Stop watching other people.  You will never get good while watching because your perspective is different.  Get into living your life from your Point Of View.

Erik Weir and Thom Shea talk about Unbreakable and Three Simple Things.  And how to Transition from war to civilian life.

There are similarities in all success.  Thom and Erik discuss hell week and combat and parallels in business and life.

https://www.thomshea.com/ 

Interview with Thom Shea, Adam La Reau and Mike Rice.  Discussing leading during chaos, surviving isolation and building organizations based on health and fitness.

Many companies and leaders get this equation completely wrong!

I have to acknowledge upfront many of you will get twisted while listening to this podcast about diversity and inclusion.  Clearly, not only the nation, but also the world misrepresents the true power of diversity and inclusion by no using the wording as an equation.  Diversity as a stand-alone notion is cool and politically charged.  But diversity is as nature as the air we breathe.  Diversity is everywhere in nature and signifies nothing of value.  Diversity happens without effort.

Inclusion is a hot topic everywhere across the planet and is both natural and exists in every species in every endeavor.  Alas inclusion is so politically charged we seemed to now consider it rare and impossible.  Inclusion is earned and often rewarded. 

Taken separately, as both are now, instead of as a systematic way to succeed, both terms and topics used in a political nature and hammered with reprisal on industry create the unintended consequence of angry, lazy, soft, dysfunctional individuals.  Individuals unable of calmly dealing with adversity.  People lethargically sputtering through all endeavors.  With age groups too vulnerable to quitting when they lose cellphone reception for 20 seconds.  Worse, every individual person seems to be unsuited to working with anyone else.  Diversity instead has created adverse conditions to thrive.

I get it, politicians and news media are trying to make a name for themselves and get caught up in trends and bend the trends into completely unusable items.  Inclusion is a normal process that is earned and the best way to discuss inclusion is "you will eventually earn it in time and effort".  Truth be told unless you prove or earn your seat at the table where your ideas and efforts may be included in the solution, you literally will kill the solution.  Not everyone should be included just because. 

Like I said diversity is nature.  Put one person in a room and diversity doesn't exist.  Put any two people in a room you have diversity of all kinds: background, education, ability, skills, capacity, and on and on.  Diversity doesn't have to be forced, it happens.  However, forced diversity is pre-mediated destruction of a team or organization.  It never works it always implodes.  Forcing percentages of races or sexes into a team or organization kills the outcome.  Try putting a white male into a black female company and force them to integrate and see what happens.  Try forcing a 16 year old (male or female of any race) into a position they haven't earned and force the team to work with them and see what happens.  Before you do either action, call me and I will get a line of betting in Vegas because I can make some real money shorting your effort. 

I have witnessed forced diversity for 30 years in the SEAL teams and in business and have never seen it work ever.  Not ever!

I have been on some of the best functional teams in the history of war and history of human kind.  None of them force diversity, but instead allow diversity to happen.  And trust me diversity in the SEAL teams is natural and necessary.  But is never forced.  Functional teams allow of any type of person to earn their way on the team.  Functional teams demand diverse ideas and diverse experiences and never force a diverse perspective or person into the team just because. 

One mind, one thought, one race, one species, one sex never lasts very long and is very destructive.  Forcing different minds is equally destructive.  Forcing me to think like you will cause me to have a bad day as it will you.  Forcing races together is horrific.  Forcing, for some political up-righteous idea, diversity at any level causes adversity.  Adversity is good for politics but bad for business and humans. 

However, let's consider earning at seat at the table as the primary means to succeed and grow both as an individual or a company. 

Imagine 20 people at the decision table.  Let me tell you their backgrounds make no difference.  The only thing that matters is they earned the right to be there through actions and decisions made prior to being there.  The initial stage of decision making is diverse ideas.  Further imagine a topic or goal is put on the table and each person puts their idea or notion on the table.  Each person gets a chance, they are included.

Yet here lies the undiscovered truth many find hard to adapt to.  In high functioning teams everyone is included.  All ideas are allowed to be heard.  To leave the table and take action only one direction is chosen.  Your opinion, your diversity, your singularity does matter up until action is required.  Once you move you all must move together in one direction.  That is the major issue with the current politically charged diversity and inclusion … no one can unify and move forward as a team.  Johnny wants to go left and feels like no one listen.  Mary wants to wear something that is important to here but makes no difference or is of danger to the effort.  Or one group has decided the direction is good bad or against their upbringing and nothing gets moved down the road effectively.

Since the 1940s SEALs have allowed anyone in who could earn their way.  It works.  Every mission takes into account everyone's ideas and the most effective one is selected.  And more to the point even when a bad choice is made or one that just doesn't have enough details is made everyone unites and supports it with 100% of their commitment and skills.  No one goes off and does their own thing once a decision is made.  And everyone supports each other.  Diversity + Inclusion = Unified action.

You cannot force any of it.  You cannot even force unity you have to earn that too by failure to unite under one cause. 

Earning diversity is hard because success doesn't care if you are white, black, brown or purple.  Just that you do what it takes to succeed.  Earning the right to be included is what causes success.  Your unearned opinion has no value.  Success cares nothing about your opinion just that you do what it takes often in spite of your point of view.  To really succeed you need harmonious, synchronized actions.  Even a single individually trying to synchronize his or her own activities is hard.  But success demands it.  Unifying a group of individuals is very hard and is not possible if everyone was forced there and every individual direction will be taken.

I feel sorry for the youth who are caught up in the politically charged diversity for diversity sake and the forced inclusion just because someone said it was a right.  Failure looks for forced, unearned righteous efforts.  Don't you fall prey to forced diversity and force inclusion.  Earn your way to the table so that you unify your actions with a team. 

Sam Rusani is the Chief Revenue Officer at
ShipChain, a blockchain based solution provider
for the transport and logistics industry. After a
successful $30 million raise in a week, they are
now building a platform that will disrupt the multi
trillion-dollar industry. As a serial entrepreneur,
blockchain advocate/investor, and talent
manager, Sam has worked with some of the
biggest brands in the world, such as Sony, Fender,
Virgin, Universal Music, Ogilvy, Heineken, VISA
and Mercedes.

The only differentiating factor of success is failure.  Wait what?  No one wants to fail.  It makes no sense at all to put failure and success in the same sentence.  No winning coach in any sports is willing to lose.  No business owner wants to lose money or go bankrupt or lose people.  No couple wants to get divorced, because that means failure.  Yet all these fears and points of failure happen all the time.  I can honestly tell you the truth, even though you will not want to hear it no matter your age…you will fail more than you will succeed. 

Sign up for Never give up training

That is downright depressing to hear and to consider but let me tell you a secret to success.  What you do after you fail makes you successful.  But you will fail none the less and a great many endeavors.  Harden yourself and your mind and your family to that fact of life.  Since that unalterable truth is the real constant of success, prepare to recover, prepare for multiple attempts, prepare for hard times.

Why do I lead off with such a low and depressing opening to the Unbreakable podcast?  Because after 30 years of being a SEAL, or training with the top athletes in endurance sports, and training leaders in many fortune 500 companies the straight up truth is not depressing at all.  The bottom produces more successful people than does avoiding failing altogether. 

I can also say with years of research and clarity to back up the statement that avoiding failure causes enduring stagnation and long term depression and loss.  And everyone knows that is true.  Avoid conflict and avoid authentic conversation at home and that relationship is over in less time than it took to get it going.  Risk averse businesses and leaders create terrible cultures to work within and summarily get less and less business.  Athletes who avoid pushing their particular limits don't fail or lose like one would think, they just get bored and stop engaging in sport all together.  The bones of the ones who avoid failure are everywhere.

So why is failure a positive statement and not so terribly depressing.  Here is why?  Failure teaches you truth.  Truth is a good thing.  Failure shows you without emotion exactly what is wrong and will show you how to correct it.  Be eager to expose your weaknesses so that they can be solved and you can grow.

I knew that was the truth in the SEAL teams because the training is build on failure and pressure and risk and getting up again and again.  What I didn't know until I was retired and training professional athletes and leaders in business is that each of them also based their own successes of failures and starting over and getting up one more time.  I find that trait to be the only universal truth to every successful person I have ever met. 

Let me be clear.  Desire and enthusiasm and clarity of vision and purpose last until the first attempt fails.  In the SEAL teams the saying was no plan last past first contact with the enemy or I would always say you can wipe your ass with the mission order because the enemy may have something to say about it.

Point being not to just wing it and forgo planning and practice and details, but instead keep planning keep adapting, keeping stumbling and getting back on track no matter how long or how much energy the loss sucks out of you. 

In the business space two phrases that showcase failure and starting over are "the culture of growth" and "the boss is a glorified janitor".  The culture of growth means lead by example, specific target markets not generalized markets, always training and growing, and Lean systems.  The boss is a glorified janitor means a good boss is always cleaning up messes.  If the boss isn't cleaning up failures and messes of employees than no one is pushing the limits.  A bored boss who thinks he or she has a great company because no one ever makes mistakes needs to take a hard look at what is really going on.

In health and sports there are two phrases that stand out:  Embrace the suck, and, pain is the friend to the victor and the enemy of the loser.  In the SEAL teams as you all have heard the phrase is "the only easy day was yesterday".  It is easy because it is over and today and tomorrow will not be easy.  Embrace the suck means you understand that to win or to make it to the end many experiences will suck and be frustrating and you will be set back.  Embrace it and look forward to the suck is the key.  Pain is the friend to the victor means pain is inevitable therefore suffering is option.  Don't opt for suffering that means you didn't want to feel what you felt.  I want you to imagine getting punched in the face in the first round so hard your kids back home felt it, then I want you to imagine getting back up and fighting harder even when you jaw is broken.  Because that is what it takes.  I want you to imagine running 100 mile ultra marathon and feeling the pain in your feet or knees at level 11 on a 10 scale and puking for the last 10 miles because that is often what it takes.  Why fail to succeed?  Because what you want to happen can actually happen if you deal with the failures.

In relationships failure is common not because relationships are meant to be or the one you are with is the wrong one, but more to the point relationships are hard because two people are constantly changing and growing in life and that is the truth.  Every skin cells changes out in 24 hours.  Muscles cells change in about a month and oddly nerve cells change every 7 years.  There is a reality behind the 7 year itch people often speak of in relationships because no one is the same person they were 7 years ago.  Failure in relationship means never adapting and changing and evolving.  Expectations in relationship to be the same lead to divorce or separation or worse staying together on paper but never being new with that person.   I would never have thought that the one aspect in leadership training would be to ensure the leader has a great home life.  But the predominate point in leader development, which leads to business growth is the power and growth of the key relationship at home.  If you want to turn a company around train the leader to grow and secure the home front every week.  Fail at home and business gets so stale that a new leader can come in and turn around the failing business in one year.  Simply because the home life of the old leader was bad.  That bad home life is surrounded by fear of loss and fear of divorce and it happens anyway because people don't start over at home where it counts.

Success then really isn't that hard.  It starts with "honor your word" and "never give up".  You can do that can't you?  After that fun start you must realize it takes multiple times and countless iterations until you get on first base.  You have to embrace the notion you will fall many times.  You may break bones or go bankrupt or make a terrible mistake in a marriage or as a parent.  Stay with it one more time.  Learn from the failure and never do it again and start over. 

Fail to succeed

Rule number one:

• It takes 21 days straight to decide if something new has merit. Meaning never make a decision about something new until you have done that thing for 21 days straight.

Rule number two:

• It takes 10,000 iterations or practice events to ensure that thing is muscle memory or to call yourself good at it.  Meaning don't expect results until you have checked the box 10,000 times.

Rule number three:

• I like this rule it is the simplest to understand yet the hardest to do. It is much easier to do 21 days and 10,000 tries.  The rule is:  take one more step or try again no matter what.

Success in everything follows those three rules.  Three simple things. 

Print out those rules put them in your office or on the refrigerator or in your team room. 

Gregg Ward has worked with numerous Fortune 100 and 500 organizations, using his talents as a business speaker and skilled communicator, utilizing his leadership skills, emotional intelligence, communication skills, diversity, and inclusion to give business owners the knowledge and tools they need to advance their business in today's challenging corporate world. He is a best-selling author and speaker who has a goal of transforming lives in creating respectful organizational cultures.

Three Simple Things is written in the manner of old story telling.  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.

We humans make our lives painfully complex.  Relationships, which are fundamentally simple, now swim 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 overindulging 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!

Achieving a 6-hour baseline during our day-to-day lives may be the most important objective we have.  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 6 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 non-negotiable. 

Thom Shea, 207

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, yet 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 breakthrough 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 in to 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 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 6-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 to avoid stress.  The absence of stress will destroy you.  Embrace stress and stop negotiating with what matters and doesn't matter.  Instead I offer a non-negotiable life!

You can live in a bubble with no gravity, with no negative stimuli, which is where the pursuit of balance will take you.  In the bubble after a short time your body will deteriorate and so will your ability to think.  You will never find balance; the notion is folly and simply a sales pitch from a scared child who has quit on their life. 

I offer a simple truth:  do three simple things in the five pyramids of performance and carve out six, non-negotiable, hours and activity a day as the foundation for truly living life.  You will not balance time to achieve the baseline; nor will you give up one category for another.  You will literally create a baseline to think and grow.  From the 6-hour baseline, I have seen men and women run ultra-marathons, grow their wealth by 2x in a year, turn around a failing marriage, and start a new life and thrive.

For the past 6 years of sustaining my own 6-hour baseline while training and witnessing my clients struggle through a life of not having the non-negotiable baseline, but instead overweighting one pyramid while destroying the other 4 areas of life, I am very clear the value of sharing the process and method with you.    I noticed businessmen and women work a 12-hour day and produce millions while neglecting family and health.  I witnessed great athletes training for 7 hours a day and produce number one status while excluding relationships and lacking the ability to find a dollar in a bank.  I have seen parents spend up to 6 hours a day shuttling kids around while giving up their own health and ambitions.  Negotiating with life, always adjusting to the changes without having a non-negotiable baseline causes epic long-term failures.  The baseline will allow you to achieve much more in each of the five pyramids.

