Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins

May 2022 (2654 Words, 15 Minutes)

Link to Book

Version: 2018

Rating: 5/5

Notes:

• Introduction

  • There is a difference when learning from experience than from learning intellectually
  • With enough will and mental toughness, one can achieve a lot of things that many experts think are impossible
    • Many use the genetic limitation argument as an excuse to perform under their capabilities
  • Most of us don’t really know who we really are nor what we are truly capable of accomplishing
  • Your rough background, trials, and tribulations can serve as a good excuse to perform below your potential

• I should have been a statistic

  • Writing your past in journal and identifying the negative obstacles or events in your life can help you in your success
  • It is hard to realize how much going the extra mile to help someone can change that person’s life
  • When your the only one of your kind, you are predisposed to get made fun of
  • People who smile a lot are not always good and caring people, people who are grumpy a lot are not always bad/uncompassionate people
  • Blaming your inability to learn on learning disorders or emotional problems can impede the progress that you are capable of

• Truth hurts

  • Taking the path of least resistance instead of the path that you should take will come back to bite you
  • Your life could be completely turned around by one dramatic event
  • There are many living proofs that you can transcend anything that does not take your life
  • Be real with yourself and stop making yourself feel better by denying the truth so that you can improve and change
  • Hold yourself accountable by writing your goals, dreams and insecurities down on a post it note and putting them on your accountability mirror
  • You are stopping you if you say that you are limited by outside circumstances like society problems and discrimination
  • Hold yourself accountable for the small steps needed to achieve your goals

• The impossible task

  • Most mental and physical limitations in our minds don’t really exist
  • You have to be willing to accept that other people may have it easier than you and can accomplish the same task with relative ease
    • Even with this, be willing to take on the extra work & difficulty
  • Work on making your weaknesses your strengths
  • It is not about changing your life instantly, it is about changing bit by bit and progressively making yourself better
  • Make it a priority to do something that sucks everyday
    • This will callouse your mind
  • Make a list of things you don’t like to do or that make you uncomfortable and start doing at least one of those

• Taking souls

  • All bad things end, do not fall to the illusion that the pain and suffering will go on forever without stop
  • When you pass the threshold of what you think your limits for pain and suffering are, your mind wants to quit
  • The toughest suffering is when you don’t have an escape, when there is no way to relieve or escape the present reality
  • Many people quit whenever they don’t know the answer to “why am I here?” when they face immense voluntary pain and suffering
    • This comes to mind especially when one considers the other more enjoyable things that one can be doing in their life at the moment
  • If you have a bully, try to get into their head by showing them that they have no power over you and that there is no way they can hurt you, no matter what they try
    • Sometimes the best way to deal with bullies is to help them
  • Getting to victory often comes from bringing your best when you feel the worst
  • Know the terrain you are dealing with, know yourself and know your opponents
  • Life is often about looking for advantages and using them
  • Having some laughter and lifting up the mood with singing can help flip a miserable situation around
  • Sometimes even the most competent and brave of people must be ready to take risks and tasks that seem impossible or unachievable
  • As the leader of a team, you must not show weakness, especially in critical situations
  • When you are very focused on failing, you are too afraid to try
  • There is only one way to earn respect and turn the tables around, which is excellence
    • Make sure they watch you put the extra effort
    • Aim to exceed expectations and do as they ask
    • Your goal is to make them see that you are doing something they never did themselves

• Armored mind

  • When you go through high amount of pain and suffering, your perception of the limits to human potential start to change
  • Remembering your past pain and your overcoming of obstacles will help you push through obstacles that seem impossible
  • You will have a lot of doubts pop up when pursuing goals and a million reasons why success is low are going to come up
  • Getting knocked out is part of the process sometimes, but throwing the towel and giving up is not acceptable
    • You need this mindset to develop a calloused mind
  • To get an armored mind that is bulletproof, you need to get to the source of your fears and insecurities
    • Sweeping them under rug is not a good idea, because they will come up whenever we run into problems
    • You will often find that it is nothing but your mind out to get you
  • When analyzing your miserable and suffering filled past, change your mindset from being a victim of circumstance to viewing your past as the appropriate training ground for what you will face in life
  • When doing hard things like working out, know that the battle is not just for your physical health, it is to prepare you for whatever life throws at you
  • It’s important to do your best work when you are least capable or want to because that is how you callous your mind
  • In order to have the most callous mind, you need to accept the cold, hard truths of life
  • When you reveal that you have gotten beaten down, it arises a lot of insecurity
    • It’s necessary to acknowledge your weaknesses in your character that are due to your past so that you can work on them

