R,T;D,P started early in our marriage. Some years we are great, some years we sorta do it, and a few we have missed. Looking back – the years we do great are great. The years we miss & we would rather not talk about. 

This year, 2021, a book came out that dramatically adjusted this process for us, so much so an update from the 2011 post was called for. 

It’s not about goals. 

It’s not about achievements.
It’s definitely NOT about controlling your significant other.

Rather – it’s about building the best life you can together, and being able to look back and see how far you have come & be grateful. 

Reflect

The first step is to look back on the past year, or longer, and see where you have come from. What all has happened?

Focus on how you have grown in the past year & moments you would like to happen again. 

When you have gone through this previously, really focus on what gains you made over the past year. Where were you a year ago? How have you grown since then? 

Thank

Be intentional about this part. Have fun with it, and set up whatever rituals or practices work for you. 

We center this around the Thanksgiving holiday in the USA because it just fits.

Not only do I celebrate as a family but also reach out to the people who I am grateful for moments over the past year and beyond. 

This is a time of remembering life is a solo journey yet the people around us are a key in how high we can fly. 

Dream

This moves from the past & present side to the future. Dreaming what the next year or longer should be. Currently I use my model based on relationships for viewing your world, so:

+Yourself+ physical, mental, spiritual, capabilities

+Family+ the special relationships around you

+Business+ if you are an employee – you are a business hiring out your services to your employer. If you own or desire to own one, then you have a slightly different relationship

+Society+ other people who are not in your business, or family.

What are the dreams for those four big areas? What about the subparts? Can you paint a picture that you are aiming for?

This time is brainstorming – go wild. Look at different time horizons too:
25 years out

3 years out

In the next 12 months. 

What headings do you want to aim for? Big Hairy Audacious Goals?
Where do you want to travel to?
What do you want to learn?

Legacy you want to leave?

Causes you want to support? 

Who would you be thrilled to be a hero to?

Plan

Setting the vision for the next while so you can see how you grow, gain, and make giving thanks easier next year. 

Where the Dreaming time was brainstorming and coming up with options; planning is deciding what you are willing to commit to, eliminating options, and defining how you measure success. 

We have 3 things we put down on paper. The best years, this is three giant stickynotes and a number of posted notes. 

3+ years out
1 year out
Today

We need that long term where we are heading – you can choose 25 years or 3 (or have both). For this we settled on 3 because it’s about 1,000 days. We don’t need to redo the 3+ years out every year, it gives us some guidance and helps us have a staring point. 

The one year is the main focus. We can even break it down into seasons. 

When you know where you are heading in the short term and longer term, decide on what needs to grow. 

If your intention is to have 40 paid off rental houses in 25 years, it’s easy to record how many rental houses you have today, and set an intention of having a specific number in one year. 

If your intention is to be able to run a 5k in under 10 minutes, make sure you record what rate you can run a 5k in today. Then when you get a 5k under 10 minutes you record the date and if you don’t reach that 10 min goal, you still look and celebrate your improvement next year. 

That is the key:
Being able to see where you were, and how you are better today. 

If you only record goals you will hit most and growth will happen, yet you are setting yourself up for disappointment, not joy. 

Choose joy. 

Moving forward

A while ago I was talking with one of my good friends. I mentioned – yeah, we need to finish our family budget for this month & it’s only the 14th of the month. He was shocked because his family practice was if they did not have their family budget done before the month began they just forgot about it and moved on. 

It does not matter if it’s November or April or another month. Today is the day you can give thanks, start recording what you are grateful for, and set your intention with where you are today. 

Write now, send a message to someone and tell them something you are grateful for in the past year & your commitment to go through this process starting on the upcoming first of the week or month. People have an easier time continuing something that they start on a first. 

Record what you are grateful for, and put on your calendar to set intentions for now until the end of the year on the next first. 

Yet, it can be better. 

When possible, and there are times of overwhelming gratitude that all a person can say is “thank you” … you can improve your goal of connection and praise for the other person with this one tip: 

Add “for …” 

• Thank you for sharing. 
• Thank you for being here.
• Thank you for listening.
• Thank you for caring. 
• Thank you for taking the time to go the extra mile. 
• Thank you for your investment in my winning.
• Thank you for doing what you do so naturally, it really helps me because I struggle with this. 

That little bit more increases the connection between yourself and the person you are grateful for. 

It also increases the odds of that person being clear on what you would like them to do more of. 

If you want to take it one step even further, add how you intend to move forward in a better way because of what the person said or did:

“Thank you for sharing that, I am going to add it to my Happy File, to pull out when I need some encouragement.”

So, with that said … 

Thank you for reading, sharing, and adding what you are grateful for when you express your thanksgiving because it amplifies what you are already grateful for.

One morning a door to door salesman was walking down an old country road. 

At the end of a road was a farmhouse. 

Around the yard and at the edge of the road  was a board fence. 

In the middle of the front yard was a huge apple tree. 

Full of red ripe apples. 

Blown over from a storm the night before. 

The farmer was leaning against the fence looking at the tree. 

The salesman walk up to the fence, and look at the damage for a little while. 

Finally the salesman says:

“Man, that is terrible. Such a beautiful tree & all those apples. What are you gonna do?”

The farmer sorta looks over at him, then back at his apple tree and simply replies:

“Pick the fruit & burn the rest”

“Win the morning … Win the day”

Iâ€ve heard this mindset in many ways over many years. 

Itâ€s simple:

How can you do something that is an easy win ASAP each morning?

That makes you a winner. 

What do winners do?

WIN MORE

And if you have won the morning it means you day is also a win. 

You will always have something to look back on & say:

“I did good there; I won” 

Make each day an easy win by stacking some easy wins first thing in the morning. 

Then hit your one big thing for the day. 

Want easy wins? 

Try one or multiple SAVERS from The Miracle Morning:

• Silence – prayer/meditation/reflection/stillness
• Admonitions - affirm your good points, abilities, and successes
• Visualization – who you are doing the work
• Exercise – get your body moving
• Read – gather fuel that makes you better
• Scribe – write out express of gratitude, lessons learned or future you are building. 

