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| Emerson's home in Concord, Massachusetts |
We hope you enjoyed the holidays and are looking forward to new adventures and opportunities made possible by a fresh start to our shared calendar. There is, after all, no time like the PRESENT, and I have always viewed January first as a special gift in my life because of the new beginnings it provides. No matter what may have happened (or not happened) or gone wrong last year, we all have a chance to turn the page and make something special of the next 360 days.
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| Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882 |
"Yesterday is history and tomorrow is a mystery;
TODAY is a gift—that's why they call it 'the PRESENT.'"
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
At Freedom Focused, we intend on making 2023 something special in both our personal and professional lives. It is our hope that our efforts over the next 52 weeks will help educate, inspire, and motivate YOU to do the same.
We must all remember, however, that getting RESULTS in one's life or career requires much more than just hope and wishing; it requires effort, discipline, and sometimes change. If we are not willing to diligently focus, work hard—and where necessary, to make attitudinal, cognitive, and behavioral changes—then we will not be successful in realizing our aims. But if we are so willing, the sky is truly the limit to what we can accomplish and become. 
In an ongoing effort to Be the Change we Wish to See in the World (Gandhi), and continue to grow and prosper in our own individual lives and corporate aims, we are pleased to announce our own goals and objectives for 2023. As you read over this list, we invite you to consider YOUR own goals and aims for the New Year as well.
We also invite you to think about who you know that would benefit from receiving the Freedom Focused blog each Wednesday morning in their inbox throughout the coming year—and beyond. Of all gifts you could give to your family members, friends, neighbors, or colleagues, what could be better than an inspiring weekly message that doesn't cost you a penny to give away?
And now, for our 2023 GOALS...
- Continue publishing our weekly blog every Wednesday morning at 6:30 a.m. EST/EDT.
- Update, renew, and otherwise overhaul our entire Corporate Website to better reflect 2020s digital styles and our own current focus on the FF Blog, SAL Textbooks, and Communication Seminars.
- Transfer our blogging platform from Google Blogger (blogspot) to WordPress.
- Begin Offering AUDIO recordings of weekly blog articles so readers have the option of listening to all past, present, and future blog articles.
- Beginning September 2023, serially publish the SAL Textbooks online one chapter at a time on the Freedom Focused blog.
- Surpass 100,000 views/visits to the Freedom Focused Blog (it currently stands at just over 90,000).
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| Audio Recordings of the FF Blog are Coming Soon |
- Begin Offering AUDIO recordings of weekly blog articles so readers have the option of listening to all past, present, and future blog articles.
That's right... beginning later this year, we will begin offering AUDIO recordings of our blog articles, voiced over by Dr. JJ. That means you will soon be able to listen to past, present, and future articles instead of/or in addition to reading them. For those who like to listen to content while you drive, walk, work-out, et cetera, you will soon have the option to do just that!
Click HERE to learn more about FLOW from Dr. Bruce Jackson and how you can access and utilize it to your benefit, happiness, and success.
I have been practicing the art of oral reading since 1986—when I was a first grader just learning how to read. Since that time, it has always been one of my favorite things to do. I was one of those students who loved it when teachers would call on me to read because I thought oral reading was fun—and I was good at it. I also have collegiate training in voice & diction, acting, theatre, and English literature. I also have it in my blood because my maternal grandfather was a professor of speech and drama and was, in his time, considered by his colleagues to be one of America's elite oral readers and performance artists. (2)
See footnote two (2) to read what professional academics and performance artists have said about Dr. JJ's Grandfather's skill as an oral reader.
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| Chris P. Neck, Ph.D. |
I would like to publicly thank Dr. Neck for this wonderful idea... not only for the added option it will soon provide to our readers, but also for the ongoing personal and professional pleasure and joy it will give to me personally as I begin recording past, present, and future blog articles to accompany their written counterparts.
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| What are YOUR goals for 2023? |
More importantly, what are you willing to do, stop doing, or change in order to fling your arrow to the target's bullseye as a Freedom Focused self-action leader?
—Dr. JJ
January 4, 2023
Syracuse, Utah, USA
Author's Note: This is the 301st Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 128th consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.
Click HERE for a compete listing of the other 300 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 for a complete listing of Self-Action Leadership Articles
Click HERE for a complete listing of Fitness, Heath, & Wellness Articles
Click HERE for a complete listing of Biographical & Historical Articles
Click HERE for a complete listing of Current Events, Cultural, Philosophical, & Miscellaneous Articles
Click HERE for a complete listing of Dr. JJ's Autobiographical Articles
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Tune in NEXT Wednesday for another article on a Self-Action Leadership related topic.
And if you liked this blog post, please share it with your family, friends, colleagues, and students—and encourage them to sign up to receive future articles for FREE every Wednesday.
To sign up, please email freedomfocused@gmail.com and say SUBSCRIBE, or just YES, and we will ensure you receive a link to each new blog article every Wednesday.
Click HERE to learn more about Dr. Jordan Jensen
Click HERE to buy the SAL Textbooks
Notes:
1). Jackson, B. (2011). Finding Your Flow: How to Identify Your Flow Assets and Liabilities—The Keys to Peak Performance Every Day. College Station, TX: VirtualBookworm.com.
Click HERE to buy Dr. Jackson's book on FLOW.
2). "Joseph F. Smith is one of the half dozen top-flight readers in all America. A few may equal him, but none surpass him. More than any reader I know, he can lift his listeners out of the present and take them back to live for an hour among the characters and scenes of literature." —W. Norwood Brigance, late Head of the Speech Department at Wabash College
"Joseph F. Smith has long been recognized as one of the outstanding leaders of our profession. He is an inspiring lecturer and a powerful interpreter of literature. In the highest and finest sense of the term, he is an artist." —Andrew T. Weaver, former head of Speech Department, University of Wisconsin at Madison
"Joseph F. Smith is one of the best exemplars of the thesis that great literature is meant to be shared. When an audience of lovers of good literature gather together, and he reads to them the book of his choice, the occasion is a rich and meaningful one. Genial and humane, scholarly by wide academic training, world-wide travel and long teaching experience; and blessed with an enviable sense of humor, Joseph F. Smith brings to his audience an enduring artistic experience." —Claude M. Wise, former head of Speech Department, Louisiana State University
"Fascinated freshmen — four hundred of them! That's what I saw recently when Joseph F. Smith read the five great soliloquies from Hamlet. Also, before the entire faculty of his university, did he obtain a new appreciation for the Bard of Avon. No wonder Professor Smith has the reputation among speech teachers as one of their top examples." Elwood Murray, former Director, School of Speech, University of Denver
