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.  

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 Jensen

Click HERE to buy the SAL Textbooks

A Second Ring of Total Commitment

In order to be a highly effective and successful self-action leader, it is absolutely essential to be crystal clear on what your values are, and, even more specifically, how (in what order) you prioritize those values.

For example, second only to my relationship with Deity and my corresponding theological beliefs and faith, my WIFE and CHILDREN are my most important priorities and the greatest treasures in my life. Everything else is tertiary to these priceless and precious human beings with whom I share a deep, meaningful, and loving relationship.

Today's blog post shares a specific example of a new Positive Cue I recently began utilizing in my own personal exercise of Self-Action Leadership as it relates to the love I feel and the commitment I have made to my three KIDS. Make sure to read to the article's end if you want to hear the unique story of how this unfolded.    

Before we get to that point, however, you may be asking yourself: "What is a Positive Cue?"*

Great Question!   

Self-action leaders use World Altering Strategies* in the form of positive and negative "cues"* to promote and inspire desirable behavior. In Volume Two of the Self-Action Leadership textbook, it reads: 

"Just as an architectural firm seeks to invoke a professional, pleasant ambience with its interior and exterior designs, you can create an environment that inspires and uplifts you as a self-action leader ... [by] employing world-altering strategies to remove negative cues and add positive cues to your environment."**

Removing negative cues involves getting rid of visual, auditory, or other sentient triggers that might tempt you to engage in behaviors you're trying to avoid. Adding positive cues involves decorating your environment with tangible reminders aimed at promoting healthy and productive actions and goals. For example, if you want to cultivate a healthier diet, don't fill your pantry with junk food or browse the Internet for dessert recipes. Instead, prepare healthy snacks, visualize yourself achieving your goals, and fill your mind with images and successful stories of others who have accomplished what you desire to achieve.  

I displayed this goal above my desk in my bedroom the summer before
my junior year in high school. On October 30, 1996 I accomplished my
goal at Sugar House Park and Highland High School in SLC, Utah.

Since I was a little boy, I've always been inspired by the concept of World Altering Strategies in the forms of positive and negative cues. Consequently, I've often been motivated to adorn my personal work and living spaces with pictures, posters, awards, quotes, symbols, goals, and other visual reminders of what's most important to me. These visual cues help me stay focused on my vision, mission, values, and goals. Purposely decorating your personal living and working space in purposeful ways can provide YOU with similar benefits. 

Maximizing positive cues while minimizing or eliminating negative cues from your environment will help you develop the habit of positive visualization. This, in-turn, focuses your mental energy on solutions and successes rather than on problems and failures. It also helps you rid yourself of negative self-talk. Perhaps most importantly, it assists you in maintaining an ongoing vision of what you want most in your life, relationships, and career. Stephen R. Covey calls this process the "mental or first creation," which, according to Covey, always precedes the "physical or second creation"*** of whatever you seek to make real in your life. In other words, envisioning yourself mastering a task is a prerequisite to actually doing it well.

As avid readers of the Freedom Focused blog know, I have been a stay-at-home Dad for the past FIVE (5) years. As a result, I have spent a significant amount of time and energy raising my three children, currently aged seven, five, and two. In the New Testament, Jesus taught that "where your treasure is, there will your heart [time/effort/focus] be also" (Luke 12:34). I have found this statement to be true; not because I am a Christian believer, per se, but because the love and affection I feel and extend toward my children is unquestionably deeper, greater, and more sincere and authentic in 2021 than it was in 2016.

Why is this?

It's pretty simple, really. The answer is: because I have spent thousands of additional hours serving and otherwise living for my children since I became a stay-at-home-dad.

As human beings, we tend to love those people and things we serve and live for; and the more we serve and live for someone (or something), the more we come to love them (or it). This phenomenon is a classically simple and highly satisfying metaphysical example of Newton's first law of motion, which states: to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. When you reach out toward and serve someone else, your heart ends up changing (improving) towards that person—even if the other person rejects or rebuffs your outreach.  