All six is best, when Iâ€m at my best Iâ€m typically doing five of them. 

Trouble identifying that one big thing ->

• Book: The One Thing
• Book: Essentialism 
• Talk with a good Coach

Can you do something good now? 

Earn that little win, then earn one more.

~ Jonathan Nation .com / Early Wins To Bigger Wins

I donâ€t choose the path

I donâ€t want the sorrow, 
yet I lift my eyes to see the good in today and hope for tomorrow. 

The music is nice gets me jumping, rocking & bumping. 

There are those who are precious to me; 
friends, family, and my honey. 

Sometimes close & sometimes far away, 
yet never really far away. 

The Son has risen. 
joy in my life
shining bright both day and night. 

Acknowledge the pain,
understand the anger and fear,
they are all indicators of what is in the air. 

Then turn the page, the sadness is still there
yet my focus goes elsewhere.

Who shall I help? 

Who shall I grow near? 

What beauty can I find
when I shift my gaze 
and see what is out there? 

Turn the page. 
Focus elsewhere. 
For the Son is shining, and will always be near.

~ JonathanNation.com/in the Air

First we start with Halloween, the one time of year we wear en masse external masks and acknowledge there is evil in the world.

Pain, suffering, heartache – all made easier by heroes and villains coming to life. 

We all wear masks.

We pretend to be who we want to be,
Who we feel like,
Who we believe others wish we were.

Today we take off the mask.

We can put on a crown.
Celebrate all the saints now. 

The changes will come faster each day. 

Giving thanks maybe one day
Winter is on the way.
Gifts & Christmas Day.

A new year will be here in a blink of an eye. 

If not careful I will forget to cry.
For there have been highs and lows as the seasons go. 

Right here, right now, two focus in my eyes.

First remember the saints,
The past, the joy in all things that last.

Second set my intentions for this month, this week, this day.
I can only live one moment at a time anyway.

Take off the mask. 
Put on the crown. 
We are all saints now. 

This season goes past like a blink of an eye.

Now set your intentions, and remember to cry.

~Jonathan Nation.com

Her son found him lying face down on the ground.
She thought they were playing around … at first.

She is now living my wife’s and many others’ worst nightmare.

Widowed with young kids.

It’s probably a common fear for women;
It’s an unspoken fear for men, especially fathers of daughters.

Years ago I faced this fear.

Not because my wife was dying; there could have been a medical concern, yet this was more intentional on my part.

So, what did I do?

Road Trip

My parents and grandmother provided a wonderful gift even though our financial situation was around the median household income & there were five of us kids.

They found ways for us to travel, see areas, experience nature & I’ve been in just about every log cabin there is in a Tennessee State Park … They all basically look the same; yet the natural wonders I’ve experienced have been marvelous.

A lesson I learned in all that was anyone in the USA can travel; experience culture and wonder different from your normal & without spending huge money too.

When I face one of my greatest fears: that my wife would die, leaving me with three small daughters … I pushed into that fear.

Our first Road trip fit with a work trip my wife had.

She flew to Norfolk, Virginia where she had an apartment.
The next morning my children and I started driving.

It was not the first road trip; not the first time staying in a hotel; not the first time exploring without a set schedule other than “arrive in Norfolk by bedtime two days from now” … yet it was the first without my wife.

On that first trip, we dropped my wife off at the airport to fly home. She had spent some time with us and other time working a 24 hour shift, a norm for her career. We went to Charlotte, NC instead of directly home and stayed with a cousin of mine for a few days.

Again, this was the first trip, having people around was important – just knowing I would be alone with them for a day or two made it an easier step.

We have done multiple trips since. Just me and my children.
It’s not that we don’t want Mommy to be with us, we do this in part due to the career and travel my wife does without us, but it’s bigger than that.

At this point, my children are 8, 8, and 6 … they have spent significant time in 17 states (either a lot of time, or overnight), and been to 2 more that just don’t quite qualify.

The last big trip added three new states, with diamond mining in Arkansas, exploring Houston, Texas, and wandering around New Orleans where we parked the car and either walked or rode the mass transit that they have there.

Sometimes we stay in hotels, though if we are in a city for 3 or more days we prefer to find a short-term rental (VRBO or AirBnB) so that I can have a seperate room from where the kids will sleep – they still go to bed many hours before I do and that time is important.

My encouragement to you is two fold:

1. Travel as a family – my mother was told she should never worry about her kids being ready for school simply because she traveled with them.

2. Travel with just your kids – there is no better way to help that relationship & prep for a potential scary future, than forcing yourself for a short period of time to have less support, less backup, less normal … at least for a short period of time.

One final piece of encouragement, and this is to me as much as it is to you …

Take care of yourself.

Physically with what you eat and exercise.

Mentally with the media you consume – read a book, listen to an audiobook, take a class, study a new subject, develop a new skill.

Emotionally – be a friend, express gratitude, journal, pray, meditate, acknowledge your emotions, name them, share them with specific people.

Spiritually – you have a spiritual side. Beliefs that go beyond what you can see, touch, and feel. Even if you consider yourself an Atheist, or Agnostic … this is a part of you that if you ignore you will eventually discover a major missing part of your life, or you are rejecting specific words and your actions are still very belief based.

Relationships – relationships make the world go around. Find the right people. Connect with them. Strengthen the relationships, but more importantly, support the relationships between people who care about you.

• You do need a Doctor.
• You do need a Dentist, and other special medical professionals.
• You do need a coach, at least one.
• You do need friends, at least 2, ideally who also care about each other too.
• You do need to contribute to others.
• You do need to grow, regularly – and travel can help that.
• You do need to get stronger.

Then take care of your Significant Other by recording all the little things you do.

Make sure they have access to passwords to log into accounts.
Make sure they know what accounts to really access.
Make sure they know where your Will is.

Have Family Photos captured every year or two; more is better.

Do they know the daily, weekly & monthly schedule for your kids?
If it’s not written down, the answer is no.

Keep sailing,

no matter what vehicle you use for your voyage.

Today most people who visit the park drive through it, stopping along the way at specific historic spots.

