Ask Not

 

Chapter 8

Ask Not 

Self-Action Leadership is about proactively choosing to effectively and wisely lead yourself. Despite this reality, it is not entirely about you. Indeed, SAL is about something much bigger than any one individual. Furthermore, self-improvement alone is not the ultimate goal of SAL; nor is self-advancement its sole endgame. While personal and professional growth is vitally important, it is merely a means to accomplishing something even more important, which is to lift, serve, and bless other people.  

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
1929-1968

As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., once said: Life's most persistent and urgent question is: "What are you doing for others?"

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is: 

'What are you doing for others?'"

—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The more you personally learn and grow, the more you will be able to contribute meaningfully to your family, school, business, community, state, nation, and world. Hence, the ultimate purpose of Self-Action Leadership is to empower you to become an individual capable of performing significant service for others. 

My Contribution to the Nation and World I Love

Several of my ancestors fought in the 
American Revolutionary Army under
General George Washington

I have great respect for honest and hardworking military personnel who are willing to join—and if necessary, fight and die—to defend the liberty and safety of others.

As a professional seminar facilitator, I have had the honor of training soldiers and civilians from many branches of the U.S. Military (i.e. Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard). 

It is always a privilege to work with these fine men and women who dedicate their careers—and sometimes their safety, well-being, and lives—to preserve, protect, and defend their country and countrymen from forces that seek to harm them or curb their liberties. 

I further admire the tremendous contributions made by servicemen and women throughout history. Some of my own relatives and ancestors have served in the military, and in several cases, risked their lives in past conflicts. 

For example, my sixth great-grandfather, Samuel Smith (1714-1785), served as a Captain in General George Washington's Continental Army during my nation's founding conflict, the American Revolution. His son, Asael Smith (1744-1830), my fifth great-grandfather, served in his father's Company during that war. And that is just one of my ancestral lines that extend back to the Revolutionary Period and British Colonial America.  

Ned Adams Jensen
1918-2004
118th Signal Radio Intelligence Company
U.S. Army / World War II

During World War II, my paternal grandfather—Ned Adams Jensen, a U.S. Army radioman—made an amphibious landing on Utah Beach as part of Operation Overlord, or "D-Day," shortly after the first American combat troops secured a beachhead for the Allies. After landing in Normandy in early June, he then proceeded across France and eventually into Germany with the liberating army. 

My father was conceived in 1943, before Grandpa shipped out to England in preparation for the liberation of Europe. Due to Grandpa's overseas military service, Dad was two years old before he met his own father in the fall of 1945, following Grandpa's honorable discharge from the Army after the war had ended.

My dad's younger brother is a former F-15 fighter pilot and retired Lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force. His son (my cousin)—a former dentist in the Army—served a tour of duty in Iraq, and one of my best friends (also a dentist) served domestically in the Air Force. 

On two separate occasions, I considered serving in the military myself. The first time I looked into enlisting in the Air Force in my mid-20s. However, my query was brief upon discovery that I was ineligible because I was taking medication to treat mental illness—a categorical disqualification of any applicant at the time. The second time came a few years later in my later 20s. I was no longer taking medication and considered enlisting in the Army (one of my roommates at the time was an Army Captain who had served a tour of duty in Iraq). I may very well have joined up had another professional opportunity not arisen to replaced any would-be military considerations.

Suffice it to say, I contemplated becoming a military man myself more than once in my life.  

Although I have never had a chance to serve my country in uniform, I have always been eager to know what I could do to serve out of uniform. This desire is fueled not only by my admiration for those who have served, or are serving, but by my recognition of the tremendous liberties and endless blessings I enjoy as a result of my U.S. citizenship. 

My country has done so much for me.

        The question is: what have I done for my country?

John F. Kennedy
1917-1963
35th President of the United States

In 1961, in his inaugural address as President of the United States, John F. Kennedy uttered these now immortal words: Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what YOU can do for your country."

"Ask not what your country can do for you;

ask what YOU can do for your country."

—President John F. Kennedy

Since my earliest days learning about my country's heritage, I have been asking myself this question. As a boy and then young man, I often thought my destiny might lay in politics. For many years I even held an ambition and desire to someday serve as President of the United States.

My political ambitions died out long ago. However, I continue to ask myself President Kennedy's piercing question posed to my entire nation back in 1961.  

One of my primary goals in founding Freedom Focused and writing this Life Leadership textbook is to give something back to the country that has done so much for me. After all, America has made it possible for me to have dreams, pursue them freely and with gusto, and eventually accomplish them. 

It is PAYBACK time.

While this book may be a paltry contribution compared with others who have dedicated entire careers to—or sacrificed their very lives in the defense and betterment of their country—an academic, literary, and creative contribution is something I can do; therefore, it is what I have done. In writing these books, I have, to the best of my limited ability, attempted to comprehensively explicate and articulate the principles and practices I know can reanimate the American Dream for anyone willing to learn and apply them. 

For those unfamiliar with this term—the American Dream—it is a cultural concept and tradition whereby American parents seek to create a society and life for their children that is better than what they themselves enjoyed; and children concurrently strive to live their own lives in ways that improve upon the experiences of their parents.

While this aspiration has come to be known popularly as the "American Dream," this idea is by no means unique to Americans alone. Indeed, it can (and should) apply to anyone anywhere, so long as there is sufficient liberty, education, and opportunity in a given society to match the virtuous desires individuals have for growth and freedom. 

Sadly, COMMON SENSE
is not always common practice

Indeed... is it not COMMON SENSE for a child to strive to improve upon the lives of one's parents? And is it not a common desire for parents to want to see their children fare better and be wiser in life than they themselves did?

Is that not the most basic conceptualization of human progress?    

Wherever you may live in this expansive world of ours, I encourage YOU to pursue your own nation's unique version of this dream. Moreover, we at Freedom Focused wish you the very best as you strive to improve upon the previous generation—and not just financially and materially, but more importantly in terms of liberty, growth, freedom, happiness, fulfillment, peace of mind, and overall quality of life.  

The American Dream has become a reality for my wife and me and our children. Through SAL and Serendipity, your dream—whatever it may be—can become a reality for you, your children, and your children's children. 

But remember that it will all remain a dream unless you are willing to learn about it and then seek after it with everything you've got—body, mind, heart, and soul. Such a dream will not simply walk up and knock on your door. Prosperity is not a right that comes with citizenship in a certain country, and there is no guarantee of freedom even in a land of liberty! Prosperity and freedom are privileges that must be earned through a dedicated education in, and faithful exercise of, True Principles rooted in Universal Laws.  

There really is no other way!

I am convinced that the best possible way to serve my country (and the rest of the world) is to teach others what I have learned about these True Principles—even the principles and practices of Self-Action Leadership—that if followed, will bring anyone (including YOU) greater levels of freedom, growth, success, happiness, and inner peace over time. 

Are you up to the challenge of living your own version of the American Dream? 

        And are you prepared to chase after it, come what may, until you have realized it for yourself and your posterity?

                If so, then read on...

In Your Journal

• What has your country done for you in the past?

• What does your country currently do for you in the present?

• What might you do for your country (and/or the world) in the immediate future, as well as over the course of your lifetime?  

—Dr. JJ

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA

Author's Note: This is the 374th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 186th consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.   

Click HERE for a compete listing of the other 373 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

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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Chapter 8 Notes