Dear Family, Friends, and Colleagues:
Today, I am pleased to provide YOU with an update on this year's pending publication of the landmark 7th Edition of the SAL Textbook, along with its new and improved TITLE, as follows...
Self-Action Leadership
A Textbook and Journal for Life
After spending the past five (5) months in the back-and-forth design and revision process of publication, this unprecedented work is now in the final stages of polishing and production, with an anticipated publishing release date approximately 6-8 weeks away.
It is expected to roll off the presses on or before HALLOWEEN.
This massive and monumental Life Leadership "bible" contains 1,163 pages, 175 accompanying images, and half-a-million words of original wisdom literature carefully crafted after being wrung out of and then wrought forth from the fiery crucibles and hard-won successes of the first half-century of my life and career.
At the always loving, yet ever-demanding behest of my wonderful BOSS—who yearns to bring out my very best even more ardently than I do myself—I have painstakingly churned out SEVEN (7) gradually improving editions of this work between the years 2005 and 2026.
In many ways it has been a long, arduous, and frustrating journey.
But it has concurrently proved to be an incredibly worthwhile quest filled with countless hours eagerly engaged
in the work itself, which I so love, and which has been a continual source of immense pleasure, joy, and satisfaction.
As I reflect back on the extraordinary evolution and piecemeal progression of this truly one-of-a-kind project and manuscript over the course of these past two decades, I am deeply humbled by the price tag in effort, planning, patience, and sweat equity required at my hand to produce a tome of such substance, quality, originality, and utility.
I am further humbled by the extensive, expansive, and truly extraordinary blessings and favors of Serendipity that have so ably abided with and continually accompanied me throughout such a menacing yet magnificent multi-decade journey.
Were it not for this rich cornucopia of assistance from sources both seen and unseen, I never could have compiled, much less composed or completed, such a comprehensive, timeless, and unprecedented work.
This new and improved 7th iteration is unique and special relative to its six (6) preceding editions.
Foremost among these fresh features are its:
- Return to a single-volume format (the 6th Edition was published in 2-volumes).
- Graduation from a 6 x 9-inch book to an 8.5 x 11-inch, traditional textbook.
- Addition of a 2-column traditional textbook page design throughout the entire work.
- Significantly expanded exercises and diary features, which truly take the text beyond a mere "How-to-Guide-for-Personal Leadership" and concurrently transform it into a highly personalized "Journal for Life" for every student-practitioner who chooses to procure a copy and begin a serious study of the book.
As a cherished family member, friend, and/or colleague of mine—or as a valued and appreciated reader of the Freedom Focused blog—I INVITE YOU to secure a copy for yourself once it becomes available later this fall.
I then invite you further to begin perusing its rich contents, ever acting as an honest and intrepid explorer of your own heart, mind, soul, personality, and character throughout the process.
As Sir J. Stevens once wrote: Every man has in himself a continent of undiscovered character. Happy is the man who acts as the Columbus to his own soul.
"Everyone has inside of themselves a continent
of undiscovered character. Happy is the person
who acts as the Columbus to one's own soul."
Perhaps most importantly, I invite you to begin your own Life Journaling process inside the text, thus becoming more than just a passive reader or sampler of the material; and instead becoming an active implementer of the true principles and practices presented therein—in a never-ending QUEST after personal growth and inner peace in your own life, career, and relationships.
If you are feeling extra motivated, I invite you to embrace the SAL Master Challenge and officially become a self-action leader by completing all 25 challenge exercises spread throughout the textbook.
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Jordan Rex Jensen, Ed.D.
Lifelong Journaler and Author of
Self-Action Leadership:
A Textbook and Journal for Life |
Dr. JJ's AUTOBIOGRAPHY
"If your life is worth living,
it is worth recording."
As we count down the days to the publication of the hardback, softcover, and e-versions of the SAL Life Leadership Textbook (7th Edition), I am pleased to introduce the upcoming publication—right here on the Freedom Focused Blog—of my AUTOBIOGRAPHY through the public presentation of my personal journals.
The serial publication of this unabridged autobiography will commence NEXT WEEK in Freedom Focused's regular, Wednesday morning blog articles.
I have felt an existential tugging to undertake this new and massive literary project for many years now. With the completion of the SAL Textbook, which contains my autoethnography, the time is now right to begin sharing the unabridged details of my autobiography.
What is the difference between an auto
ethnography and an auto
biography, you ask?
Good question!
An autoETHNOgraphy is a creative and/or systematic analysis of one's personal history, experiences, journals, et cetera, while an autoBIOgraphy is the personal history or journal record itself. The former is more of an academic and/or creative work that provides a meaningful message for the author and reader. The latter is more of a sterile and chronological historical record: a presentation of raw data and facts.
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| My father's bound journal volumes: 1961-1981 |
One of the greatest blessings of my childhood was the opportunity I had to freely peruse my father's voluminous journals. How fascinating it was for me to go back in time and view the world through the mind, heart, and eyes of my dad through his detailed diaries.
This activity proved incredibly interesting, enlightening, entertaining, and educational. Perhaps most importantly, it inspired me to become an avid journaler myself.
If you missed reading about my
Father and
Sister's incredible journaling legacies, I invite you to go back and read them.
As I reflect back upon my memories reading Dad's journals—in conjunction with my personal life and career work that has been so focused on JOURNALING, Self-Action Leadership, and education—it seems apropos to make these records available to my readers and learners in the same way that Dad made his records available to my siblings and me.
