SAL Book: My Story

In later chapters of this book, I attempt to teach SAL in part by sharing intricate details of my experiences with OCD, my misadventures with romance, and the ups and downs of my unorthodox career path. Before getting on to these chapters, I wish to preface them by providing a brief, autobiographical sketch my life’s story. This information serves as an introductory backdrop to other, more detailed stories to come, whereby I will vividly illustrate the principles of the SAL theory and model as I myself have attempted to live them.

My life, as with anyone’s life, is a story of the struggles to discipline one's response to life’s many problems, pains, perplexities, and failures. It is also a story of my growing success in meeting these challenges. This journey began as a toddler, as the following excerpt from my father’s journal illustrates:

Fri. July 10, 1981

Cute things happened this afternoon. I took Jordan with me to the bank to make an apartment deposit. Left him in the car while I went in. When I came out, he had opened the door of the car, leaned out, pulled down his britches and shorts and was proceeding to make a puddle on the asphalt. The last time he was with me at the Exxon Station I got a little upset with him for going on the seat. He did it right this time. Sure was cute. He was right proud of himself.

I was born on August 21, 1979 in Monticello, Utah—a small, rural community of about 2,000 people in the remote Four Corners area of the Western United States. I am the sixth of seven children and the youngest of five boys. My father was a high school teacher and rural renaissance man/entrepreneur. My mother was a homemaker and a successful saleswoman of a variety of products, including Avon. My family was loving and close-knit, but we had our share of parental differences and sibling squabbles. After most of my siblings had left home, my parents’ relationship deteriorated, leading to serious marital troubles and their divorce after 37 years.

From an early age, I was taught to value faith, family, community, country, and self-reliance. My father and older brothers taught me by example to work hard. I got my first paying job at age five. I earned $40 for a summers’ worth of work helping my dad and brothers build a cabin on Dad’s land. I was free to spend $20 as I wished. The other $20 went into my church mission fund. My position/title that summer was, "the fetch-it," my job being to fetch tools for my dad and brothers. 

At age seven, my family moved to Mesa, Arizona. This move to a more populated area marked a significant life transition for me. I traded in my country boy jeans’n’boots for suburban shorts and sneakers. In short, I became a “city boy." This move signaled the formal beginning of my Self-Action Leadership journey, which was initiated by my attendance at one of my Uncle Hryum’s Franklin Institute time management seminars at age seven or eight. It seems as though this seminar, and events like it, were providentially placed in my young life, as they planted important seeds that would eventually grow into my chosen career—and the writing of this book.

Following my seventh-grade year, my family moved back to Monticello. I attended Monticello High School from grades 8-11. During the summer months, I had the opportunity to work at a variety of blue-collar jobs involving grounds keeping, construction, farming, and ranching. These jobs taught me hard work, as well as how to deal with physical pain and discomfort. They also taught me the satisfaction that came from a job well done. While in high school, my main chore was to chop, stack, and replenish our wood supply for our home’s wood-burning stove. I loved my job as the family fire builder and maintenance man, and was usually reliable in attending to my chores.

In 1995, I began a two-year stint as a newspaper correspondent for the Blue Mountain Panorama, a small-town weekly serving Blanding and Monticello, Utah; my professional writing career had begun. At this same time, my academic performance largely floundered as a result of OCD, struggles with math and science, poor study habits, and a preference for athletics over academics.

I began experiencing OCD symptoms at age 10. They became increasingly severe at age 12. Unfortunately, I was not clinically diagnosed until I was 17. These intervening 4-5 years were, in many ways, hellish.

From ages 8-18, I was involved in scouting, first as a Cub Scout, and later as a Boy Scout. At age 18, I received my Eagle Scout Award. Scouting taught and reinforced many important SAL lessons I was learning at home and school, and further instilled within me the importance of consciously developing character traits such as honesty, integrity, duty, discipline, consistency, formality, obedience to authority, a strong work ethic, patriotism, and a positive attitude.

In 1997, following my junior year in high school, I moved to Spokane, Washington to live with my oldest brother and his wife for my senior year. This move was motivated by my pursuit of an athletic opportunity in a larger school and classification.

It also paved the way for me to better deal with my OCD by vacating an increasingly negative home experience that had soured in recent years due to my parent’s deteriorating relationship. I graduated from Joel E. Ferris High School in Spokane, Washington in 1998. Following high school, I served a voluntary, two-year mission for my Church in Alberta, Canada.