 

There is lots of pavement a person can follow for running, yet when training for an Obstacle Course Race (OCR) you want to avoid pavement.

 

There are two things I aim for when in parks like this:
– avoid pavement
– elevation changes
At this location the elevation changes are minimal, yet there are lots of trails throughout the park, and grass areas alongside roads that are easy to run on.

You also donâ€t run in just a straight line, having to avoid rocks, boulders, and even go over walls or fences.

Wake Me Up by 2CELLOS

This song, and many other on the album released recently is on constant play in my house and mind right now, yet when I saw the video for this one I loved it even more.

Watch the video before your read on:

The story of two guys going through life making stuff together is wonderful.

The disapproval by many throughout life.

Yet

They find their tribe.

Knowing the story of these two artists, who grew up really competing for many of the same gigs until they started working together is amazing.

I’ve also really enjoyed their videos for it shows how they could make much of their music in creative ways to play.

Discipline is looking as where you are today, where you are heading & doing the hard thing that will increase your odds of success.

For many, what seems like inaction is often the hardest discipline to do or understand when others are in that phase.

Do you want to build a snowman?

She asks you so much, prompts you, disturbs you with this question that you both love and wish would end.

When you give in, go and do your magic, it is wonderful. You play and have fun, while creating something so few really can.

This is your life, this is your ideal life. You have people in it who love you, who respect you, who want you to bring your brilliance to the world … then something happens.

A mistake.

You blame yourself & are so scared of making another mistake that you decide to hide yourself.

That sweet small voice, she still calls for you. Asks you … prompts you …

Do you want to build a snowman?

What is your Snowman?

We all have it. That thing that we love to do. Itâ€s an intersection of our natural strengths, what we could be the best in the world at, and our passions, the activities, people, topics, or places that energize us when we are producing for, with, or in.

Itâ€s something so natural to you that it might take work, at least to an outside person, yet you would rather do it than most anything else. Itâ€s both work and play to you.

The results are magical.

How long since the last time you built a snowman?

It had been years for me.

For many years I hid my brilliance. Like taking a lamp and putting it under a basket so that nobody could see.

I was miserable.

Maybe I was building mini snowmen in my backyard … like Calvin often did with Hobbs, yet thatâ€s not the level I should be playing at.

Has it been months?
A Year?
5 Years?
10 Years?
Can you even remember a time when you were really working with the who, what, when, where, and or why that causes you to come alive; bringing your unique magic in a flow that people around you would think is so simple until they tried it?

Now the question really is … when was the last time you heard:

Do you want to build a snowman?

Who is asking you to build a snowman?

That person, that sister, that brother, that friend, that co-worker, that sweet small voice inside of you. Knocking at the door, asking you to open it, and magically play in a way that only you can.

Thatâ€s someone to hold onto.

Thatâ€s someone you need.

In all of your life, only you can provide your unique magic, yet itâ€s not for you alone & you canâ€t gain the fulfillment, joy, or happiness by building miniature snowmen in your backyard with a stuffed tiger. Not at the level you desire today.
To achieve your greatness you need a combination of your magic and a group who values your magic.

It might not be as you dreamed. Your art, your magic, your work might not fit the desires, problems, and pains to have the lifestyle you desire.

So, how might you let your light shine & also achieve your dreams?
How do you appreciate and accept the promptings from your supporter who keeps encouraging you?

Understand what the voice is wanting. She wants you to be the best you can be.

She wants you to be full of joy.
She wants you to let go and own who you are.

She wants you to do magic and building a snowman is simply the only words she has that represents that for her.
Itâ€s not about balls of snow, with coal, sticks, and a carrot nose … itâ€s about you performing at a high level in a way that is hard, creative and fun.

There are many ways that your abilities, talents, strengths, connections and passions can be developed and used.
Will you?

What would be your snowman?

Do you want to build a snowman?

Will you do it, today?

Enough

All motivation that leads to action is due to a combination of a desire you have & your belief that the action will cause your world to be closer to what you desire.

Repeating an action is where *enough* comes to play.

You do something, you see the results. You judge – did this give me enough results?
If yes, continue, if no – do something else, even if just slightly different.
In an organization they make a product or service, ship it to market, see the results, normally either sales, profits, or donations. If they did not get enough they can adjust or stop producing that good or service.

If you try a new program and don’t see enough results then you will stop. Does not matter if this is health related, learning a new language, a skill, or working to improve a relationship.

A moment where you lose the belief that you might achieve your goal – that is where you lose hope, or it has been deferred too long.

Hope

This video has Kevin Marks on TWIg talking about depression on a conversation growing out of a bad situation where a brilliant man – Aaron Swartz – lost all hope.

Watch about a minute or two: starting at 41:31:

A belief that you can overcome things … that you are special in the world. “… can’t be that bad … “

As time goes on, our level of hope naturally drops. Delays, losses, disappointment can all drain away your hope. Wins, success, praise, attention, and progress can fill your hope tank.

Level & Belief

In the end, we must keep a belief that we can achieve our desires above a measured threshold, or level, or enough.

There are some thing you can do to help yourself.

1. write down where you want to end up and why.

The why part of this is more important than the goal.

Goals, dreams, desires, and envisioned future can and will change, yet the goal in and of itself does not affect the question of “Do you have Enough Hope?” … achieving your why does.

2. record smaller goals, or intentions, and results

It is one thing to say “I intend to run today.” It is another to say “I intend to go running for 20 minutes today.” or “I intend to run for 1 mile today.”
When it’s hard for your to see progress, looking at what you intended to do alongside what you achieved, even if you missed the mark … helps you see that you are getting closer to your dream.

On good days, and good weeks, I do this through the Top 6 Methodology. And I think of the world in 5 distinct relationships that I try to keep and develop:

• yourself
• family
• business
• social
• spiritual

That is ranked in order until you hit spiritual. Spiritual is in every level, but is both more nebulous and harder to measure than the others too.

3. have a system to remind you of your why

I have come to see the wisdom in being reminded of the envisioned future every 21 days.
Setting up a system that automatically pushes that future & why in your face really helps.

4. understand seasons and accept them

There are times to plant seeds and times to harvest. Times to go snow skiing and others water skiing.

