THREE
SIMPLE
THINGS
Leading During Chaos
THOM SHEA
Three Simple Things
©2020 by Thom Shea
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Published by Clovercroft Publishing, Franklin, Tennessee
Edited by Tammy Kling
Copy Edited by Gail Fallen
Cover and Interior Design by Suzanne Lawing
Printed in the United States of America
Trade Paperback Version 978-1-950892-48-8
Hardcover Version 978-1-950892-58-7
Foreword
by Thom Shea
This book grinds out the story about my life after the SEAL teams facing a complex new world and finding three simple things. The manner in which I have chosen to tell the details are intended to resemble the times when warriors or hunters would come back home and relay their tales of victory and defeat around the bonfire with their children and family. Every warrior wants to pass on to the next generations what they have learned in some meaningful way.
Ironically, I don’t think that my personal drama is of any value. Where I was born and where and how I lived are unimportant. The measurable value is what I have done that can be learned and passed on.
While I have a past, killed men in war, saw my brothers die, lost a marriage, I am not my past. No one really is their past.
I am particularly pleased that after five years of training leaders to lead during chaos that each has asked me to write about the process and methods to produce results. The training is so difficult I never considered they would be open to sharing the simple details.
For me the world has become very complex. This book makes the complex simple.
Introduction to
Three Simple Things
Look around you. We humans make our lives painfully complex. Relationships, which are fundamentally simple, now team with complexity. The boring simplicity of being physically tough and in shape drowns in a swamp of exciting complex and lazy actions. The pursuit of wealth evolved away from simple work and simple teamwork to a virtual devaluing of hard work into hacks and overindulgent actions that have no value. The simple act of learning is now mired in politics and debt. Spiritually, we are void of meaning to the point a simple prayer or meditation signifies depression and loss of soul.
There are five areas in each of your lives that demand simplicity and abhor complexity: Spiritual, Relationship, Wealth, Physical, and Intellectual. To win, you need only do three simple things in each. Success is simple, but not easy!
Three Simple Things is written in the manner of old storytelling. Real stories, told around a campfire, where people gathered to learn from the warriors and leaders of the tribe or village. The words are intended to be read as if you and I are next to each other talking frankly without political correctness. The stories are also meant to feel urgent and necessary. I ask you to integrate each chapter into your life.
My intent for you is to achieve a six-hour baseline during your day-to-day life. I have spent my adult life as a Navy SEAL, developing and honing the only five measurable areas of life as the baseline for sustained growth: physical health, structured learning, wealth creation, meaningful relationships, and spiritual connections. Over the past six years, I have trained leaders and athletes and coaches in order to produce a baseline of three simple things in their lives so that they lead teams or companies toward success. The process is rather straightforward; the various methods are definable and clear. The effort is simple, but not easy. As you learn the process and method, you will achieve measurable outcomes by just maintaining the baseline. The maintenance of the baseline is nonnegotiable.
To My Children
Three Simple Things is for you! The older I get, the more I realize the limited time I have to prepare you for life. My deepest wish is to pass on everything I have learned in my life to add some measurable value to yours. Many of my SEAL brothers did not return home from war. Many who did return are injured, many have post-traumatic stress; many have brain injuries and cannot pass on to their families the vast knowledge and experiences acquired in their lives. Read these reflections so all the combined knowledge will be useful to you. I write this as if I was sitting and talking to you with no pretenses or formality, only with urgency.
To the Readers I Have Never Met
I am a fan of the human experience of growth and have spent 50 years thriving in the chaos of war and the chaos of everyday life. We all have vast stores of experiences and knowledge we want to pass on to friends, family, and others. Thank you for your willingness to absorb my experiences and your desire to break through your own chaos to find three simple things in your own life.
If you are interested in sustained, high-level performance in the five measurable areas of your life, called pyramids, then the processes and methods I will describe are for you. If you are only interested in comfort, only excited about one pyramid, or only want to learn a short-term hack, then this is not for you. We humans have arrived at the most abundant time for wealth creation; the deepest pools of opportunity to achieve physical goals; the furthest capacity to learn; the most profound ways to relate to each other; and the clearest sense of spiritual connections in our evolution. When you are interested in tangible success, Three Simple Things is for you!
Any of us willing to put into practice the fundamentals of learning, practicing, and maintaining a baseline will achieve levels of performance far beyond what we now think possible. Like all great endeavors, all you need to do is commit. Commit before you know the end result. Commit without the notion that you can exit when it gets chaotic. Commit, because without commitment nothing measurable is possible. Once you are committed, then there is just “work” to do. During the process of working on the six-hour baseline, don’t give up on yourself. Quitting or giving up has no place in this life. Quitting has killed more marriages, cut short more athletic endeavors, caused more business failures, and always separates each of us from divine access.
The baseline is not about balance. For some strange reason there is a movement to balance life. Balance in any sense literally means taking bits from one and putting into another or even getting rid of those bits to have balance. Time cannot be balanced, energy cannot be balanced, and life or passion cannot be balanced. The pursuit of balance always leads to the inevitable conclusion where you have to avoid one thing to have another, and at the extreme part of balance is the notion that stress is bad and needs to be avoided. The absence of stress will destroy you. Embrace stress and stop negotiating with what matters and doesn’t matter. Instead I offer a nonnegotiable life!
You can live in a bubble with no gravity, with