Shocking as that may seem to you, the conditions I just described are found everywhere in our society.  The new norm as it seems always ends badly.  But everyone seems to be on this railroad leading to a cliff of destruction.  And, trust me, the cliff where the train falls off going full speed was happening for every successful executive, every top athlete, and seemingly every marriage.

The executives literally worked with the thought process to build a business to make money to support their family and lifestyle.  Twelve-hour workdays, as I began to notice, were killing the family because there was no family time or activity.  The extreme focus on work excluded health and created a horrible eating, sleeping, and activity cycles.  As I continued to notice over time what was occurring in this over weighted life paradigm, the inevitable outcomes of running the train off the cliff became predictable. 

At some point in time the leader would give up half of the income to the spouse. Divorce cuts income by half, let's not quibble.  After all those hours, all those years, of working a 12-hour day the money would be cut in half not to mention the exhausting process of a divorce.  It was predictable.  After two years of seeing all the indicators and developing a series of questions, I began to realize I could even "short the market" and bet against the companies' success simply because the boss's, male or female, work to family life ratio was off.

The most disturbing aspect of the over worked leader became deadly clear looking at the lack of any tangible commitment to physical health.  I will describe later the details, however, neglect in physical health didn't lead to going over a cliff, but it led straight into a brick wall.  The twelve-hour normal workday eventually kills the leader.  Yes, they die or get so sick they can no longer work, or, die within two years of retiring.  As it were, they were losing everything at the end.  Leaving a trust for the kids seemed to be the norm because most had a trust fund set up by 50 and knew they were sick and not doing well.  The scary part is everyone was doing this.  We all seemed to be in a rat race no one could avoid or get off of the flywheel.

The leaders and top performers had negotiated themselves out of sustainable performance in the five pyramids.  More of one pyramid is alluring.  Being number one is too.  Yet, without a baseline, without the rest of your life being on-point none of the accumulation of stuff is sustainable.  The 6-hour baseline of doing three simple, non-negotiable things in each of the five pyramids of life literally make success easier and much more sustainable.  The rest of the book is stories about the detailed processes and methods to follow in order to set up and maintain a 6-hour baseline.

#1 Bestselling Author • International Speaker • Founder of The Hiring Academy & Interview Blueprint David Lee Jensen, Founder of The Hiring Academy and Interview Blueprint, is the Author of the #1 Bestselling book The Naked Interview: Hiring Without Regret and travels the world as a motivational keynote speaker focused on Team Building, Hiring, Leadership and Entrepreneurship. David shares his insight, inspiration and secrets to success, from growing a company to $2.5 billion in client sales. His analogies on happiness and his story of overcoming personal adversity to get there are riveting. His expertise in hiring the right person, the first time and every time is applicable in every arena as "The people you choose will change the trajectory of your business and your life." His clients include Fortune 50 to industry associations, including Microsoft, NetApp, McDonald's, Jamba Juice and Grant Cardone Enterprises. David will entertain, educate and engage your conference audience or workshop team with practical exercises to increase personal performance.

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At some point in all the chaos of life you have to go for it.  I am constantly searching for the people who go for it and set up a non-negotiable life.  Jodi Barrett goes for it and doesn't negotiate with failure or excuses.

Contact Jodi: jodi@kettlebellkicboxingcanado.com or on linkedIn at Jodi Barrett

Pre Order Three Simple Things: Leading During Chaos Now!

The older I become the more I ask myself and others this question.  What are you waiting for? 

It is the beginning of the year and for god's sake the year is 2020 and 2020 implies clear vision so let's not waste it. 

I know, I know you are waiting for something but that something will never come.  School is in the way, injury is in the way, your spouse doesn't support, you are too old or too young, you are too busy with a job or too busy finding a job.  It is too cold outside.  I get it. 

I was reading an article on American obesity this morning and it made me laugh.  The next article was on how fewer Americans than ever before can pass the physical screening test to enter the military; that made cry. 

So, are you telling me the American public with all the money and opportunity and free access to how to be healthy is worse than ever before?  Is that what you are telling me?

I hope that got your attention like it did mine.

Hey this is a new year so let's all start where we are and get after health.  Here is why.  Because you can.  Because your body and your health are the only things that follow you to the grave and the only thing you personally have complete ownership of.

If you are a young kid between 13 and 18, here is what I suggest you can do every day, whether your school supports recess or gym or doesn't for some odd reason, do 20 push-ups a day, 20 sit-ups, and 20 squats every single day.  You don't need any money or equipment or support and can do these exercises in your room.  If you are really bold make sure you run, jog, or walk for 1 mile a day.  Stop eating refined sugar even though all your friends do it and it takes really good.  Point is that sugar makes you fat a lazy.  The choice is yours.  Make a good one.

Opposite end of the age spectrum where all the money is wasted due to neglect.  If you cannot stand for some reason due to bad knees or injured hips than put the remote in your hand and do as many bi-cep curls as you can, even if you can only do 10 your life will change if you do these every day.  If you cannot get up, then tighten and loosen your belly muscles until you are warm, and they are tired.  Move your shoulders around in circles until they are warm.  I know they are stiff, and you feel old and broken but get to it what are you waiting for.  Finally, drink more water even if you are on diuretics. Don't waste away by none action and bad eats. 

The next group reflects the group in the obesity article.  Men and women between 35-60 are fatter and in worse health than ever before.  I don't think that is true.  I actually think the author was trying the meet a deadline to get paid.  Yet, peeps, you all have nothing but excuses as to why you are not healthy.  You are the one buying food and have the job you chose.  If you are parents than you kids are watching and so are your grand kids.  Drink 10 glasses of water a day. I dare you to be that healthy.  I dare you.  I further dare you to go to the gym or outside and workout for an hour a day doing anything that raises your heart rate to 140 beats a minute.  Same as youth, do push-ups, sit-ups, and squats.  What are you waiting for?  Or sit there and get fat and do nothing.

The final group is the oddest group of all.  18-35 years old.  If you dedicated 90 minutes a day to your health and what you eat you would be responsible to changing the world.  Your health costs would disappear.  Insurance companies would hate you.  Doctors would lose money if you as a group just worked out 90 minutes a day.  It takes no money and little time to actually work out for 90 minutes and drink 10 glasses of water.  20% of this age group does this on a daily basis. 

So what are you really waiting for to be healthy?  Is an injury the invite you want?  Is the next size up the awakening?  If a heart attack is needed there is one coming your way.  Are you missing going on that adventure trip with kids or family because you just cannot anymore?  Is that the kick in the pants needed?

Take care of yourself every day.  Don't want for this crap people call motivation.  Motivation is crap.  Just go do it.  Don't wait for the pain to go away.  No professional athlete or in-shape person anywhere is without pain on a daily basis.  I cannot recall a day in the past 30 years when something didn't hurt.  Just get to it even if you limp or go slow or look bad.  Do it.

The longer you wait the further you get away from your health and the person you could be so get to it now. 

Don't make it complex or emotional or heavy or any non-sense.  Do whatever it takes to work out and stretch and drink fluid for at least 90 minutes a day.  You don't even have to worry about diet just get to it.

What would you life be like if you just went for it.

Let's all take a moment and look back at 2019.  Specifically let's all look at the things we learned.  The older I get, and the more distance unfolds from my life in the SEAL teams the more humor I find in my day-to-day life.  As I look back at 2019, I cannot help but laugh.

I look at my life in five areas.  Obviously, health is a big area and as I get older big is the operative word.  The next area is work and accumulation of wealth.  Ironically, the older I get the wiser my choices and the more opportunities I see and can act on.  Another area of great value, at least to me, is the area of learning.  This area is filled with infinite possibilities to once again learn lessons I could have learned as a child.  Not so humorous realizing I am not as smart as I thought I was on a great many things.  The final two areas are relationships and spiritual discovery.  And you have to admit god has a sense of humor when you recognize "you get what you need and rarely what you want in either area".

So let's acknowledge the lessons from health we learned, or at least let me share what I learned so that you can laugh:

1. Ultra-marathon runners are not right in the head. They are excited to run a race even though they know they will throw up at least once.  They are thrilled to see others laying on the side of the trail at mile 89 and often try to tell you "you are doing great" as you lay there trying to die in peace.
2. At age 51 getting out of bed and walking to the kitchen could pass as a workout.
3. Yoga is a four-letter word. Not to be used in the presence of young children.
4. Be honest with yourself and recognize you will have to add two more months to the training plan that a 30 year old, highly ranked running coach gives you.
5. The key lesson, learned in the SEAL teams, is still in play. Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. And fast is slow. 
6. No matter how prepared you are there is a 30 year old 20 miles ahead of you who isn't intimated by you or even concerned you want to kill him because he isn't even breaking a sweat.

The next series of lessons from 2019 is the acquisition of knowledge:

1. At 51 you have forgotten more than most people younger than you even realize.  The problem is you can no longer recall.
2. Key lesson from childhood still applies, say thank you and people will help. Be a angry bitch and you are on your own.
3. It is easier to learn something when you actually open the book and learn it, than it is to read the intro and suggest you got it.
4. No matter how great a shot you were, each time you shoot is a new lesson that you have forgotten. So shoot more and talk about the past less.
5. Dumb is a state of mind. You can learn anything if you are committed.
6. Ask for help from people who are better than you and you will learn lessons you have yet to learn. Ask for help from people who are less and watch the how fast you waste your time and energy.

This year in business has been tremendous.  Let me caveat, that statement with it has been painfully lucrative.  The lessons that were painful to learn are:

1. Hustle makes you excited and tired.  The wise business man hires a team of wolves.
2. Only spend an hour of your day with existing business clients or engaged in things you are comfortable doing.
3. If you aren't fighting to get in front of 20 people a day than you may feel great but you are not going to win.
4. Surround yourself with 5 people every day who are committed to pushing you in spite of your attitude. You can actually measure success by determining who the 5 people you hang with.
5. Social media must be the only way to succeed? Texting is the only way to do deals.  And everyone on you tube must be rich and sexy, and happy.  Sadly, none of that is true and branding in social media is lucrative for the media company and pales in comparison to real human engagement.
6. Every minute and every person is an opportunity. Once you see that to be true money is easy.

Relationships are the fun area, and the lessons keep giving whether you are in the mood or not:

1. Spend time with your kids because if you don't, no amount of money you make can buy them back.
2. The woman makes the man, the man protects the woman so she can keep giving.
3. Women raise boys to become men.
4. Men raise strong daughters, this is a truth lost in society these days.
5. If you don't give your spouse 10 minutes a day they will demand 6 hours.
6. Listen before you speak, share what you are doing not your issues. And touch your family often. Intimacy solves more problems than you can imagine.

Alas, we end with spiritual discovery:

1. Your body is a temple, no amount of prayer or meditation will overcome a broken temple. 
2. Your eyes are a passage to your spirit. Your ears are a link to god so listen more.  Your sense of smell determines if you are a predator or a sheep…learn to smell better.  Your sense of taste determines your appetite.  And finally your spiritual soars with touch and intimacy.  Don't squander touch. 
3. Speak about your goals and plans every day. If you don't you will find darkness quickly.
4. Seek more silence because that is where greatness begins. Loud chaotic environments make for dark times.
5. Be completely tired at the end of each day. Hold nothing back.  Your spirit will thank you for it.
6. Start over more often than you like.

Dane Maxwell almost didn't think there was a place for him to belong anywhere, but business saved his life and gave him a sense of purpose and significance. That kind of belonging gave him endless fuel because he had never felt it before. He started 16 business and failed a lot - 11 times. Each time he learned, figured out what worked and what didn't and has started 5 successful profitable businesses including The Foundation that specializes in training people to start a business from scratch, ‍Swipe My Ideas gives away profitable business ideas, ‍Paperless Pipeline a real estate transaction management software, ‍My Agent Base a real estate intranet software and ‍Fear No Feeling sells unique shirts designs. 

He has gone on to create over 15 millionaires with his teachings. He specializes in helping underdogs start successful businesses. Dane also has a passion for singing and he is the author of the upcoming book Start From Zero which teaches entrepreneurs a new way to build businesses quickly, without the risk, from scratch.

Brotherhood of war exists between soldiers, sailors, airman, and marines throughout history.  Navy SEALs go through a forming experience that immediately connects them to each other no matter the length of time between meetings.  War and training for war would seem to be the defining connection, but the human experience is the real reason why SEALs always support each other.

Monty Heath achieved great success and operated  at SEAL Team Two and SEAL Team SIx. 

Follow Monty on instagram and facebook.

Going it alone or forming a team. It often seems as if this decision is hard to make. The old adage regarding teams is real, "if you want to go fast go alone. If you want to go far form a team". On a daily basis those two choices are being made, often they are being made by default because few know the reasons or methods to make the choice. When that is the case everyone picks do it alone.

Whether you reference the five key areas of life: health, wealth, learning, relationships, or spiritual; these two choices are being made constantly. By default, go it alone represents 80% of the choices for some reason. Over the past 30 years I have taken note why alone seems to be default. Most go alone because they don't have to explain themselves. Others go alone because it is easier and quicker to get to it in each of the areas. While many go alone because they fear failure.

Yet, there may be a method to use to look at and select a team in various endeavors and going alone when necessary. When writing the curriculum to train leaders to lead during chaos and succeed when times are tough, I interviewed 100s of leaders and teams and organizations. A pattern emerged.

Every successful team or even individual had 6 distinct team members; people the needed to help them succeed. When I saw that pattern, I was shocked. People who had fewer really struggled with success.

Even if you take a look at your life, rather when you look at your 5 areas of life you will immediately see the areas where you are successful you have 6 the areas where you struggle you will have much fewer.

Bottom Line Up Front is that you need 6 distinct partners or people on your team per area. If you want to win this is baseline and not negotiable. 6 people you select to help you win.

To further break it down you need two different types of people. The first type is you need 3 people who are sought out to teach you something and hold you accountable to doing it. The second group is 3 people who you seek to do some particular action for you.

Let me tell you selecting 6 people in two groups is a struggle for people. Maybe because we are so drawn to trying things by ourselves. Winning isn't a personal struggle winning is a team dynamic. So get over this notion of doing at it alone.

