David Goggins is a hard motherfucker. He went through Navy Seal training three times, has competed in dozens of 100+ mile long ultra marathons, and once completed 4,030 pull-ups in seventeen hours. I might also describe him as a masochist. There are many lessons to be learned from his story, some of them are inspiring and some of them are cautionary.
On the surface, this book is about one man pushing himself to the limits in order to achieve his maximum potential. It’s about developing an ethos of personal discipline despite any and all hardships. This is an inspiring message, one that Goggins instills his readers with; anyone can unlock the same secrets to success that he has. Goggins has indeed proved that the human mind is the key to success – the mind is what makes or breaks us. After a long workout, it’s your mind telling your body that you’re tired long before your muscles are actually tapped out. He calls this his 40% rule, exemplifying the fact that most people only tap into 40% of their true energy and ability. “The human body is like a stock car,” he writes. “We may look different on the outside, but under the hood we all have huge reservoirs of potential.”
Think of it like this: If someone challenged you to run a mile in 6 minutes, you would probably laugh at the impossibility of the task. Unless you are someone who runs and trains regularly, that is a tough run to make in that amount of time. If, however, someone put a gun to your head and challenged you to run a mile in 6 minutes or else they’d kill you, you would undoubtedly find depths of energy you never knew you had and most likely complete the challenge. The difference is not in your body’s ability, the difference is in your mindset. The real trick, then, is to tap into the fight or flight adrenaline within yourself without actually being threatened. Goggins has done this, and he argues that we all have this ability within ourselves. “It’s not the external voice that will break you down. It’s what you tell yourself that matters. The most important conversations you’ll ever have are the ones you’ll have with yourself.”
In my opinion, Goggins has taken it too far, to the point of detriment. He has developed an addiction to pain and suffering, one that has ruined his body many times over. It began with an abusive childhood, one riddled with racism and personal insecurity, which led him to want to harden his sensibilities. This is natural, the equivalent of paving over emotional potholes, but no amount of pull-ups can ever truly erase trauma. This is the story underneath the surface. No matter how far he runs, he will never be able to run away from himself. This is also an important lesson we can take away from his story: there is value in being nice to oneself. David is not nice to himself. As a result, he has achieved amazing feats of physical endurance. As a secondary result, he has been married and divorced several times over. There is not much happiness in this book or seemingly in his life at all.
“A lot of people think that once they reach a certain level of status, respect, or success, that they’ve made it in life. I’m here to tell you that you always have to find more.” Goggins is of the opinion that life is a race, one that you must run from your first day to your last. While there are lessons to be learned from this type of lifestyle, I don’t agree that it’s the most optimal for health and happiness. The two take-aways from his memoir are as follows: Firstly, hardening your mind will allow you to achieve things you never thought possible. We all have tremendous inner wells of energy that if we can harness, can take us to incredible places. Secondly, being the hardest person in every room isn’t always necessary. Sometimes softness and ease are the greatest companions.
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