Times to rest, times to produce, and times to consume.

Seasons, no matter if we are talking media release seasons, seasons of life, or group dynamics will happen and we need those changes.

Change happens & this is why understanding the core whys to your envisioned future or goals is important. It might be that you cannot run a particular race, but was that goal set due to the particular race or your desire to get in better shape?

5. accept that you, as a human, have needs

Out of all the needs you have, there are three types that you can control:

• rest
• production & investing
• consumption

We all do need to be known, loved, and acknowledged … but on a level that we can control, we need Production, Investing, Rest & Consumption.

6. review & reflect

Most of the action ideas above are incomplete without taking the time to review. My family tries to sit down before Thanksgiving and reflect on the previous year. Then celebrate, or give thanks, for what happened before moving into a time of planning out next steps.

The process of reflection, then planning, then action is important. The more you go around the circle and repeat that simple process the faster you will improve, or get stronger.

Keep Sailing

I hope that you have been on a sailboat.
Sailing is a wonderful illustration for life. For a sailboat to go a skipper must do the right things, but also the wind must be blowing. You do not make the wind, but you can harness it to propel you towards a goal.

While sailing, odds are you cannot go directly at the goal. You might have to go a little to the left, change course then a little to the right.

Then there are times that the you cannot sail.

You need to repair the boat. You need to work at your day job. You need to wait for the wind.

There are still things you can do to cause you to become a better sailor … to increase your abilities… to make it where when the wind comes you will be ready to really take advantage of it.

Keep yourself with … enough … hope … that you will achieve your deep down most important burning desires

~Jonathan Nation
2013-01
~< Keep Sailing ~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Capture at least one image with my DSLR every day in 2012.

In the end, I ended up with around 24,500 images spread over 355 days. Failing to capture an image on eleven days.

Over the course of this year I know my skills as a photographer and with my wonder Cannon 60D have improved.

Here is the overall image:

and you can see the album on Google+, or in the slideshow below:

You must cast your vision every 21 days.

It seems repetitive and short term, but I really tested that idea out in the last year. I was at a point where I really understood my envisioned future and set it up where I would receive this email every 21 days:

On 2011-11-01 you wrote you need to:
– work on finding small companies & developing relationships
– improve the ways I can improve profit per unit, either through higher revenue or lower costs
– increase the market, or client base of companies.
– get more equity in both public & private companies

How’s that going for you?

Those are the general topics I focused on consistently for a little over a year & today I have a larger network of business owners. My skillset for improving profit, revenues, and lowering costs are much improved. I know more ways to increase potential markets either through changing the goods & services offered, or causing more people to become potential clients. I own more equity in companies & the investment results are good.

Why?

No matter if you take this as an individual practice, or as a leader in an organization – we are all busy people. We need little reminders. Think of this:

• Church is once a week, or more, for people who really make progress on their spiritual journey
• Boy Scout Troops recite the Pledge of Allegiance, Scout Oath & Scout Law each time a meeting starts
• Most workout plans are twice or three times per week
• Most ongoing bills are sent to people about 2 or 3 weeks after a payment is made

In most of those, the people are not learning new stuff each time, they are refreshing or being reminded. Now think of your personal, professional, business, or organizational dreams …
How often do you get reminded of those?

We all Need Reminders

Moving forward, the email I receive will be changed. I have not settled on exactly what it will say, but it will fit with the current envisioned future that my wife and I are working on now, as a part of our RT;DP process;  we try to do that process each year.

I receive the email early in the morning Tuesday morning.  Three weeks for me means I donâ€t expect it – as I would a weekly reminder – but I also am not shocked by it when I see it on a Tuesday morning.

It makes me pause long enough to remember what I am really working towards right now.

Getting Started & Other Reminders

When I first started out with that email, I actually forced myself to read over that list a few times a day, then every day, then a few days per week. I was actively trying to keep myself focused on those few things. I needed the reminders more frequent than every 3 weeks. Now, every 21 days is not too little, but also not too much. It acts as a surprise, but also not brand new.

I can also expand on those four items into a whole list of things, ways, tactics, strategies, etc that Iâ€ve tried or will try. The list is short, but mean so much more to me.

One more System

A few months ago I started working on a new system. This one was to keep me focused on the most important tasks for today and this week, but also help me relax and both not work all the time, and see that I was making progress. Each week I write down the top 6 items for my week. Most days I also write down the top 6 items for the day. You can read more about that in my post titled Top 6 to Achieve Your Dreams on AllyNation.

I could see my new email having 6 items, with two of them being taking care of my family & taking care of myself because I need those reminders too.

In looking into what they call Ingress, I learned that the war had been going on for some time. Thus I looked for signs to see if I could find anything.

First book I found highlighted a long past war – and the stories told by a small group. I had been looking for instances of freedom being mentioned, but noticed some interesting symbols.

Later I moved on and found another instance where people were fighting for freedom.It is always good to find groups of people throughout history who have fought to help others be free.

Time passed, and my life got busy, but one day I sat down again, and wondered if there were more modern examples of the Resistance – the group dedicated to humans being free to make their own decisions.

I then searched like mad … but did not find much.

Until I came upon two images, the best proof I found find that the Resistance is out there …

Maybe one day I will find a group & be invited to help defend freedom and liberty … until then, I’ll keep searching for more information about the Niantic Project, Ingress, and The Resitance. #IngressInvite

[a big goal is like] crossing an ocean. Some people try [by themselves], day after day,  … Thatâ€s like taking a rowboat across the ocean. Itâ€s exhausting and usually unsuccessful.

 Others have given up trying and throw themselves entirely on “relying on Godâ€s grace.” Theyâ€re like drifters on a raft. They do nothing but hang on and hope God gets them there.

 Neither trying nor drifting are very effective in [achieving the big goals]. A better image the sailboat, in which if it moves at all, itâ€s a gift of the wind. We canâ€t control the wind, but a good sailor discerns where the wind is blowing and adjusts the sails accordingly.

~ John Ortberg

This week I have been working hard on a research project I am undertaking.