So the first group of people, the group of three I call the accountability group. These three are sought out to over see you doing something. They oversee your actions. For example, if you are a runner, you seek out a coach to teach you form or some running method after being show you literally must go forth and do that method and they keep you accountable. Possibly in business you bring in a trainer to teach at new sales method then you must go sell that way with their follow up and over sight. You will need three different accountability partners.

Oddly enough most people will find three of these types. Accountability partners produce accelerated growth that is their job. If you want to learn something you need to have someone show you then follow up with you until you get it. Clearly just being shown or reading about a technique then trying to prove it out by yourself is a complete failure.

The second group is people you seek out that will do work for you and you keep them accountable. This is where sustainable growth comes from. Alas few people select this group well or even at all. It is a struggle but one worth having.

Here are some examples! In health, get a physical therapist or a massage therapist to give you therapy. They do work for you that helps you. In wealth, hire an accountant to do your books. Don't you do it. Hire someone to do needed actions so that you can do other actions. It is that simple, yet few people have three team members solely responsible to doing activity that supports the over all mission.

You can only do so much yourself so get a team of six set up immediately: three to keep you on point, and three to do activities so that you can remain on point.

This is the baseline reason to have a team.

A CEO team structure looks like this. He or she has no more than three direct reports. They are the three people doing work for him: COO, CFO, Chief Admin. The CEO then finds three people to teach or keep him or her on point, these three may not be inside the organization.

Imagine if you had three people committed to helping you do difficult activities every single day? Imagine if you had three committed people to conduct activities in order to free you up to do the things you needed to do?

Over the holidays see if you can develop a list of 6. I would love to see that list and help you get 6. The amount of growth you can have in 2020 is real. The sustainability of that growth will only happen if you have 6.

1. If somehow you let others convince you that you are responsible for the actions of someone else. Then the next horrifying virtual reality gets conjured up: it is called blame. Blame is the first fall of humans who are convinced responsibility is one to the other.
2. The second terrifying fall is the mental condition you will convince yourself of when you screw up being responsible for your own actions. And that is entitlement or the condition it causes: lacking the deep knowledge that relentless practice is what you must do to better yourself.
3. The third ill fated twist is when leaders don't account for the actions of others. When the team screws something up, the ill fated leader looks at the person not the action. The count the person as the problem not the action and never correct the action through research, training, and adjusting. Fire the person and guarantee the next person will slip on the banana peel again.

1. People make mistakes then the person who made it stands up and fesses up no matter how gross the mistake. They make a new agreement and adjust to deal with the issue. No one blames anyone else and the team consolidates around the person and the problem and get back on it.
2. Once you realize you are not entitled to anything at all, not even breathing or life then you get to work on bettering yourself and everything around you. You practice like it matters. You keep cleaning up spills, you keep adjusting you to the circumstance.
3. Leaders start planning and considering actions required to succeed not personalities. Begin training people to do actions that is the key aspect.

Disruption and Innovation

Unbreakable Podcast is for people who want to rediscover their edge. I believe in the human ability to get off the X and regain the edge. It doesn't matter how old, how many times you have won or lost, or how low you have become. I am committed to you getting your edge.

Whether you are a leader, or on a team, or starting a business, or stuck after a success point there are two distinct efforts that will get you off the X again—disruption and innovation. Disruption and Innovation in a business environment always move you off the X; always move the needle.

I want to share three stories about the twins of success so you can see the advantage.

The first I find to be the most extraordinary and most common story in business. The story of how a new boss, either through a new equity purchase of the company and the injection of a new leader, or, a new leader rises up as the old one leaves. Experienced leaders, you know the ones who have turned bad situations around before, always cause disruption or innovate which causes disruptions. Innovation and disruption are twins you cannot have one without having the other.

The disruptive leader has no preconceived ideas about what works and what doesn't work. The disruptive leader interviews everyone with two questions in mind: what they do and what difference it makes to the organization. The initial period of interviews causes emotional disruption to the group. This is intentional but painful. The analysis of the people and their effect is needed but often brutal to witness and go through.

The second is the analysis of the costs and revenue. I have to admit this effort over the past five years with organizations is truly an eye opener. Bleeding costs, hourly expenses that don't directly cause increased revenue, and lack of simple activity to drive revenue are the most rampant gaps in most organizations. The gap analysis causes disruption due to exposing the truth. And, no one likes the truth for some reason.

The third aspect is the correction. The correction disrupts the people and changes the costs and gets rid of people and things that don't impact the organization. The third effort sets a new baseline. From this new baseline of people, activity, costs, and revenue comes Innovation.

With a clean slate the new leader and the new culture can innovate processes, methods, technology. The process is simple but not easy.

The second story is what happens in the SEAL teams on a weekly basis. In the teams, both the operational platoons and the training cadre ask three questions: Who is one point; what is working and not working; how far can we push the men and systems before they break. In the teams you intentionally cause disruption in order to cause innovation in techniques and technology. There is no other way to create and sustain high levels of performance. Intentional disruption and innovation is the culture of growth.

When you look at people with the test of who is on or off, you only get one non-emotional answer. Performance is just what it is. You either can or you cannot demonstrate it. If you cannot you are not on point. If you can perform you stay if you cannot you go.

When you ask what is working and what is not working, again, you have a non-emotional answer. This techniques works in this situation and not in others; or that technology works in this or that environment and not in those others. Point of fact, clear and simple!

The disruption of pushing to limits is the way of life in the SEAL teams and very rare in business. I have yet to find the answer to why the disruptive life is not embraced in the business culture, when the clear outcome in the teams is so evident. At no point in time is there a training scenario that is winnable. No matter what happens things will fall apart or be pushed to breaking.

Why? Because, training within limits makes you lie to yourself and to your team. Pushing to exhaustion is a truth. Using a tactic until in proves it doesn't work is a truth. Shooting on a static range and being proud of your shot group never holds up in the reality of war. The culture of the SEAL teams pushes to limits to expose what to work on and change.

The third story is mid life crisis of a leader. I find this story to be the most amazing to me, in a good way. For the sake of brevity I will define mid life crisis as someone between 35 and 50 years old who has done exceptionally well in business and life. The man or woman feels stale, feels like they are stuck in a rut, or just lack enthusiasm. They have actually won, or arrived at the tons of money, their kids are gone, and their business functions whether they are there or not.  

There is no next horizon, no hill to concur, and, no crisis to solve. The tragedy of going after the famed bucket list seems great until you travel and see that castle and drink that wine and shop in Paris only to find that too to be lack luster and brief. Most people get stuck on the X here and lose the urge of building; and extinguish the fire and passion of relationships; and worse they just eat and get fat.

What we do in my training is completely disrupt the entire system. We get back to the true value of life process by teaching a method and formula to always grow in five areas of life. We get health back as a foundation. We disrupt wealth so that abundance becomes the theme. We get excited again to learn. We innovate how relationships are set up and maintained. And, we unique ways to connect spiritually.

Break the mold, start over, get excited and lead a measurable life. Age is not a factor. I have trained non-runners over 55 to run ultra marathons. Having a million dollars in the bank is not a factor. I have trained both people with money and those without to use the process to start, grow and sell a business in two years. Pre-existing passion and looking sexy is not a factor. I have trained both men and women to disrupt the marriage in order to relate intimately to each other.

In closing I would like to share the periodicity of disruption and innovation with you so that you look at the five areas of life and apply the twins of success.

Physical or health disruption needs to occur every month. Innovation in your physical life needs to occur every week.

Wealth disruption needs to occur every six months. Innovation needs to occur every three months.

Relationship disruption and innovation, both, need to occur every three months.

Intellectual disruption and innovation need to occur daily.

Spiritual disruption and innovation need to occur every year.

If you are interested in disruption and innovation reach out to us at thomshea.com.

Solving the big problems.

Moving into the week where we celebrate Thanks Giving, or Harvest or changing of the seasons or maybe just a time to say thank you to loved ones or for life in general, I want to address many questions and insights from a life spent training for war and training others in business for war. Maybe the insight will give you some peace during this week of saying thank you.

I interview leaders every day either on the phone or in person, I also have spent the past 6 years training leaders to achieve results in areas they thought lost to them. These two questions illuminate a great deal of underlying issues that cripple progress:

• How do we ?
• Why is this ?

The fill in the blank part of those questions is irrelevant. Oddly enough the answers and the solutions are equally irrelevant because there are millions of usable answers.

How and why, when leaders or organizations are asking these two questions they are stuck on a plateau of success, or rather as the cliché says they have risen to their level of incompetence.

Problem solving is an art and science to be sure. The art is to resolve quickly what the real issues are. The science is the tactical processes and methods to fix the problem.

How when asked shows three problems. The first issue that asking How unravels is always a leadership issue. The second issue regarding How is a team structure or recruiting issue. The final issue surrounding asking How is a training issue.

Why when asked unravels a completely different set of circumstances. These circumstances take a rather mature mind to resolve and often few consultants want anything to do with it. The issue of Why is always emotional quotient. When you ask Why, you ask it from a place of already reacting emotionally to the problem and your emotion is now in the way of solving it.

The idea of the podcast is to impart some ways we have found to help teams and leaders solve some rather complicated problems. And the first issue with How, as pointed out, is a leadership issue. I didn't use the word blame. Blame is for children and should always stay in a childish conversation. Or rather it is bomb in the world of politics to keep things unresolved. Blame will never resolve "how to" it will only make things worse. The fact that "How" is a leadership issue isn't a blame point of view, it is a point of view to focus on the dynamic and foundation of the leader.

A very effective leadership structure is to have a clear articulate Vision Statement, and precise mission statement, and have no more than three direct reports empowered to make decisions and execute. The reason how to is being asking is always because the leader isn't clear on these three parts of leadership.

And you can try this at home. Your vision statement needs to be 7 words or less. If it is longer than you will always be asking how the hell do we.

Your mission statement needs to answer these three questions: What we do, When we do it, and Where we do it. The more precise, the quicker the team can deal with solving how to. The more flowery the wording, the more you let a lawyer put in jargon the less likely you are to succeed. The 3 direct reports is always the clear point of failure and always the underlying issue of why you are asking How do we ? If you want to be a great leader you simply must not have more than 3 direct reports. Actually you always must have exactly three: an organizer, a sales leader, and a financial leader.

The second issue in Leaders asking how to is misalignment of teams and recruiting. Actually those two are the same bracket. Leaders who don't form teams around specific markets who don't know the advantage of target markets and teams always are faced with how do we grow or how do we solve the more problem. Recruiting is always tied to teaming and market teaming. Leaders must have it in their DNA to always be fighting to find the right person for their teams and markets. Always be recruiting and knowing what you are looking for within the market teams you have formed.

The third issue is a point of leadership. Training resolves How to. Training your people to be successful, function on teams, and adjust to the market is the definition of leadership. Training departments are the first things to dry up and suffer neglect. But they should be the primary expense of a business.

Do you as a leader have these issues? Then I bet you are asking How to quite often.

If you are not clear with your vision and don't have a measurable mission statement and don't have three committed direct reports then my question is how are you a leader?

If you don't form teams around specific markets and are not recruiting every day than how are you leading?

If you are not training people to be successful in their jobs, then how are you leading them?

The why question is a challenge. I find it to be the most rewarding aspect of training teams to win or training leaders to win, because mastering emotional reactions is the key to thriving in chaotic environments. It occurred to be in the first year of retirement that few in the business world had any real training or understanding of their emotional quotient other than a book from a Phd. Knowledge and actionable understanding are rarely the same in any field. And where emotion exists knowledge has little value. Everyone knows when people are reacting emotionally, even the person throwing a tantrum or withdrawing due to sadness know they are reactive. But no one seems to be capable of dealing with the emotion.

But here is the point. As long as you are reactive emotionally you will never be capable of solving the problems you face. If losing money makes you frustrated, your emotional frustration will cause the same set of actions again and again. Hence frustration. If you are upset with someone, then being able to team up with them to solve a problem is not possible.

Imagine what would be possible when you get on point as a leader and you learn to master your emotional reactions?

Solving the big how to problems is rather simple. Solving the Why problems is mastery.

So give thanks this week for the struggle. The struggle is worth all the reward.

Ultra marathon running isn't hard if you are committed.  Just committing when you cannot run is what is hard.  Rob Steger committed to running ultra marathons before he could even run one mile without stopping.  In four years he has accomplished elite status as one of the few to run the triple crown of ultra:  three 200 mile races is 3 months.

Learn the simple processes listen here

John Mitchell's 12 minute a day Think It Be It technique is recognized today as the "Top Practical Application in the World" of the book Think and Grow Rich. When he applied his technique to his own life, he saw his income go to over $5 million a year. Previously, for 20 years as an entrepreneur, he earned low six figures a year. The 20 times difference happen because his daily technique significantly increased his control over himself, by probably double.

Learn More

It also made him laser focused every day on only the 2-3 things that move the needle in his business. Also allowed him to rapidly evolve his "Strategy for Success". He was simply operating every day at a higher level than he ever had before, and it showed up in his income. The science behind his technique was profiled in a Time Magazine cover story.

Unbreakable Podcast is for people who want to rediscover their edge. I believe in the human ability to get off the X and regain their edge. It doesn't matter how old, how many times you have won or lost, or how low you have become. I am committed to you getting your edge.

Let's talk about strengths and weaknesses.

There are tons of well meaning people distracting young people from success. With the volumes of data injected into our brains bypassing our senses, which were long ago designed to filter out stupid meaningless bits, the well meaning seemingly educated good doers are trending the nimble young minds into failed efforts.

You have to be careful when you are young or you are stuck on the X or you are wanting to get your edge. You have to learn to filter out stupid.

First I have to make a point of clarity about what doesn't work. I want to make it early so if you are doing it you can stop doing it quickly so that later maybe the good things to do (the things that work) will be available to use. The old saying you cannot fill a cup full of water when it is full of crap, you have to dump the crap out first is a true statement.

So if you are on the X and having trouble getting after it; or if you are successful and lack interest; or if you are unsure what to do to become successful, the first truth is this: Life is supposed to be hard. I mean that. It is hard to get and stay in shape. It is hard to be a mom or dad raising a newborn. It is very hard taking an idea from your head and making money with it. So if you find yourself facing a hard uphill you are doing it right. Don't back off, don't walk away, keep getting up every time you get knocked down.

