Gregory Paul Johnson – Personal Update 200904 | 30 April 2009 | Thursday
Summary. There’s quite a bit of new news this month, particularly in the categories of Activism and Lifeways. For the first time in 9 years, the life categories are now listed alphabetically rather than listed in order of increasing interdependence described on the map page.
- Activism. The ResourcesForLife.com website (my primary means of activism) has had significant upgrades including an online community and an online virtual meeting center capable of hosting an interactive multimedia event with up to 6 streaming video cameras, 25 attendees (via computer) and hundreds of people in attendance by phone. This online training center will also allow me to provide remote support to people around the world. This past month, I also launched three Internet-based online high-definition television video distribution stations through Blip.tv, Vimeo.com, and YouTube. Another feature just added is the ability for people to easily subscribe to and share (promote) ResourcesForLife.com content. This allows me and any site visitors to announce site content on over 40 social networks. Also new is photography syndication which means my photography will be simultaneously published from Apple iPhoto out to Apple MobileMe iWeb, Apple MobileMe Photo Gallery, Facebook, Flickr, Google Blogspot, and Google Picasaweb. My book, Put Your Life on a Diet, continues to do well, and I’ve added an online community area for discussions about it as well as a place for positive feedback. I see the most effective use of my time is through my online presence through the ResourcesForLife.com website. With regard to activism, I believe that the answer is to live the answer. As such, lifestyle activism and becoming the media are the most powerful methods for impacting the world.
- Career. I’m thankful that my work at the University of Iowa is going well and my consulting business continues to be busy. My current clients continue to be wonderful to work with, and I’m also gaining some new ones. I’m very grateful.
- Effective Living. I’ve been deepening my understanding and practice of effectiveness principles, tools, and techniques. The website conversion is part of this effort. I have a renewed commitment to the Schedule for Life and the Holistic Living System which help to provide maximum effectiveness and efficiency.
- Finance. I continue to look for ways to decrease my regular expenses and increase my income. I continue investing in Kiva, an organization that loans money to the working poor of the world. I’ve also begun seeing some revenue come in from Google AdSense ads that I’ve placed at the bottom of a few pages on the website. Using Google AdSense ads allowed me to conduct a study of website advertising.
- Health. My weight continues to fluctuate, but remain basically the same. I’m thankful to have seen some progress with my percent body fat declining. I’m using the Nike+ and Apple iPod to keep track of my workouts and publish this information to my personal web page.
- Lifeways. After many years of having a fairly elaborate religious belief system, I’m now pursuing the development and practice of a way of life that would be founded entirely on “a life of action” based on principles of humanism, science, right action, and best practices. My goal is for this new life system to be in harmony with various religions and philosophies. For example, I will continue to abstain from eating pork. However, my basis for this won’t be in observance to the Torah, Bible, or Qur’an, but for health benefits, better agricultural land usage, and out of compassion for animal life. I’ll continue to be fond of and supportive of Judaism and Buddhism, my two favorite religions.
- Relationships. I continue to be grateful for the relationships I have with family, friends, colleagues, and clients. I’m keeping in regular touch with Makur and am thankful to have her in my life. Makur continues to be a great help with the Small House Society and also the computer consulting business.
Many thanks to all of you who are continuing to keep me in your thoughts, prayers, and meditation time. ~ Gregory
About the Personal Update
For about nine years, the first and most important communication I would send out each month would be a personal update covering seven areas of life described on the Map Page of the Resources for Life.com website. I reference this monthly practice in my Schedule for Life. Over the years, my personal updates went out each month to about 10 family members and friends who I consider to be my “advisory board” – a group of people with several hundred years of collective wisdom. As well as looking for feedback and guidance, I also saw these updates as a way of making a regular personal life assessment. As of September 2007, I began publishing these monthly updates here in my online Journal. The seven areas of my personal life have solidified in recent years, so there’s not much “news” to report, but as there is, I’ll report it here in these updates.