I even implemented a new to do list strategy I found. One that is flexible enough to give me options, but focused enough to keep me on high important tasks. Some urgent, most not-urgent.

Today, however, I am sitting at the end of the day only accomplishing items 3, 4 & 5 on my top 6 for the day. There were many other things that I did accomplish, but nothing involving my top two priorities.

Thinking back I see two reasons:
1. rest needed
2. the wind was not blowing

1. Rest Needed

In sailing, most people just want to run fast or get to a new location. Each trip takes lots of preparation to reach the full potential of the adventure. One thing needed is to be fully rested.

Yesterday I had a huge day, basically with my mind engages from 2am to 10pm, with a brief two hour block where I crashed at about 4am. To be less productive today, mentally, is really not that shocking. I still need rest & consumption, not to mention production in all areas of my life.

2. The Wind was not blowing

For people who are not sailors, the normal thought when first reading the John Ortbergâ€s quotation is that you should do what you can to make the boat move, even if that involves wiggling the tiller, or putting out paddles.

There is stuff for a person to do.

There is resting, preparation, land drills, practice, eating, consumption, repair, etc

I can only help people out of my strength, and to maintain strength in any area of life, I really have to take care of myself completely. That means, I really need to work out. I need to study spiritual materials. I need to catch up with friends. I need to have some entertainment. I need to help people. I need to study.

For a period of time I can really focus on one of those elements, or additional ones, but at some point I do need to go back and hit the others too.

Iâ€m on an amazing voyage, I must do my part … but I do not control the wind.

… Keep Sailing …

THiNKing Consistantly ROCKS!

This book is avaliable as a Kindle eBook for free for just a couple days. I first met Connie Williams roughly six years ago & she is a person who has never meet a stranger. We have playthe board game Cashflow together, been involved in discussion on all kinds of topics, and attended events together.

Over two years ago Connie and Sheila Talk started as a weekly audio podcast show where Connie & Sheila Tidwell talk about Real Estate, Real Life & Real Fun & I’ve listened to most of those episodes, highlighting here and in some Starting Cube episodes.

Now Connie has her first book out & with it being free today, it’s a must get for me & hope you will grab it too.

Quiet Entertainer – Dream Sequencer

A year and a half ago I meet Greg in a mens group focused on visual arts. He is a unique artist because when he does his live performances it is a mixture of sounds and that all work together.

Now he has a new album out with six original songs & you can have them for just signing up for his email list.
Here is a bio video about Greg, with some of his music in the backgorund:

Please share these with others, you can send them directly to the amazon page, or free download page, or click the social media buttons below.

They are independant & have done many things interesting from a relationship / fanbase building standpoint.

Yesterday was their newest move, and it featured this video:

Well, I have a hard time resisting at least looking at the files a band I like gives for one of these & have a tradition for a particular style.

Here I would like to present two version of It Was A Dark and Stormy Night by Five Iron Frenzy
Less is More Nation – remixed by Jonathan Nation
[audio:https://www.jonathannation.com/fifremix-iwadasn-limn.mp3]
[download mp3 – 3:28]

Less is More Nation – Instrumental Remix  by Jonathan Nation
[audio:https://www.jonathannation.com/fifremix-iwadasn-limn-instrumental.mp3]
[download mp3 – 3:28]

Less is More Nation

Many songs today I like as they are, but find hearing the vocals a struggle. Also many times the vocal tracks released for remix, like this or in contests, the band (or their management) don’t release a clean vocal track. The vocal track has some reverb or whatever. This lead me to create a song where I just eliminated a bunch of unessecary noise, leaving an interesting combination of singing and insterments.

I’ve keep doing this as a good method for getting to the root of a song.

I could see me working with this track & doing something radically differant, because FIF gave a good vocal track. Here a orchestral  remix I found:
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/52440948″ params=”auto_play=false&show_artwork=true&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” iframe=”true” /]

Most of my song remixes are found on Soundcloud, at least the once I feel safe to release to people & are not infrending on copyrights.

At the six month mark, I have captured around 13,265 shots, missing a grand total of three days, and with the high being a little over 1,000 pictures in one day. I’m still averaging over 2,000 images captured each month & can see improvement in my abilities to use a camera, even starting at a good level from years of practice.

Of all the images, some days I do not come with any I am willing to share to the world, but have gone through and picked out one per day for days I could; you can also see them all in this Google+ Album:

It’s been a great exercise. I plan on continuing & if you are not doing anything like this — today is a great day to start. In six months you can end up with something like this:

[ See the Pix in one page ]

Whatâ€s the point of testing someoneâ€s ability to cram for a test if weâ€re never going to have to cram for anything ever again? If I can find the answer in three seconds online, the skill of memorizing a fact for twelve hours (and then forgetting it) is not only useless, itâ€s insane.

~ Seth Godin, Stop Stealing Dreams, 70 (mp3)

The story goes, I happened to be out and about in the Middle Tennessee area & a meeting was delayed, so I had an hour to kill and saw a place with a bunch of horses.

I went and asked and they said I could go capture pictures of the horses. Here are some of the best:

 

NOTE: I have to keep reminding myself to not says “I shot horses” …

[audio:https://www.jonathannation.com/jon0011reflections.mp3]
[download MP3 – 9:58]

Over two days ago the rest of my family left for a trip. I stayed home to get some time alone, take care of the dog, and get an extended break from being a primary care giver. I decided I wanted to do creative works & asked people for thoughts and ideas.

One of my projects this year is to make sure I pick up & use my main camera every day. So far I over 6,500 shots his year, that’s about a 66 pix average per day.

I shot over 300 images the past two days.

Yesterday

I asked people for things they wanted me to shoot, many people submitted ideas, but here are some:

There was one hard challenge:

A shot nobody else can take. One where you have to be there now or it’s gone.

Today

Well, let me tell you the story of today, starting at lunch.