Next point is even simpler. Nothing works the first 100 times. You may have lost sight of that simple fact. You have forgotten as an infant you couldn't swallow easily, it was painful and new and nothing worked. You tried and cried and got frustrated but you kept going. You have forgotten that standing and walking was very difficult. But you kept doing it even though you fell and got hurt and yelled at for breaking this or that. These young "try again" experiences were supposed to teach you do keep after it later in life but you have forgotten.

The final issue is be careful who you surround yourself with. The truth is most people around you don't want you to win, I am not sure why this is the universal truth but alas be careful. Your parents may or may not be helpful. Your friends are more often than not going to be there when you fall and help you through it. Your spouse or lover may leave when you fall apart.

So now to the original point: which is more vital to your over all success in any endeavor in life? Are your strengths more important than your weaknesses?

Let me explain how the well meaning get this wrong. Many (very successful men and women) say double down on your strengths and don't spend time on weaknesses. What they don't explain in any detail is what they mean. To a great degree that notion that don't waste time on weaknesses is completely absurd. Reality is no one has a real strength that they haven't worked on honing through pain and breakdown and years of effort.

These well meaning good doers may mean is don't be emotionally invested in utopia. I call this utopia because a 4 foot 11 kid may spend his or her whole life dreaming of playing pro basketball. Or a one legged combat vet may wish and dream for the leg to return. These sorts of nonsensical emotional issues may be what they mean, because the time wishing on utopia could be spent grinding out being the best 4 foot 11 person in the world or possibly learning to do incredible things on one leg.

So I have to define what I am meaning by both strength and weakness. A strength is simply something you do that comes easy and makes things happen in the real world. Some people are good at running the first time they try. Some are good at public speaking even as a kid. Some are built strong no matter what they do. Some long great without make up. You get the idea.

Weaknesses are simply things you do that are fumbles. Weaknesses are things that you struggle at doing or have a hard time even wanting to do. Here is the kicker so few people like to struggle, and fewer still even consider doing something they don't want to do. Working on speaking when you stutter is very difficult, but those who do get better. Running when you are fat and overweight is a definite struggle, those who do lose weight and get better at running. Learning how to not spend yourself out of business is hard. It is hard to cut spending and do without until the business turns north again. Those who learn to deal with debt and curb spending have a great opportunity to win when the business cycle turns.

Strengths are a misconception because if you think you just doing what comes easy with make you better you will fail to the person who is working on their weaknesses. And you will lose every time if you just do easy and comfortable things.

I have never seen successful people in any field do what is comfortable and easy. They simply do not.   A master craftsman works on the details he screws up. I know a man who has played the violin for 80 years, he is 90 now. I hear him playing every morning. I found this odd, so I asked him why he plays. His answer floored me.

I am paraphrasing as best I can:

            I played in the New York symphony the San Diego and for may conductors    and in many operas. To the listeners and even to trained ears my music is        flawless. But it never has been. There are sounds I struggle to make and the           music struggles to come out. I keep working on each movement and sound     until it goes right. This morning I am working on a piece I have struggled      with since I was 13. I have never got it right.

As I listened I heard nothing. The sound was like butter. And it was moving to hear. He told me the name and it meant nothing to me but it was stunning to witness a master struggling with perfection. The piece was titled: JS Bach's Chaconne from Partita in d minor. I hear it is a hard one to play but it looked effortless. I suppose after 70 years of practice it looks that way. But to him is was constant imperfection.

Personally, I have known many of the greatest athletes in running, football, swimming, ocr, adventure racing. And I can assure you these professionals spend 90% of their time working on imperfections and weaknesses. They embrace struggle.

I know the top ultra runners some are friends and some I know by watching them for years because I could never catch them. One would think ultra runners just run. That is their apparent strength. But let's not lie to each other here. Ultra runners only feel their weaknesses so that is what they work on. They would rather just do a run on flat pavement in 7 degree tempts. Instead they do the opposite. They run uphill in the rain. They hate to feel the bonk of energy and dehydration so they push until the bonk to work on what to do if that happens. They learn to eat and run on a full stomach. They learn to run on bloody feet when others don't want to. They go to yoga because running makes you stiff as a board. They get massages on the psoas muscle and it hurts like hell but it gets weak and tired so they do it.

I know business leaders who wake up early even though they are multi-millionaires. They wake up early to learn something they don't know or to find some detail they may have missed. They look for gaps and weaknesses they can improve.

You know who works only on their strengths? I think you do, but let me just remind you. People who work on their strengths are those who are lazy. They do the same thing day after day. Same routine. Same every thing. They are stuck because breaking routine, breaking sameness is unsettling and they would have to face a weakness or a level of discomfort they no longer want. This only doing what they feel strong doing actually destroys them.

This week, do something to improve a weakness. Don't do something arbitrary. Pick a weakness in an area of life that matters to you. If it is uncomfortable to fast for a day than do it. I promise your health will be more under your control. If it is uncomfortable then do it because it will make all the difference.

Share discomfort with the people who you want to get off the X or who you know are down and need a kick in the butt.

listening to Joe Rogan trying to find what is toxic about masculinity.

Thank you for listening and subscribing and thank you for sharing each episode with the people who matter to you. Many of you have reached out this past week and asked the same question. How do we limit ourselves? Probably, the most relevant question to be asked by anyone in any profession or any circumstance.

Bottom Line Up Front, the BLUF. We limit ourselves in 4 basic ways on a daily basis.

We start out skipping some wake up function to our body.

We rarely read out loud each morning what our goals are for that day.

We skip sharing our goals with our partners and family and often neglect listening to their goals.

We all respond emotionally to what the day brings.

Clearly there are secondary and tertiary ways and mechanisms that limit us. Yet without realizing the 4 basic ways have already set us up to be less the secondary and tertiary are irrelevant.

Before I share some examples and functional ways to effect the 4 basic ways to not limit yourself, let me explain why our world is constructed around few even realizing they skip the basic self limiting functions. It is much easier to be lazy. I think lazy is the worst four letter word known to man. Lazy destroys health rapidly. Lazy causes relationships of all types to dissolve. Lazy loses more money than a one day market crash. Yet, lazy is what happens to many on a daily basis. And the inertia on lazy is what we take into the hours we are awake trying to succeed.

But, that is the negative aspect of self-imposed limits. Negative reflections as you know aren't helpful regarding success. Negative reflections are just facts with no clear way to deal with the facts. Tell someone they are lost, or out of shape, or dressed wrong, or Lazy is just fact. But knowing the fact doesn't give anyone a new means of dealing with or adjusting. Maybe being negative and stating fact ensures the fact remains unchanged.

So, let's deal with the each of the four is short order.

In the morning, right when you wake up, what do you do? Having trained thousands of leaders and teams over the past 29 years, I can tell you most people wake up silent and lethargic and stiff and sore. Many wake up next to some one and softly get out of bed, walk out of the room straight to the coffee pot or refrigerator. On the way they notice their feet hurt, or legs are stiff, or neck or back or shoulders are achy. Their eyes are tired. Their heart rate is low. These various limiting factors are real and consuming coffee or something from the refrigerator may seem like the best solution but let me tell you it is not. The rest of the day will be inundated with pain, stiffness, decreased mobility and lack of desire.

Instead, for the next week, try another method. Wake up and immediately, right in the bed room while seated in your bed move every single joint. Then get on the ground and do 10 push ups. Engage and demand your arms and shoulders and body turn on and move. Roll over and do 10 sit ups. Ask your core muscles turn on and begin to move your body. Then stand up and do 10 squats. Your legs and hips are yours so ask them to engage.

When you actually have a body moving and capable of doing what you ask it to do, you will have over come the first limiting factor. Your body will be engaged and responsive the rest of the day. Forgo this basic routine and you will have limited your health and capability.

The second basic limiting factor is to speak out loud. Literally tell yourself what you intend to accomplish that day. It doesn't matter how small or big that goal is. You have to begin to use the spoken word to succeed. I want to work out, or I want to call one new client, or I want to go to the store. Forgo this basic routine and you will find achievement rather difficult.

The third basic limiting factor is often the hardest to do, it should be the easiest but alas I have found it rather hard to find one person that does it. Could be why marriage and intimacy is so hard to maintain? The third factor is to listen to the goals of your partners in the morning and to share your goals with them. Simple, but not easy! Forgo this basic routine and you will find increasing difficulty and meaning in the relationship you are in.

The final factor is our immediate emotional response to everything that happens from waking until sleep. Most don't even realize we have already responded emotionally to how we our body feels, or what the day may bring, or worse how our partner and family is within 30 minutes of waking. We wake in pain and are frustrated. We don't tell ourselves what we want to accomplish that do so we emote apathy and passionless. We don't connect with family and we feel empty.

What if you learned to not respond this way, or rather what if you didn't let your emotional Ego dictate how you feel? What if you weren't so emotionally reactive to traffic, to rain, to delays at work? Your response emotionally so quickly and randomly is your limiting factor. Uncontrolled emotions are very limiting to every aspect of your life. And let me tell you, your emotional response is entirely up to you.

You are in charge of doing or not doing these four limiting factors. They don't take skill, time, or money. Not doing them destroys your skills, your use of time, and your wealth.

Imagine what you would feel like and be capable of doing every day if your body could move well? What would you do if you could move more gracefully or more powerfully?

Imagine if you set and goal, big or small, and achieved it?

Imagine the relationships you could have if you were interested in what your lover, spouse or family was doing that day? What would life be like if someone in your family called you at noon and asked how did that meeting or deal turn out?

So, maybe this week, overcome these four self imposed limits, every day. Imagine if you were not so quick to feel frustrated with the way things are going? Imagine the life of not being so upset with the uncontrollable?

4 ways to Breaking Someone's Will Power

I would like to share a fundamental truth about winning or achievement or even doing anything to the best of your ability. There seems to be a distinct difference between what some groups profess will accomplish excellence. The difference is so dramatic, so clearly off the mark I thought it an opportunity to shed some light here.

I know that every child is born wanting to explore, wanting to learn, and wanting to survive. The built in desire to survive, although many may not thing it important, is the key factor in success throughout life. Perhaps that is the real spark that when fed causes greatness.

The spark to survive obviously takes a different shape the older the child becomes. Once the child gets the basic needs met, all children immediate explore, want more, and want to get better.

Here is when and what I would like to share with you. I would like to show you how to break someone's will power or crush someone's ability to succeed. This works for kids, new hires, or even successful men and women. I want to show you the road map to destroying performance.

The reason is simple, so you can make the choice.

The first way to break someone's will power or ability to win is to teach them to be a victim. We actually teach and reinforce the victim paradigm. Teach them that someone else did this to them or someone else is at fault. Teach them the reason they are slow is because of the parents or the coach. Teach them the reason they lost the game or got a bad grade is someone else's fault. Teach them they are fat because of genetics or fat because they are a victim of where they were born. If they get in a fight or abused tell them they are the victims.

Later in life reinforce this victim ology, by telling them to not work hard because they will fail. Reinforce by showing them how other people like them never dig their way out.

The second way to crush someone's spark is to teach them they are different than others. Teach them about sexism. Teach them about racism. Show them how others are treated poorly, never to trust another race or the opposite sex. Make them different and guarantee they will never realize their own potential.

The third way is to isolate them or allow them to isolate themselves from rough or hard times. The easiest way to make someone quit on themselves is to push them away after they fumble or to coddle them after they get bucked off the horse. Never let them try again, allow them to run away and you give them the most predictable outcome … failure for life. When you isolate them from hard times they will never recover.

The forth way is to string along the lie that they are entitled to anything. Tell them they deserve something they didn't earn and bleed and work hard to get. Tell them they deserve health care and watch how poorly they take care of themselves. Tell them they are entitled to trophy in sports and watch how lazy they become. Tell them they should get what their neighbor has and watch them neglect their ability to do anything well.

Scary those four ways are all over social media, in the news, at school, in businesses. Entitlement causes neglect, forced diversity causes no unity of effort, Inclusion of everyone causes no one to perfect a skill set.

I have another way. But only pick this way if you want to win, or grow or perfect a skill set.

One, Realize you will be beaten up either physically or mentally or emotionally. Learn to bounce back. Learn to build yourself back up even if you get crushed. Start over. Get back on the horse. Don't blame others and don't blame yourself. Get back up every time you get beaten down. Watch what you will be capable of doing.

Two, Get off of the train called sexism and racism. Just get off that ride because it is going to kill you and make you less. Be yourself. Let others be themselves. No one cares if you are a color or sex or unique. Just be the best version of you that you can possibly be. People may not like you. Who cares. People may cut you down or not hire you cause you were male or white or black or whatever. Why would you want to work with them anyway. Find another job or way of life. The hell with them. Just be you and let others be themselves too.

Three, If you are going to do something hard, something that demands effort from you, you cannot accomplish it alone. No matter how rough it gets, no matter how many times you fail, don't run away. Instead get a team of people around you who are relentless, who won't let you run away. Get a team to pick you back up even if you are broken.

Finally, no one owes you anything. You parents don't owe you anything. Your boss doesn't owe you anything. The government doesn't owe you health care or a place to live. You may never get a trophy ever in your life. But, you have to earn this life. You have to wake up early and train. You have to do what it will take for you to cross the line. Earn this life. Embed that way of looking at everything into your soul.

In each word and section in this book I have been tasked with telling my story so that in case I die in combat my children get a sense of their father. Actually, Stacy pleaded with me for two years to put to words "Who I am and How I am". Therefore, this project is not simply a day to day recount of what I did, but rather a recalling of what I faced and what I learned in order to teach my children how to Be the men and the woman that lives into the possibilities they create for themselves. Unbreakable simply put is creating and finding in you that which is indestructible. Finally, this project called Unbreakable is a way to make up for being gone 220 days per year for 23 years as a Navy SEAL.

This book contains no hidden secrets, rather it is a pain-staking study and practice of what makes for an effective and efficient pursuit of what is best in the human endeavor to transform the genetic traits and perform above and beyond what humans think possible. My children…when you are ready to read Unbreakable and ready to put it to use, you will recognize a pattern in each section. I wish I could tell you how you might know when you are ready, yet that would truly deny you the benefit you all will receive when you make the discovery in your own ways.

