Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins

That’s from Chapter 2: “Truth Hurts.”

Did I mention the fact that Goggins is intense?

Well, he’s about ten times more intense than you might imagine.

Want to Optimize? As James Stockdale would say, as you hold an UNWAVERING belief that you will ultimately overcome whatever obstacles you are facing, be willing to embrace the harsh (!) realities of your life.

Of course, we do that with a radical self-acceptance a la Kristin Neff’s wisdom on Self-Compassion but we need to be willing to take a nice, long, hard look at the TRUTH of what’s not working for us.

Goggins’ approach? The Accountability Mirror. Look into it, he says, and tell yourself the truth.

→ “If you look into the mirror and you see a fat person, don’t tell yourself that you need to lose a couple of pounds. Tell the truth. You’re f****** fat!! It’s okay. Just say you’re fat if you’re fat. The dirty mirror that you see every day is going to tell you the truth every time, so why are you still lying to yourself? So you can feel better for a few minutes and stay the f****** same? If you’re fat you need to change the fact that you’re fat because it’s very f****** unhealthy. I know because I’ve been there.”

Well, there ya go.

The Accountability Mirror.

What do YOU see when you look into it?

Be honest. See the BEAUTY of what’s behind the blatant flaws you might be trying to ignore and know that the only way to get to work bringing that potential to life is to start chipping away at the stuff that’s in the way. And the only way to do THAT is to tell yourself the truth. 

Goggins is an ASTONISHING exemplar of emotional (and physical) stamina.

The ticket to victory? It “often comes down to bringing your best when you feel your worst.”

Of course, we don’t need to be in the middle of some HUGE, obviously life-defining crucible like Navy SEAL Hell Week to put that wisdom into action.

And, that’s Goggins’ whole point throughout the book.

We need to CONSTANTLY “callous our minds” to pain—doing what needs to get done whether we *feel* like it or not.

That’s Emotional Stamina 101 a la Phil Stutz. The WORSE you feel, the MORE committed you are to your protocol.

Then we have the whole science of second winds.

Finally, Goggins tells us that we need to be PREPARED for the adversity (EXPECT IT!) and know WHY we’re going to push through that pain we’re experiencing. Former Navy SEAL Alden Mills reflects on this wisdom in his great book Be Unstoppable—which I just read to Emerson during our night-time reading.

Emerson can rattle off the eight actions of being unstoppable. They form the acronym “UPERSIST.” The “U”? That’s for “Understand your why.”

So…

What’s YOUR why?

Have it in mind. Use it to push through the pain you KNOW will show up.

Work your protocol ALWAYS remembering that the WORSE you feel the MORE committed you are to executing what you know needs to get done.

Find your second wind. Give us all you’ve got.

That’s from a chapter called “Armored Mind” in which we go through Hell Week.

Goggins’ childhood was CRAZY (!!!) toxic. Incessant physical abuse. Poverty. Gah. I wince just typing that as I recall the stories he so powerfully shares in the book.

But, at some point, he decided to be the HERO of his story rather than the VICTIM.

When I read that passage, I immediately thought of a passage from Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic where he tells us: “Seneca writes that unbruised prosperity is weak and easy to defeat in the ring, but a ‘man who has been at constant feud with misfortunes acquires a skin calloused by suffering.’ This man, he says, fights all the way to the ground and never gives up.

That’s what Epictetus means too. What kind of boxer are you if you leave because you get hit? That’s the nature of the sport! Is that going to stop you from continuing?”

Ryan was riffing on this gem from Epictetus’s Discourses which is worth repeating here: “But what is philosophy? Doesn’t it simply mean preparing ourselves for what may come? Don’t you understand that really amounts to saying that if I would so prepare myself to endure, then let anything happen that will? Otherwise, it would be like the boxer exiting the ring because he took some punches. Actually, you can leave the ring without consequence, but what advantage would come from abandoning the pursuit of wisdom? So, what should each of us say to every trial we face? This is what I’ve trained for, for this my discipline!”

We’ve gotta remember that we, as the HEROES of our life stories TRAIN for this hard stuff!!!

Of course, Epictetus would definitely say THIS about Goggins: “This man, he says, fights all the way to the ground and never gives up.”

Begs the question: What would he say about you?

Here’s to doing the hard to work to callous our heroic souls.

Let’s chant together: “OMMS!!” “Bring It On!!!!”

That’s from Challenge #7 from the chapter on “The Most Powerful Weapon” in which we enjoy reading about Goggins doing even more (seemingly) I M P O S S I B L E stuff.

Including that 39-hour, 205-mile nonstop run. Of course, running that far (and that long) is mindboggling. But what I find even more incredible is the fact that eight years earlier, he could barely run a quarter of a mile. 8 years. 800 TIMES further. THAT is amazing.

How’d he do it? He went just a little past his normal stopping point. Day in. Day out. Again. And again. And again.

We talk about this all the time. Most recently with our +1% incremental Atomic Habits gains that lead to quadrillion-fold gains.

Then there’s Steven Kotler’s 4% number from The Rise of Superman. We stretch ourselves JUST a little outside of our comfort zone. Establish THAT new best as our new baseline. Repeat.

→ “This is why the challenge/skills ratio is so important. If we want to achieve the kinds of accelerated performance we’re seeing in action and adventure sports, then it’s 4 percent plus 4 percent plus 4 percent, day after day, week after week, months into years into careers. This is the road to real magic. Follow this path long enough, and not only does impossible becomes possible, it becomes what’s next—like eating breakfast, like another day at the office.”

THAT’s The Process.

So… How can you go a little past your normal stopping point today?

And… I hammered out 22 +1’s in ONE 6.9-hour Deep Work-filled day—shattering my previous best. (Laughing.)

Did I mention that Goggins’ was intense? (Hah.)

That’s from a chapter all about “The Empowerment of Failure” in which we get the inside story on how Goggins broke the then-Guinness World Record for pull-ups.

First: Recall that he banged out over 4,000 (!) in 17 hours. Think about that when you tell yourself you can’t do 1 pull-up (or whatever other limiting story you allow to loop in your head).

Second: Know this: Before Goggins broke the record, he FAILED twice. Once on The Today Show. Oops. Ouch. How do you think THAT felt? After his second failure, he got to work figuring out what he needed to Optimize via what SEALs call “After Action Reports.” (Basically: What went well, what needs work, what will you do differently next time?)

Third: He DECIDED the record was his: “I didn’t know when it would become mine. It might be in two months or twenty years, but once I decided it belonged to me and decoupled it from the calendar, I was filled with confidence and relieved of any and all pressure because my task morphed from trying to achieve the impossible into working toward an inevitability. But to get there, I’d have to find the tactical advantage I’d been missing.”

I LOVE (!!!) the idea of “decoupling” our goals from the calendar. <- That’s super powerful. Decide you’re going to do the work to achieve what others might be saying is impossible. Then figure out what you need to do. And do it.

Then there’s that image of a seed BURSTING (!) “from the inside out in a self-destructive ritual of new life. Does that sound like f****** fun? Like it feels good? I wasn’t in that gym to get happy or do what I wanted to be doing. I was there to turn myself inside out if that’s what it took to blast through any and all mental, emotional, and physical barriers.”

← Wow.

Viktor Frankl comes to mind.

He once told us that “What is to give light must endure burning.”

Here’s to enduring our bursting and our burning as we master our minds and defy the odds, my heroic friend.