I did lunch with Roshun, body builder & martial artist. Always wonderful, he wanted to do Thai. I had Pineapple Fried Rice, which sounded interesting. I was disappointed in the lack of spice heat. I wanted it hotter. Then I decided to leave my car and explore downtown Nashville. Roshun dropped me near the Arena, where the Nashville Predators were having an Open House. I walk to the rink & notice the Chicago vs Detroit game was on, the winner helped determine the final rankings & if the Predators would be #4 and have home ice advantage or not. Watching the end of this game was fun (see the video).
[youtube:http://youtu.be/jx8oHZE7fv8&w=560&h315]
From there, my thought was to just explore. Taking pictures of buildings & such, but as I walked near the Convention Center I saw some girls dressed in Anime costumes. Then I saw a sign that said MTAC & remembered a message I saw from Greg Freeman that he was exploring MTAC.

So I went in, while texting & calling Greg to see if he was still around.

Remember that “a shot nobody else could take … ” … I had some opportunities, here are some of my best form MTAC, especially a concert by The Man Power, a band Greg was there to see because he knew one of the musicians.

Eventually I was getting tired and hungry & started the trek across about half of Downtown Nashville to my car.

I came across this one part & decided to explore a little more. At one point I got this shot – my favorite of the day:

There is just something about it.

Today most of my family went out to a lake. It was great weather, but the best thing was the people who had not been sailing before.

The first new people in a boat were my babies. One seemed to do well & went off with one of my sisters. She wanted to stand up in the boat, but took the idea of sitting pretty well. The other went out with me and was upset before we even got into a boat. Iâ€m not sure what it was, but when our two boats got close enough both babies ended up crying. They might not be sailors for life at this point, but at under the age of two there is still time.

Then the highlight for me — two new sailing people. Because of the light wind, and we really wanted stable boats, we decided to use some of the club Optimistâ€s (or Opti) which has basically two parts & is very hard to overturn. They enjoyed it.

Thatâ€s two new sailors for me. I think Iâ€m going to see how many people I can get to sail a boat on their own this year. If you love sailing, I challenge you to do the same.

When introducing people to sailing, I like little boats. Boats that are simple where the individual can focus on two things:
– steering
– main sail

The opti is a good boat for this, and so is the Laser, my favorite boat. The instant feedback of adjusting the rudder, tiller, tiller extender, or mainsheet is great for picking up how sailing works. Then if you want to move to larger boats, you can learn about jibs, blocks, cranks, etc.

How many people do you expect to get sailing a boat on their own this year?

[three particular jobs or industries] are largely about pattern matching. Something happens, something else happens and it’s the beginning of a trend.

~ Seth Godin 2012-03-25

The questions that popped in my head:

• Do I see trends before others?
• Do you see me as someone who can see patterns & trends early on?

Every day of 2012 I have made sure to pick up my Canon 60D and take at least one picture. This night I came to 10pm and had shot nothing, I went outside and was inspired to try some long exposure photography.

It’s interesting how some of the shots look almost like it’s daylight, or a cloudy day.

The shots with streaks of light running across are focused on this road, where I would wait for a car & just let the camera do it’s thing.

I expect to do more experiments with my camera in the future.

I know that’s how I work best – lots of freedom & flexibility.

Today is the first day my cubs are in a Mothers Day Out program.

If you have been a Stay At Home Parent, you understand the joy and fear that come with sending your child off to school for the first time. I experienced just that, along with overwhelming terror not too long ago when my wife came to me with the news that the program we want the girls in the fall was starting registration soon & we would have a higher chance of getting them in if we enrolled them now.

Today has been a great day for me, partially due to this idea shared with me by Rick White yesterday:

whatever your current assignment/job/situation, see the opportunities rather than the obligation

At first I was focused on the money, me just now getting use to being a Stay At Home Dad, and an unrealistic idea that I should jump right back into building businesses like I use to. Because I am focusing on the opportunities, and one more concept, I have had a great day.

That other concept is Little Bets, or in the book Great By Choice – first bullets; then cannonballs. Instead of having a full on and sold out “must win” bet, you take a little experiment; win or lose you analyse the data, and then decide what to do.

This also fits with the other idea I am trying to focus on now: Seasons

Yesterday I released a post I had been working on for a number of months. In the past I would get an idea & run hard at it, not considering the season of the year, or the externals.

Now I am focused on making sure the timing is right, not only at the start, but also to attempt to prevent a project from going too long.

Moving Forward

My first focus is still tied to being a Stay At Home Dad. This means I must take care of myself so that I can take care of my wife & children (currently two, but number three will show up this summer).

Part of this is participation in two Warrior Dashes in 2012. First one is in a couple of months. Second will be in the fall.

Ally Nation – Supporting Private Solutions to Public Problems
This sums up all projects Iâ€ve done for years. I will do little bets within Ally Nation, but instead of officially focusing or committing to releasing stuff for StartingCube, Stay At Home CEO, or a number of other projects – I am focusing on this broad area & finding the right people.

Finally, there are just little things that have been delayed & should be done. They range from wills, to taxes, to disaster planning (or I Love You Wife, or whoever deals with all this stuff if I am hurt/dead).

All in all, I am trying to sail my ship the best I can. That means I must be prepared, observe the area around, and have all my gear ready to go when the wind is blowing. I hope you are doing the same.

NOTE: this was mostly written & recorded earlier this week, but editing pushed the release a little while … oh, I hear the babies … gotta go.

Switchfoot, with their sond Afterlife is currently running such a contest & they did the silly thing of haveing echo/reverb on the lead singer track, I still was inspired enough to do a Less is More Nation remix.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/36188591″ params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″ iframe=”false” /]

My general idea was to strip the song down to the minimum: First the Lead Singer, then add in some rhythm and more. The words of the song added for extra creativity since it is talking about people putting off really living, some to the point where they are dead. It especially targets Christians who believe they will live in an afterlife, post death, but seem to be putting off living until they hit that point.

I am considering working on it some more, if I do, what would you suggest?

Thanks for listening & sharing with others.

We started with a recipe for Peanut Butter Cookies, but changed it a couple of ways. First we have sess brown sugar in ours simply because the brown sugar we had was too hard. Second, instead of peanut butter chips, we used milk chocolate chips.

In the end, I am very happy with the results, the chocolate chips really help make it great.

