Education, not Politics, will Save America

Present-day partisans, pundits, and citizens
 alike too often value politics above education.

For better or for worse—and it seems increasingly for the worse—politics is as popular as it has ever been in America.

How do we know this?

Because voter turnout for the 2020 Presidential Election (over 60% of eligible voters cast a vote) was higher than it has been in over 100 years. That is an amazingly high percentage when compared to other elections throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In fact, you have to go all the way back to the 1908 election between William Howard Taft and William Jennings Bryant to find a comparatively high percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in a U.S. Presidential Election.

While the COVID-19 Pandemic undoubtedly played a prominent role in these soaring voter turnout numbers, it was not the only variable at play. The rise of social media and its concomitant culture of puerile political polarization and unremitting divisiveness also factored into this increase. 

One of the most assumptive misnomers among both professional partisans and pundits, as well as social media laity and the citizenry-at-large, is that the answer to our deepest and most pressing problems in the United States and beyond lies in politics. In the eyes of many, everything would be hunky-dory if only we could keep a particular person or party in power in perpetuity. 

Despite any and all partisan persuasions or insinuations, this simply is not true.  

As important as politics is, anyone with any common sense about reality recognizes that there remain other, more basic, fundamental, and even primal elements of life and society that transcend the importance of politics. 

What are these elements? 

Answer: One's FAMILY ENVIRONMENT in conjunction with the formal and informal EDUCATION one receives and seeks out.  

Signers of the American
Declaration of Independence

One of the main reasons family environment and education is even more important than politics is because politics itself is ultimately an outgrowth of the familial environments, education, and experiences of individual citizens and politicians. This phenomenon explains why America's august Founding Fathers and Mothers valued freedom, equality, and opportunity so much. And why did they value these principles and virtues so much? Because they were taught in their homes and schools that said virtues and principles were practically essential and politically indispensable. As a result, they grew up into men and women of great character and capacity who were willing to pledge their "lives, fortunes, and sacred honors" on the altar of promoting and perpetuating those same values.

The secret to solving America's deepest problems at home and abroad is not to ensure that a certain political party attains and maintains power. The secret lies in transforming American home life and education in ways that refocuses American Students' attention on the enduring, uniting, non-partisan virtues and values enshrined in her founding documents (i.e. The Declaration of Independence and Constitution).

And what exactly are those values? 

The secret to our success both individually and collectively
was set in stone over two centuries ago in Philadelphia, PA.

Answer: 

Life, Liberty, Equality, Self-Reliance, The Pursuit of Happiness, The Rule of Law, Equal Justice Under the Law, and Divided Government that Limits and Shares power.

Unlike politicians, who often complicate things and manipulate people for petty partisan purposes, Freedom Focused likes to keep things basic, simple, honest, straightforward, and consistent.

We accomplish this aim by remaining laser focused on these fundamental, timeless, and true principles equally applicable to both self-government AND self-governance. As such, everything we model, teach, or promote is aimed at safeguarding and perpetuating Life, Liberty, Equality, Self-Reliance, The Pursuit of Happiness, The Rule of Law, Equal Justice Under the Law, and Divided Government that Limits and Shares power.

At Freedom Focused, we eschew the political fractures and cultural division so common in our contemporary world. And we do so in an effort to create greater unity built upon certain fixed, timeless, and true principles and practices that have proven themselves endlessly efficacious by the unimpeachable test tubes of time. 

We therefore hold that the greatest way to form a more perfect union (e pluribus unum) is to focus more on education than we do on politics. Not because politics doesn't matter; it does! But because we recognize the great truth that politics will largely take care of itself as long as education is focused on those preeminent issues emblazoned in our nation's vital founding documents.

Part of a quality education is to learn about and participate in the political process. All responsible citizens should take at least enough interest in politics to become informed voters. I have personally always been interested in politics. In fact, for much of my life, I thought I might eventually run for office myself, up-to-and-including the office of President of the United States. Over time, I learned I was poorly suited for a political career. More importantly, I discovered that in the long run I could influence more people and make a greater positive impact on the world as an EDUCATOR than I ever could as a POLITICIAN.

That is why I chose to become an educator.

In a forthcoming blog article, I will spotlight and summarize an upcoming academic paper (pending publication in the Journal of Leadership & Management) that offers a common-sense, non-partisan, and balanced educational framework for the twenty-first century in which persons of all political parties and ideological backgrounds can potentially find common ground. 

To some, it may seem like naïve, "pie-in-the-sky" optimism to believe that anything under the sun could possibly bridge the current cultural chasms and partisan political polarization that so divides the not-so-United States of America.

For better or for worse, I am a simple person who is just provincial and optimistic enough to believe that such a solution not only exists, but, when widely applied, will eventually accomplish such an "Impossible Dream" — in much the same way that those miraculous COVID-19 vaccines are currently ridding the world of our cruel contemporary plague.

What are YOU waiting for?
If you agree with and like this article, share it!

Imagine an American social media environment where people were more passionate about posting principled pedagogical placards than they were about perpetually proliferating partisan political paraphernalia!

Please pardon the publicly punishing, yet personally pleasing perpetuation of purple prose purposely placed in the previous and present pontifications. Sometimes I just can't resist the urge to ostentatiously opine and otherwise operate alliteratively.  

