A number of readers have expressed interest in knowing more about me personally. That’s fair, after all why should you tell me about your personal life if you don’t know anything about mine?
I guess my tendency is, not to talk very much about myself. The truth is, I’m more interested in you than I am in me. But fair is fair, so here goes.
As I think back, I recognize that I owe my parents a great deal of gratitude. From the time I was very small I was taught that I could accomplish anything I wanted to in life. What an advantage that one teaching has proved to be. Because of it, I have viewed my entire life as a great adventure full of promise and opportunity.
Many people spend their lifetime coping with the disempowering beliefs they were taught as children. As I work with these people to help them break those limiting thought patterns, I am constantly grateful for my own beginnings. Parents, please take note, make a choice to empower your children.
All my life I’ve been passionate about health and fitness, and exploring the limits of human potential. From a young age, I noticed that people’s emotions and accomplishments varied greatly according to how they viewed any situation. Here’s an example from my young life: When I was seven, my parents told me I was adopted and explained exactly what that meant. I analyzed the situation and decided that it was an advantage. Why? Because I reasoned that my parents had a choice, and I was the beneficiary of that choice. Many who find themselves in a similar situation feel a big void in their life. To me it felt like a blessing.
Another advantage I had as a young person was that my mother was a self taught nutritionist. So while other kids were eating Sugar Pops, we were eating whole grains and taking vitamins every day. As a teenager, I formed an affinity for working out and eating right, which continues to this day. Again, I consider my nutritional awareness to be a gift from my childhood.
By the time I was 21 I had escaped Southern California, purchased a large tract of land in rural Southern Oregon, and set about building the life of my dreams.
How could I do all this at such a young age? Because I believe that nothing was impossible, and I constantly acted on that belief. That was more than 30 years ago and to this day, I still believe that life is a great adventure full of promise and opportunity.
In the course of those 30 years I met and married the woman of my dreams, raise children, and explored personal growth and development on every level.
Through my coaching practice I have had the joy and privilege of helping people all over the world to overcome a wide range of physical and emotional challenges. Advanced Life Skills is the hub of my online activities and it also gives me the opportunity to provide free help to anyone looking to make positive changes in the quality of their life.
Well, now you probably know more about me than I do about you. So I guess it’s your turn. Please, leave some feedback. Let’s do this personal growth and development thing together. I am pleased to respond to all comments as time permits. I am also available for personal or professional one-on-one coaching at Breakthrough Strategy Coaching.
Here’s to developing Advanced Life Skills together,
Jonathan Wells
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I owe a lot of my world view and successes to my parent as well.
I wasn’t adopted, but I did grow up in a “broken” family… My parents divorced when I was very young, so I grew up accepting that I didn’t live with my mother. My father was very scientifically and spiritually minded, and taught me to always ask why, even if the answer seems impossible or not worth knowing.
The answer to why the sky is blue may seem inconsequential… after all, what good would that knowledge do, since we can’t change the color of the sky? Yet, understanding the basic principles of light, reflection, absorption, and refraction has led to lasers, and ultimately to our modern computers.
I grew up with computers in my house, unlike many of my peers. My father was one of the early network administrators, and passed the fundamental understanding of computers down to me… Operating a computer is second nature to me, just like driving a car. I don’t have special knowledge, just an undying interest.
I was also a soldier in the U.S. Army from 1999 to 2004… That gave me the perspective and drive to devote my life to peace. Nobody prays for peace as hard as those inside the war.
While my devotion to peace will never waver, the time for me to document my journey towards peace seems to be coming to an end. However, I can still pursue my passions, and I am starting up a new project, devoted to helping people learn how to harness computers in ways they never imagined they could. I’m starting a new project, taking the best elements from blogging and combining them with the best elements of formal learning, and applying them towards several tutorials on software development.
It’s an idea that I hope other people will steal, and apply to their own areas of expertise… I’m still developing the software that will run this type of site, so it may be a few months before people would be able to “steal” my software and start a “tangent-rich hyper-textbook.” Then again, my idea may be a terrible one, not worth stealing…
Only time will tell.