Here is basically the end recipe we used:

Ingredients

1 cup Amish Friendship Bread Starter
1 cup butter, soft
1 cup shortening
2 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 eggs
2 teaspoons baking soda
5 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup of milk chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350° F (176° C).
2. Cream butter, shortening, peanut butter, eggs and sugars.
3. Stir in rest of ingredients.
4. Drop tablespoon size dough onto ungreased baking sheet.
5. Sprinkle sugar on top of each cookie.
6. Bake 13-15 minutes.

Tonight was one of those times with the initial topic of “What does it take to have a better society?”. Your thoughts?

Picture a day

take at least one picture each day
Variant: post a picture a day

Read 5 hours per week

Spend an average of 1 hour each weekday, this should cause you to knock out a number of books, no matter if they are audiobooks, physical, or electronic

Cook Something New Each Week

Find some recipe that looks interesting to you. Cook it.
Bonus idea: take pix, post about it

Try a New Hobby & share it

Start something new for you, record your progress & share what you have learned online.
Start with whatever network you already have (Google +, Facebook, a simple website) and improve your sharing over time.

Interview Someone Each Week

Share what you learned from that person with both the masses & send it to someone specific that you believe will gain from meeting this person.

Change Your Life?

Each of these ideas take very little additional work to be accomplished, but the fact is that you have to be intentional & consistent to achieve them. There is also options for you to expand and do more, but a key is to start.

What will you do different in 2012, anything from this list?

Today I managed to do something I’ve not been able to do in a while.

I sat down & listened to some great audio, taking notes & sharing some thoughts.

This time it was based around the top downloaded episodes of StartingCube in November. This time last year I was planning on doing a podcast that was based on sharing great media that I found. Thoughts, quotations, clips, audio, video, and even text. It’s one thing to seek out keys to success, life, and achieving your dreams, but a more important step is sharing the greatness with others.

All people, at some level, want to impact or shape the world in a way that they desire. Finding, sharing and promoting stuff that I believe should be is part of how I do just that.

November was in interesting month for StartingCube Downloads. There were two driving forces:
– Stay At Home CEO
– Searches

With Stay At Home CEO, a project just starting & focused on helping Stay At Home Dads & Stay At Home Moms build businesses, I started it much the same way as StartingCube – an idea & a date. On the designated date I released stuff to the world. It’s interesting that Cube 61 was one of the top downloaded since that is one of the ideas presented there.

I wrote a lot in that post & just listening to those five episodes really helped with how life is going right now. I really should re-listen to episodes on a more regular basis.

With there being over 62 episodes, you could listen to one episode per day and not repeat an episode in over 2 months.

Another thing is I plan on start releasing new episodes in January 2012. There should be a post on my mindset involving that soon.

Reflect

The first step is to look back on the past year, or longer, and see where you have come from. What all has happened?

Having twin one year olds this Thanksgiving, I can say that the year went by fast. We both have much to be thankful for, especially the growth in our babies and each other — both as individuals, as a couple, and family.

Thank

This part is simple, but important – be thankful & speak to people what you are thankful for. As a general practice I am trying to be encouraging more in the day to day, but there are still some specific people who have had an impact that I try to go out of my way to thank.

Dream

This moves from the past & present side to the future. Dreaming what the next year or longer should be. Currently I am thinking about a model based on relationships for viewing your world, so:
– Yourself – physical, mental, spiritual, capabilities
– Family – the special relationships around you
– Business – if you are an employee – you are a business hiring out your services to your employer. If you own or desire to one one, then you have a slightly different relationship
– Society – other people who are not in your business, or family.

So, what are the dreams for those four big areas? What about the subparts? Can you paint a picture that you are aiming for?

Plan

The practical steps you intend to take to make your dreams reality. Before you fully make plans you need to make goals. Goals are important because they are the measuring stick of how well your plans do, but doing the important work to write out the steps you are going to take to make the dream a reality is also vital.

My family is in the middle. We talked about reflecting and thanks recently. This week my wife and I will talk about our dreams for the next year – thinking in those four big fields. If you can have one dream for each & work on just four things over the course of a year – it will be amazing, as long as you take the steps of really making a good goal and then a plan.

I enjoyed the time I was in the St Louis Arch and a client called asking about a change to a website. I told him I would get to it when I could & after getting off the call I realized I could from my phone. In moments, from the top of the St Louis Arch I had the site adjusted & an email off to him.

Now that I am a Stay At Home Dad, the ability to work where I am is even more important, but to do so you have to go through some steps.

This post on Stay At Home CEO titled Location Independence goes into three parts: Plans, Tools, Ability

They are not complex steps, but vital if you want to have more freedom and liberty in your life.

I went and looked up a couple of pancake mix & decided less eggs, no oil & more water.

When we discovered a lack of eggs, I just went mix & water. Roughly as much wet ingredients as the directions said went in as water.

The results were great.

I mixed the batter, my wife cooked them & said that the key was a low heat and good amount of time.

It first started over a year ago when I realized that with twins & a wife who would be out of the house for 24+ hours at a time in a great job … I really needed to reduce my commitments. Then a few months ago, especially when work started back for my wife, I realized I needed to reduce my commitments.

About two weeks ago I saw a post about how to do an eBook in 30 days. I decided to do it, but screwed up the plan it outlined. I have this tendency to want to mess with systems, that is a major reason I donâ€t plan on purchasing a franchise ever. At first I brainstormed some ideas, and thought about some things people had mentioned before, but before day 1 I just started sitting down at about 10pm each evening with a blank sheet of paper (or a google doc, in a way where all I see is the page I am typing on) and I wrote.

Most nights I would clock in right at 1,000 words, some a little shy, a few around 1,500.

A few days into it an outline came to mind. So I started having a topic each night. It was a combination of my recent events, my history, and my desires. Sorta a present, past, and future.

It was good.

I was going to bed about the same time, I was getting things onto the page. I had some routine. Granted, my mornings are mostly routine:

7ish – wake up & start prepping stuff for babies
7:40 – babies wake up, diapers in their room, then bottle time in one of the two areas of our house with toys
8ish – breakfast
after that is play until they crash for a morning nap

But, the thing with that is there is no way I would train myself to wake up earlier just to do stuff like writing, reading, study, etc … I do better at that at night, so my new night routine is nice.