It's kinda hard to imagine such a stark and welcomed cultural reversal, isn't it? Yet the simple truth is that YOU can take a step in the right direction and make a positive difference right this minute by simply sharing this article on your own social media platforms. 

For better or for worse, all of us at Freedom Focused are on board this SHIP of FREEDOM bound for A More Perfect Union... or bust! We invite YOU to join us by signing up for our blog and telling your friends, family, and colleagues about our movement by encouraging them to do the same.  

Steve Jobs and Apple Computers Changed the World.
Educators at Freedom Focused Have a Similar Aim

Maybe we will fail. Or maybe we will succeed. Time will tell. But succeed or fail, my colleagues and I choose to live and die fully engaged in making the attempt. Maybe we're crazy to even try. But make no mistake: try we will! After all, "The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are [usually] the ones who do." So said one of those relatively few fellows who, along with his countless committed colleagues, actually did change the world in an epically transformative and positive way.  

"The People who are crazy enough to think they can 

change the world are [usually] the ones who do."

— Steve Jobs

Co-Founder of Apple Computers    

.........................  

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 Freedom Focused

Click HERE to learn more about Dr. Jordan R. Jensen

Click HERE to buy the SAL Textbooks

Old Year's Resolutions

DECEMBER is always the best month to go to the GYM

December has always been one of my favorite months to go to the GYM. 

Why?

Because there aren't many people who go to the gym in December; and it's sooooo nice! Not only is it quieter and more peaceful in December, but the smaller crowds make waiting times a rarity. 

January, on the other hand, is a different story—and especially the first two or three weeks of a New Year. The reason, of course, is because everyone and their Aunt Suzie is there trying to make good on their New Year's Resolutions to lose weight and get in shape.

Fortunately—for me (and unfortunately for everyone and their Aunt Suzie)—things start quieting down again by late January. Things then ebb and flow (but overall ebb) gradually into an inevitable annual decrescendo into December, and so it goes year-in-and-year-out.  

The older I get, the more disenchanted I become with the idea of "New Year's Resolutions." The reason for my discontent is two-fold. 

First, New Year's Resolutions rarely last, even for extra-motivated SAL-guys like me. And second, January first may—or may not—be an ideal time to set a new goal for self-improvement in a given life arena, which is one of the reasons New Year's Resolutions rarely last.

At Freedom Focused, we believe GOALS should not be held hostage to a calendar. They should be spontaneously, flexibly, and consistently set based on your own unique circumstances, needs, and desires for improvement and growth.

In other words, it doesn't really make sense to arbitrarily set goals just because the calendar reads "January 1st," or to not set any goals because the calendar reads some other date. Doing that is kind of like being nice to people at Christmas time while being a Scrooge the rest of the year.

There is really only one viable assessment of that approach...

Bah... humbug!

To us at Freedom Focused, it makes a LOT MORE SENSE to strategically and flexibly set goals whenever and wherever we need to work on a given area in our lives.

The calendar should have nothing to do with it.  

For Example: About six weeks ago I recognized I needed to make a BIG change in my physical fitness. Earlier in the year, I had trained diligently for seven months in preparation for an Ironman 70.3 Triathlon scheduled for early August in Boulder, Colorado. Unfortunately, like so many other events during the COVID-19 Pandemic, my triathlon got cancelled. 

Then, in mid-August, I lost my two ace babysitters when their virtual schooling started back up again. With my big event passed and my babysitters gone, my training went downhill fast. As a result, I started to lose the fitness I had worked so hard to earn. I also began to gain unwanted weight. I'm not gonna lie; it was a pretty discouraging situation with limited options for resolution.

But then... out of the throes of frustration, I got an idea.

I could ask my wonderful wife if she would be so kind as to buy me a treadmill as an early Christmas gift. That way, I could make an "Old Year's Resolution" to begin the long, gradual process of getting back into top shape several weeks before the New Year dawned.    

OLD  YEAR'S  RESOLUTION  Defined: A "New Year's Resolution" set in November or December (or any other month besides January) of the previous year, instead of January of the New Year, thus enabling you to get a head start on your goal before the New Year even arrives.

By setting "Old Year's Resolutions" instead of New Year's Resolutions, you will have already made significant progress on your goal by the time the New Year rolls around. Then, instead of having to grit your teeth and painfully re-engage your willpower from ground zero in early January, you'll already have momentum going into the New Year. This approach makes it easier to continue pursuing your goals long after January is over. It also provides you with extra motivation to continue to persist until you have succeeded in achieving your goal.

Now I know what many of my readers are probably thinking right now...

"Well Jordan... that's great that your wife can afford to buy you a treadmill to help you get back in shape. But neither me nor my significant other can afford that kind of purchase. So what are we supposed to do?" 

GOOD QUESTION!

All I have to say is: welcome to the majority of my past life!

Indeed, for most of my life, my wife and I were relatively broke, middle class kids, teenagers, and then young adults. We have only more recently gotten to the point in our lives and careers where we can afford to make purchases like a quality commercial treadmill for home exercise. I have spent most of my life working out at/on public schools and gyms, city streets, country trails, high school or college tracks, and otherwise exercising "on the cheap." 

