Jonathan Nation

Reflect, Thank; Dream, Plan

November 1, 2021 by jon

At this point, in 2021, my wife and I have been married for over 18 years. She is a medical professional & professor with a Doctorate. I advise leaders who impact thousands directly and millions indirectly. We have multiple business ventures. We produce a lot and help a ton of people.  We have elementary aged children, and would not have lasted together if it were not for a few of our practices we do monthly and annually. 

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. 

Filed Under: core, fb, featured, Giving Thanks, life, systems, text Tagged With: dream, Jonathan Nation, plan, reflect, rtdp, thanksgiving

Sunrise Options

May 20, 2020 by jon

The countdown is complete
Today is the day
Another cycle around the earth in this strange way

Birds are singing 
Owls are loud

The sun has not yet broken through the clouds

The past has passed
Today is a new day

How shall I measure success when I reach this moment a year away? 

Differences unfelt, yet real all the same

Birds sing of hope with this brand new day
Light grows brighter, owl flys away. 

Will I be intentional or just ride this ship today

Day by day I have this choice 
Hide in the darkness or step into the light

Own who I am, strengths and flaws 
Or aim for the shadows, darkness and fog

This spaceship is spinning faster than I realize

It will be back her in a blink of an eye 

Now is the chance
Take it or not

Build, experiment & train … or focus on snot

A day will never be the same
A question that is not

Will I be the same or will I build with what I got? 

100% safe is impossible
Unless you aim for nothing at all

Dream, again, decide and take the first step
Follow it up again and again

When the earth reaches the same spot you will have progressed with those you have brought

Celebrate now
Celebrate then
The path forward starts in your head
Accelerated with each friend

Few might get you, that is ok

Your path is different and special today. 

You choose intentional, joy & light
A life sweet as honey and ready for a fight

Obstacles are either hindrances or challenges to help you prepare
Difference is in between your ears

Countdown restarts
Another year today 

How similar will you be from the start of today? 

Aim Higher
Aim Bigger


Start with your room
Your bed
Your plate, eat better food
Move your body, weights or dance

Write down your dreams and share your plans. 

In a year, then two, five and ten. 

The earth might be in the same position yet you will never be again. 

~Jonathan Nation 
2020-05-20

Filed Under: featured, life, mine Tagged With: joy, life, path, sunrise

Early Wins To Bigger Wins

December 1, 2019 by jon

“Win the morning … Win the day”

I’ve heard this mindset in many ways over many years. 

It’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 I’m at my best I’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

Filed Under: core, featured, mine, text Tagged With: best, coaching, morning, savers, win, winning

Month of Change

November 1, 2019 by jon

November marks a time of change. 

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

Filed Under: featured, mine, text

Facing The Unknown

April 26, 2019 by jon

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.


Filed Under: core, fb, featured, home top 6, mine, photography, text Tagged With: family, fear, kids, loving, parenting, respect, to do, unknown

Next Page »
  • News
    • Quotations
    • Status Updates
  • Contact
  • Connect
  • About

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

Copyright © 2022 · based on Agency Pro Theme supported by AllyNation · Log in