Something Worth Doing Before Dec. 31st

With my marathons now behind me, it is time to turn my attention to more important matters… MUCH more important matters.

If I were a betting man, I’d wager good money on the fact that you love your Country and are concerned about the direction it has been heading.

And I’d guess that over the years, you have received no small portion of e-mails from well intentioned people seeking ardently, but less effectively, to do something about it by letting their voice be heard by forwarding along partisan propaganda filled with partial truths, half truths, or even outright lies that their senders failed to properly vet before forwarding them along to you.

Regardless how passionate you feel about the issues, you’ve probably found yourself growing weary of the steady stream of “junk political e-mails” that litter your inbox, and come to habitually delete most of them without a second glance. You may have even grown sufficiently annoyed to ask your “Friend” to remove you from his/her mailing list.

Many of you may have also gotten to the point where you avoid watching most news programs because of the bitter, strident, and even childish bickering that often fills the airwaves as the Media fights on in their acrid civil war.

In your heart, you wish there was something you could do to let YOUR voice be heard in support of character, conscience, liberty, and the Constitution, but in the hustle and bustle of daily life that swarms you with family, career, church, social, and personal obligations, you doubt there is much you can really do that would make any substantive difference.

For many years now, I have experienced these same emotions and frustrations. The past several years, however, I have discovered something I CAN do about it. The purpose of this e-mail is to share with you my plan, and ask for your support by simply reading the rest of this e-mail.

I believe that most fair-minded people of conscience can sense viscerally that the fundamental issues facing contemporary nations, governments, organizations, schools, homes, and individuals are not rooted primarily in policy problems, but in a bankruptcy of character. Policy, of course, is an outgrowth of character, but before institutional policies can be changed, or widespread cultures altered, individual character must be purified. My expertise is not in policy or culture. I do, however, know a thing or two about character; hence, this is where I have opted to make my contribution. This contribution has been many years in coming. For instance:

• Since I was eight years old, I have been deeply interested in the subject of character development. About that same time, I attended my first time management seminar, and began using my first Franklin Day Planner to organize my time as well as to identify, clarify, and prioritize my values, and set goals for personal development and self-improvement. 
• For the past 28 years, I have been, for better or worse, OBSESSED with my own character development, and how I might become an effective voice that could inspire others to become their best selves. 
• For the past 25 years, I have been diligently studying history and the work of experts in the fields of philosophy, theology, philology, self-help, and personal development. 
• For the past 13 years, I have been striving earnestly to develop a new theory and model of self-leadership that encapsulates the holism of my own thinking on the subject. 
• Over the past 5 years, I have completed a Doctoral degree in Education, written a 1,150-page dissertation, and an 802-page book in an effort to clearly articulate this newly developed Theory & Model. 

This coming January, I will be publishing an extensive revision – a more readable version – of this combined work, a project in which I have invested literally thousands of unpaid hours of labor over the course of many years.

I have also consulted with and received feedback and input from many wise, capable, and experienced individuals. This feedback has helped shape the final product into something I am very confident in, and proud of.

Those familiar with Physics have likely heard of String Theory, or a Theory of Everything. Such postulated theories attempt to isolate all the laws of science down into one fundamental premise, sort of like the Theory of Relativity does for the Law of Gravity, but with a far more expansive and comprehensive scope in mind.

You might say that my ambition has been to do something similar in the field of self-help and personal development. I have undoubtedly failed to perfectly achieve such an audacious ambition. Nevertheless, in making the attempt, I can say with confidence I have been successful in distilling a clear and vital message out of a sea of constituent truisms about living life effectively. I say this in all humility, recognizing – often painfully so – that I regularly fall short of the very ideals I put forth in my comprehensive work. The chasm between understanding & articulating theory and effectively undergoing practice is often very wide.

The purpose of this e-mail is NOT to ask you to buy my book. There is no need for that, because beginning on its date of publication in late January of next year, I am going to be giving it away for FREE in serial installments on my blog. This is in honor of one of my literary mentors—Charles Dickens—who often published his novels, including his wildly famous, A Tale of Two Cities, a chapter at a time in English newspapers before releasing it in book form. Those who read my book, serially or otherwise, will notice a touch of Dickens here and there in my own work.

Leading up to its date of publication, I will be publishing two (2) blog posts per week (on Mondays & Thursdays) that provide sneak peaks of what the manuscript has to offer. These sneak peaks will introduce and outline the book, and provide inspiring messages to uplift you in your daily journey through life.