And that's okay!

In fact it was good for me as a younger self-action leader to be creative and proactive in finding affordable ways to work out. My past experiences also led me to value my new treadmill far more than I would if my wife and I had not "paid our dues" for many years before obtaining such a luxury.

You always appreciate something more if you have to work for it.  

If you are creative and proactive, there are always other options that can fit into any budget. Self-action leaders find a way to pursue and achieve the goals they are serious about regardless of the difficulties, limitations, and obstacles they face along the way.

I had to "pay my dues" by being creative and proactive for many years when my budget was leaner. And even though our budget is not as tight as it used to be, I still had to be creative enough to successfully frame my new exercise machine as my wife's kind-and-loving early Christmas Present! Fortunately, my wife—the CFO of our family—really is very kind and loving, and she willingly acquiesced to my healthy desire. Plus, it was a pretty easy sell since I know she'd also like to see me lose some of my recently gained weight!

My new treadmill in our garage on which I have already
logged 11 workouts since its arrival on December 1st.

A New Year will be here in a little over two weeks. That gives you a few more days to consider what Old Year Resolutions (GOALS) you could start NOW, instead of waiting til January first to half-heartedly drum-up some arbitrary aspirations that are likely to fizzle by the time Martin Luther King, Jr. Day passes. 

And in the meantime, you can be absolutely assured that I'll be running on my treadmill (or exercising outside) 5-6 days per week up through December 31st and well beyond. As a result, I will be well on my way to getting back into top shape by the New Year, rather than just starting from ground zero on January 1st. And it will give me something more to celebrate on New Year's Eve than the mere fact that the calendar has changed.

I am really looking forward to my Ironman 70.3 Triathlon in Boulder, Colorado on Saturday, August 7, 2021. I am going to be even more ready next year than I was this year when my event got cancelled. And I am going to wear my new treadmill out in the process!  

That's my fitness goal for 2021.

          What is yours?  

.........................

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 Freedom Focused.

Click HERE to buy the SAL Textbook, Volume I

Click HERE to buy the SAL Textbook, Volume II   

 

 

Why I Started My Own Company, Part 1: Freedom

Dr. Jordan R. Jensen
Founder, CEO, & Master Facilitator
Freedom Focused LLC
Established 2003

Today's post is the first in a series of three (3) articles aimed at answering the following interrogatory:

Why did I choose to start my own education and training company?

GOOD QUESTION!  

With a Doctoral degree in Education and a Bachelor's degree in English, there are a number of different, regular, and salaried jobs I could have pursued in a variety of fields over the years... if that had been the desire of my heart.

And I actually did teach high school English for one year about a decade ago. I only taught for one year because my wife received an international work transfer with her job, which took us to Canada at the end of my first year of teaching. Later, in 2016, I applied for approximately 100 different positions in higher education at about 75 different colleges and universities all over the United States and World. But my rejection rate was 100%. For a variety of different reasons, nobody wanted to hire me. I also applied—and received interviews—to teach at two more high schools, but both of those schools hired someone else instead of me.    

I was a bit bummed at the time by all the rejection. But now I am glad nobody wanted to hire me.   

          Why? 

                    Because it was never the desire of my heart to work for someone else.

                              I have been—and always will be—an entrepreneur at heart.    

My wife, on the other hand, has been very successful in a salaried profession with a top company. As such, if I wanted I could just press on as a stay-at-home Dad for the rest of her career and my family and I would be well taken care of.  

Don Quixote de la Mancha
Was not afraid to dream "impossible" dreams

With so many different, viable, and arguably easier options available to me, why in the world would I be so determined to build Freedom Focused—and why would I so stubbornly refuse to ever give up until it has fully flowered and otherwise reached the full measure of its potential stature? Especially when I am 17 years into the building process and still have not yet gotten things fully off the ground? Why on Earth have I not given up after all those years of temporary failure? Why do I, like Don Quixote of old, insist on endlessly jousting with windmills, come what may?

That is an even BETTER QUESTION!  

There are many answers to this query. One worth noting right off the bat involves the key word "temporary," which precedes the word "failure" above.

Another, different answer is: perhaps I would have taken a different pathway had a legitimate and promising alternative journey opened up to me.

But it simply never did.

And the possibility of my pursuing any other pathway with even a sliver of the desire, passion, or persistence I possess for building Freedom Focused was, quite simply, utterly untenable. It does, therefore, seem (for better or for worse) to be my career destiny—a view I hold that grows clearer, stronger, and more compelling with each passing day.      

There are many other reasons as well!  

The purpose of the next THREE (3) blog posts is to identify and elucidate three of the more prominent and important reasons.

I  LOVE  FREEDOM
And if given the option,
I'd like to fly fighter jets in my next life!

Perhaps the simplest—and yet ironically the most comprehensive—answer to this question can be answered in just ONE word, which is the subject of today's post.

This one word is: 

          Freedom

I

          💖   LOVE   💗

                              FREEDOM

I really do!

It is, therefore, no coincidence that I named my company FREEDOM  FOCUSED, which is an organization based on, fixed toward, and ever in promotion of the creative and productive expansion of human agency and cooperative synergy.   