Moving Forward

On November 1st, after writing 10,000 words, over a little more than 10 days, I hit on a topic I labeled Moving Forward. It was the shortest, a little more than 250 words, but it put into some clear statements of both where I want to end up & things I need to focus on today – how can I:

• finding small companies & developing relationships with owners
• help improve profit per unit, either though higher revenue or lower costs
• increase the market, or client base of companies/products
• gain more equity in both public & private companies

What was rolling around in my head when the next morning I see in my RSS Reader a post titled Want To Be A VC? Start A Company.

Well, crap, how does that element of starting a company fit in with taking care of twins & those other things I was thinking I needed to be focusing on now in my productive & investing time?

Today, November 3rd, I had a lunch with a friend & mentor. I shared all that has been going on – more, but most of what is above – and he suggested a Stay-At-Home-Dad site/company.

And idea hit me later in the day that I typed up & sent to my wife. Once she gives me feedback I will decided to either kill it or share it with some more friends & advisers.

The Next Phase

Iâ€m not sure what is next but I know I am getting closer to a better mix of taking care of babies, taking care of wife, taking care of me, and doing something to impact the world around me outside my house.

I know my natural tendency is to run hard at the world, with whatever I have raised high ready to break through walls, defeat enemies, or traverse wide distances. I am trying to be a good sailor where I do the little things to be ready for the wind. To take care of the boat. To prepare my skills, and to have the ship stocked – so that when the wind comes, I will be ready to race as far and as fast as I and my ship can go.

The wind is starting to pick up.
I have been doing good things, I know I can be better, but good has happened.

Bring on the wind & if the wind does not come, I will keep sharpening all that I can, especially since it had been so long & so much-needed work.

Sleep really good last night. I think getting some routine of writing starting at 10pm every night has helped. Over 5,000 words now. Three topics seem to be emerging:

• How I view the world & business
• infertility – dealing with that
• the path I’ve traveled & what I’ve learned

Still not sure if it’ll become a public thing or not.

Before the twins were born I reduced the number of projects & clients we helped. Recently the focus has been to start with zero projects and only add the most important.

I also listened to Dave Ramsey’s EntreLeadership, nearly finished now.
Lastly, I continued a trend of taking from roughly 10pm – 11pm to just write some. It might turn into a eBook, or it might end up just being something for me & select others. I intended to follow this guide to an eBook in 30 days, but messed up & sorta just started writing. At this point I have 4,749 words written according to google docs. If I had followed the guide I should be at 3,000+.

[audio:https://www.jonathannation.com/jon0007babyLOL.mp3]
[download MP3 – 2:15]

[audio:https://www.jonathannation.com/jon0006no-dr.mp3]

[mp3 – 13:22]

First learned of him while I was in high school & got to know him enough in 2004 that he would recognised me in a crowed in 2005, though not today. I hope his new book, EntraLeadership, is a huge success. Today he is on his book tour, in our home area, broadcasting from outside his office & celebrating being a New York Times Bestseller. At the party is free food, music, book signings, giveaways. The type of thing I enjoy, but things have changed & I could not bring myself to go.

My mother is a wise woman, growing up she focused on training each of her children how each should go by having custom rules based on the tendencies of that child. My natural tendency is to do more & more, thus the rule was that I could not have more then 3 activities (soccer, scouts, band, church, etc) at one time. At least one of my siblings had a minimum, for that child would not do any outside activities. Our parents also had veto power over activities & sometimes forced a particular activity on us.

This helped me learn about myself, or at least helped in the process.

Nearly 11 months ago my world changed.

I once interviewed Andrew Peterson, as a part of Artist Insider. He is a musician who learned enough about business to have his own company. This is something that most artist are not interested in all, so I was fascinated with what would cause him to do so when so many others would not.

The answer Andrew gave was the birth of his children. I did not understand this until recently. For Andrew it was motivation to learn about business, for me it is focusing my resources, especially my time. Looking back, this was a lesson my mother was attempting to teach me for years. It took the birth of my first two children & more to really get me back to it.

In the Last Few Months

This has been building. I would often think back on episodes of StartingCube, from How to Succeed to How To Change, What to do Next & Overcoming Adversity, and many more. I thought about Good To Great & the hegehog concept.

Then two key posts of my own:

• Paint The Picture
• production, investing, consumption & relaxation – A way to look at Life

The first is a process of setting priorities, the second – how I currently think of life in terms of producing & investing, consumption, and relaxation, all things we all need.

The big thing, the big reason why I decided not to head to Financial Peace Plaza today is that it does not fit with the main focus I have right now. I need more production & investing. I need more focused consumption.

Long term I will continue to help people solving public problems with private solutions.

I need to learn more about building businesses, meet more people, and improve my abilities and results as an investor. Today, was a step in self discipline of saying no to a good thing to spend time working towards something great.

If you want more, listen to the mp3, or check out the links. Cube25 [How to Succeed] & Paint The Picture are two great places to start.

The cookie gave me a good thought:

With StartingCube, one of the things I think about every so often is how podcast websites, or band websites, or other art like painters, photographers, etc can share their work. It’s all about presenting the data in a way that fills the audience, and moves them closer to being a fan, subscriber, etc.

In the past, I’ve looked at blog style, reverse blog style, artwork, reverse artwork, random number of artwork.

Today, it’s a list.

Since the podcast has a unique, and hopefully interesting, title for each episode (along with an image), sometimes it’s best to just share a list of titles with someone.

Now I have a page template that will allow this, but just a list or index of show names seemed blah … especially when the time is taken to create some unique image for each episode, so when I was getting ready to make it live I decided to take the time to throw in some images.

The images are ever X number of items added, where the author/webmaster/whoever can turn them on or off & set how many posts should be added in between. This was important for spacing and the page template working in different settings.

I would love feedback on the Cube List pages.

Now that I think about it I could also have it where some experts are shown (and some not) or other neat things, but that is enough for tonight. I need to work on an actual StartingCube episode.

For number of weeks Lays Hot & Spicy chips have been missing from store shelves; today I found them again.