In 2001, I began college at Brigham Young University as a visiting student for the spring and summer terms. BYU had rejected my application as a regular, full-time student due to poor grades and an average ACT score, so I enrolled at Utah Valley State College (now Utah Valley University) during fall and winter semesters. As a college student, I was never one to “let school get in the way of my education.”[1] I was not a partier (I don’t even drink alcohol), but I did seek out a variety of educational opportunities involving athletics, theatre, film, part-time work, babysitting for—and spending time with—family members, dating, and attending speeches and presentations on campus and throughout the community.

In May 2003, I graduated with my Bachelor’s degree in English after going to school year-round for 27 consecutive months. The day after completing my degree, I fulfilled a personal dream to live in the American South. Enamored by Civil War history, Southern hospitality, warmer climates – including humidity--and various other romantic notions, I went forth to seek my fortunes in Atlanta, Georgia.

I spent six months in Georgia on my first go-round. I lived with my cousins and worked for them part-time in their software business. I also got a job as a retail salesman in a FranklinCovey store at a mall for about four months. In addition, I taught my first seminar on personal leadership at Lassiter High School in Marietta--a pro bono gig.

In early 2004, I returned to Utah and got a job as an Assistant to the Director of the Center for the Advancement of Leadership at my Alma Mater. During this time I began proactively developing my seminar business, and taught over 60 pro bono gigs for middle, high school, and college aged audiences.

In 2005, I founded my company—Freedom Focused, LLC—and became a full-time entrepreneur. In December of that year, I decided to move back to Georgia where I continued building my business in a bigger market. In 2006, I published my first book: I Am Sovereign: The Power of Personal Leadership--a self-leadership guide for teenagers. Although I made some encouraging progress, my leap of faith did not pan out as I had hoped. Out of money and deeply in debt, I spent 16 months doing whatever work I could find to make ends meet. Odd jobs I picked up included childcare, substitute teaching, grounds keeping, temp work, and drying cars for a car washing business. With a little help from family members and my Church, I managed to eat and keep a roof over my head while narrowly skirting bankruptcy and barely retaining possession of my car.

In 2006, I met Lina Tucker, my wife-to-be. We dated for about a year and then got engaged. We were married in 2008. I began facilitating professional seminars around the country in 2007. Lina graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in 2009 with a Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering.

Shortly after her graduation, we moved to Houston, Texas, where Lina started work with a Fortune 100 Company in the energy industry. With the tanking economy, my contract training work dried up. To adjust, I pursued and acquired a position teaching 9th Grade English at Cypress-Ridge High School in Houston. In June 2009, I started a doctoral program in Education at Fielding Graduate University--a distance education program out of Santa Barbara, CA.

During my year at Cy-Ridge, my wife received a work transfer to St. John’s, Newfoundland Canada. In 2010, we relocated to St. John’s for two years during which time I worked on my doctoral degree and continued contract-training work in Canada.

In the spring of 2012, we returned to Houston. In the fall of 2012, I published my second book: Psalms of Life: A Poetry Collection.

In March 2013, I finished my Doctorate in education, we bought our our first house, and Lina gave birth to our first child—a delightful baby boy. In March 2015, Lina gave birth to our second child—a beautiful baby girl.

I am now 35 years old. I have moved 41 times in my life. These moves have taken me to 38 different addresses in five States and two Provinces of Canada spanning five different time zones. I have attended ten different schools. I have had 37 different positions of employment (many temporary) spanning a dozen different industries. Five of these positions were entrepreneurial-based; 31 were wage-earning positions, all of which added texture and richness to my overall education and life experiences as I strove to pursue my ultimate goal to become an international thought leader with expertise in teaching, writing, and corporate organization and leadership.

Like most people, my life has been a tale of triumph and trial, sorrow and success, anticipation, achievement, and even ecstasy mixed together with a full measure of agony, anxiety, and failure. Despite the many, deep trials I have faced, I consider my life to have been richly blessed. I was born of goodly parents into a loving family that resided in unusually peaceful parts of the world. While most of my life was not marked by financial abundance, I consider myself to be exceedingly rich in relationships, education, opportunities, memories, conscience, and an intra-personal will to self-lead. While the difficulties of OCD and other life challenges have tested me to my core, the bulwark of these riches has provided an indomitable defense that has held strong, allowing my trials to refine my skills and expand my influence.

