Jonathan Nation

Facing The Unknown

by

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?

Random Car Show in IL

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.

Lake Erie

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.

Diamond Mining

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.

Norfolk, VA


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.

Houston Space Center

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.


Christmas Fun [Best Shot]

by

The shot today might not technically be the best, but as are all of my [Best Shot] series, it’s the one that means the most to me.

Today, I got a alot of shooting time in.

We celebrated Christmas with much of my family & I managed to play with our camera much of the day.

One thing that I noticed is that a lot of my shots from today were really bad because I had a setting incorrect on the camera. At the same time, there were many great shots.

This best shot for today was cropped & some text added … nothing else (kinda one of my goals with these).

I might share more from today later.

Trust & Direction -or- Shooting F*B

by

Recently Facebook changed their privacy policy significantly, beyond that, they showed the future they are attempting to build – or a part of their soul.

I must go back to why I started using Facebook instead of Vox.com.

Two primary reasons I liked Vox.com:

1. privacy settings – most of my posts were set for “only me & my wife”. My extended family was on Vox.com & we shared with only those we wanted.

2. simplicity – Vox.com was easy enough that all my family could handle it, especially the privacy and security options.

Eventually I set up a Facebook account, but did not use it much. Then, one day, the option to do friend groups/lists on Facebook & post stuff only for specific people or lists appeared.

I was thrilled.

I started pushing my friends and family to set up Facebook Accounts; it was simple & secure enough and focused on sharing with small groups of friends. Friend Lists were a little difficult to teach people to use, but over time many people got it.


Issues Today

I have two fundamental issues with Facebook:

  1. I no longer trust them with my friends & family
  2. I do not like the direction they want to go

There are many potential business models for a company like Facebook. Wanting to push everyone to share more and more is understandable.

In fact, sharing has great value, both to the company and the individuals.

Yet, that was not the deal I signed up for.

It would be similar to my favorite Pizza Place suddenly turning into an Italian Pasta Place. The food might be similar …. it might have a similar atmosphere, but the product that I went there for fundamentally changed.

BUT, there is that new “easy” security System!!!!

Yes, they set up this simple page.

My short view of the *new* privacy settings page is – it was a needed step, but does not really hit the two issues I have & is more complicated than they said it would be. You do not “one click” to turn off the apps or the instant personalization & you should. You also should go through lots of customization options.

My Plan

I cannot bring myself to totally leave Facebook at this moment.

If not for any other reason, when the great Facebook replacement(s) come along, I want to be able to help bring my friends and family over. It is also my only contact point to many people today & I believe in reaching people where they want to be reached.

Thus, my plan is:

1. focusing on JonathanNation.com — de-emphasising facebook

2. stopping actively using F*B – deleting from book marks I auto open each day – and removing the icon from my home screen on my phone & developing a system to auto shove posts of mine into facebook

3. show people ways to achieve their goals without using Facebook

Basically I am going back to the concept of a personal hub. My personal brand/website that I control – JonathanNation.com

It just happens that I drifted into primarily sharing stuff with the world on Facebook for a while.

I am also going to continue to coach people in developing their own personal brand.

Giving Thanks

by

Rule #1: When the world goes flat, and you are feeling flattened, reach for a shovel and dig inside yourself. Don’t try to build walls.

~ Thomas L. Friedman, The World is Flat

Sitting on some clifs above the Stones River

Sitting on some cliffs above the Stones River

There are many different ways to approach a challenge, issue, problem, or opportunity, but one of the common ones is taught in life guarding:

  1. Survey the scene – you need to grasp what is going on, the status quo, and what resources are available.
  2. Check the individuals – the general question is “Are you OK?” – gathering more information on more specific parts of a scene that you cannot get from a distance.
  3. Call for help – contact 9-1-1 or Emergency responders, or the appropriate professionals who are better equipped to help long term.
  4. Preform additional evaluation & take action

Going into the Thanksgiving holiday, third weekend in November in my part of the world, I try to do a similar approach as if I was an outsider approaching the scene of my current life. It is vitally important that on a regular basis I take time to reflect on a deeper level then I normally do. It is necessary for me to review my days, weeks and months soon after they happen, but mostly to keep account of what happened, this period of time is different. It’s to force me into looking at longer periods of time, comparing to the goals I had set, and seeing not the individual threads in the rug of my life, but the big picture the best I can.

The goal: To reflect on this past year, find the good parts [the wins], and be thankful for it all.

First I take time to look at the past year and the major changes that occurred over the last 12 to 16 months. Then I look closer at the seven areas I view my life. By the time I celebrate Thanksgiving I should have a good list of accomplishments, treasures, moments, and praises both for me and for others. After Thanksgiving I typically go to work on steps 3 and 4 with goal setting, education planning, and targeted networking, but this writing is focused on just the first two: Surveying the Scene & Checking the Individual parts of a life.

Over the next 20 days or so, the plan is to write about what I am focusing on, maybe not at the exact time, but on a regular basis releasing a new item or area. To get started, the seven areas of life are:

  • physical – taking care of your body is important
  • mental – your mind determines much of your abilities and how far you will go
  • spiritual – deep inside you, you know there is something you don’t observe in the physical
  • production – career, jobs, it all comes down to providing or producing value to someone else
  • personal finances – inflows and outflows of money, dealing with giving, spending, and saving
  • family – the closest people around you, no matter if they are biologically related or not
  • social & community – the broader group of people you interact with on a regular basis

You made it this far …

I am always looking to me more leaders, linchpins, and problem solvers. We need more people to take on a business owner mindset, to seek out pains and problems then find ways to provide value to others.

Let's connect.

~Jonathan Nation

Connect with Me