Thom Shea served 23 years as a Navy SEAL. During his military career, he served in three wars, ultimately leading a team of Navy SEALs into Afghanistan in 2009 where he earned a Silver Star, Bronze Star with Valor, Army Commendation with Valor, and his second Combat Action Medal. Thom also served as a SEAL Instructor in BUD/S and was hand-selected to be the Officer in Charge of the famed SEAL Sniper course. Tom is also the founder of Unbreakable Leadership, a learning and development company that helps people lead during chaos and achieve new levels of performance, and he is the author of the bestselling book Unbreakable: A Navy Seal’s Way of Life” and, his latest release, “Three Simple Things: Leading During Chaos.”
In this episode of The Alpha Human Podcast, Thom and I discuss what drove his desire for war and his yearning for combat, and the mindset that led him to overcome four failed attempts to make it through SEAL training to finally conquer his 5th stab at becoming a SEAL and graduate BUD/S Class 207. We also talk about his book Unbreakable, originally written as a journal of his last deployment in Afghanistan so that his children would have a record of what made him who he was should he not make it back, but his musings on war and outlook on life evolved into a cannon of principles on what made him excel as a warrior and a high achiever, ultimately penning 13 lessons on how to live life to the fullest of one’s potential. We also explore Internal Dialogue as a central theme of Thom’s Unbreakable philosophy and how controlling the language we use both in our self-talk and in our interactions with others will ultimately shape who we are as humans. Along the way, we also delve into Thom’s thoughts on how damaging it is to use words (or invest in concepts like) like hope and belief, Viewing the act of commitment as the avoidance of living in an excuse driven world and why men who survive and win have a “need to be needed.” Thom also gives us a preview of his new book “Three Simple Things,” which grew out of his process for training people to master 5 key areas of their life (Body, Intellect, Spirituality, Wealth, and Relationships) using three powerful precepts.
Links:
Unbreakable Leadership: https://www.unbreakableleadership.com/
Unbreakable Lessons: https://www.unbreakablelessons.com/
Unbreakable Podcast: https://unbreakablepodcast.libsyn.com/
Unbreakable: A Navy SEAL’s Way of Life: https://amzn.to/2KuuHyP
Three Simple Things: Leading During Chaos: https://amzn.to/3nWxNtC