Freedom Focused and FLORIDA Forever

The Jensen Family the day we crossed the State Line
en route to our new home in South Florida.

Well, my friends, Freedom Focused and the Jensen Family have made it to the 1-year mark in our new headquarters in Palm Beach County, Florida.

It has been a WONDERFUL year!

Anyone well acquainted with me knows how much I love the glorious Sunshine State of FLORIDA.

#FLORIDAFOREVER

How incredibly blessed I was back in 2006 to meet one of Florida's finest females with whom I forthwith fell in love... and how much more fortunate I was that Lina somehow, someway managed to fall in love with me... although it understandably took a little longer on her end of things than it did on mine.

Today's post tells the backstory of Freedom Focused's nearly 20-year journey, including how our organization ended up in the best state in the Union (our unbiased opinion), and why Lina and I hope to remain here FOREVER... or at least as long as we serve as the leaders of Freedom Focused.

The story below includes some fascinating details about how God, Nature, Instincts, The Universe, Coincidence, Luck—whatever you choose to call the Serendipity that seems so intricately involved in our lives and careers—planted the seeds of my love of Florida a dozen (12) years before I first crossed the Florida State line, and a full 30 years before I finally relocated to the Sunshine State.

Life is fascinating that way!   

Instead of starting at the beginning and going forward, let's begin at the present and travel backwards in time as follows...  

Before moving to Florida last year in March 2021, we spent just shy of a year in the American Southwest on a unique, 10-month adventure in New Mexico.

Our time in the State of New Mexico—also known as the Land of Enchantment—proved to be a special, unique, and truly adventurous slice of our life. New Mexico is a beautiful state full of wondrous natural variety. From camping in the mountains and hiking in the desert to swimming in lakes and tubing down a river, our family actively took advantage of the opportunity we had to experience something new, fresh, and exciting in a place we had never before lived. And just for the record... Carlsbad Caverns is INCREDIBLE. If it is not on your bucket list, I highly recommend you add it thereto. 

My two oldest kids at play at White Sands National Park
near Alamogordo, New Mexico

In the words of a much-admired Uncle of mine—who lived in New Mexico with his family for a decade...

"New Mexico builds Character!" 

Uncle Steve is right... and his words are especially accurate if you spend time there during a global pandemic. This is true in part because the constraints of a pandemic motivate you to spend even more time in the wondrous outdoors than you otherwise might. Considering we were there for less than a year, it's actually rather remarkable how much of the state—the fifth largest in the U.S.—my family and I saw either walking, hiking, running, biking, tubing, swimming, or driving. 

Character Fortified!

          Mission Accomplished! 

Statue of Sam Houston near Huntsville—
Everything really is bigger in TEXAS!

Prior to moving to Carlsbad, New Mexico, Freedom Focused was headquartered in Conroe (Houston), Texas for nearly a decade. Our time in Texas was very special and important in large part because it was in the Lone Star State that all three of our precious children were born.

There's a saying in Texas employed by emigrants like us and it goes like this:

"I wasn't born here,

but I got here as quick as I could!" 

That's precisely the way I felt about our move to Texas, and I feel the same way about Florida.

In our eyes, Texas is as special as it is BIG, and we will always consider ourselves to be adopted sons and daughters of the largest and proudest state in the Lower 48. You know that citizens are proud of their State when they have their own pledge of allegiance. 

That's right... Texas has its own pledge of allegiance, separate from the United State's pledge. It is something I became quite familiar with because I taught ninth grade English at a high school in Houston during the 2009-2010 school year and students were required to recite it each day after the National Pledge.

I love saying the U.S. pledge of allegiance. Getting to say the Texas pledge in conjunction with the national pledge was a huge honor for a proud Texan and avid Texas Army battle re-enactor like me. Thus, getting to say BOTH pledges of allegiance was one of my favorite parts of each school day. As such, is won't surprise you to hear that one of my life and career goals is to incorporate the same tradition here in Florida... down the road a ways. 

Honor the Florida Flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Florida, one State, under God, one and indivisible. 

You guessed it: it's the Texas pledge—verbatim—with just one word changed!

