Jonathan
I'm Jonathan and I pride myself on living a principled life. I believe "knuckle sandwich" is the answer to everything, wrestling turns a frown upside down, Sunday back rubs are a great tradition, and education will make a change. My goal is to inspire and help you find your purpose.
Fighting Depression & Anxiety
What I am about to write is one of the most difficult things I have ever expressed publicly, but I feel called to do so. The idea for this blog post started off as a simple list of things that have helped me combat my depression and anxiety, and I think they will help many others. These things should be easy enough to share; however, to start talking about them I feel I must first pass through the ordeal of publicly admitting that I struggle with mental health issues. I’m not entirely certain why this is so hard for me to write. In part it is the stigma and shame…
Leaders Play Hurt
I remember vividly sitting around the TV with my family in 1993 watching the Phoenix Suns in the NBA finals against the Chicago Bulls. Two things stand out most about this memory. Firstly – my mom screams while rooting for athletics. She can be a rowdy fan! Secondly was the awe I felt while watching Charles Barkley rise through an injury to lead the team. This memory really stands out, because Charles Barkley was originally very excited to come to the Suns, hoping he wouldn’t have to be the team leader like he was for the 76ers. He was looking forward to being a strong support for Kevin Johnson and…
Inspiration: Catch It. Spread It!–10 Days of Inspiration
Today I watched happily as my youngest daughter, Faythe, followed her older sister, Dyllan, around. They worked together to design clothes for a teddy bear. Dyllan put everything together on the sewing machine. Every parent has experienced more than his or her fair share of days full of fighting and arguing, so even though the house was a mess, I was content to watch the bonding occurring this morning. I must have been inspired because without thinking about it I ended up washing dishes for my son. While he rinsed, I watched my daughters and asked Ashlee to snap a picture to record the sweet moment. I wondered why they…
A Leader is a Dealer of Hope–10 Days of Inspiration
I was excited when Ashlee invited me to write about somebody who inspires me, but for some reason I have procrastinated writing this article. At least a dozen different times I have sat down at the computer without writing. I finally realized why I was struggling so much. The person I decided to write about is former NFL player, David Vobora. I don’t care much about sports, but David Vobora is one of the most inspiring people I’ve learned about. I’m a huge fan of his story, of what he is doing at his foundation, and the impact he is having on the world. I fear that whatever words I…
First Athlete With Cerebral Palsy To Sign With Nike
Right in the feels… Do what you love. No excuses.
Lessons from The Jungle Books
Today I finished reading The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling. I enjoyed the variety of stories and the way they demonstrated different cultures and principles. The last story deals with Mowgli’s transition from the feral young lord of the jungle to a maturing “man cub”. He feels stirrings in his soul that he doesn’t understand, but the wisest animals of the jungle realize that it is the call of Mowgli’s heritage to be who he always was – a human. Interestingly, they recognize him as both their lord of the jungle and tell him that he will always be so, but they also tell him that it is time…
Lessons From The Mat: Imagination vs Reality
“What had started as make-believe was now very real.” -from The Phantom Tollbooth. It is very likely that you will hear a lot about Jiu-Jitsu from me. I started training about 5 months ago and I absolutely love it. Jiu-Jitsu is one of the most powerful opportunities I have come across to develop the mind, body, and character. The short amount of time that I have trained has provided me with many opportunities to make connections between experiences and principles both on and off the mat. It has also helped lessons learned in the past come rushing to the forefront of my mind as I struggle with a…
5 Reasons why becoming an entrepreneur is the most effective way to promote the cause of liberty
PREFACE: This is a topic that has been near to my heart for a long time, but the decision to write this came after listening to several episodes of a fantastic podcast that nails this theme over and over. The podcast is called Society and the State by Connor Boyack and Bryan Hyde, who are both extremely intelligent and principled guys that are making a difference in powerful ways. If you skip reading this and just go listen to them by clicking here, you would be in great hands! I believe that with the more liberty we have the better off the world will be. Liberty is defined differently by different people. For simplicity’s sake and…
The best FLIPping month ever!
I finished reading FLIP the Gratitude Switch by Kevin Clayson. I first heard of Kevin and his book on the Becoming Your Best podcast. It’s a great podcast about success principles behind the transformation we undergo in order to become the best versions of ourselves. They interview lots of super successful people in a variety of industries that exemplify these principles. The episode with Kevin Clayson can be listened to here. In all honesty, I wasn’t expecting much from the book. Mr. Clayson sent me a free copy, and my assumption was that another self-promoting, struggling author/coach was just hoping for some traction in his struggle to get his empire off the…
Cultivating and Attitude of Gratitude
I love that we get to experience things in patterns! Often I learn a new principle or I am reminded of something I knew previously, and suddenly I have several experiences, conversations, or other exposures to that exact principle within the next days to weeks. This just happened this week. Just a couple of days ago, I posted my weekly video which was about Reframing. That same day I decided to finally get around to reading the book: FLIP the Gratitude Switch by Kevin Clayson. (I don’t remember the exact manner in which this happened, but Kevin sent me a copy of his book with a personalized note in it.) FLIP the Gratitude…