When you get discouraged, when you have difficulties overcoming the obstacles that drain your soul, when you try and fail, when you feel reduced by injuries use this book as a light in the forest for which you have been searching. A strange thing will happen when you acquire and apply the 13 lessons within…you will literally be propelled on to unfathomable successes. 

There is no way to achieve without enduring countless hours of practice. The single most important practice for you after reading is the use of Internal Dialogue to bridge the gap between your genetic gifts and your passions, your dreams. Every single successful human has Internal Dialogue they just don't know they have it. I will show you even if I do not return to you. 

The gift and practice of Internal Dialogue cannot be had by anyone who is not committedly pursuing their passions. In other words, you must have something that you are wildly committed to Being or Doing with your life. The gift of mastering your Internal Dialogue cannot be given away for free, it will not be purchased with money, because there is no more dangerous and useless gift than one bought or given without earning it.

An Internal Dialogue to create an Unbreakable condition will serve each of you equally well when you are ready for it. Trust me on this…formal education has nothing to do with it. Formal education actually indoctrinates you to being less a man and very much so less a woman.

Who am I to say that in reading this book you will know, grasp solidly, the use of Internal Dialogue? I have spent 23 years living and researching what it takes to overcome any obstacle in the way of success. I have survived countless, overwhelming combat engagements and failures that tested and validated the use of my own Internal Dialogue to life an Unbreakable Life. I have personally taught 330 basic SEAL Students, and 112 SEAL Sniper Students, in order to test the use of Internal Dialogue to perform beyond what I thought possible.

I have never known a single person who used Internal Dialogue, who did not achieve remarkable successes. I have never known any persons to distinguish themselves, or to survive overwhelming battles, without possession of Internal Dialogue. For these reasons I conclude that the experience and education gained using Internal Dialogue is more important, as a part of the human paradigm to create a life better than the one before, than any which one receives through the standard education system. 

As you read, your own Internal Dialogue will jump from the pages and stand boldly in front of you, when you are ready to see it and use it. You will see it. When it pops out, I want you to stop and drink a Guinness for me, because it will signify the most important turning point in your life. 

Take note that I will be sharing my life for you: the facts, the failures, the Me; so to speak. Through my eyes, through my experiences I hope to convey the Who to Be and How to Be! 

Finally, I offer two suggestions: don't Fear the Need to achieve, and for god's sake Never Give Up…ever. All great accomplishments, all earned awards, start with an Internal Dialogue that Needs to be fulfilled…Needs to be Needed.

I wrote this book in 2009, as you all may or may not know. I wrote it to my family because in my mind I was not coming home. I was over there fighting for them so they would never experience war.

But, I returned.

Unbreakable: A Navy SEAL's Way of Life is on amazon. And you can buy a signed copy at unbreakablepodcast.com.

Read it before the second in the series comes out this next year.

Sustainability is hard at best. Longevity is rare. Yet many people set out even from a young age to win all the time, succeed at every endeavor, make more money in each year. I have sat in numerous business meetings where the marketing departments project a never ending growth curve. I have sat in more than enough college and pro football team meetings where every play scores and every game is a win.

I want to pull the ole cat out of the bag for a moment. Sustainability, longevity, win all the time is a fabrication of excitement. Those concepts are manufactured sales pitches for the young and amateur minds. Maybe they are well intended to motivate and encourage during pre-game shenanigans or when companies are stale and the market is seemingly out of control.

Encouragement is vital, that is a truth of human performance in every area of life. Looking on the bright side is wise, because darkness is a real event in every endeavor. Scoping out, or laying out, a series of actions that are needed to win or grow is a critical factor to winning and growth. Obviously, learning to take responsibility for the things you do that effect your environment will keep the environment healthy longer.

Yet, the older and wiser men and women who have seen the ups and downs of life never buy into the pitch of longevity or sustained performance. But what they do recognize will need to happen over time is the simple fact that they and their team will have to start over often. Master's always reinforce the reality of second chances to the people they are training. Actually that is all they really do. The break down and rebuild and make second chances a way of living.

That is the question I ask in this podcast. Do you create second chances? Do you allow your team to have second chances and start overs? Do you allow the people in your family to have second chances?

You certainly don't have to provide second chances. You can fire, or get rid of people who fail, you can get divorced and try to find someone perfect. But you will waste a lot of time and energy and money searching for perfection. It is far more effective to get extremely good at second chances and start overs.

Here is why. Humans, as in all of us living on this planet or have lived or will live, are really good a failing and falling apart. We are really brilliant at initially having no inherent skills or abilities. Further more we all learn really well from failures and are very resilient. These fundamental truths are paramount to success. In order to win we have to lose and fail and skin our knees rather often. Wise leaders understand that fundamental truth and allow for it and encourage second chances.

Plan for second chances every single day in everything you do. Plan for it. From the time you wake up until the time you wake up again the next morning actually plan and prepare for second chances or breakdowns that need rebuilds. If you are going to the gym or on a run or bike ride, know up front that your plan for the perfect workout will not last longer than a minute. Something will go wrong. So plan for a second chance or a re-adjustment. If you are a salesperson, every single engagement is a second chance. Every single person you meet is a second chance to sell. If you are a parent, your kids need you to give them multiple second chances, every day. And you need to give yourself a second chance raising your kids.

Organized sports like football are built on second chances. Coach each play as if it is new and a second chance to win. If you are a player don't get stuck on the failures before and run this play as best as you can. Give your self a new chance to run like your being chased, or to catch the next pass like a boss. The other team may be stuck on their failures and the first one to create a second chance wins.

If you really want to learn the dynamic truth of second chances train to run an ultra marathon or go support an ultra marathon. There is no better venue to see the truth and power of second chances and do overs. I have never seen or witnessed any runner have a perfect ultra. Not even the top runners have one. Because in 50 or 100 miles, shit is going to go wrong and can go amazingly wrong. Many new runners quit once the first mistake is made or when they encounter the first breakdown. Quitting is not a way to create a second chance. Often the plan novice runners have in their minds that they made in the comfort of their homes completely unravels at the start line or in the first 13 miles. Amateurs plan for perfection and professionals plan for failure and train for failure so that start overs and second chances are their plan.

Go and watch this play out in real time. Watch the depth of breakdowns the pros can endure and create a second chance. Watch how quickly some runners kill off second chances. Professionals puke, bleed, get sick, fall down, break toes or fingers, and keep giving themselves second chances to run. Most of the field doesn't meet some preconceived expectation or experience or time and literally quit, no second chance.

Successful business leaders literally get good at breaking shit and moving fast and adapting. Stale leaders coddle everything, move slow, and are rigid. Break shit and move fast mentality really is a deep understanding that shit is always broken and moving fast means accepting that fact and moving into a second chance. If you are going to lead your company don't be so keen at creating the illusion of stability. Nothing is stable and never has been stable. Most employees want a stable salary but this mindset destroys second chances and start overs most often causing businesses to fail over time. Once a business fails that was based on stability, no one in the company is trained or good at start overs so the company is gone. Oddly that is why a new leader comes in and breaks everything and moves fast and the company gets a second chance.

Second chances are critical to a marriage or long term relationship with your partner or lover. People make mistakes either intentionally or un-intentionally. That is the way of things. If you don't give your partner permission for a second chance or a mistake and a rebuild, than it ends right there. Quitting is always an option. Take it if you want. But in your next partner, the same thing will happen and you never got good at rebuilding or second chances so it will end there. Don't laugh that pretty much describes most relationships. What would be possible if you got good at rebuilding after the mistake by giving it a second chance?

Give yourself a second chance today on your workout, or your job, or with your kids. Start over! Give your employee a second chance or your partner at home.

How many second chances or start overs will it take for you to succeed? The answer is one of life's great mysteries.

The world around us can be chaotic. The older I become, the more I realize the beauty of simplicity.

Trillions of bits of information is piped to us from media outlets around the world as if all of it mattered and urgent. Equal numbers of choices in food, clothes, socks, people to date, jobs to look into, races to sign up for … total chaos. Each choice seems to lead to another set of equally chaotic outcomes and opinions from the uncommitted social media opinion world. I feel sorry for the youth who are inundated with so much chaos, they never get to see the beauty of simplicity.

Breaking through the chaos to carve out simplicity takes the one skill set that no longer is in favor. Schools do offer it as a subject; businesses don't demand it; athletic teams can no longer hammer it into the athlete; and it is no longer the corner stone of marriage. Actually the opposite is now the norm. Hacking is taught at every school, test guides for dummies are even published. In businesses extended apprenticeships are taboo, everyone wants money and results and a salary without earning it. Athletic teams of all sports no longer preach grinding out and slower development of skills. Marriage, as an institution of simple steady growth, is replaced with fake everything in the first year.

The simple art and science of discipline as a baseline skillset and attitude is the most foreign practice of all. Without discipline there is only chaos.

Another way of saying that is chaos is the life you get until you learn discipline. Discipline is how you dissolve the million bits of chaos to simplicity. Until your day to day or moment to moment actions are simple you are stuffed.

Coaches make things simple. Good business leaders make things simple. Good athletes practice simple basic activities. Great sales people make one call, just one.  

Do you have a complex chaotic life? All you see are too many things to do and not enough money or time to get it all done? If you are a runner do you look at all the miles you need to put in to get ready for the race, or do you just see the next mile you have to run? If you are a student do you look at all the classes you have this week or do you focus on the next class?

I have a challenge for you to break through your chaos, and to see how disciplined you are this week.

Can you work out one hour a day for 7 days?

Can you wake up and for the first 10 minutes each morning do 10 pushups, then sit and write down your goals for the day?

At work, can you be disciplined enough to spend one hour making one new client call, call one old client, and make a written plan for the next 7 days?

Can you spend 30 minutes with your wife or husband or kids or lover, with no phone just listening and sharing?

It is simple but not easy, because it takes discipline. Few have the discipline to do that challenge. If you want a harder challenge I dare you to join our community of others seeking discipline by trying lesson one online.

I dare you to try because lesson one is hard on people who have no discipline.

Sign up here. https://www.unbreakablelessons.com/

An Uncomfortable Life.

It is ok to be comfortable, it is ok to be uncomfortable. The outcome is very different.

Learn more

I personally question why people seek comfort so happily. What causes people to choose to watch TV for an hour when they could have worked out for at least 30 minutes instead? What makes people desire to sleep past dawn, instead of getting up and reading a book or writing a book?

The idea that is perpetuated these days that a great life is to sit in an expensive car, or on an expensive couch, in a million dollar house is one of the greatest tragedies of our time. You are killing your spirit to ask it to work hard to then measure the value of working hard by ultimately being lazy at the end. This notion is tragic.

What is so comfortable about working an 8 hour day making an hourly wage, to come home and pay taxes and save 10% and sit and watch tv and eventually gain weight, and argue with your kids or your spouse about doing something extraordinary because you are tired? Comfort is deceptive, because it is uncomfortable.

What if you discarded all notions of comfort and embraced the reality of an uncomfortable life?

It is a negative way to begin a podcast. I get it. But comfort kills everything. Comfort kills passion. Comfort kills health. Comfort drains income. Comfort causes divorce. Comfort destroys everything great in your life.

Where to begin to kill comfort and embrace being uncomfortable? Raise tough kids. Raise your kids to be tough. Raise your kids to do hard things. Raise your kids to face fear. Raise your kids to push the envelope in every endeavor. Teach your kids to go for it.

Let your kids get dirty. Let your kids get blisters. Let your kids fail. If your kid is bullied make them confront the bully. Let them take a punch and give one. You are crippling your kids by making them avoid discomfort. If you don't show them and shape them as a parent, society will take advantage of them very quickly unbeknownst to you. Society will make them soft and they will struggle in every uncomfortable situation. And let me tell you, most great things are uncomfortable so your kids won't be doing the uncomfortable things.

How do you do this as a parent? First, tell your kids you love them every single day even if you are poor, rich, angry, sad, divorced, lost your job, stubbed your toe…tell them. Because, it is very uncomfortable to express love and be loved. It is easier to be isolated.

Second, show them how to be excessive early in life. If you are throwing baseball with them throw the ball 100 times. If they are trying to learn a spelling word have them spell it 100 times or write it down 100 times. If they want to get strong have them do 100 pull ups before they decide if they like it or not.

Thirdly, demonstrate to the how to do something for 24 hours without sleeping.

If you don't role model the value of being uncomfortable, or practicing 100 times, you guarantee their failure.

Because here is the reality of success throughout life. Success is very uncomfortable. Normally, success takes years and thousands if not millions of iterations to finally cross the line. Success takes so many failures and breakdowns and uncomfortable moments that if you don't show them early and keep them accountable to getting back up every time, you literally make them fail.

It takes 2–3 years of running 5 miles a day, and tweaking your diet, and getting physical therapy or massages, and getting sick and turning your ankle and getting blisters, and getting up early, and running in the rain or cold or hot weather to complete an ultra marathon. Teach your kids that reality.

It may take 10 years in business to get out of debt, or make a profit, or buy the home you want, or make enough money to invest in a company. You will have to work late, work weekends, miss your kids dances or games, you will miss a birthday or anniversary. You will fire people or even be fired. You will get bad-mouthed, you will question yourself, you will lose money, worse you may make a lot of money, then get lazy and lose it. Show your kids that reality. Don't hide it from them.

Success takes countless hours and years to be realized. That is the way of it. Every single sport demands the uncomfortable life long pursuit. The top shooters in the world shoot at least 2000 rounds a day or even worse they dry fire their guns 2000 times in their basement every day. Top golfers putt 100 balls a day, and chip 100, and drive 100 before they even go on the course…every day.

Top salespeople or top businesspeople practice and rehearse, and go over strategy and tactics so often it drives everyone crazy. If you want to sell something to someone, commit to getting 100 "nos" from them. It may take 5 years of living in your car to finally get that deal. If you don't teach your kids this level of relentless discomfort you are instead ensuring they fail.