With all of my heart and soul; from the top of my head to the soles of my feet; and with every fiber of my being, I cherish my personal, professional, and civic FREEDOM beyond anything else in the Universe. The only things that can even compare in value to me include life itself, and maintaining a clear conscience before my fellowmen and God as I journey through that life.

In the view of one spiritual leader from the last century:

"Next to the bestowal of life itself,

the right to direct that life is God's greatest gift to man."

— David Oman McKay 

So why do I LOVE FREEDOM so much? I suppose it all begins with a rather basic rationale that virtually all human beings can relate to:

I despise being told what to do.

          Yep... I really hate being bossed around.

                    And I'll bet you do too!

On the other hand, I love and cherish TRUTH (with a capital "T") and have made it my life's quest to strive to seek after truth and then willingly align my thoughts, speech, and behavior with whatever objective or visceral truths I discover.

I believe that as human beings, we all have an Existential Duty to seek after truth and then align their lives with it, both for our own good and the welfare of others whose lives our conduct will impact. With that said, perhaps the single greatest truth of all is that it is WRONG to coerce another to think, speak, or act against one's own FREE WILL.

This includes the right to choose the wrong... if one desires. 

I personally don't think it is smart to choose the wrong. I have learned from personal experience that choosing the right is so much wiser and less painful in the long-run. And in the end, choosing the right is ultimately easier as well. Why? Because you don't have to spend so much time and effort cleaning up preventable messes you created in the past.  

Nevertheless, I would stand up for, speak in favor of, fight in defense of, and even die (if necessary) to protect the right of myself and others to make my/their own decisions—including wrong or bad ones—as long as those decisions do not break the Laws of the Land or directly harm others in the process. Indeed... the Rule of Law is as important a principle and practice as is human agency. But that is a subject for another article.  

Gandhi encouraged us all to:
Be the change we wish to see in the world

A primary reason I have always wanted to BUILD and LEAD an organization is because leadership is where the most freedom lies, and the higher up a hierarchical structure you rise, the more freedom you possess to influence others, autonomously make decisions, and chart your own work path and career course.  

I've also had a lot of bosses over the years that have left much to be desired in their own leadership style and substance. As a result, one of my single-minded goals in life is to follow Gandhi's advice and "Be the Change I Wish to See in the World." In other words, I want to be a boss so I can prove to myself and others what authentic leadership really is, how it should operate, and what it ought to model and accomplish.

I don't want to be a boss so I can boss others around. I want to be a boss so I can show other bosses (and bosses-in-training) that there is a better way; namely, by empowering my colleagues and subordinates by modeling the way myself, teaching more than I task, and otherwise developing high-functioning, largely independent and autonomous, and synergistic self-directed work teams throughout the organization.

This approach allows, encourages, and supports individuals at all levels throughout the company to think, speak, and act for themselves as freely, creatively, and as often/much as possible. When an organization is made up of high-functioning self-action leaders, that kind of approach is not only possible, but highly desirable.

Why?

Because of the mind-blowing synergy that can germinate and proliferate therefrom, thereby leading to unprecedented, news-making, and even world-changing progress, productivity, and results through cooperative contribution.  

As a boss, the desire of my heart and my primary goal is not to tell others what to do. My primary purpose is to teach and model correct principles and then let others govern themselves to the fullest extent possible. My job as a CEO is not to micromanage the actions of others. My function is to hire the best people I can find on this Planet—including men and women of all races and backgrounds who are well suited to their position and function—teach and coach them to become the elite champions they were born to be, and then get out of their way so they can perform the wonders they are capable of (both individually and collectively)—wonders that I could never dream of accomplishing on my own.

Indeed, one of the most enjoyable parts of my job in the future is going to be sitting back and looking on in awe as I watch corporate miracles unfold before my very eyes as the personal and synergistic power of other people's genius and talents is fully tapped into, authentically released, and then majestically magnified many fold through the extraordinary power of cooperative synergy.

Upon my eventual retirement (around the year 2040), I fully expect to look back upon what Freedom Focused has accomplished, and then honestly and gratefully acknowledge that it was my incredible colleagues and associates (not me) who were responsible for 99.99999% of the organization's productivity and results. And it will have been my privilege and honor to make a 0.00001% contribution.  

Sam Houston
Congressman from Tennessee
Governor of Tennessee
President of the Republic of Texas
Senator from the State of Texas
Governor of the State of Texas

This leadership approach maximizes the minimization of micromanagement—a less effective executive and managerial approach that should be reserved for new hires and blatantly ineffective performances. In the inspired words of President, Governor, Senator, and General Sam Houston: Govern wisely, and as little as possible.

"Govern wisely, and as little as possible."

— General Sam Houston 

While I will not hesitate to micromanage when and where necessary; I will likewise avoid the practice whenever possible. My people will be too smart, talented, and effective to have to regularly condescend to such measures—that is, as long as I am doing my job right.

Moreover, I do not expect to ever be the smartest or most talented individual at my own company. I will merely be well suited to play my particular role, which will mostly involve unleashing talent and capacity in others.   

I also believe that bosses should earn less and employees should earn more than they do in most corporations in America. We are surrounded by so much unchecked greed in this land of plenty. It is sickening! It has also led to extreme inequalities that ought not to exist.

