Jonathan Nation

A New Season Starts Today

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[audio:https://www.jonathannation.com/jon0008new-season.mp3]
[download MP3 – 9:53]

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.

Read the post by Jonathan on Seasons at AllyNation.com

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 I’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.

Listening Today

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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.

Attention Economy on SAHceo

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It’s been a busy month, already. This morning I am thrilled that I had a flash of creativity & pounded out a short article for Stay At Home CEO.

Already this month we have traveled over 1,000 miles. One 8 hour of drive time turned into 12 hours door to door … in the driving rain. The other direction was 10.25 hours door to door.

Of the next few weeks of December we have more traveling & family coming in to stay with us. It’s all a wonderful time of the year, but many things are fighting for my money, energy, time, and attention.

I’m trying to be careful with it & in turn think about what others around me. They probably have just as many things fighting for their attention, time, energy, money, and other resources.

I’m pretty happy with how this post turned out & the artwork I managed to put together with it. Thanks for your attention & if you want to go a step farther comment or share this post with someone else who is trying to do too much.

Location Independence – posted on SAHceo

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For years I’ve valued having Location Independence in the work I was doing.

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.

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

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