AUTOETHNOGRAPHY AS RESEARCH METHOD

The term, "Autoethnography" is used by academics to refer to the systematic study and research of one's own life. The field of autoethnography has derived from ethnography—the study of individual groups of people—which in turn evolved out of the field of anthropology (the study of human cultures). 

In my doctoral dissertation, I conducted an autoethnographic research study whereby I carefully analyzed my life’s journey to see what I might learn about self-leadership and action research. My goal was to synthesize the data in order to create an original theory and model of self-leadership that might benefit others. The result is the SAL theory & model presented in this book.

I began collecting data for this expansive autoethnographic research project in 1987 as a young diarist over two decades before I began my doctoral work. I can, in large measure, thank my Dad for my journaling predilections. Dad began writing in a daily diary while in high school. He persisted in his journaling habit with an unusual devotion for decades thereafter. In the late 1980s, when I was just a boy, he had his journals copied and bound in matching red covers. On the spine he had his name and the year(s) emblazoned in gold lettering. These dozen or so 8” x 11” volumes, along with his growing number of Franklin Day Planner binders (where he penned his journals beginning in 1983) made an attractive addition to his office library. I received my first Franklin Day Planner in 1987 as an 8-year old second grader (see image below).

A lover of the written word from before I could even read, I was a regular patron of Dad’s home library, and quickly noticed his impressive-looking, professionally bound journals. He generously granted me permission to read them, and I forthwith began to explore his life through the pages of his voluminous diaries. These perusals provided fascinating journeys into the past where I came to know, love, and respect my father on a level that would have been impossible without his written records.

I keep many different kinds of journals, records, and lists. One of them I call my Emerson Journal, in honor of Ralph Waldo Emerson--an avid journaler and one of my literary and philosophical mentors. In my Emerson Journals, I record poetical thoughts as well as musings on philosophy, theology, religion, and Self-Action Leadership. Beginning in 2001, whenever a meaningful thought would enter my mind, I strove to pen it in my Emerson Journal.

I was amazed at the regularity of my receipt of new thoughts once I made a serious commitment to record them. Sometimes a thought would arrive late at night after I had already retired for bed, and I would feel compelled to get myself out of bed, turn on the light, grab a pen, and jot the information down. Other times inspiration would hit me while I was driving, and I’d likewise feel prompted to pull my car to the side of the road, extract my Little Black Book and pen from my pocket, and properly record whatever inspiration I had received before continuing my drive. I began carrying my pen and notebook around with me religiously, not knowing when the next gem of thought would enter my brain. Between 2002-2006, my mind was particularly flooded with thoughts, ideas, and inspiration, and my Emerson Journals grew to fill 22 “little black books” (4.5 x 3.25 inch, 160 pages).

This probably sounds as much like OCD as it does inspiration, and invariably, both forces were regular contributors to this project. I thank God for the inspiration because I believe He is the Source of it. And I thank certain OCD-related practices, which, when properly managed and directed have proven enormously helpful in the completion of any sizable project I have undertaken. In truth, I probably could not have developed the SAL theory or model, much less written this book, without some of my OCD-influenced intensity and other personal proclivities. There is always a silver lining to every life challenge. I hope this book helps you discover your own life's “silver linings,” for they are there—many and varied—if you are willing to search them out.

And now, without further ado or introduction, let's move on to Chapter 4, where you will begin your formal study of the Self-Action Leadership theory.

Next Blog Post ~ Tuesday, January 20, 2015 ~ Chapter 4: Your World


[1] A favorite saying of my mother and maternal grandfather, also attributed to Mark Twain and Benjamin Disraeli.

Something Worth Doing Before Dec. 31st

With my marathons now behind me, it is time to turn my attention to more important matters… MUCH more important matters.

If I were a betting man, I’d wager good money on the fact that you love your Country and are concerned about the direction it has been heading.

And I’d guess that over the years, you have received no small portion of e-mails from well intentioned people seeking ardently, but less effectively, to do something about it by letting their voice be heard by forwarding along partisan propaganda filled with partial truths, half truths, or even outright lies that their senders failed to properly vet before forwarding them along to you.