However, the answer does not lie in governmental overreach via class-warfare-inducing taxation. Taking from one to give to another is never the answer. The answer lies in individual, private, self-action leaders hearkening to their consciences and choosing to inhibit their own avaricious proclivities. And the only fair and ethical way to make this seeming pipe dream a reality is to become a boss myself and then model the behavior I wish to see in other bosses around the nation and globe.  

Bottom line: I love FREEDOM. I want as much of it as I can possibly attain in my life and career. I also want to teach others how they can maximize their own personal and professional freedoms. One of the reasons I want to be a boss is because of the freedom that comes from leadership.  

There are always two (2) sides to every "coin" in life.

With this said, it is absolutely essential to remember that there are always two sides to every stick and coin in this world. The FREEDOM that comes with leadership is only one side of the proverbial "stick." And if you pick up one side of any given stick (or coin), you automatically choose to pick up the other side right along with it.

If I desire the freedom, influence, and decision-making power and authority that comes with leadership, I better be prepared to accept and embrace the responsibility, pressure, stress, difficulty, disappointment, rejection, and loneliness that accompanies that freedom. And believe me... all of those "other sides" of the stick do indeed accompany leadership. Frankly, I'm okay with the responsibility, pressure, and difficulty. I'm even okay with the loneliness of the job. I've always had a "Lone Rider/Lone Ranger" personality anyway. Solitude and loneliness suit me better than most people, which is one reason I am well suited for my position at Freedom Focused. But I confess I'm not a big fan of the stress, disappointment, or rejection parts of the job. Nevertheless, it is what it is, and I cannot have one side of the proverbial "coin" without owning the other as well.

That's just the way things are!     

All decisions and pathways in life have TWO (2) sides.
And sometimes, the other side of the stick BURNS,
either because you made a bad decision leading
 to negative consequences, or because you
made an extra wise and mature decision
and life is refining you.

The Other Side of the Stick

As I have amply chronicled in the autoethnographic (autobiographical) sections of the SAL Textbooks... it has been anything but an easy journey to get where I am today.

In fact, it has been so difficult that if I had to go back and do it all over again, I am not certain I would choose the pathway I did. Fortunately, I don't have to go back and do it all over again, and now that the foundational work is finished and behind me, I feel grateful and am raring to "Go."

Fortunately, all along the way I chose to live according to one of my life's most important personal and professional mantras:

"No Regrets!"

As a result, the further I get into my life and career, the easier things seem to get—at least compared to the profound difficulties life demanded I surmount in order to get to where I am today. That's not to say my problems as an executive are over. In many regards, they have merely begun!

Suffice it to say, easier is an exceedingly relative term.

Nevertheless, I have discovered over time that in a sense, and viewed strictly from a SAL-perspective, there really is no such thing as "hard" or "easy." There is only an individual's capacity (or lack thereof) to effectively confront a given issue in one's life or career. The key therefore to making things easier is for us as individuals to get better. As the great business philosopher, Jim Rohn, once said: "Don't wish life were easier; wish you were better!"*

"Don't wish life were easier; wish YOU were better!"*

— Jim Rohn 

In other words, self-action leaders look primarily inward, not outward, for solutions to their problems. 

Now...  this is not to say that you do not have to sometimes look and reach outward for HELP in solving your problems. Oftentimes you do! I know I have had to look outward for additional help beyond my own, personal leadership capacity many, many times throughout my life. But, with the exception of legitimate emergencies, looking outward should be a self-action leader's secondary, not primary route. We should first look inward and take personal responsibility for everything we can do for ourselves—and then exercise the courage to reach outward when we reach the end of our personal capacity and need a legitimate lift from others. And at times we will!  

Elbert Hubbard
1856-1915
American writer, philosopher, & artist

Over time, it is true that things tend to become (or at least seem) incrementally easier over time in proportion to our education, progress, and growth as self-action leaders. Thus, the reason my life is easier now than it was in the past is due in large part to my own increased capacity. As Elbert Hubbard once eloquently put it:

"The reward which life holds out for work is not idleness nor rest,
nor immunity from work, but increased capacity." **

— Elbert Hubbard 

In as Henry David Thoreau put it: "Things don't change; WE change!"

"Things don't change; we change."

— Thoreau 

When we progress personally as self-action leaders, life becomes easier over time, not because anything has fundamentally changed about life or the world, but because our personal capacity has grown, making us stronger, smarter, and better equipped to deal with life, the world, and its endless obstacles, challenges, and difficulties. On the other hand, if we regress personally as self-action leaders, then life becomes more difficult over time.  

My challenges in life have ranged from battling a severe case of OCD and Depression in my personal life to getting rejected over 100 times in my Dating Life. From temporarily failing, getting ignored, and/or being rejected thousands upon thousands of times in my Professional Work, to having to wait for 17 years (and counting) for my career to finally take off. My journey has been anything but easy; but it has provided me with perfect preparation for my current and future role at Freedom Focused.

