This book's front COVER PHOTO features the Bank of America Plaza—located in downtown Atlanta, Georgia—sandwiched in between the King and Queen Towers—located in Sandy Springs Georgia. Photo credits go to my dear cousins, Preston & Ashley Bunker, residents of the Greater Atlanta area.
These three buildings hold great personal meaning for me as a human being and self-action leader. When I was a young student attending college in Northern Utah, I had a dream to relocate to the Southern United States—the one major area of my Country I had not yet visited. This dream was spawned by my love of American history as well as a retinue of romantic notions about what the SOUTH might hold for me both personally and professionally.
The day after I graduated from college in July 2003, my dad and I climbed into my car in Utah and embarked upon a cross-country road trip eastward. Our final destination: ATLANTA, Georgia. It was enormously satisfying to follow through in the pursuit of this, my DREAM, and the passage of time would lavishly vindicate my decision to venture forth in FAITH.
I have always been fascinated and enamored by SKYSCRAPERS. I spent most of the next six years (2003-2009) in the Atlanta, Georgia area, where I became particularly fond of the three buildings featured on the cover of this book.
I first visited the Bank of America Plaza shortly after arriving in Atlanta in August 2003. I was awed by its dominant and towering presence in the Atlanta skyline then—and continue to feel respect and reverence for its impressive stature today. In time, I would use this particular skyscraper as a visual prototype for the SAL Model, thus icing its place forever in SAL history and lore.
If you are driving north or south on highway 400—or east or west on Interstate 285—in the Atlanta area, you cannot miss the iconic King and Queen Towers, which were designed to resemble king and queen chess pieces and rise regally above the dense forest of Sandy Springs. After I began dating my wife, Lina, in early 2007, we would sometimes escape to the gorgeous and well-groomed grounds at the base of these towers to spend quality time together. This lovely location became "Our Special Place" for quiet walks and romantic retreats. It was at the base of the King and Queen Towers—in the Westin Hotel restaurant adjacent the two buildings—that I dropped to one knee and officially proposed marriage to "my darling, my darling, my life and my bride" (1) on February 22, 2008.
This peaceful and picturesque corporate campus was also a place where I occasionally stole away on my own to ponder, reflect, and pray. Sometimes I would access an elevated view of the property, gaze out on the beautiful buildings and gorgeous grounds, and dream about the future of Freedom Focused and our own corporate campus that would someday be built.
Suffice it to say, this location was a place where DREAMS—both personal and professional—were spawned and worked on while concurrently serving as a setting where Lina and I (or just myself) could retire to rest, relax, and enjoy each other's company. All self-action leaders ought to have such a place (or places) where they can steal away from time-to-time to regain their bearings, enjoy the peace and quiet of solitude, strengthen their relationships, and otherwise maintain and restore their souls amidst a world increasingly enveloped in crisis, disaster, panic, and turmoil.
As the author of the Self-Action Leadership philosophy, theory, and model, it is my desire that all human beings might come to understand the import and magnitude of their own potential for personal, professional, and Existential Growth through SAL and Serendipity. As a teacher of these subjects, it is my hope and prayer that all students of SAL would come to see themselves as they really are—not as ordinary human beings with little to offer the world, but as potential ROYALTY with remarkable gifts to use, talents to develop, contributions to make, and pleasures, satisfactions, and joys to experience residually throughout their lives.
Thus, images of the King and Queen Towers are placed upon this textbook's cover as a continual reminder of this important principle and belief that all self-action leaders should embrace and cultivate in their lives, careers, and relationships. It is my hope and prayer that YOU may be similarly inspired in your own life and career as you continually view and reflect upon the image of these special buildings.
The following text will appear on the back cover of the SAL Textbook
Self-Action Leadership: A Textbook and Journal for Life provides the first and only textbook of its kind in the academic world today. This comprehensive work single-handedly carves out a new and unique scholarly niche by providing an unprecedented, comprehensive, and secular manual (or HANDBOOK / WORKBOOK) to holistically address society's universal need for character development, moral instruction, and personal leadership. Its single-minded aim is the global promotion and proliferation of leadership, character, and life skills education, development, and growth in nations, communities, organizations, schools, homes, and individual lives everywhere.
In other words, if you are a living, breathing human being, then this book is for YOU!
The concepts and ideas supporting Self-Action Leadership (or SAL) are rooted in nearly 40 years of extensive and expansive personal and professional education, experience, observation, study, research, analysis, synthesis, and development spanning the fields of self-leadership, leadership, action research, character education, autoethnography, history, literature (including poetry), philosophy, religion, and self-help. In addition to drawing on the scholarship and substance of these existing fields, SAL simultaneously builds upon them by introducing an original THEORY & MODEL that executives, managers, administrators, scholars, teachers, coaches, parents, and student-practitioners alike can universally utilize for the personal and professional growth and progress of themselves and their colleagues and subordinates.
.jpg) |
| Dr. Jordan Jensen Founder, CEO, and Master Facilitator Freedom Focused LLC |
Jordan R. Jensen, Ed.D. is the Founder, CEO, and Master Facilitator of Freedom Focused LLC. He is the author of nine (9) books and nearly 1,000 articles. He has also facilitated over 600 professional training events throughout the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. He earned a bachelor's degree in English from Utah Valley University (2003) and a doctoral degree in education from Fielding Graduate University (2013). A lifelong athlete, Jordan has completed 13 marathons, two 70.3-mile half IRONMAN triathlons, and one 140.6-mile full IRONMAN triathlon. He is married to Lina (née Tucker) Jensen, a Project Manager for NextEra Energy Resources. They live in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida with their three (3) children.
—Dr. JJ
Author's Note: This is the 344th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 163rd consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.
Click HERE for a compete listing of the other 343 FF Blog Articles
Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL QUOTES
Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL POEMS
Click HERE to access the FULL TEXT of Dr. JJ's Psalms of Life: A Poetry Collection
.........................
Tune in NEXT Wednesday for another article on a Self-Action Leadership related topic.
No comments:
Post a Comment