Regardless how passionate you feel about the issues, you’ve probably found yourself growing weary of the steady stream of “junk political e-mails” that litter your inbox, and come to habitually delete most of them without a second glance. You may have even grown sufficiently annoyed to ask your “Friend” to remove you from his/her mailing list.

Many of you may have also gotten to the point where you avoid watching most news programs because of the bitter, strident, and even childish bickering that often fills the airwaves as the Media fights on in their acrid civil war.

In your heart, you wish there was something you could do to let YOUR voice be heard in support of character, conscience, liberty, and the Constitution, but in the hustle and bustle of daily life that swarms you with family, career, church, social, and personal obligations, you doubt there is much you can really do that would make any substantive difference.

For many years now, I have experienced these same emotions and frustrations. The past several years, however, I have discovered something I CAN do about it. The purpose of this e-mail is to share with you my plan, and ask for your support by simply reading the rest of this e-mail.

I believe that most fair-minded people of conscience can sense viscerally that the fundamental issues facing contemporary nations, governments, organizations, schools, homes, and individuals are not rooted primarily in policy problems, but in a bankruptcy of character. Policy, of course, is an outgrowth of character, but before institutional policies can be changed, or widespread cultures altered, individual character must be purified. My expertise is not in policy or culture. I do, however, know a thing or two about character; hence, this is where I have opted to make my contribution. This contribution has been many years in coming. For instance:

• Since I was eight years old, I have been deeply interested in the subject of character development. About that same time, I attended my first time management seminar, and began using my first Franklin Day Planner to organize my time as well as to identify, clarify, and prioritize my values, and set goals for personal development and self-improvement. 
• For the past 28 years, I have been, for better or worse, OBSESSED with my own character development, and how I might become an effective voice that could inspire others to become their best selves. 
• For the past 25 years, I have been diligently studying history and the work of experts in the fields of philosophy, theology, philology, self-help, and personal development. 
• For the past 13 years, I have been striving earnestly to develop a new theory and model of self-leadership that encapsulates the holism of my own thinking on the subject. 
• Over the past 5 years, I have completed a Doctoral degree in Education, written a 1,150-page dissertation, and an 802-page book in an effort to clearly articulate this newly developed Theory & Model. 

This coming January, I will be publishing an extensive revision – a more readable version – of this combined work, a project in which I have invested literally thousands of unpaid hours of labor over the course of many years.

I have also consulted with and received feedback and input from many wise, capable, and experienced individuals. This feedback has helped shape the final product into something I am very confident in, and proud of.

Those familiar with Physics have likely heard of String Theory, or a Theory of Everything. Such postulated theories attempt to isolate all the laws of science down into one fundamental premise, sort of like the Theory of Relativity does for the Law of Gravity, but with a far more expansive and comprehensive scope in mind.

You might say that my ambition has been to do something similar in the field of self-help and personal development. I have undoubtedly failed to perfectly achieve such an audacious ambition. Nevertheless, in making the attempt, I can say with confidence I have been successful in distilling a clear and vital message out of a sea of constituent truisms about living life effectively. I say this in all humility, recognizing – often painfully so – that I regularly fall short of the very ideals I put forth in my comprehensive work. The chasm between understanding & articulating theory and effectively undergoing practice is often very wide.

The purpose of this e-mail is NOT to ask you to buy my book. There is no need for that, because beginning on its date of publication in late January of next year, I am going to be giving it away for FREE in serial installments on my blog. This is in honor of one of my literary mentors—Charles Dickens—who often published his novels, including his wildly famous, A Tale of Two Cities, a chapter at a time in English newspapers before releasing it in book form. Those who read my book, serially or otherwise, will notice a touch of Dickens here and there in my own work.

Leading up to its date of publication, I will be publishing two (2) blog posts per week (on Mondays & Thursdays) that provide sneak peaks of what the manuscript has to offer. These sneak peaks will introduce and outline the book, and provide inspiring messages to uplift you in your daily journey through life.

Beginning January 5th, I will send out WEEKLY blog posts with chapters (or chapter sections), which will typically be readable in about 20 minutes. These weekly blog posts will continue until the entire book is made available serially online.

This letter serves as the first blog post. A schedule for subsequent blog posts throughout the remainder of this year is provided at the end of this post.

