believe in, it will inevitably ask the most terrifying question in the world.

“What have you done with the gifts I gave you?”

Queen Kapi‘olani’s words remind us that excellence isn’t about perfection; it’s about persistence, about choosing the uphill path even when it hurts.

Stacked Stones on a Mountain