Can't Hurt Me

David Goggins

Amazon

• David was born into a household with an abusive father and was the only black child at his school - he was dealt a bad hand growing up but didn't let that dictate how he'd live his life
• Throughout his childhood he cheated through school and succumbed to racism (he decided to make himself the stereotype black person that people thought he was). Upon realising how much he needed to change to get himself ready, he looked himself in the mirror and spoke the truth
  • Encouragement not go easy on yourself, if you look at yourself in the mirror and see you're fat, call yourself fat
• During SEAL training, David was pushed to his limits and the commanding officers repeatedly made the training harder and harder for him. No matter the difficulty, his mental resilience pushed him, and he succeeded.
• "Taking a soul" - recognising where people don't believe in you or actively make things harder for you. You show them you can rise above whatever they throw at you by working harder than them, harder than they could ever dream of
• "Callous the mind" - When you first start training weights, soft hands feel in pain from the steel but after a while they develop callouses. Push yourself mentally and physically will callous your mind, by pushing yourself to your limits you are able to realise just how much you're capable of
• "Cookie jar" - Use previous wins, times when it's been difficult and you've had to push through as a motivation during a tough moment. Knowing that you've faced adversity and came through fine helps during those times when everything feels tough
• "Remove the governor" - The governor is holding you back and preventing you from reaching your full potential. Make small improvements and can pushing through to eventually realise your potential - don't go all-in straight away, build up to it
• Look at time inefficiencies in the day. Where is time being wasted and where can it be better spent? Do an audit of your day, find those time wastes and then spend time doing more valuable activities
• Don't stop improving - continue to push yourself and keep learning, go back to university and get a second degree or something to that effect

Quotes

• "We all have areas in our lives we either ignore or can improve upon. Find yours. We often choose to focus on our strengths rather than our weaknesses. Use this time to make your weaknesses your strengths."
• "Everything in life is a mind game! Whenever we get swept under by life’s dramas, large and small, we are forgetting that no matter how bad the pain gets, no matter how harrowing the torture, all bad things end."
• "The reason it’s important to push hardest when you want to quit the most is because it helps you callous your mind. It’s the same reason why you have to do your best work when you are the least motivated. That’s why I loved PT in BUD/S and why I still love it today. Physical challenges strengthen my mind, so I’m ready for whatever life throws at me, and it will do the same for you."
• "If you want to master the mind and remove your governor, you’ll have to become addicted to hard work. Because passion and obsession, even talent, are only useful tools if you have the work ethic to back them up."
• "We can always become stronger and more agile, mentally and physically. We can always become more capable and more reliable. Since that’s the case we should never feel that our work is done. There is always more to do."