My three kids playing in the fighter jet at the
"Airplane Park" in Artesia, New Mexico

Last year our family lived in Carlsbad, New Mexico for about ten months before moving permanently to Florida. During the time we spent in the dusty deserts of southeast New Mexico, I took my children on several trips to a park in the nearby city of Artesia. The kids and I refer to this particular park as the "Airplane Park" because it has a skeletal structure of an Air Force plane on which the kids loved to play.

Another area of the Airplane Park we enjoyed was the swing set. Until just recently, this particular park sported old fashioned, steel-made, bucket-type swings that my little son Tyler Jordan loved to swing on. 

One day, while pushing Tyler in one of these antique swings, I noticed a golden ring on the ground at my feet—right there in front of the swing set. After stooping down to pick it up, I realized it was a "REAL" wedding ring of some quality and heft, and likely at least partly gold in make. The ring was a size or two larger than my own wedding band, and was therefore too loose for the ring finger on my right hand. However, it fit perfectly on the middle finger of my right hand. 

Because of its probable worth, I didn't feel right about just keeping the ring. So, I contacted the Artesia Daily Press—the local newspaper covering Artesia, New Mexico—and purchased a brief advertisement in their classified section to announce my discovery of the ring. My goal was to find its rightful owner if possible.

After two weeks had passed without any responses to my advertisement, I concluded it was fair and reasonable to invoke the "Finder's Keepers" rule. In so doing, I determined I would begin wearing the ring on the middle finger of my right hand for the foreseeable future as a dedicatory "Positive Cue" reminding me of the importance of, and my love and adoration for, my three children, as well as the eternal commitment I have made to them as their father. It was, after all, at the Airplane Park while pushing my young son in a swing that I had happened upon the treasure.  

One of the exciting things about marrying my wife, Lina, back in 2008 is that I could begin wearing a wedding band on my left ring finger. In my opinion, there is nothing else in life quite as wonderful as marriage and romance, and the opportunity to wear a tangible symbol of the love, commitment, attraction, and adoration I share with my beloved and chosen companion has always been a great privilege and honor for me.

Second only to the wonder, excitement, and joy of romance and marriage is the fun, joy, love, and satisfaction I experience being a father to my three wonderful children.

As such, it dawned on me that it would be very appropriate to begin wearing another ring—on a different finger on my other hand—as a symbol of my everlasting love for and commitment to my three kids. In my view, this new practice of mine completes the familial tradition of wearing a marriage band. Instead of just one reminder (positive cue) to continually remind me what is most important in my life, I now have two. Now every time I see or touch either of these rings—which occurs numerous times each day—I am reminded of what matters most to me in my life.  

And on a point of far lesser importance, I also think it looks really cool to wear the second ring! I've always liked the color appearance of both yellow gold and silver/platinum/white gold, and now I get to sport a little bling from both precious metal colors on my hands.  

I intend on wearing both of these rings for the rest of my life. That way, I have a tangible reminder (positive cue) right at my fingertips (literally) to help me remain true, faithful, and completely committed to the people that matter most to me in my life—my WIFE and KIDS.  

What positive cues could you add to your person, living space, workplace, or environment that would help you to stay focused on what matters most to you? 

What negative cues could you eliminate from your person, living space, workplace, or environment that would make it easer to avoid temptations and other negative thoughts, speech, and behavior?  

I invite you to take stock of your personal, familial, and professional surroundings and then take a concrete action (or two, or three...) to decrease the negative cues and increase the positive cues in your own life and career.  

.........................   

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 Self-Action Leadership Textbooks

Article Notes

* Neck, C.P., & Manz, C.C. (2010). Mastering Self-Leadership: Empowering Yourself for Personal Excellence (Fifth ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

** Jensen, J.R. (2019). Self-Action Leadership, Volume II: An Action Research-Based Character Development Model. Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Book the Fifth. Chapter 7. Page 143.

*** Covey, S.R. (1989). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. New York, NY: Fireside. Page 100.