The irony of embracing being uncomfortable is that success comes. You find great comfort in practice because you know you are getting better even if there is pain. You find immense pleasure in difficult issues because you know you will eventually resolve them. Doing hard things makes you feel better. There is great relief when the thing you are working on finally turns. Comfortable things always leave you at a loss and with no way to win.

Love your kids enough to make them hard. Make them tough. Make them practice until they fail, then help them get back on the horse. Show them relentlessness and be the one who holds them accountable to keeping after it.

By Thom Shea

Author of "Unbreakable: A Navy SEAL's Way of Life."

Each of us is interested in balance in our lives, either in balancing relationships with work, work with fitness, or all things and spirituality. How do we balance the multiple interests we have when we cannot even excel in the small things we do each day?

Please, let me share with you reflections of 23 years as a Navy SEAL and 6 years transitioning into the nebulous business world of training leaders to lead. The simple fact that only a few people master the self-defeating idiom called "Never quit" causes most to avoid tough times and to never go beyond the point where they wanted to quit. The thing about an idiom is that the meaning of the original expression has been lost over the ages. The real meaning of "Never Quit" is to actually embrace the moments when you want to quit and push beyond them. There is no real valid reason to quit.

So few companies, so few leaders, so few parents, and so few coaches these days actually use the dynamics of learning how not to quit as the foundation for success. So since the real foundation for success is gone we build everything on sand. We quit in school at early ages because parents are not clear that kids need the experience the gravity of learning and not being prepared and require the firm hand of strong parents to try again. Sports no longer allow or better yet force players to fail and experience loss so they learn to never quit, so they quit in the first half when they other team scores. Or the quit in the forth quarter when they think they have won.

That is the current foundation we then take into our adult lives.

One of the most unattended and at the same time highly recognizable conditions for every person anywhere is quitting. Now what I mean regarding quitting is that quitting is so pervasive in the world that few actually engage in mastering the benefits surrounding "quitting." Since everyone quits now there is a reward for just showing up. Tragic! SEALs learned long ago that to be truly successful, you must face the depths of failure, and the cause of all failure is quitting. They make training so hard and so unwinnable and so painful quitting is the only solution. We weed out people who quit because in real life, in combat you cannot have people quit or everyone will die.

Make an honest list of your physical capacity, your intellectual facility, your wealth accomplishments, your relationship endeavors, and finally your spiritual life … notice both the small things you have quit on in each and the big things you have not been able to accomplish. Stop when you get to 5 things because honestly the list will go on and on and on.

I want to share with you the depth at which I have encountered quitting in my own life and the far reaches I have seen "quitting" show up in the lives of others. I held this section out of the manuscript when I presented it to my publisher of Unbreakable a navy SEALs way of life for one simple reason, because quitting is so brutal and seductive that I personally felt opening up the "Pandora's Box" that surrounds quitting would turn off everyone who might read it. And, I didn't want Stacy to know how many times I quit on my men, and on her, and on my self.

In reading "Unbreakable: A Navy SEAL's Way of Life," you surely will have noticed some small elements of how you do give up and quit while you attempted to accomplish the 13 Unbreakable lessons, so you know that as I share this final lesson, the effect of quitting is real and pervasive. As you read these lost writings, my intent is that the reading will open up your own "Pandora's Box" and you will encounter how frequently you quit in all aspects of your own life, or worse yet, quit before you even start.

What would your life actually be like if you mastered quitting?   I often wonder, because after encountering quitting in my own life and being pushed in SEAL training to just push beyond quitting, I see and interact with all aspects of life very differently than those around me who have not and will not encounter quitting. All of the 13 "Unbreakable Lessons" were written for my children to discover various wonderful tools they would need to grow in your life in case I died in combat. The 13 Unbreakable lessons (you must read Unbreakable and do the lessons first) are tools to this final lesson … "Just never quit on yourself."

To master quitting, I ask you to stop avoiding the things you are afraid of doing, or simply to stop avoiding quitting. I want you to face a fear of anything you have and safely realize that fear- feel it in your soul. By safely I mean go through the process internally to the point where you are internally going through and feeling the fear. That is to say, if you are afraid of something because you fear dying/doing it. I ask you to go through the mental process of experiencing that exact thing.

Physical Quitting (example):

1. Identify something physically that you encounter that makes you want to quit or makes you afraid to encounter.
2. Internally I want you to imagine the whole thing unfolding as if you quit. I want you to imagine quitting in the middle of a run when you legs are hurting or you are out of breath and don't want to continue. I ask you to put yourself there and actually experience the pain. Don't run away from the pain. Feel it.
3. After having imagined it happening, I ask you to go on that exact run with the intent to quit at the exact spot you had imagined quitting.
4. Now that you are on the side of the road or trail feeling sorry for yourself and in pain. I want you to notice something. I want you to notice that you are feeling pain and you are out of breath, and at the same time you told yourself to quit. You used Internal Dialogue to talk yourself into stopping. No one else told you to quit, you did.
5. Now I want you to sit there and keep telling yourself to quit that you are a victim of bad genetics; that you are never going to be a successful runner, or any other victim of life language you can put there to ensure you will quit.
6. Tell yourself you are a quitter until you begin to laugh. Some of you may not get to laughter, simply because you have programmed yourself to believe you are a victim and not a winner. If you do start to laugh, you are seeing the power of Internal Dialogue in driving your performance. If you laugh then just replace I am a quitter with a new dialogue, that says to you get up and go two more steps.

You can do this same experiment with intellectual, with wealth, with relationship, and with spiritual mastery. Just quit on yourself in each until you begin to hear in your internal dialogue, the language that keeps you quitting and from quitting.

Imagine quitting on your husband or wife. Imagine any or every situation they could bring to you that would make you quit. They cheated, they called you a name, they stop saying I love you, they may even say they hate you. Keep quitting on them. Imagine quitting and getting a divorce, walking away from your family and kids. Quit because you are a victim and no one treats you right. Quit because raising kids is too hard. Go ahead quit. Surround yourself with everyone who agrees with you. The Quitters tribe.

Eventually quitters find them selves alone, and empty, and bitter, and even their quitter tribe quits on them because that my friends is what happens when you quit.

You will notice that you quit on studying with a very robust dialogue; you will notice that you quit on business and work using very believable dialogue; you will notice that you quit on your partners clearly because you say "they aren't … whatever"; and you will notice that you quit on spiritual mastery for very earthly, and real reasons.

What would you life be like if you never quit?

In school when you feel like quitting because some bully punched you in the mouth, you instead learn how to protect yourself and face the bully down. Never giving up is the cure to bullying. So you are studying and you cannot figure it out. Take a break and ask for help and get to it again. Don't listen to people who say you need sleep, freaking study until you pass out for god's sake.

You young athletes and coaches, Practice hard. Practice until they get it wrong not until they get it right. Practice until they are discouraged so that you can teach them every single play matters. Once you do this then they simply try each new play with all they have, no matter what happened before or what the threat of the future may bring. Relentless players just don't quit because they have already learned from coaches that feeling of loss and were able to get up and run the next play anyway.

Relationships seem to be the most prevalent place in the world today where quitting happens so rapidly and completely that life itself never seems to turn positive. First, for god's sake, don't hang with people who are naïve and think things are easy. They will leave you so fast you won't remember the smell of their perfume. Second, don't quit when either of you is emotional. Emotional decisions are complete shit, everyone knows this so why make a decision base on how you feel. Third, don't quit when things are really bad such as loss of a kid, or death of a family member, or when either of you is sick or injured. Play the long game because there are things you just cannot control in the short game. Stick it out. Because if you don't learn to stick it out with this person, you will be really trained and extremely efficient on quitting with the next person.

I personally never quit on five hell weeks. The first four I got injured, I had a concussion, I dislocated my shoulder, I got pneumonia twice, and the fifth one I just didn't quit even though it made no sense to continue. I took that never quit mentality into my career and never quit during 2000 hours of combat during four combat tours and brought back every single guy in my platoon. I have trained 85 people in six years to create a foundation for not quitting in their lives and have seen marriages turn around, families come back together that were completely split up. I have trained 28 of my clients to run ultra marathons because once you learn how to not quit, everything becomes possible. I have seen businesses 2x profit in 9 months where were on the brink of bankruptcy.

Quitting is the most destructive force on the planet. Not quitting is the most learnable skill and only 20% of the people you know have learned it.

Learn how not to quit. Forego learning anything else.

Operation Valor is a non-profit whose mission is to support veterans in need.  This year, we are once again going to kick off our celebration weekend with our huge charity benefit dinner and live auction!! Come out and join us Thursday, October 24th at 7:00pm at the Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas, TX. The doors will open at 6:00 for VIP ticket holders to mingle with our speakers, celebrity guests and staff.

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Thom Shea is the best selling author of "Unbreakable: A Navy SEAL's Way of Life" and combat veteran. Thom shares interviews with extra-ordinary men and women who have push through their self-imposed limits. The Interviews and dialogues explore what it is like to have a goal driven, measurable life.
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Pick up your copy of Thom's book Unbreakable: A Navy SEAL's Way of Life

I have had the honor to speak at the academy several times during both my SEAL career and as a leadership coach. This weekend was another honor to witness something quite rare: the ring weekend where the seniors are presented with their class ring.
Unique in the sense that the ceremony is a celebration not of hey look at my ring but of the tradition of character. Of the long grey line of building and passing on the only true value of a leader: character.

And I had the honor to see my daughter receive her ring and receive her reminder of the long grey line of the character it represents to lead the nation wherever and whenever the nation calls.

And no I am not a trader, not a navy SEAL, abandoning the navy for the army. I am acknowledging the reality of the premier leadership institution in the world today. The place builds character and that is what leadership really is about.

The speaker of the evening was Eric Shinseki, a graduate who spent 38 years leading and was the army chief of staff before retiring. During his speech he said something that awoke something I had put down after my 23 years in the seal teams. He awoke the notion that there is always a storm facing the United States. He reminded me that no class has escaped the storm of conflict that sweeps over the nation.
As a SEAL, I liked the storm and signed up to confront it head on. Yet the stark reminder was that the storm is always coming. And without the character learned at West Point, the leaders may faulter.

As my family and I sat listening I had to look at my daughter and the other young cadets and wonder what storm they would face, whether it was foreign or domestic in nature. I wondered what they had learned here at West Point would possibly prepare them for war. I also cringed at the notion if they had the character to put down the storm of domestic upheaval.

What is the character traits they impart here? My father was class of 1959, I was the class of 1990, and my daughter the class of 2020. We each had gone through hardship in Beast Baracks. The difficulty of learning to speak clearly without drama to the cadet in the red sash. The long hours of drill and being tired and dealing with being yelled at. We learned to work through problems at Buckner ad a team and to be proficient in the field as an individual no matter the weather or conditions. We learned to not lie, not cheat, and not steel.

The underpinnings of character to be sure. Tough times are needed to instill character.

It does take a great deal of character to keep things centered during really tough times when the enemy is at the gate, when the storm is upon you.
A great deal of character is needed to keep the promise of west point (duty, honor, country) as a mind set when there is no storm, when there is just grinding out training when there is no end in sight. That type of character is the real character of leaders that makes West Point unique. They keep the cadets, the future leaders grinding out excellence when the future seems so far away when there is no storm. It takes character to overcome doubt, to be patient with the process when the end seems abstract when it is grey.

Character to weather the storm and endure the calm. I would say most leaders without character cannot endure the calm. They falter, they let standards slip, they stop earning it so to speak. Imagine the character to endure the calm, when no storm is coming when nothing makes sense and when no one seems to care to train for the storm.

The reminder that the storm is coming was brilliant and much needed. The reminder of the character instilled at West Point like no other place was a great gift to receive as a ring to be sure.

I want to remind you that it takes character even if you are not in the military to weather your storms and endure the calms. Build character through tough times. Don't run away from tough times. Build character by not cheating to succeed, building character by not lying to get yourself out of responsibility for an action done poorly, build real character by not stealing by thinking you are entitled to something not earned.

I would love to hear what storms you have and what you think Character is. Follow us on Facebook at Unbreakable or on LinkedIn at Thom Shea.

Trying to define what toxic masculinity is in a world searching for excuses and meaning has been difficult.   A little help here!

In each word and section in this book I have been tasked with telling my story so that in case I die in combat my children get a sense of their father. Actually, Stacy pleaded with me for two years to put to words "Who I am and How I am". Therefore, this project is not simply a day to day recount of what I did, but rather a recalling of what I faced and what I learned in order to teach my children how to Be the men and the woman that lives into the possibilities they create for themselves. The Unbreakable project simply put is creating and finding in you that which is unbreakable. Finally, this project called Unbreakable is a way to make up for being gone 220 days per year for 25 years as a Navy SEAL.

 Order Unbreakable

This book contains no hidden secrets, rather it is a pain-staking study and practice of what makes for an effective and efficient pursuit of what is best in the human endeavor to transform the genetic traits and perform above and beyond what humans think possible. My children…when you are ready to read Unbreakable and ready to put it to use, you will recognize a pattern in each section. I wish I could tell you how you might know when you are ready, yet that would truly deny you the benefit you all will receive when you make the discovery in your own ways.

When you get discouraged, when you have difficulties overcoming the obstacles that drain your soul, when you try and fail, when you feel reduced by injuries use this book as a light in the forest for which you have been searching. A strange thing will happen when you acquire and apply the lessons of Unbreakable…you will literally be propelled on to unfathomable successes.

There is no way to achieve without enduring countless hours of practice. The single most important practice for you after reading Unbreakable is the use of Internal Dialogue to bridge the gap between your genetic gifts and your passions, your dreams. Every single successful human has Internal Dialogue they just don't know they have it. I will show you even if I do not return to you.

The gift and practice of Internal Dialogue cannot be had by anyone who is not committedly pursuing their passions. In other words, you must have something that you are wildly committed to Being or Doing with your life. The gift of mastering your Internal Dialogue cannot be given away for free, it will not be purchased with money, because there is no more dangerous and useless gift than one bought or given without earning it.

An Internal Dialogue to create an Unbreakable condition will serve each of you equally well when you are ready for it. Trust me on this…education has nothing to do with it.