Beginning January 5th, I will send out WEEKLY blog posts with chapters (or chapter sections), which will typically be readable in about 20 minutes. These weekly blog posts will continue until the entire book is made available serially online.

This letter serves as the first blog post. A schedule for subsequent blog posts throughout the remainder of this year is provided at the end of this post.

And now… I have TWO very simple requests of YOU,

my dear family members, friends, and colleagues.

First, please sign up to receive my Free Blog Posts. If you have already signed up, you are set. If you are not yet signed up, and if you desire to receive blog posts in the future, simply click on the link below and add your e-mail address on the right hand side of the page where it says: “Follow by E-mail,” and then click “Submit.” You will then begin receiving future Blog Posts in your e-mail inbox. And don’t worry, I will not sign up anyone against your will; this is a 100% voluntary invitation.

Click Here to Sign up to Receive Dr. Jensen’s Freedom Focused Blog Articles

Second, if you believe this is something that others in your family or social circle would appreciate receiving on a bi-weekly and then weekly basis, please e-mail, facebook, tweet, etc., them and encourage them to also sign up for the blog.

That’s it!

I feel confident you will find the blog posts both interesting and inspiring in a way that brightens your hope for your future, as well as the future of our great, albeit presently declining, nation—a country I dearly love and intend to do everything in my power to make certain Her greatest days are before us instead of behind us. In addition, you may read things that will help you in your own self-leadership endeavors, as well as to gain ideas about what you might do to further promote the causes you feel most passionately about in defense of truth, virtue, liberty, character, and freedom.

I close with an excerpt from my book’s Afterword, which was written by Dr. David G. Anthony, the CEO of Raise Your Hand Texas, and the former Superintendent of the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District (the 3rd largest school district in Texas and one of the top 25 largest school district in America). A few additional endorsement quotes from leadership scholars around the Country are included as well:

“Reading [Jordan’s] book may be the most worthwhile thing you do this year. I hope the message of Self-Action Leadership makes its way into the minds and hearts of students, parents, and business professionals everywhere. Its presence in the literature is a service to our Country.”  

~ David G. Anthony, Ed.D., CEO of Raise Your Hand Texas

“There is no more important contributor to your own effectiveness than how you lead yourself. If you want to learn a great deal about the latest thinking on self-leadership, read this book.” 

~ Charles C. Manz, Ph.D: The University of Massachusetts, co-author of Mastering Self-Leadership: Empowering Yourself for Personal Excellence, and Father of the self-leadership field in the Academe

“Jensen has accomplished a task that is very difficult for any author to achieve, and that is to produce a single text that is highly relevant to multiple audiences at the same time. Because of the universal applicability of basic self-leadership principles, his message is germane not only to persons struggling with OCD, depression, or other forms of mental illness, but to civic leaders, business professionals and workers of all kinds, educators, students, parents, and children—in short, to everyone. Indeed, I do believe that virtually anyone who reads this book will be able to take something away from it that will improve his or her life in a significant way. In the process, it might even touch emotions in your heart that will move you to joy and tears. It takes a talented writer to do all of these things, so I know you’ll enjoy reading this book. More importantly, I know you’ll come away a wiser person with an increased motivation to begin taking action to realize your own Self-Action Leadership potential, an opportunity we can all take full advantage of, if only we will.” 

~ Christopher P. Neck, Ph.D. : University Master Teacher, Arizona State University, and co-author of Self-Leadership: Empowering Yourself for Personal Excellence and Management

"While a number of books and articles have been written on the topic of self-leadership, Jordan Jensen’s Self-Action Leadership goes deep below the surface level of basic self-leading strategies and accompanying examples to provide an in-depth examination of how self-leadership processes can be woven effectively into the fabric of one’s life. A deeply personal and richly emotive narrative, Self-Action Leadership takes the reader on a journey of self-discovery, providing one of the most detailed and applied treatments of self-leadership concepts currently available." 

~ Jeffery D. Houghton, Ph.D.: West Virginia University, Associate Professor of Management, & leading self-leadership Scholar.

“Jordan Jensen has written a thorough, intense, and illuminating autobiographical volume about how to lead self. His story, compounded by OCD and a determination to improve, will help others reflect on how they might best lead themselves – given whatever genetic endowment or mimetic inheritance they may have received. Jordan’s depth of analysis and self-insight will inspire others to take a similarly in-depth review of who they are who they want to be—at least once before they die—a journey well worth the effort.”  

~ James G.S. Clawson, Ph.D.: The Darden Graduate School, The University of Virginia, and author of Level 3 Leadership: Getting Below the Surface.