Three Simple Things. Thom Shea

but not easy.

      Most of us have a human system that has never intentionally been turned on and, clearly, has never been turned off every day. You, as the driver of this human system, must learn to intentionally turn it on and off every day to succeed.

      The method will only take 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes at night. The first thing you do after waking and the last thing before lying your head down for sleep. Fifteen minutes to turn on and 15 minutes to shut down the human system.

      The two-part method is to sequentially turn on the functional parts of the human machine:

      Three Simple Things: Spiritual Baseline

      1. Morning Action

       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.

       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.

       Drink eight glasses of water throughout the day.

      2. Night Action

       Do the same before bed for 21 days straight.

      3. Excuses

       On a notepad, write down the time and every excuse or reason that comes up and makes you want to stop.

      It’s a simple method I call “the awakening.” You will find reasons to excuse yourself very graciously from doing it. You will either come up with a reason in the first week, you will simply forget in the second week, or worse, you will believe your excuses in the third week and quit. You will most likely quit on honoring your word. This first 21-day challenge will show you what is causing you to fail in all areas of your life.

      As you prepare yourself for either a 21-day easy learning experience or a six-month tranche of excuses that seduce you into oblivion, the four most noted excuses are as follows. Maybe seeing them written prior to engagement will help.

       This is too painful

       This is stupid

       My spouse/lover/friend doesn’t support me

       I forgot

      Clearly, pain can be believable. Pain, once used as an excuse, will always stop you.

      Saying “this is stupid” has destroyed more endeavors than any excuse known to mankind. What you may not realize is that there is always a point in time when what you are doing is just stupid and makes no sense. You will ask, “Who in their right mind would keep doing this?” or say, “I cannot keep doing this.” Overcoming “this is stupid” will be the most important aspect of your life. If you don’t overcome this conversation, I can personally promise you one thing: you will stay right where you are in life with the same complaints and reasons and blame everyone but your own choices. “This is stupid” excuses you from change, from taking a step, and from success.

      The other seductive excuse to not honor you word is the lack of support from a spouse. Without knowing the outcome of the intimate nature of spousal support, most spouses negatively impact the drive of their loved one. Neither spouse really intends to destroy the other, yet even a sideways look or a scoff of being inconvenienced will derail the one trying to honor their word. Get on board or just tell your spouse openly they don’t have your support. I highly recommend being your spouse’s cheerleader and always supporting. Unfortunately, the opposite is the reality, due to the fear of being great and a complete lack of understanding what it truly means to be in a relationship. We’ll discuss relationship later.

      The final of the top four reasons to quit that I have encountered is the most surprising. To make matters worse, it doesn’t seem like an excuse. The reality of the excuse “I forgot,” is that everyone, everywhere uses it. You will forget to do the simple thing you agreed to do. It doesn’t seem to matter how weighty or simple the thing is. We forget to turn off the stove and burn the house down. We forget to fill the tank with gas and run out of gas when least convenient. We forget to say hi and cause unintended ripples in the experience of life for others. In the 21-day challenge, most people forget to do one of the promised things in the last three days. And have to start over. That reality is the life people lead.

      The power of the 21-day challenge to honor your word and never give up is that once you stop giving credence to your excuses, once you carve out doing three simple things for 21 days, your life is now moving in the direction you spoke into existence. You are now capable of replicating the experience of doing what you said you would do. Nineteen days is not enough. Twenty days and “I am good” will not be sustainable. Transform your life in twenty-one days. And that is very powerful.

      Facing Fear Challenge

      The second trial I recommend to honoring your word is to deal openly with fear. Fear is a crippling emotion. Fear is designed to prevent the weak, inexperienced you from engaging the thing that makes you afraid. When fear is present, its effect works 100 percent of the time. Fear stops you.

      Ironically, fear can always be overcome by experience and action. But you must act in the face of fear by doing what you are afraid of doing. You must cast off what you think about fear and face it. There is no other way.

      Take for instance the most common fears: fear of public speaking, fear of rejection, fear of getting hurt, fear of failure. The fear of public speaking prevents a great many people from succeeding in business. Fear of rejection prevents many of us from asking the question or trying something new. Fear of getting hurt prevents pretty much everyone from venturing off the normal paths we are on in health or in business or in relationships. Fear of failure stops people from even trying something new or hard.

      Fear keeps us where we are: doing the same thing over and over and over again.

      The method to overcome and openly deal with fear is practical and important to learn. I have taken hundreds of people through this simple lesson in fear and have seen the same result. The result of dealing with fear is action. Through action, all things become available.

      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. The most visceral fear to overcome is the fear of falling. I ask you to overcome your fear of heights by rappelling and climbing a 100-foot cliff.

      Obviously get a professional climber who is certified to teach and safely take you through the climbing experience. We insist on the safety mechanisms you must have to climb. Still, you must still face your fear and do the climb. Mitigating risk doesn’t alleviate fear prior to taking action and doing the thing you are afraid of doing. I can tell you a thousand times how to rappel and climb and even show you, but in that last moment before you actually get to it, you have to overcome your personal fears. You have to hook up and step off. You have to take the action. You have to look down and overcome your fear. You have to climb back up and feel your hands about to slip off. You have to face the possible experience of slipping and falling a short distance and then trying again.

      In that moment, or all moments of being gripped by fear but taking action anyway, what happens to fear? Fear disappears once you take action. It literally stops.

      What would your life be like if you learned to take action in all the things you are afraid of doing?

      24-Hour Challenge

      The third iteration, and the most important method of honoring your word and never giving up, is the 24-hour challenge. During the 24-hour challenge, you simply walk at whatever speed you want for 24 hours. The impact is profound. The simple act of just walking for 24 hours forces you to either honor your word and walk or honor every outside circumstance pressuring you and quit. The act of eating and drinking and taking care of yourself