Three Simple Things (Leading During Chaos) – Part 1

The following contains excerpts from the book, Three Simple Things (Leading During Chaos) (Thom Shea).

At our music school in Midland, Texas we believe that music is more than sound, it is relationships.  When dealing with the subject of leadership, relationships matter.  And relationship with self is at the crux of all other relationships.  In other words, principles of conscience affect every other part of our lives.

“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…My intent for you is to achieve a six-hour baseline during your day-to-day life.”

The author discusses and demonstrates the value of perseverance, in the face of extraordinary challenges.  Shea, a former Navy Seal, advocates creating scenarios in which the human condition is challenged, to the point of breaking, to reveal weaknesses of process, character, and paradigms of thought.  He does this in the five areas listed above.  Although until reading this book, I was not familiar with Shea’s exact formula, I understand the pillars of a well-structured life and the value of having the discipline to challenge myself beyond the comforts of life in each of these areas.  The book confirmed much of what I already believed to be true about life and leadership.

The main points of this book is as follows:

  1. “The two traits that every great leader I’ve observed has, and they are resilience (the ability to never give up and stay the course) and integrity and consistency, which is honoring your word…In order to honor your word, you must kill of all of your learned excuses…be the person you said you would be, no matter the conditions.”
  2. The author’s prerequisite for reading the book is to establish a baseline for 21 days, as follows:
    1. “The Awakening”
      1. Morning action
        1. Do push-ups, sit-ups, and squats: move every muscle and joint.  During week one, do 10 of each; in week two, do 20; and conclude in week three with 30 of each.
        2. Turn on all five senses; move your eyes through every focal plane; listen for three sounds; smell something pleasant; taste something pleasant; run something with texture, like a hairbrush or a sponge, over your skin.
        3. Drink eight glasses of water throughout the day.
      2. Night action
        1. Do the same before bed for 21 days straight
      3. Excuses
        1. On a notepad, write down the time and every excuse or reason that comes up and makes you want to stop.
    2. Facing Fear Challenge
      1. “I have noticed that once you learn the lesson of dealing with one fear, you can easily apply that same method to dealing with any fear you might have….You have to take action…Fear disappears once you take action.  It literally stops.”

Many people feel uncomfortable standing in front of an audience making any kind of presentation.  One significant benefit we teach students at our music school in Midland, Texas is how to have confidence and authenticity when presenting to an audience.

    1. 24-hour Challenge
      1. “During the 24-hour challenge, you simply walk at whatever speed you want for 24 hours.
        1. Walk for 24 hours.
        2. Rest no more than 10 minutes before walking again.
        3. Eat and drink as much as you can.
      2. “Why on earth would I suggest 24 hours?  The answer may shock you.  Because with freedom and abundance comes decay.  The human condition in America, due to abundance, has lost the skill of physical and mental endurance.  I am not talking about running endurance or high-level athleticism.  I am talking the ability to endure the battle within against our excuses for a long time.”
  1. “Physical pursuit, if that is what we should call it, is simple, but not easy: mindset, physical activities, and diet…Never negotiate with food, the weather, or how you feel.  They will always win.  Just go do it!  The simple part of physical and mental fitness is to write down the goal, write down the coaches and team of people who will help, and to write down the exact daily plan.”

The phrase, “The show must go on!” is one ethos that students at our music school learn, as they pursue excellence and courage in their capacity to deliver under pressure.

  1. “My experience has shown me that what we say, both out loud and in our minds, impacts our outcomes…We often let our environments or other people dictate our words and actions and thus our outcomes…The formula is predicated on two foundational underpinnings.  Meaning to master or get access to shaping the formula, one has to learn these two points first.  They are ‘honor your word’ and ‘never give up on honoring your word.’  The process takes 21 days to weed out and show how internal dialogue or words dramatically impact performance.  I call this process ‘killing your excuses.’”

As teachers at our music school in Midland, Texas we help students grow, not only in their musical skills, but in their life-skills, as we challenge them to higher levels of personal accountability.

  1. “The formula has six parts to it:
    1. Declaration State of Who You Are (must use correct wording)
    2. Mission Statement or goal statement (must always detail what, where, and when)
    3. Need Statements (tools of performance)
    4. Accountability Partners Statement (the team you form around you)
    5. Detailed Plan of Execution Statement
    6. Why Statement – the only answer of any merit or sustainable value is ‘because I said so.’

“What you don’t know is that you can recode or change the language of the formula.  You can change it without evidence.  Changing the declaration of who you are immediately rewrites the entire formula…The formula needs only to be coded, and it will cause actions predicate to the wording…I know as a matter of fact who people say they are is the starting point of all actions and outcomes.  All that is going on is the formula running its program in your life.  Either you fill it in with determination and clarity, or the experiences you have and the environment in which you live will do it for you.  The formula doesn’t care how it gets filled in; it just does what it is told to do.  And it always works.”

When we teach and lead students in our music school in Midland, Texas, we do so through encouragement, focusing on what they do well and augmenting that in their awareness.  This creates a confidence within them, from an outside source, which they then begin to internalize and carry with them.

  1. “You must organize six hours of your day around three simple things for each of the five pyramids (spiritual, relationship, intellectual, wealth building, and physical), and to build a solid foundation, you must do it consistently for 21 days…Each of the five pyramids I outline in this book will have distinct actions and words to reflect three simple things.  Each will also require different time demands that are nonnegotiable.”  Each of the five pyramids has three parts: Offense, Defense, and Strategic
    1. Spiritual Baseline (30 minutes)
      1. (Offense) Wake up and immediately move every muscle and joint in your body.
      2. (Defense) Engage and turn on each of your five senses.
      3. (Strategic) Read each of your five formulas out loud.
    2. Relationship Baseline (30 minutes)
      1. (Offense) Listen to your partner’s goals and what they are doing that day.
      2. (Defense) Speak of your goals and articulate what you will do that day.
      3. (Strategic) Touch each other and be intimate.
    3. Physical Baseline (90 minutes)
      1. (Offense) One hour of specific activity related to your goal
      2. (Defense) Twenty minutes of on point stretching
      3. (Strategic) Ten glasses of water
    4. Wealth Baseline (3 hours)
      1. (Offense) One hour pursuing new business
      2. (Defense) One hour maturing existing business
      3. (Strategic) One hour thinking and doing activity that is unconstrained by existing circumstances (think outside the box, think big)
    5. Intellectual Baseline (30 minutes)
      1. (Offense) Ten minutes a day learning something that you know you don’t know
      2. (Defense) Ten minutes a day learning something that you already know
      3. (Strategic) Ten minutes a day learning something that you didn’t know you didn’t know!

One of the great values of having a mentor/teacher is that they can help you think in larger frameworks than you thought were possible.  At our music school in Midland, Texas we provide students with opportunities to grow through new knowledge.

  1. “Vision and mission are the sole responsibility of the leader.  Leaders have to speak it, live it, and reinforce it every single day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  Leaders who do not have these two points of responsibility cause more damage than do an earthquake and forest fire combined.  The third line item is accountability.  The leader doesn’t do the work.  The team does the work.  In order to be an effective leader, the team’s actions, or individual employee actions, has to be spelled out in as detailed degree as possible.”

At our music school in Midland, Texas the focus is not on the teacher, but rather on the student.  It is the student’s success that is the measure of great teaching