And now… I have TWO very simple requests of YOU,

my dear family members, friends, and colleagues.

First, please sign up to receive my Free Blog Posts. If you have already signed up, you are set. If you are not yet signed up, and if you desire to receive blog posts in the future, simply click on the link below and add your e-mail address on the right hand side of the page where it says: “Follow by E-mail,” and then click “Submit.” You will then begin receiving future Blog Posts in your e-mail inbox. And don’t worry, I will not sign up anyone against your will; this is a 100% voluntary invitation.

Click Here to Sign up to Receive Dr. Jensen’s Freedom Focused Blog Articles

Second, if you believe this is something that others in your family or social circle would appreciate receiving on a bi-weekly and then weekly basis, please e-mail, facebook, tweet, etc., them and encourage them to also sign up for the blog.

That’s it!

I feel confident you will find the blog posts both interesting and inspiring in a way that brightens your hope for your future, as well as the future of our great, albeit presently declining, nation—a country I dearly love and intend to do everything in my power to make certain Her greatest days are before us instead of behind us. In addition, you may read things that will help you in your own self-leadership endeavors, as well as to gain ideas about what you might do to further promote the causes you feel most passionately about in defense of truth, virtue, liberty, character, and freedom.

I close with an excerpt from my book’s Afterword, which was written by Dr. David G. Anthony, the CEO of Raise Your Hand Texas, and the former Superintendent of the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District (the 3rd largest school district in Texas and one of the top 25 largest school district in America). A few additional endorsement quotes from leadership scholars around the Country are included as well:

“Reading [Jordan’s] book may be the most worthwhile thing you do this year. I hope the message of Self-Action Leadership makes its way into the minds and hearts of students, parents, and business professionals everywhere. Its presence in the literature is a service to our Country.”  

~ David G. Anthony, Ed.D., CEO of Raise Your Hand Texas

“There is no more important contributor to your own effectiveness than how you lead yourself. If you want to learn a great deal about the latest thinking on self-leadership, read this book.” 

~ Charles C. Manz, Ph.D: The University of Massachusetts, co-author of Mastering Self-Leadership: Empowering Yourself for Personal Excellence, and Father of the self-leadership field in the Academe

“Jensen has accomplished a task that is very difficult for any author to achieve, and that is to produce a single text that is highly relevant to multiple audiences at the same time. Because of the universal applicability of basic self-leadership principles, his message is germane not only to persons struggling with OCD, depression, or other forms of mental illness, but to civic leaders, business professionals and workers of all kinds, educators, students, parents, and children—in short, to everyone. Indeed, I do believe that virtually anyone who reads this book will be able to take something away from it that will improve his or her life in a significant way. In the process, it might even touch emotions in your heart that will move you to joy and tears. It takes a talented writer to do all of these things, so I know you’ll enjoy reading this book. More importantly, I know you’ll come away a wiser person with an increased motivation to begin taking action to realize your own Self-Action Leadership potential, an opportunity we can all take full advantage of, if only we will.” 

~ Christopher P. Neck, Ph.D. : University Master Teacher, Arizona State University, and co-author of Self-Leadership: Empowering Yourself for Personal Excellence and Management

"While a number of books and articles have been written on the topic of self-leadership, Jordan Jensen’s Self-Action Leadership goes deep below the surface level of basic self-leading strategies and accompanying examples to provide an in-depth examination of how self-leadership processes can be woven effectively into the fabric of one’s life. A deeply personal and richly emotive narrative, Self-Action Leadership takes the reader on a journey of self-discovery, providing one of the most detailed and applied treatments of self-leadership concepts currently available." 

~ Jeffery D. Houghton, Ph.D.: West Virginia University, Associate Professor of Management, & leading self-leadership Scholar.

“Jordan Jensen has written a thorough, intense, and illuminating autobiographical volume about how to lead self. His story, compounded by OCD and a determination to improve, will help others reflect on how they might best lead themselves – given whatever genetic endowment or mimetic inheritance they may have received. Jordan’s depth of analysis and self-insight will inspire others to take a similarly in-depth review of who they are who they want to be—at least once before they die—a journey well worth the effort.”  

~ James G.S. Clawson, Ph.D.: The Darden Graduate School, The University of Virginia, and author of Level 3 Leadership: Getting Below the Surface.