I don't currently have close connections to the Florida Governor or State Legislature. But someday, when I do, I'm gonna get the ball rolling on that initiative. I imagine that by 2030 or so, Florida students will be following the good example of their Texan brothers and sisters by repeating the Florida State pledge of allegiance each school day following the United States' pledge. Just like early citizens of the United States, it is a good, positive, and productive thing to have pride in one's state as well as one's nation. The only difference today is that we believe national loyalty should ultimately trump state loyalty, not the other way around.

Why?

It's pretty basic, really... because the only way to avoid another round of succession and/or a second civil war is for a majority of the citizenry to put the country's welfare first and their state's welfare second—always within a framework of the national interest. Don't get the wrong idea... Freedom Focused is crazy happy—and very proud—about being located in the Great Sunshine State of Florida—just like we were thrilled to have once been part of the Great State of Texas! We are also very proud of our Southern roots and relish the opportunity to be a Southern Company located in the South. But most of all, we are proud to be an American company. It is, after all, the United States Constitution that serves as a principled template for our own Corporate Constitution.  

At Freedom Focused, we believe that the order of one's patriotic priorities matters. 

God Bless the USA!!!!!

     God Bless the South!!!!

              God Bless FLORIDA!!!

                God Bless Palm Beach County!!  

                     God Bless Palm Beach Gardens!

We refer to this prioritized patriotic practice as the Patriotism Principle.

Newfoundland: One of North America's most beautiful and
best-kept secrets, where Lina and I did a lot of hiking.

To learn more about the PATRIOTISM PRINCIPLE, click HERE. 

We invite citizens everywhere to similarly practice patriotism in this prioritized pattern—no matter what country or state in which you happen to live.

Prior to moving to Texas and starting our family, Lina and I spent a couple of adventurous and magical years in St. Johns, Newfoundland, CANADA. Our move to "The Rock," as locals call their island home, was a result of a work transfer of Lina's. For me, the move provided an academic sabbatical giving me time to work on my doctoral degree in Education. It was in Newfoundland that I began writing my doctoral dissertation—which is where I further developed the Self-Action Leadership Theory, Model, and Philosophy.

Newfoundland is one of the more remote areas of the Western Hemisphere and is essentially the "Ireland of North America." Like Ireland, it is an island gem boasting some of the most picturesque coastal vistas in the world.

Our time in "The ATL" was a wonderful adventure in romance.

Before Newfoundland, we lived in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Peach State was an especially important part of Lina's and my journey because it is where we met, dated, and decided to marry. At our wedding reception, we danced to "Georgia on My Mind." That song will always be a symbol of the special and romantic memories we created together in the Peach State—memories we will forever cherish.

Prior to Georgia, Lina resided in South Florida (Homestead) where she grew up and lived until she graduated from high school.

Before moving to Georgia, I lived in Northern Utah, where I attended college and received my bachelor's degree in English from Utah Valley University in 2003. Freedom Focused was officially founded (and formally incorporated) a couple years later in 2005—in Pleasant Grove, Utah.

I was born in Monticello, Utah, in 1979. When I was seven years old, my family moved to Mesa, Arizona, where I lived for the next seven years, until 1993. It was in Mesa that the seeds of my love for FLORIDA were first planted. Part of my growing fascination with the Sunshine State was spawned by my interest in College Football. Aside from my fascination with national powerhouse programs of the 1980s and 90s such as the Miami Hurricanes, Florida State Seminoles, and Florida Gators, I was further enamored by the annual Orange Bowl played each January in Miami. 

My 5th Grade Chapter Book Cover

Then, in fifth grade, something particularly portentous occurred. 

My fifth grade teacher—Mrs. Bridget Owens—assigned my classmates and I to write a "Chapter Book" consisting of an original story of our own concoction. With the limited experiences and perspectives of a fifth grader, I predictably gleaned a plot from my limited frame of reference.

I have four older brothers whom I all but worshipped growing up. They are between 8-12 years my senior and were all very good and kind to me—making them more like guardian angels or mentoring uncles than brothers. 

Two of my brothers, nine-years my senior, were twins. As a little boy, I often wished I had been born a twin myself, and would sometimes imagine one of my best friends from my elementary school years—Eric Driggs—as my twin brother. Drawing from this conflation of reality and daydreaming, I decided to write a story about twin brothers who decided to play a trick on their teachers and classmates by switching classes. The story chronicles the adventures and consequences that ensued from their petty deception.

