TN50#152_Citizens Not Subjects_12 February 2024
Hi Team,
I like to shovel snow. Saturday afternoon, 10 Feb 24 provided all of us in Castle Rock, CO an opportunity to shovel snow, just like the Saturday before. I also like, no I love, to be surprised by a good book. This is a story about both; snow and a REALLY good book.
Happy Monday and welcome to The Next 50 #152. I like to think of personal performance in 3 components: physical, mental and emotional. My frameworks focus on 4 Buckets: Eat, Sleep, Move and Think. This blog is my sandbox for sharing information that you might find useful for your personal performance.
The snow hadn’t stopped falling yet but it was getting later in the day and the snow was deep enough to warrant getting the first few inches off the drive, porches and sidewalks before it got dark. As I was prepping to head out I was looking for something to listen to on Apple Podcasts, I ran across Jack Carr’s podcast called Danger Close, I clicked over to his feed and immediately recognized some guest names of people I know. Some from the Navy and some from the Army, including one of my favorite bosses and friend. Sodbuster (aka Kyle Lamb, from Viking Tactics). Jack Carr is a retired Navy SEAL and Sodbuster is a retired Army Commando, both men are well respected and have transitioned well; er um, from the military that is – just to be clear.
So with Kyle and Jack’s voices fired up on my Shokz headset and shovel in hand I headed out into the snow. The podcast was great and at some point, Kyle was telling the story of how he met Jack at a shooting event and Jack had given Kyle and copy of his book, The Terminal List (I had heard of this book and knew that it, along with all of Carr’s novels, is very popular). I personally hadn’t ever cracked one of Jack’s books open. You know, who has time for that stuff, if I ever needed a hit of that Action/Revenge/Love genre I would fire up one of my favorite movies like Brave Heart or Man on Fire.
Ok, I got sidetracked, back to the podcast. So Kyle is talking about how he gets on an airplane after he meets Jack Carr and he is digging around in his backpack trying to find his bag of Swedish Fish and gets hold of Jack’s book instead, The Terminal List. He starts reading this book and he’s like, “holy cow”, it’s so good that Kyle totally forgets about the Swedish Fish and he can’t put the novel down till he finishes it.
So the podcast ends and I’m still getting after it shoveling snow and I am intrigued by what I’ve heard about this book so I click over to my Audible app and I pull up The Terminal List and like a sign from the book gods I see that I have a credit! With-in a minute I’m transported into the world of James Reese, a Navy SEAL who goes rogue to revenge the deaths of literally everyone he cares about.
Kyle was right, you can’t put this book down and I can’t do it justice with how good it is, so I’ll simply say if I didn’t have any other responsibilities, I would have locked myself away and listened straight through. As it is it took me about 40 hours to listen to the whole thing – it’s that good.
The book has over 54,000 5-star reviews on Audible and here’s the really cool part for me. The Terminal List is Jack Carr’s first book about James Reece. There are now a total of 7 novels in the James Reece series; which means I can listen to one novel every few months and this series will easily take me through 2026.
Now, you may be saying, “who cares!” But when was the last time a fiction book brought you pure joy? Any kind of fiction? If you like action, thrillers, check out Jack Carr. If you don’t know what you like because you’ve never read a book, check out, The Alchemist, or go to Good Reads and find something you like. If most of the entertainment you consume involves short form video that you consume with your smart phone. It’s time to challenge your brain with a 12-hour novel, that’s right, I dare you to read or audible a good fiction book.
Who do you know that could use this information? I bet you can think of a couple of folks before you click the next email!
As always share the post with your team and anyone who might find it useful and let me know what you think!
Have a good one, Alex
PS. Do you have a Performance question I can answer? Let me know: alex@fpp.llc
PPS. If your new to First Principles Performance Coaching, here’s a one stop shop for all my stuff.