If the truth be known, after 17 years of dedicated effort, my waiting period still exceeds my working period career-wise—to this very day! However, I'm getting closer with every blog publication, and I'm nearing the 200 article mark in that effort... so thank you for aiding my cause by reading this article! And an even BIGGER THANKS to those who choose to reach beyond themselves to share it with others. After all, in the end, no one succeeds in a vacuum all by themselves—no matter how effective a self-action leader one may be in isolation. As such, I am always grateful to anyone who advocates for or otherwise aids me in any way. And despite all the rejection I've received all along the way, I have also been very blessed with necessary aid and advocacy from wonderful human beings at critical junctures all along the way.

And I never forget those wonderful people and what they did for me! 

To all you mid-career, salaried professionals my age (early 40s) who are already one-half to two-thirds the way to retirement, imagine having to wait nearly two full decades to finally get your career off the ground, and then—in your early 40s—still not know for sure exactly where things stand or where they are headed!

In other words, imagine spending 17 years and tens of thousands of hours working on your career and still find yourself, in a sense, at ground zero, with virtually no financial remuneration or formal advancement to show for your endless efforts. 

That's been my pathway—a seemingly unending journey of difficulty and dead ends along a seemingly endless walk of faith. Indeed, my life has, since age 12, been a date with one monumental challenge after the other, with no extended respite.

Sure, there have been victories along the way; but the difficulties and failures have far outweighed the opportunities and successes, at least so far. I don't know all the reasons why I had to face so many deep, bruising, and long-lasting trials.

The first 17 years of my career I was mostly just beaten up by the
"hockey stick of life." The next 17 years? 
Let the scoring begin! 

But here's the thing...

There's always two sides to every stick in life. As such, if Karma is real, and if you really do reap what you sow (and I believe that it is, and that we do), then just imagine what the next 17 years in my life and career is bound to bring!

At worst—based on even basic probabilities and very modest likelihoods—I have an awful lot to look forward to and a cornucopia of blessings and prosperity headed my way both personally and professionally.

But at best, the flood gates are truly about to open for Freedom Focused. 

How do I know this?

Well, technically, I don't... at least not for sure. Indeed the very nature of every authentic leap of faith is such that you can't know for sure precisely where your hard work, sacrifice, and suffering will lead you in the end. If you did know for sure, then it wouldn't be a leap of faith! And you also wouldn't grow nearly as much in the process of that pursuit of the unknown.      

Nevertheless... I know enough about the way things tend to work in this world throughout its 6,000 year formally chronicled history of advanced human civilizations to know that my prediction is a pretty safe bet, assuming I do not, like the Great War poet, Alan Seeger, have a premature "Rendezvous with Death." Unlike Seeger, I have thankfully never had that impending sense of doom and macabre, which is fantastic! Of course I could always be wrong.

But I digress...    

You see, it's really just basic mathematics at play. If you change one side of an equation—on paper or in life—nature usually changes the other side to make it equal and congruent over time.

I've just spent 17 years adding onto one side of the equation in a dedicated, determined, and detailed way. As long as I've respected natural laws along the way, is there any real doubt that those same laws of nature won't richly compensate the other side of the equation over the next 17-plus years?

Suffice it to say, there isn't any doubt in my mind that extraordinary things are on their way for Freedom Focused... assuming (again) that it is not my destiny to die young.

But even in the case of that personally undesirable scenario, I've produced sufficient material at this point in the game—and have trained enough colleagues and students in the principles, practices, and culture that will eventually permeate Freedom Focused—that even if I were to die young, someone else would pick up right where I left off and continue carrying the banner, championing the cause, serving others, and reaping the rewards of all that endless planting in which I've been engaged for so long.

Don't be too quick to judge the progress of something
just because you can't "see" anything yet.  

Thus, no matter what happens, no one can alter the depth or strength of the metaphysical roots that have already developed underground. Indeed, Freedom Focused already boasts a vibrant and rock solid subterranean root structure that will someday be capable of bearing an exceedingly significant and weighty superstructure (tree) above the surface.    

While there are always exceptions to every rule in life, most of the time things work out with a more-or-less mathematical precision; we really do reap what we sow!

This is NOT true in the short run, mind you. In the short run life looks nothing like math or farming; it resembles something more akin to an inexplicably chaotic fracas—an ugly mess! That is why we as human beings like to half-seriously repeat statements such as: No good deed ever goes unpunished. Because in the short run, that unfair phenomenon often plays out, much to our temporary chagrin.  

But in the long-run, it never ceases to amaze me how a picture's authentic colors and contours gradually come clearly into focus over long periods of time. People really do get more or less exactly what they have coming for them (the good, the bad, the beautiful, and the ugly). That's why there is really no use in being a phony or otherwise plying in deception in either our personal or professional life. After all, the truth always comes out eventually. That is why Abraham Lincoln once wisely quipped:

"You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time.

But you can't fool all of the people all of the time."

— Abraham Lincoln    

So why try? It's so much smarter to just deal in the truth. As Mark Twain once famously put it: When you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

Mark Twain

"When you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything."

— Mark Twain    

  

Blessedly, the growth, progress, confidence and capacity I've garnered by going through all of my challenges has absolutely transformed my life for the better. Indeed, take away any one of my significant trials and I would be much less refined, polished, and prepared to lead Freedom Focused over the next two decades. As a result, I'll be the first to admit that my blessings ultimately exceed my trials, and at the rate things are going, the score won't even be close a few more years down the road.