After all, the Self-Action Leadership philosophy, theory, and model are all so inextricably linked to and interwoven with my own life's journey, education, struggles, and successes, that it makes sense to make these records—edited slightly for a public audience—available to anyone and everyone interested in seriously studying and applying SAL in their own life, career, and relationships.
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My first journal entry...
January 1, 1987 |
I have been an avid journaler for nearly as long as I have been able to write. My first official journal entry was penned on Thursday, January 1, 1987 ~ New Years' Day.
I was seven years old and in first grade.
Since then, I have penned thousands of pages in personal diaries and journals in conjunction with collecting many thousands of additional pages of personal letters, photo albums, and scrapbooks.
In doing so, I have followed closely in the footsteps of my father—as well as my older brothers, younger sister, and other, extended family members who have been such good examples of journaling.
Click HERE to read A Family Legacy of Journal Writing
I was further following the counsel of my Church leaders (past and present), who have been encouraging and promoting personal record keeping practices since its earliest days in the 1830s. (1)
Having completed a comprehensive autoethnography—or life analysis / study in my doctoral dissertation and six (6) other editions of the SAL Life Leadership Textbook—it feels right to now undertake a more comprehensive record of the manifold details of my life's journey by publishing the original journal records.
JJ's personal hardcopy scrapbooks and handwritten journals.
Note: The majority of my written journals are typed, organized, and stored electronically.
This
autobiography will avoid analysis and limit commentary in favor of presenting the journal texts themselves, which chronicle events, thoughts, feelings, reflections, goals, et cetera as they actually played out in real time and then concurrently recorded along the chronological timeline of my life-to-date.
I will begin by authoring an article on my ANCESTRY, which will be published next week.
This will be followed by the chronological publication of all of my extant journals, beginning in 1979 with excerpts from my father's journal that cite me personally between the years 1979 and 1986.
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Rex Buckley Jensen
Circa 1979 |
I incorporate and reprint these excerpts from Dad's journal with his express permission, for which I express my gratitude. Indeed, I am much indebted to my father for providing me with this valuable addition to my personal history
before I had begun keeping my own individual records. I further express my respect for and admiration of the exemplary diligence, focus, and consistency he employed throughout the multi-decade creation of his own extensive life journals and other records.
Beginning with the year 1987, I will then proceed to publish my own personal journals and records, starting with that inaugural entry penned on January 1, 1987, and continuing on up to the present day.
Thus, for the foreseeable future, I will plan to only publish JJ's Journal Excerpts on Freedom Focused's regular publication day (WEDNESDAYs). Additional Freedom Focused articles on all other SAL-oriented subjects will be published on other days of the week (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday).
In presenting these comprehensive journals to the public, I hope to accomplish four (4) primary objectives, as follows:
- Preserve and present my life's memories and other historical data in a highly organized manner for my own ready retrieval in the future.
- Provide my family, friends, colleagues, offspring, and other interested parties with access to the memories and other personal information I have approved for public consumption.
- Inspire and motivate self-action leaders everywhere to journal more regularly and comprehensively for their own personal, professional, and familial benefits and blessings. NOTE: There are few other activities that have blessed my creativity, intellect, memory, relationships, life, and career more than my lifelong journaling habit. As such, I highly recommend this incredibly useful and personally beneficial activity to others.
- Continually maintain, sharpen, and mature the mental muscles of my own memory, intellect, and creativity as a thinker, writer, organizer, leader, and human being.
In reproducing these journals, I have retained the right to include (or not) and edit (or not) as I see fit. These inclusions (or exclusions) and revisions are not to be confused with changes, fabrications, or embellishments—practices I vehemently eschew and abhor as both a narrative historian and person of integrity.
Indeed, the premium value I place on accuracy, precision, transparency, and the truth is well known, well documented, and consistently practiced throughout all of my life's and career work. As such, whatever
is included will be as accurate, precise, honest, transparent, and trustworthy as possible.
However, as I mentioned in
my autobiographical vignette about my experiences with OCD, there are times when a matter or issue belongs
not in the public domain, but in between an individual and one's own thoughts, memory, conscience, God, spouse, friend, counselor, spiritual leader, etc.
Thus, while the upcoming narrative accounts should not be viewed as an all-encompassing account of every detail of my life and career experiences, I can vouch unequivocally for their integrity as a legitimate work of historical NONfiction according to existing records, the utmost honesty of my intellect, and the authentic integrity of my memories.
Insomuch as other persons are mentioned in my written record to come, it will,
of course, be necessary and appropriate at times to anonymize or otherwise obfuscate the true names as they appear in my original records. I reserve the right to take this approach and do so out of deference and respect for those who have entered the stage of my life or career in situations that proved either too sensitive or unsavory for tasteful public disclosure.
I hope that YOU enjoy—and find value in—perusing, reading, or perhaps even carefully studying these forthcoming records as much as I have enjoyed—and found value in—creating, compiling, and organizing them.
More importantly, I hope that they inspire and motivate you to become more of a JOURNALER and personal record keeper yourself.
Yours in SAL, Freedom, and Journaling!
—Dr. JJ
Wednesday, August 26, 2026
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA
Author's Note: This is the 537th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 319th consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.
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Tune in NEXT Wednesday for another article on a Self-Action Leadership related topic.
If you liked this blog post, please share it with your family, friends, colleagues, and students—and encourage them to bookmark this blog to access a new FREE article every Wednesday.
Notes:
1. Doctrine & Covenants 21:1
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