Chasing The Wild Goose

Responsiveness

One of my favorite bloggers, Michael Hyatt, wrote a great post recently on the Secret of his Success.

He said that he felt the secret to his success was responsiveness.  That's a great way to think of life, a series of responses.  For so many people, life breaks down at this point.  As Michael says,

So many people I meet are unresponsive. They don’t return their phone calls promptly. They don’t answer their emails quickly. They don’t complete their assignments on time. They promise to do something and never follow through. They have to be reminded, prodded, and nagged. This behavior creates work for everyone else and eats into their own productivity. Sadly, they seem oblivious to it.

Its a great article, and a great reminder on why its so important to respond well.  Read the whole article here.

Another blogger I really enjoy is Merlin Mann, who recently wrote a great post on Building a Smarter To-Do List.  I'm often reminded by how important it is to effectively manage your work-flow.  This is a great article to help you get started. I highly recommend Merlin's blog, as vital reading for anyone interested in staying effective.

Email Subscription Update

I've just switched to FeedBurner for this blog. You are probably thinking "What does this mean to me?"

Well, I want to make sure that you are never far away from the latest JonDale.com rant. If you want to receive my posts by email then use the link below.  If you use an RSS aggregator then use the link below.  If you are already receiving this by email, please use the link below and subscribe through the new system.  I'll be stopping the old system soon. 

Basically, you just need to click here to subscribe right now.  Go ahead, do it now.  Its easy.

Two Years and Still Ticking

So, Sunday was the two year anniversary of JonDale.com.  I thought I would take you on a quick journey down memory lane.

Here was my first post ever:

So, I have a blog now. Pretty cool I guess. Maybe I'll actually use it to keep everyone up to date on what's happening in the world of the Dales.

I saw a shirt that a guy was wearing the other night. Here's what it said, "God used to be my co-pilot, but we crashed in the mountains and I had to eat him."

It actually reminds me of another shirt that I used to own.  It read "Christ is coming, look busy."  However, over the years, my first post has probably not been the most popular.

By far the most popular post has been "Amazing Video - Spooky."  Somehow this got ranked high in the search engines and my site was getting slammed by people coming to watch this video.  It was sucking so much band-width that I finally linked to it on someone else's site.  If you decide to watch it, make sure that your speakers are turned up and watch it full screen if you can.

Probably my most controversial series of posts was entitled "Come on Girls, Get a Clue."  I'm not sure that I still agree with everything I wrote, but it was a fun conversation at the time.  If you'd like to read it, click here and then scroll to the bottom of the page to start reading the series from the beginning.

My longest post was the Recap of an Epic Summer Adventure.  I did it with lots of pictures so there isn't actually that much to read. 

The best feedback I received was from a "Bill the Canadian" who was pissed because I dared to try and hold a company accountable.  His comments were so good that I actually posted them along with my response for everyone to read.

Toward the end of the 2004 I changed my site name from "Rants of an Entrepreneur" to "Chasing the Wild Goose."  I found that some people were "Confused about the Wild Goose" so I recently offered an explanation of the new name.

My number of posts per month has dropped considerably over the years.  I guess its partly because I realize that there actually some people reading this site, and I don't want to waste their time (ironic when you look at this post).  However, I've really enjoyed the journey.  I've made several new friends around the world who have stumbled across the site and share common interests.

By far the best thing that has come from my blogging is the small part I've been able to play in inspiring my wife to start blogging.  Amy is a gifted writer and posts daily sharing the ongoing story of our family and her incredible insights on life.

If you don't blog yet, I'd encourage you to start, if for no other reason than it gives you a great way to look back on your journey.  Its exciting (and scary) to think that one day my grand-kids may be reading this.

So, I have a blog now. Pretty cool I guess. Maybe I'll actually use it to keep everyone up to date on what's happening in the world of the Dales.

I saw a shirt that a guy was wearing the other night. Here's what it said, "God used to be my co-pilot, but we crashed in the mountains and I had to eat him."

October in Review

Wow, this month has flown by.  I've managed to go almost the whole month without posting.

Its been a great month.  We had our first snow, a great family trip to YWAM Cimarron and I attended a Wild At Heart Advanced Retreat.

Here I am with my buddy Chris on a trail ride near Cimarron, CO.

Tonight we took the kids out trick or treating. It was about 32 degrees outside, so needless to say, we added some pants and a jacket to Anna's costume.  In a classic line, Anna said, "Can we go trick or treating in Texas next year."

Halloween, is the one night of the year when all our neighbors are expecting us to come by as a family and say "Hi."  I like that.

November is going to be another busy month.  Amy's sister Scarlett is getting married in Cimarron and then we'll be celebrating Thanksgiving with Amy's parents while they are up here.  In December, my sister, Becky is getting married and we have Christmas and New Years down in Texas & Oklahoma.

Jonathan and Amy Dale

This is the home page of Jonathan Dale.  I'm doing this post to try and help people find me through the search engines.  Sometimes people misspell my name as John Dale or correctly put it as Jon Dale.  My wife is Amy Dale (www.amydale.com) and my kids are Anna Dale, Elijah Dale, and Shae Dale.  I used to have a website called DalesDownUnder.com from the time that we lived in Australia with Youth With A Mission (YWAM). We used to live in Tulsa, Oklahoma (OK) and Austin, Texas (TX) and now live in Colorado Springs, Colorado (CO).  I work very closely with House2House Ministries (www.house2house.tv and www.house2house.net).  I am a partner in Clear Sight Media (www.clearsightmedia.com) and also work with Fellowships of the Heart Ministries(www.fellowshipsoftheheart.com) doing retreats based on the books Wild at Heart, Waking the Dead and Captivating, by John Eldredge of Ransomed Heart.  So, that's a little about me.  If you'd like to reach me.  Leave a comment here or toss me an email at jon@jondale.com.

The Family that Blogs Together . . . Stays Together

Well, as a wise philosopher once said, the family that blogs together, stays together.  After almost a year of trying to convince my beautiful wife Amy to start her own blog I've finally succeeded.  Check it out at www.AmyDale.com. 

Warning, Amy's site will be much more interesting than mine!!!!

Blogs Will Change Your Business

A good article on the impact of blogs on business.  Click here to read the article.

JonDale.com Message Board

Are you tired of me deciding what's discussed on this web site? Now you can do something about it. Click on the JonDale.com Message Board link on the left navigation bar and you can post a discussion topic of your own. Want to comment on someone elses post? Go for it. Talk about whatever you want, I might even chime in every once in a while.

Click here to go directly the the NEW JonDale.com Message Board

Visitors from Switzerland

Here are our new friends Dave & Trix Schlaginhaufen ($10 for pronouncing it correctly the first time) in front of our local McDonald's. We had a great time with them last night visiting The Clay Pit and Uchi for dinner (yes, we had 2 dinners). Amy and Dave ate whole crabs (sorry, no pics), the rest of us just ate raw fish.

Dave & Trix are simple church planters in Switzerland and are touring the US visiting folks involved in Simple Church.

Wow, we're famous :-)

Look a blog in Holland mentions jondale.com. Click here to visit our friends site.