But I'm not gonna lie; the pathway that led to where I am today was genuinely hellish. Indeed, I would not wish the trials I have passed through on my greatest enemy! Yet, despite it all, the other side of those trials is turning out to be as picturesque and majestic as the crucibles were painful and malevolent.

Once again... there may be only one coin and one stick, but there are always two (2) sides!

I've gone to great lengths to chronicle the details of my personal and professional adversities so my readers know I am not just exaggerating reality, spinning a yarn to suit my narrative, or throwing a pity party for myself.

Plus, I am—first, foremost, and above all else—a TEACHER. I therefore draw extensively from my own experiences in an effort to pedagogically empower others in their own personal and professional battles.  

As such, my real intention, and my ultimate job, is to TEACH—early, often, and always. Everything I say or do in my role as the leader of Freedom Focused is aimed at EDUCATION, and more specifically, that sort of instruction that influences and inspires others toward Existential Growth, personal and professional achievement, and the happiness, satisfaction, and inner peace concomitant thereto.    

  

Click HERE to read details about Dr. Jordan Jensen's Battles with OCD & Depression

Click HERE to read details about Jordan's Dating Difficulties

Click HERE to read details about JJ's Career Crucibles

Leadership is, of course, only one of an infinite number of life arenas where these same principles hold true. There are always two (2) sides to everything in life. Every stick and every coin has a front and back side to it. Every choice has a consequence. And to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction (Newton). 

Thus it is that as self-action leaders, we must study things out in our minds and then wisely make decisions that will not only expand our personal and professional freedom, but bring about the kinds of consequences or "reactions" (karma/reaping) that we are willing and able to live with in the long run.

Ironically, true FREEDOM can only be acquired by voluntarily relinquishing one's own agency upon the altar of TRUE PRINCIPLES and upright PRACTICES. In other words, to be truly free, you must willingly accept personal RESPONSIBILITY for paying the full price that authentic freedom in any life arena demands.

There is no other way.  

Herein lies the great paradox of FREEDOM, and is the point at which freedom diverges from mere liberty. Everyone everywhere technically has the liberty to think, say, or do whatever they please. But no one is free from the natural consequences of one's choices. Moreover, freedom of opportunity, influence, and power must ultimately be earned. There is no exception to this rule in the long-run.  

There are many people in the world that want freedom without responsibility and consequences. The problem is, there is no such thing! Those who pursue this impossible undertaking end up with little (if any) freedom—and usually a measure of despair and regret as bitter side orders accompanying their metaphysical meal of misery.  

All of us must figure out the level of freedom we each desire—and the price tag attached thereto.  

          We must then exert all the blood, sweat, tears, and time required to pay that price.  

                    There is no other way.

                              But it is worth every ounce of effort!

                                         So what are you waiting for?

No excuses.

          Study hard; then get to work!  

                    Begin expanding your freedom TODAY!  

.........................

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.

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Click HERE to learn more about Freedom Focused.

Click HERE to buy the Self-Action Leadership Textbooks.  

References

* Rohn, J. (2000). Building Your Network Marketing Business. CD recording.  

** Hubbard, A. (Ed.) 1946. An American Bible. New York, NY: Wm. H. Wise & Co. Inc. Page 8. 

The Power of Picking Up Trash

I despise litter.

It drives me a little nuts, albeit in a good way.

Wherever and whenever I see trash out of its place, I admit to getting a little obsessed about doing my bit to clean up the planet. I'm sure my "litter fetish" probably annoys my wife and kids at times; but to their credit, they put up with my passion without complaining. My kids have even started to spot and retrieve litter all on their own!

"Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." 

—Proverbs 22:6   

In my new TEXTBOOKS on Self-Action Leadership, I included the following mantra: "Pick up at least ONE piece of trash every single day that I did not throw down."

Why is this mantra important to me?

Simple...

Because others have helped to clean up my messes at times throughout my life.  Now it's payback time. 

But in a larger sense, this practice is important to me because focusing on little things empowers me to not only make progress on bigger things, but can simultaneously prevent larger issues from becoming a problem in the first place.  Moreover, this mantra is as much a principle as it is a practice—and this particular principle positively influences a variety of different areas of my personal and professional life.

In other words, it's not just about the trash.

Flatiron Building in Downtown New York City (Manhattan)

Case in point: Consider the example of New York City in the 1990s under the leadership of Mayor Rudy Giuliani. In an effort to combat serious crime issues that had plagued the city throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Giuliani decided to address the issue in an unusual way. His approach was simple: "Always sweat the small stuff." This policy entailed focusing on cleaning up trash and graffiti in the subways and clamping down on turnstile jumpers.

Why in the world would you focus on such minor offenses if you were dealing with an epidemic of violent crimes such as rape, murder, and armed robbery?

Answer: because BIG THINGS almost always start out as little things. Counterintuitive as Giuliani's approach may have seemed, it worked! As the NYPD began "sweating the small stuff," the incidence of far more egregious crimes began to fall precipitously. One murderer was even caught, not due to clever detective work, but because he had been apprehended for jumping a subway turnstile!

While that may sound like a mere stroke of good luck on the part of the Police, the reality remains that murderers get their start to crime somewhere, and the slippery slide into the dark side usually doesn't begin with a felony.