From Chapter 1: The Lesson of Two Twins. Copyright 1991

I entitled my story: The Lesson of Two Twins. For the setting, I chose:

Drumroll...   

          West Palm Beach, FLORIDA! 

                    Why West Palm Beach?  

                              Good Question!

I had never been to the State of Florida, much less to the city of West Palm Beach. I knew nothing about West Palm Beach—other than my reasonable assumption that it was near a beach, which painted lovely pictures in my childlike imagination. I did not have any family members, friends, or any other acquaintance in West Palm Beach, or in any of Florida for that matter. I don't even remember where I first heard the words: "West Palm Beach," although it was most likely from reading or watching television, because none of my family or friends had any connections to this locale. 

Publication Date                &                    Dedication

Nonetheless, there was something about the words WEST... PALM... BEACH that were absolutely enchanting to me, leading me to believe that such a place—thousands of miles away from the Arizona desert where I lived—surely must be the coolest and most glorious place in all of America, if not the world.

A South Florida East Coast Beach near West Palm

Little did I know as a fifth grader at Hermosa Vista Elementary School in Mesa, Arizona—in 1991—that 17 years later, I would find myself in West Palm Beach teaching a professional seminar—and floating relaxedly on my back in the glorious aqua-blue waters of the majestic Atlantic Ocean. Nor did I have any idea that I would someday marry a woman who grew up just two hours south of West Palm Beach. Lastly, I was completely unaware that 30 years in the future, my family and I would relocate to South Florida where we would buy a home just blocks away from the north municipal border of West Palm Beach—and that I would raise my children in the shadows of this city. 

Talk about a very long-held DREAM come majestically TRUE!  

Dreams can come TRUE
through SAL and Serendipity

Dreams really can—and do—come true. I am a living witness of this fact and reality in both my life and career. Not only am I married to a woman better than the woman of my dreams and living in the precise location I most want to live, but I am getting to raise my kids as a stay-at-home Dad while pursuing my dream career one-blog-post-at-a-time.

Could a man be any more blessed than I am? 

I do not mention these things to impress you or to brag about how great my life is... although my life really is FANTASTIC. I mention it merely to impress upon you the power that Self-Action Leadership—synergized with Serendipity—has wielded in my life and career over long periods of time.

Indeed, I can say with perfect integrity that over the course of my 42 years in this world, SAL and SERENDIPITY have never failed me. Sometimes they have made me wait an awful long time and suffer a great deal before granting me my reward in full, but make no mistake: S&S always comes through eventually... as long as I endure with the proper mixture of persistence and patience.  

In short, I am who—and where—I am (and with whom) because of Self-Action Leadership and Serendipity. It really is that SIMPLE—not to be confused with easy. 

There is enormous POWER in these two elements and forces of life, the first of which (SAL) YOU and I have an enormous degree of control and influence over. If YOU will but take advantage of the personal power you have been given in your life through SAL, I know that everyone can potentially have a WONDERFUL LIFE—regardless of the adversity, challenges, and difficulty that may come their way due to the obviously imperfect and mortal world in which we now reside.

Everyone faces difficulties in their lives. Everyone experiences PAIN and FAILURE and REJECTION. That is inevitable. But it does not mean that any of us is consigned to an unending misery over which we have no control. Thus, as the famous saying goes: Pain is inevitable, but misery is optional.

Pain is INEVITABLE, but misery is optional.

I know from countless first-hand experiences that this statement is true. As I have amply chronicled in previous blog posts, articles, and books, I have suffered my share (if not much more than my share) of pain, suffering, disappointment, failure, rejection, disillusionment, physical sickness, and mental illness in my life and career. But as a self-action leader, I know that I also possess the power to transcend it all through SAL and Serendipity—if only I will. 

And I have... and I WILL continue to do so until my dying day—and beyond!  

          The question is... will YOU?  

      

—Dr. JJ

March 16, 2022

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA

Author's Note: This is the 256th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013. 

Click HERE for a compete listing of the other 255 FF Blog Articles.  

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Tune in NEXT Wednesday for another article on a Self-Action Leadership related topic.  

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