Who am I to say that in reading this book you will know, grasp solidly, the use of Internal Dialogue? I have spent 25 years living and researching what it takes to overcome any obstacle in the way of success. I have survived countless, overwhelming combat engagements and failures that tested and validated the use of my own Internal Dialogue to life an Unbreakable Life. I have personally taught 330 basic SEAL Students, and 112 SEAL Sniper Students, in order to test the use of an Unbreakable Internal Dialogue to perform beyond what I thought possible.

I have never known a single person who used Internal Dialogue who did not achieve remarkable successes. I have never known any persons to distinguish themselves, or to survive overwhelming battles, without possession of an Unbreakable Internal Dialogue. For these reasons I conclude that the experience and education gained using an Unbreakable Internal Dialogue is more important, as a part of the human paradigm to create a life better than the one before, than any such which one receives through the standard education system.

As you read, your own Unbreakable Internal Dialogue will jump from the pages and stand boldly in front of you, when you are ready to see it and use it. You will see it. When it pops out, I want you to stop and drink a Guinness for me, because it will signify the most important turning point in your life.

Take note that I will be sharing my life for you: the facts, the failures, the Me; so to speak. Through my eyes, through my experiences I hope to convey the Who to Be and How to Be!

Finally, I offer two suggestions: don't have Fear to Need to achieve anything and Never Give Up…Never. All great accomplishments, all earned awards, start with an Adamantine Internal Dialogue that Needs to be fulfilled…Needs to be Needed.

When Dana Wilde began her direct-sales business, she realized that education for entrepreneurs typically consisted of endless "how-to" explanations: how to market, how to pick up the phone, how to manage your time, how to increase bookings or sales. There always seemed to be a new system to learn, a new surefire method or cutting-edge technique for entrepreneurs to master.

Get your free copy

In an effort to teach her team members a better and easier way, Dana Wilde created Train Your Brain, a tested and proven system combining elements of both mindset and action … or as Dana likes to call it, Intentional Action.

What Dana discovered by using Train Your Brain is that mindset can be "taught" and that learning simple mindset strategies not only allows you to understand how the brain works but also shows you how easy it is to change your thinking and, as a result, change your outcomes.

In Train Your Brain, Dana breaks down the Cycle of Perpetual Sameness—the number one reason why most people only experience incremental change in their lives. More importantly, she also provides the much-needed blueprint to help you get off this counterproductive cycle quickly.

Train Your Brain, with its twenty easy-to-implement "Mindware Experiments," gives you all the necessary tools needed to get off … and stay off … the Cycle of Perpetual Sameness, so you can transform your life and grow your business in record time!

Killing Lazy

I have to admit Lazy is a bad word. Bad in the sense that everyone is incredibly lazy, yet few want to openly admit their first impulse, all the time, is to not get after it.

At first I made the mistake of thinking the bigger issue was work ethic. This nutty work ethic term seemed to overshadow every industry, even in the SEAL teams. From sales to marketing to operations to new hires and old hires I really thought I was looking at a work ethic problem.

Clearly the media pushes this notion that doubles as a work ethic/entitlement narrative. Good work ethic is a polar opposite to entitlement on the human level, because if I don't have to work to survive or make a living the human won't.

I literally have been looking at work ethic as the major cause of not only business failures or successes but also athletic and relationship ones. For gods sake few sales people want to make 50 calls a day to ask for business. Worse is the driver shortage in America, no one wants to work that hard even for a 130,000 a year starting salary. Few athletes seem to have the work ethic to put in the miles and miles or running or days and days of training to better themselves in sport. And, even worse, few married couples even want to spend an hour a day together after the first year. My mistake was thinking it is a work ethic issue.

I was wrong. Work ethic by definition is a learned skill acquired over years and years of observing parents and others working hard and trying to work hard or efficiently. But the predicate to acquired work ethic is simply the human factor of laziness. This involuntary pre eminent reaction to doing anything and everything is so pervasive it shapes the environment in every market.

What would life be like if you killed off your Lazy? What if your first response wasn't always "it is too hard", or "hell no it will take too long"?

In athletics good coaches or great athletes spend a lot of time killing lazy. Everyone hates the coach who says we are going to do this again and again until you get it right. People even scoff at the athlete who puts in another hour or gets up early and runs. Even parents yell at their kid saying don't over do it junior.

If you killed off your Lazy you would run more. Hell you would prepare more nutritious meals if you ever killed off your lazy. You would do push ups until you bled then rest and repair and do it again. Because, the top athletes kill off their lazy, every single day.

Business is built around not owning lazy. An 8 hour work day is Lazy. What does time have anything to do with getting work done or rather doing what were hired to do? Sales people nation wide hide from mastering their own lazy and excuse themselves from getting in front of clients. It takes 60 minutes for build the narrative around an excuse to not meet a client. It takes 5.5 seconds to pick up a phone and dial a number and engage. That is lazy.

If you killed off your lazy in business, you would get on the phone, you would get to it. Maybe just maybe you could get it all done in three hours. Lazy takes 8, on point takes 3 hours to achieve the same results.

Sadly this lazy gets worse with success and money. Once the money gets to the level of comfort lazy dominates the choices. Comfort and lazy are the two heads of the do that guards hell. Those two mouths will eat you.

What would business, your business be like if you killed off your lazy?

The tragedy is really the laziness that happens in key relationships. Laziness causes resentment, bitterness, and divorce. Married couples grow apart because they are lazy with each other. "We have been married for 20 years," I hear rather often. As if you think you know your spouse? Then all of a sudden after 20 years of lazy relationship work, they want out or you want out. Lazy caused it. Not lack of love, or growing a part. Lazy.

What would you do in a relationship if you weren't Lazy? Everyday would be new. Everyday a discovery. Maybe just maybe, it is lazy for women to give up health for family. I know it is cause I have seen women stay fit and have a great family. Maybe if you weren't lazy you would bring home your passion and create it at home, even after 20 years. Killing lazy off will solve the chasing the relationship you don't have.

Lazy hits the snooze bar.

Lazy makes you wait for a plan to commit to the goal.

Lazy makes you expect something from nothing.

Lazy makes you short sighted.

Lazy blames others.

Lazy makes you buy the candy bar instead of keeping you on point.

Lazy makes you need 8 hours of rest.

Lazy makes you complain.

Lazy makes you in a hurry.

Lazy makes you run one mile instead of 10 miles.

Lazy makes you only do 8 reps and not 80.

Lazy makes you not go to see your 7 year olds piano recital.

Lazy makes you not go see your dying friend or parent.

Lazy makes you not save money.

Lazy makes you fat.

Lazy makes you poor.

Lazy destroys your soul.

Kill off your Lazy before it kills off you.

Why do you wait? Why do you wait for the right time to get healthy? Why do you wait for the right job to commit? Why do you wait for the right woman or man to get involved?

Waiting causes the worse kind of neglect. Waiting is not patience. Waiting is practiced disillusionment. Waiting causes you only to be half way committed. Waiting makes you weak mentally and physically. So why wait?

I can assure you that putting off until summer is over to starting to get in shape or putting off until next week eating healthy is futile. Every single day you wait is a day practicing not being committed. How many days have you logged practicing not being committed? That answer is frightening.

The right time and the right coach or the right training program will never arrive, and if it did you would miss it because of all the days practicing not just doing it.

Your knee pain isn't a valid reason to wait. You being over weight isn't a legit reason to wait to get into shape or start running. You are too old, you hate the gym, you don't like a stationary bike, you are too busy are just societal reasons to fail.

Just commit in spite of any excuse you may have. Overcome the seemingly impossible excuses you have and start now. Get up early even though it makes no sense. Do one push up. Run one mile at 5 am. Drink one glass of water. Just start.

If you start today this is what will happen, you will beat just one of your dumb reasons. It may be painful yet you will have taken a huge step toward a vastly different life.

Oddly, more people wait to become wealthy than there do those who put of health. Let that sink in. Over the past 6 years I have interviewed and openly asked every CEO or president of 100s of companies in the United States and every single one has more jobs available than people looking for work. Now hiring should be always hiring.

For the past 12 months I have shifted my questions about opportunities from asking the bosses to asking the vast pool of unemployed or under employed. You can even watch Mike Rowe and see what I am talking about. We all seem to be waiting.

If you are in a job right now that you hate but are not doing anything to find one that wakes you up and interests you, than realize this fact. Every second you waste practicing being shitty at a shitty job costs you money. Every dollar you make at that job costs you 2 dollars. One dollar is wasted due to lack of interest. One dollar is spent doing the job at half effort.

If you don't have a job than maybe, just maybe look deep inside that you could have any job you actually wanted but you have to want it. You have to want to work. If you want to work you can make a lot of money at any job. There are $100,000 a year truck driver jobs all over America. But some silly narrative keeps people from wanting to pick up furniture and deliver it to a family that needs it. Imagine getting paid to travel, meet people, help them build a home and get money to do it. Or just keep looking at your face book profile watching fake people and all the while not pursuing any form of money making.

If you have a job but aren't making enough money, then commit to a side hustle on the internet or even cutting grass. Make something with your hands and sell it online. Buy things cheap and sell them online. Spend an hour a day three days a week cutting your neighbors grass. You surely would be ok with $12,000 extra dollars a year.

What is it like to not wait, that is the question really?

If you didn't wait for the right whatever, you would maybe write a book? Write one page a day for a year. Don't wait to be perfect, someone will edit it. After a year you get published.

What if you didn't wait for whatever to run a marathon or hike a mountain peak? What if you ran one mile a day for a month? What if you did 20 push ups a day for a month? What if you just signed up for a half marathon and started running? What would your life be like if you just got to it? Here is what it would be like: you would run and your body would be fit and healthy.

It is actually always the right time to commit to something you really want to do. Even if it is raining outside it is the right time to go for a run. Even if the stock market is falling it is the right time to learn and engage in investing. Even if your kids are struggling with school or life it is the right time to support and be a parent.

Stop waiting it is killing off your spirit and killing off opportunities for you. Commit now to just one thing that excites you.

Why fit in, when you can stand out?

Follow authentic dialogues of people who embraced what makes them different and excelled. Because in a world of endless possibilities, YOU are what you have. Are you ready?

What separates the normal from the different?

Chris is a national best selling author and podcast host of Legends and Losers. Follow and subscribe.

Love the Life you Live!

Freedom is taken, not given.
By living an Intentional Life,
we ordinary people can live
extraordinary lives.

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Inside of everyone is more.  More available in life.  Erik has sought more. 

In Erik's book "Ordinary to Extraordinary" is the story of seeking more in life through adventures throughout the world.

The Mindset of mastering the basics and applying basics will make you extraordinary, too.

Follow Erik here.

Sign up for the Unbreakable Lessons.

For almost a quarter century Machen MacDonald has dedicated himself to helping business owners, sales professionals, financial advisers, and financial services executives discover their purpose and help them align their focus to achieve dramatic and measurable improvements both in business and in life.

Master the Basics

His ability to develop systems, based on his clients' mental and emotional foundation, for creating immediate and lasting change has made him a recognized expert in the world of coaching and peak performance.

As the consummate entrepreneur, Machen started five successful service companies and went on to succeed in financial services as an advisor working his way into award-winning field management and then into executive level management before founding The ProBrilliance Leadership Institute. He understands and can relate firsthand to the challenges small business owners, sales professionals, advisers, managers and corporate leaders all face.

Machen is a #1 best-selling author and creator of the highly successful Power of Coaching book series. He is a certified business coach and life coach, certified Master Coach and Certified MindScan Consultant.

Machen resides in Northern California with his wife of 23 years and their three children. He enjoys competitive running, snow and water skiing, and spending time with family.

The American Experiment to form a republic of states, not a democracy, where people are free to grow and have a say in Life, Liberty, and pursue happiness as long as the people can earn it.

That was the unique declaration of independence from English rule, which was simple someone else telling you what was right and wrong and their opinion didn't have to be earned or proved effective.

Even then there was conflict in the struggle for power, the separation of that power, and the effort of the people to live up to the burden of maintaining a republic.

Some universal truths were known then and are still trying to wrestle with power and politicians seeking power for all the right reasons at the expense of the people. Leadership in a republic always struggle with power, struggle with the demands of people, and struggle with conflict with other nations. We have had every generation since independence go to war because politicians have an issue with power and people.

Families in a republic are always torn with right and wrong and surviving the rules that restrict rights in the name of rights. Oh the irony. The final truth is the citizen has to adjust and survive and pursue life, have liberty, and Be Happy.

Yet in America there exists a fundamental human phenomenon: from darkness comes light. In this country, light grows no matter how dark the times. Our early country, Light is fundamentally what the constitution sets up.

This reality of the American experiment was a revolution. The story is best told during one of the darkest times in American history. The battle of king's mountain in the Carolinas is the story of a light out of darkness.

The light is the man of a republic building life, liberty, and pursuing happiness while often being called to serve his republic at the risk of life in order to cause liberty and happiness for the people. Maybe that is why our founding fathers set aside a guaranteed military, because they knew the darkness will always be at the gates.

What was written out of history was the warrior of the republic who rises during darkness to bring light. I like the battle of king's mountain because it was really the story of a few warriors who rose and trained 900 others unconventional skills in a short time and kicked the British's ass so soundly the whole nation rose up. The real genesis of unconventional warriors grew from that battle. And this has been systematically written out of history so that the people do realize the power a few can have over the many.

The first light of the American people is a life earned from hard work and useful skills. The second light of our republic is the liberty to make choices that are important to the individual not the leaders and tyrants. The third light is the willingness to pursue a meaningful life and willingness to give their life for others to have life. This light rare in the world and shown through during the darkest of times at king's mountain.

These original small group of warriors had acquired a unique set of unconventional fighting skills during the French and Indian wars but had lost favor with the British and had taken the liberty to escape the tyranny and move over the mountains and away from rule and pursue a life for their families. These skills were and still are the most useful combat skills but never fall into rank and file of conventional military. Thus, the beginnings of Special Operations both in mindset and abilities.