At Freedom Focused, we also believe in "Always Sweating the Small Stuff." It's not just a matter of keeping our people out of jail and avoiding bad press. It's a matter of making sure the small stuff matters. For example, in our organization, the Truth matters, details matter, polish and refinement matters, punctuality and precision matter, personal appearance and grooming matter, education matters, and professionalism and integrity are absolutely indispensable traits of all of our agents. And agents who would rather not sweat the small stuff are welcome to go work for someone else who is more comfortable with lower standards of personal conduct and moral character.

In encouraging you to "Always Sweat the Small Stuff," I am not asking you to become a prude or a perfectionist—although there are times when perfectionism is quite useful (e.g. when editing a piece of polished prose).  I know all too well from my own experiences that even true principles and right practices can be taken to unhealthy extremes.  I am merely encouraging you to continually fine-tune and strive to get better every day; and the best way to get better every day is to focus on troubleshooting and refining the "Small Stuff" with a recognition that little things matter. 

When we sweat the small stuff, the minutia of our lives and careers becomes our primary learning and training ground, thereby keeping us out of real trouble. Knowing this, and being a natural believer and man of deep faith, one of my most common queries to the Almighty is as follows: "Lord, please help me to learn from small mistakes and petty sins so that I might avoid colossal stumbles and craven debauchery."

Small Stuff Matters.

And what really matters is actually doing the stuff; talking about it is meaningless unless it impels us to take action.

No matter how eloquently a writer or orator may frame language, the most masterful sermons are always delivered through the medium of action. In the words of Benjamin Franklin: "Big Talkers; Little Doers"; "He who speaks much is much mistaken"; and, "The ant speaks most eloquently of all; and he says nothing." 

Or as Theodore Roosevelt put it:

"It is a sign of marked ... weakness ... if the people tend to be carried away by mere oratory, if they tend to value words in and for themselves, as divorced from the deeds for which they are to stand. The phrase-maker, the phrase-monger, the ready talker, however great his power, whose speech does not make for courage, sobriety, and right understanding, is simply a noxious element ... and it speaks ill for the public if he has influence over them. To admire the gift of oratory without regard to the moral quality behind the gift is to do wrong..."

What, then, is far more meaningful than this blog post about picking up trash? 

Answer: Actually picking up trash. This is why I strive to pick up one piece of trash a day—at the very least.

One solitary person picking up a single piece of trash per day may seem utterly meaningless in the grand scheme of things. But what if every person on the planet adopted my mantra? There are currently trillions of pieces of litter strewn about Planet Earth; but that number would shrink considerably—and relatively quickly—if you subtracted 7.6 billion pieces of trash from the pile every single day.

Moreover, consider the collateral benefits of my mantra. Today it led me to don plastic gloves and carry a 13-gallon plastic garbage bag with me during my afternoon walk to the lake where I planned to swim (I am a triathlete and today was my day in the water). I was able to fill the entire bag after walking a mere mile. Along the way, several dozen cars and trucks passed by—undoubtedly noticing what I was doing. Putting myself in their shoes, I'm pretty certain what kind of thoughts passed through their minds as they observed my free-will and voluntary contributions to their community. One lady who passed me walking by even shouted out a sincere "Thank You" in my direction.

In addition, the seeds of this article begin to germinate in my mind and heart while I was filling that bag with trash. As a result, I am now sharing the message with YOU. 

Are you BORED out of your mind during this COVID-19 crisis? Now you have a simple way to get off of your couch and do something productive, worthwhile, and simple that will make you feel good and contribute something meaningful to your community in the process. And if there is as much litter where you live as where I live, you and your family and friends are going to have plenty to do for a while!

Three quarters of a century ago, my maternal grandfather counseled a group of young university students shortly following the end of World War II, as follows:

"Young [people], do not think your lives are unimportant. Do not think for a moment that you can exert no influence because you are young or because you are few. We have got to get away from the foolish notion that quantity is the important thing in influence. You know you can go into the laboratories on this campus and you will find that very minute amounts of particular substances can exert tremendous influences. ... One individual courageously choosing his own conduct in the face of all odds, doing right, can exert a tremendous influence. ... Let us choose so that every event that comes into our lives will be enriching so that we will be bigger than any event, come whatever calamity may. We can so choose that it will not destroy us. ... We can have freedom each in his own sphere. Each can contribute importantly to ... freedom."

So there you have it. You don't have to be President of the United States or the Director of the CDC to make a positive difference during the Present Crisis—or at any other time. You can choose to take simple actions that will make the world a better place and positively influence others to do the same.

Speaking of which, guess what one of my own motivations was for filling an entire garbage bag with trash today? A few weeks ago, I saw someone else doing the same thing in a local park. I was inspired and impressed by the man's example. I made sure to thank him, and the seed was thereby planted into my own mind and heart—a seed that has since grown up into a full bag of trash, properly placed in its steel receptacle instead of being carelessly strewn all over the sides of the roadway.

-Dr. Jordan Jensen

Carlsbad, New Mexico

May 14, 2020

For more information about Dr. Jordan Jensen, click HERE

For more information about Freedom Focused, click HERE

To buy Dr. Jordan Jensen's new Life Leadership Textbooks, click HERE