Positologist

Welcome to the world of Jason Johnson!

It's funny - I've always struggled to define myself in one word.  I play football - so you could call me a quarterback.  I make TV Shows & Films with my television production company - so you could call me a producer.  I'm currently the marketing & advertising manager for a Booster Juice, Canada's top Juice and Smoothie bar with 200 locations across North America and Internationally.  But I'm so much more than that.  I could quote Steve Miller Band (The Joker), but I'm not a smoker and rarely play my music in the sun.  Or I could quote Jay-Z, who states that, "I'm not a biter I'm a writer for myself and others..." but I digress (which may be the truest statement of this paragraph!)  I'm on facebook.  And myspace.  And sometimes tylenol.  But perhaps I can be best summed up in a word that I invented (patent pending :-) to describe myself: POSITOLOGIST.

Now what is a positologist?  Let me explain... its the Spring of 2004... 50 Cent had just released "In Da Club" and Finding Nemo was edging ahead of 2 Fast 2 Furious at the Box Office... ahh, feels good to be back, doesn't it?  (digressing again...) Now, I had recently returned to Tucson, Arizona - the site of my successful college football career at the University of Arizona -- from a stint in Hawaii (working as Director of Sales for Hula Bowl Maui) after a short-lived stint in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills.  At this point, I wasn't quite sure of what my next move was going to be.  I knew I wasn't done playing football - I just didn't know where my opportunity would be... and at this point, I wasn't working a job, because I needed the time to train for this opportunity.  Constantly I would get the question, usually from retired doctors on the 17th hole of a complimentary golf game, "What do you do?"  WELL... you get tired of answering that in a soliloquy, such as, "Well I played college football and spent a year in the NFL... but got cut, moved to Hawaii where I actually did work my first real job in my life but now I'm kinda trying to get back to the NFL..."  SO, my solution was, instead of spitting out that monstrosity of words... to simply state something very simple that summed up my entire life philosophy: I'm a POSITOLOGIST.  I think good thoughts, and great things happen.

Think of Positology as the Glass-Half-Full Theory.  Think of it as the inspiration behind The Secret, any Zig Ziglar book, and One Red Paperclip.  And no, do not think it is related to scientology in any way, shape or form, other than the fact that Tom Cruise's characters (Top Gun / A Few Good Men) tend to be positologists (one who practices positology).  Basically, everytime I NEED something good to happen... I just imagine that it will and somehow it does.  As a high-school quarterback, I just believed I was going to make it to the next level... and POOF -- I was off-to Arizona.  I got cut by the Bills in the NFL, and POOF -- I'm off to Hawaii on a whirl-wind adventure.  And just a month after inventing the term positology, POOF:

I got a call from the Edmonton Eskimos and made the CFL.

I met the woman who would later become my wife.

I traded an oil guzzling 1991 Honda Prelude (aka "Iraq) to a new Acura.

I discovered that senior citizens, although slow and dangerous behind the wheel, still can serve a purpose!

Yes... Positology has become a way of life - and truly does capture who I am.

Where is this blog going?  In the words of Buzz Lightyear, "To Infinity and Beyond..." In realistic terms, from North America to Italy (see next blog post) and everywhere in between.  I hope to offer all who read this a source of inspiration, amusement, comedy, knowledge (mostly in the form of trivial facts and amusing anecdotes) and any other applicable "ation-ending" word... for the key to positology is what my grandpa (more on him later as well) refers to as the DOUBLE WIN - bringing out the best in others and yourself.  So to those of you taking this journey with me (albeit digitally)... its gonna be fun!

~ Jason Johnson, aka J. Twice