The overthemountain boys were real americans. They were independent and different, fiercely loyal to friends and family; highly skilled in practical life skills; and well versed in unconventional combat skills. They dressed differently. They carried their muskets very differently but very practically: butt stock up. And the conventional units laughed at them. They carried their powder horn in the perfect tactical spot but opposite of the british way. They pre-wrapped the shot in cloth for rapid reloading. They practiced loading in a very different way than conventional forces and practice shooting and moving in pairs not in big groups and not to a leaders command.   They carried both a hatchet and knife on the same side due to necessity and convenience and were scoffed at by conventional forces. God I like them already.

They moved in pairs firing and reloading and firing in 5 seconds while coordinating with their shooting buddies. That is roughly a bullet every 2-3 seconds while able to move forward or backward or laterally a distance of 3-5 steps in between each shooting sequence and I can tell you this tactic is lethal on an enemy not in a fort or one that is in a huge group.

They were capable of moving long distances and live off the land and make their own gear. They also knew really well how to train others rather rapidly how to use their tactics effectively. And they brought this light into the darkness at king's mountain.

 128. 

Success leaves clues everywhere.  Every successful event or person in history has left a clue for your to pick up if you are brave enough to pick it up.

Failure leaves a blood trail and is a paved road with bones and good intentions. 

The difference is the clues if you pick them up, even if they are small, will lead you to the end and success.  The easy blood trail will cut you up and spit you out and kill your success, even if you think you can tough it out.

Sign up for the challenge Unbreakable

Five traits of father hood

 Signup for the 13 lessons of fatherhood

Commitment to your wife.

• love her
• show affection
• listen and speak
• don't let her get off track

Protect your house and family

• your job is to make a home for your family not for you
• show them how to be strong and not be bullied.
• Never allow anyone even your family to destroy the home and family you have built
• Show them that you and the home is always a safe place to land

Teach your kids skills

• how to cook and eat well
• how to make things with your hands
• how to build the body
• how to spend and make money
• how to pick friends and how to kick poisonous people out of your life

How to have resolve or emotional resolve

• never sugar coat things
• how to deal with physical pain
• how to deal with loss
• how to start over

Affection toward them

• kids need to be hugged and touched often by fathers(plain and simple)
• cry and laugh with your kids
• punish when needed and once complete hugging really works(maybe the lost art of fatherhood)

Making complicated things simple in a complex social media world.

No way out and no back-up plans in raising warrior children and warrior adults.

There is nothing new under the sun. Really, all the human issues we are experiencing today are still the same foundational issues we have faced since the first humans. Albeit, technology has been introduced our father's and mother's of 1,000,000 years ago could not even fathom as possible, the human condition remains the same. What remains the same is the fact that humans operate at their peak performance in all areas when they don't have a back-up plan in their life.

In the world of excellence and achievement in any area around you, I ask you to find one person who achieved success by having a back-up plan? Find one. If you do contact me I want to bring you on and have you tell us the story of how someone succeeded by having a robust back-up plan while they were trying to win with the primary plan.

I have just spent the past 29 years working with high achievers from the SEAL Teams to business leaders to ultra marathon athletes and se the critical disparity when people have back up plans. Back up plans kill success. Back up plans cause a drain in energy that cripples the primary plan. Back up plans ensure that when the first things goes wrong with the primary plan and no effort is made to learn from the mistake and the back up plan gets engaged.

So let's talk about his issue because literally nothing else matters more than understanding this dynamic. Let me weave in the current culture issues and maybe we will all arrive together at a place where you will get some momentum in your life.

The first big misunderstanding is the pursuit of passion and Your Big Why. Good Lord you cannot turn on a single podcast or read any article without the author tagging the Why or Passion utter BS. Let me, if I can, Unfold the Why sales pitch. When would you use why or ask why? That really is the question isn't it. The sales pitch covers up this essential underlying question. What causes you to ask Why? The people selling the Why question twist this around into "you should have a Why". So you immediately find yourself in the quicksand of despair because you notice you aren't asking why.

Here is the deal with asking why, Why always arises from facing a problem or break-down. Another way of saying this is you really question why you are doing what you are doing when you are dealing with the breakdowns that come up.

I have not met anyone at the top who can articulate their Why, other than everyone of them literally saying, "I am doing this because I said I would do it."

The best example I can give to show you how destructive forcing the why is when you have a back up plan. Take an ultra marathon. I use this reference because it is the same as making a million dollars. It is hard. No, it is damn right hard as hell to do both. In the first 10 miles everything could be going well or according to the plan. You have told yourself I will never DNF(or quit). You have prepared, hopefully, by putting in the miles for 9 months prior. You have a plan for eating and drinking and resting and dealing with pain. Then it goes bad. It starts to rain or you get lost, or you turn and ankle or even worse you fall and break your wrist. You know what you ask yourself in that moment "why the hell am I doing this?" The pain in your wrist is telling you you are going to die if you continue. So this is the difference with pros and what I call the Why generation. The Why generation has a back up plan or a pre conceived point to which they wont keep going. The Why generation "who is running for their mom or to prove themselves" immediately finds that this explanation to keep going is redonkulous. So the quit which is always the back up plan. By the way the pros just wrap the injury and keep going. They don't pick the back up plan or quitting. They may not make the finish line but they don't go to the quit plan.

Passion, too, is a disaster as a point of trying to be passionate upfront before you are completely committed and before you have done the work needed to actually do the thing well. Passion comes and goes. Let me say that again, passion comes and goes with the weather. There is a saying in the SEAL Teams, it is easy to be a SEAL on a sunny day, and it sucks being a SEAL when it is high surf and raining and you can no longer feel your feet and hands. Finding passion when you are frozen is impossible. Just do it anyway. Someone, not the pro, found out a way to talk about passion and use the passion conversation to sell people on them maybe. I don't know. Passion is cool but passion may not be a thing needed to succeed. In the SEAL teams and in every business I have seen that works well over time, there is a saying "No one cares how you feel about it. Just get to it and keep doing it until it is complete." That mindset allows for passion but doesn't need to be the point of decision.

The best example I can come up with is marriage. Oh no, is he going to go there? Yes!   Marriage built on Passion lasts only as long as the passion is there. Which is about up to the point when you get in your first argument over taking out the trash or cleaning up the kitchen or bedroom. Or maybe you have lucked out and maintained passion for years, then you have a baby. The hormones actually fade for women and passion isn't available. Passion ahaha. If you think passion is what is important on a daily basis and it isn't there one day, you will get divorced which is your back up plan. What if you didn't have the back up plan of quitting when passion isn't there?

The other part of the human condition that is important to consider is the Time and Energy required to succeed on the primary plan itself. Using the making a million or ultra marathon analogy, it takes years to actually be or win at both, years. If you are prepping for an ultra your daily requirement of time and energy is 4-5 hours of running, stretching, and nutrition. And that is when everything is going well. Putting in the hours it takes to succeed takes focused commitment. If you have a back up plan you won't stick with it. If you have problems, which I guarantee you will have problems, big problem, and you passion that you were sold as vital, fades, or if you question why you are doing this every day you will quit.   You don't have enough time and energy to spread across two concurrent plans working at the same time, so drop the back up plan just drop it.

Let me ask you:

In your athletic world you live in, do you have a back up plan? Or are you already to the point in life you don't even have a plan anymore because you have quit so often on your plan you see it not important?

At your job, are there so many choices you are afraid to commit to one? Or do you play it safe by having a plan that is just being stable this year?

In your relationship at home, do you even have a big hairy plan as a couple? Or do you just survive?

What is it like to always be on the back up plan and never solely on the primary plan?

Navy SEAL Hell Week has never been described so effectively. Success has never seemed so difficult. Six days in Hell define every SEAL that moves past their mind's point-of-no-return.
This real life story is about the men of BUD/S Class 81. Robert Adams, MD brings the experiences of his class into view with real, bone chilling, difficult to believe, experiences.  This is described, in frightening detail, by the men that lived through the frigid cold, filthy muddy days, and body destroying events of a winter Hell Week.
Eleven of seventy men went on to serve over 40 years in almost every SEAL or UDT team, with honor. Read their real time stories and (most importantly) learn why these eleven men succeeded when so many others failed.  These lessons on success and failure are now yours to learn from and enjoy!

The brass bell on the cover lives in every SEAL's heart. It is rung three times by each man that leaves SEAL training, or once in celebration, at graduation! It follows the trainees around during Hell Week on a truck, taunting all that see it. Hot coffee, much needed sleep, and a warm bed are dangled before their shivering, sleep deprived, and mud caked faces. Do NOT ring the bell!

Every generation will see war. Every mom and dad since 1776 wonders if their child will go to war or be killed by an enemy. History doesn't lie nor do smart people forget this fact.

Maybe the idea of memorial day is the remember. We tend to only look at the grave and recall the dead. And I agree we must never forget the sacrifices of our brothers and sisters. Yet there is a deeper forgetting that is happening that scares me.

I walked up and down the streets of your country and the average person has forgotten our collective past. The books in school have no factual reflection on the past of the Unites States. Opinion and politics have rewritten the part of history that needs to be ingrained in every American. There is and always will be darkness and an enemy. There hasn't been a gap more than 3 years since 1775 that we have not been in a conflict or battle. Right or wrong, believe it or not, war happens. So prepare yourself and your family and stop listening to the media or people who deny the realities.

Here is what you have forgotten and like most history it is factual and boring. Facts are boring, fantasy is exciting. Facts repeat themselves, fantasy never happens. 

American Revolution (1775-83) against Britain, France, Spain and the American natives. Cherokee wars were from (1775-1795) against the Cherokee. Northwest Indian wars (1785-93) against the Brits. Shay's Rebellion (1786-87) against government protestors. Whiskey rebellion (1791-94) against frontier tax protestors. Quasi war (1798-1800) against French pirates.

First Barbary War (1801-05) against Islamic pirates in the Mediterranean. 1811 German Coast of Haiti against a slave uprising. Tecumseh's war 1811 for land. War of 1812 against the Brits, spain and natives for land. Creek War (1813-14) against the natives for land. Second Barbary war in the med (1815) against Islamic pirates.

First Seminole War (1817-18) against Spain and the Seminoles for land. Texas Indian wars (1820-75) against the commache for land. Arikara War (1823) in Missouri against the natives for land). Aegean Sea pirate War (1825-28) against greek pirates. Winnebago war in Illinois (1827) against the natives for mineral and land rites. First Sumatran war (1832) against pirates). Black hawk war (1832) against the brits and natives over land. Second Seminole (1835-42) over land. Second sumartan (1838) against pirates and for shipping lanes). Aroostook War (1838) against the brits for the maine land. Ivory coast (1842) to prevent slave trading in Africa. Mexican war (1846-48) for texas and California. Cayuse indian war (1847-55) in Oregon for land. Appache Wars (1851-1900) for texas land. Puget Sound war (1855-56) against natives for land. First Fiji war (1855) for shipping and land. Rogue river war (1855-56) against natives for land. Third Seminole war (1855-58) against natives for land. Yakima war (1855-58) in Washington state for peace and land. Second opium war (1856-59) in china for trade and shipping and opium, and you forget the drug wars are not a new thing. Utah War (1857-58) against the mormones. Navajo wars (1858-66) in new mexico for land.

Second Fiji war (1859) to put down the Fiji rebellion.

Now all this was a part of the day to day life of us here in the new Americas. And we all have completely forgotten not only the life styles we led than but also the massive conflicts we were in.

John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry ( 1859) the beginnings of the American civil war which was initially a taxation issue for food and produce and cotton and then devolved into a human trafficking issue. First and second Cortina war (1859-61) in texas against bandits killing and steeling along the border. Paiute war (1860) in Nevada against the natives for land.

Then begins the American civil war (1861-1865) primary for who was in charge the govt or the states. The south made all the food and clothing and the north began to tax it and regulate the south.

The native indian wars in the Arizona (1861-1875)against the apache and yumas in the southwest, against the Sioux in the Dakota against the Cheyenne in Colorado for land and control.

The Shimonoseki war in 1863 in japan for control of trade routes through the Konmon straights.

Then back to indian wars with the snake river war against the bannock and the Shoshone in Oregon from (1864 -68), and the powder river wars from 1865-68 against the Sioux and red cloud and we actually lost and gave the land back.

1867 -1875 we fought the Comanche too.

1872 we defeated the moddoc tribe in California and finally beat the Cheyenne and Comanche and kiowa in texas and Colorado. From 1873 – 1923 we had native Americans and US soldiers in a battle every year.

In 1867 we had a little conflict with Formosa or Thailand due to piracy. And in 1871 we had our first battle with korea

In 1889 we pushed the germans our of Samoa and the Spanish our of cuba in the Spanish America war.

1900 we had a conflict and deployed troops to the Philippines. And at the turn of the century we deployed to china and the boxer rebellion insued.

Our southern boarder we a combat zone with four major military interventions from 1900 through 1914 from mexico, cuba, Haiti, Dominican republic and Nicaragua

In 1914-1918 the world went to war seemingly with itself in Europe. In 1918 russian civil war pushes all outsiders out.

In 1923 the Utes led the last indian uprising in the united states

1939-1945 we all took sides and fought for power and land and our men and women deployed into hell.

1953 we went to war with korea as china and Russia joined and wanted access and power along that region.

Also in 1953 we went into Loas and stayed until 1975.

1958 we fought in Lebanon. In 1961 the bay of pigs in cuba. In 1964 the simba rebellion in the congo.

1955-1975 we fought and died in Vietnam. 1965-1983 we fought against communism in Thailand. And against the Khmer in Cambodia.

1965-75 we fought in Bolivia, cuba, and the Dominican.

1978-1989 we fought zaire, libya, Lebanon, and against iran.

1989 we deployed to Panama.

Then begins my military career for fighting where ever you send me campaign.

In 1990 we invade Iraq. In 1992 we fight in Somalia. In 1992-95 we fight in bosnia.

In 94-95 we fight in Haiti. 98-99 we fight in the Kosovo war. In 1998 we engage Afghanistan. In 2001 we invade Afghanistan and are still there. 2003 we fight in Iraq and are still there. From 2003 until now we have pushed in somilia, Libya, Syria, Uganda, and Yemen.

Don't just weep for the dead today. Weep for the people who have forgotten and never want to serve. For the darkness is coming whether you want it to or not. So prepare yourself by celebrating the dead by recalling the facts that lead us into each conflict.