• It’s not about the trophy

  • One will suffer insurmountable amounts if one thinks that the laws of science do not apply to them
  • When you are comfortable and safe, any impossible goal that you can think about seems doable, but once you get broken down in massive pain, your mind starts raising questions full of doubt
  • If you are not prepared and you let your mind be undisciplined in intense suffering (which is your choice, even if it doesn’t feel like it), you will find answers that will make the suffering stop
  • “I am the reason I still have a chance” (pg: 187)
  • The question of “why are you doing this to yourself?” will always come up in agonizing pain and suffering
  • Hell week teaches you decades of wisdom in 130 hours
    • Its effectively a war against yourself
  • Cookie jar concept
    • Imagine having a cookie jar in your mind of your past victories and challenging things that you have overcome
    • Use it when you need to remind yourself of what you are capable of
    • It can include small victories as well, because you cannot have big victories without small ones

• The most powerful weapon

  • We regularly settle for less than our best in all areas of our life, whether at work, school or at home
    • We teach our children to settle for less, which leads to a grand change in societal attitude
    • We have the impulse to make the excuse that we gave our best and leave a job unfinished
  • Goggin’s 40% rule
    • When we feel like we are hitting out limit, we still have 60% more potential left
    • Adopting this rule will lead to new levels of performance and excellence
    • To adopt this rule, you need to stretch your pain tolerance and let go of self limit beliefs
  • It’s easy to be open minded when you are comfortable, it’s a challenge when you are suffering
  • Chunking very large tasks into smaller chunks and sometimes even saying that you will quit after one more iteration can help the mind calm down and complete the task
  • Genetics do play a role, and everyone has a floor & ceiling, however, we all have a higher ceiling than we realize
  • Visualization and research are important parts in preparing for an event
  • “But that was nothing new. Who hasn’t dreamed up a possibility for themselves only to have friends, colleagues, or family shit all over it? Most of us are motivated as hell to do anything to pursue our dreams until those around us remind us of the danger, the downside, our limitations, and all the people before us that didn’t make it. Sometimes the advice comes from a well-intentioned place.” (pg: 218)
  • To reach 100% full potential, you need to take note of your weaknesses, which will arise in high stress environments and overwhelm you once they build up
  • There is a saying in the military that we don’t rise up to our expectations, we fall to the level of our training

• Talent not required

  • Strategize, use intelligence not just will alone and consider alternative routes to victory
    • Backstops are there to help you get back on course when lost or things don’t go your way
    • Have a backup plan in case things go wrong
  • Anyone can change their life with or without the military, they just need to have an open mind, avoid taking the path of least resistance, and find the most challenging/difficult task that they can find
  • You don’t know how or who you are affecting with your actions
  • When someone asks if they have the same hardware capability as Goggins, he would say:
    • Our culture is obsessed with shortcuts, hacks and efficiency, actions that lead to the maximum benefit for the least amount of effort
      • This attitude will not lead to self mastery or a calloused mind
    • Workethic is most important factor in success
    • There are 168 hours in the week, find time to put in extra hours at work and be able to work out
      • Everyone has work obligations, no one wants to miss sleep, and you need to spend time with the family
      • Win the morning battle, you can get your workout in the early morning
  • Schedule your tasks and focus 100% on completing that task at that specific moment to minimize wasted time
    • You can go for a week doing what you normally do and putting time stamps on everything you do in order to determine dumb things in your schedule
    • Make sure to implement backstops whenever a task takes a lot more time than scheduled
    • Seperate your time in an hour, 15 or 30 minute slots of time
    • Work on one thing at a time
    • When it’s time for the next task, place the previous one aside and apply the same focus
    • You can find time for less bullshit if you analyze your schedule
    • Put timestamp on your responsibilities
      • Time for eating, errands, commuting, etc.
      • how much sleep you need
    • Schedule rest time, you need it since the 24 hour mission is a lifelong commitment that requires recovery
      • Power naps, if necessary
      • On rest days, make sure you completely relax and hang out with friends and family so you can recharge
      • Goggins recommends a full rest day per week
  • Sometimes, when racing or completing a task, you need to slow down, which is fine, however, it is not ok to quit merely because of difficulty
  • Sometimes, it is better to cooperate than humiliate (pg: 254)
  • You must be ready to adjust, because life will hit you hard even if you do everything right
    • If a complication prevents you from focusing on your primary craft, focus on something else that you can do that will make you better
  • The victim mentality will only lead to misery

• Uncommon amongst uncommon

  • Always be on the lookout and prepare your mind and body for any unforeseen opportunities that may arise in the future
  • Life will give you opportunities for you to show that you are uncommon
  • Uncommon people are usually the ones that are alone
  • Develop a code of ethics that sets you apart from everyone else
    • One of those is turning negative things into positive ones
    • Another to prepare to lead from the front when things start moving
  • A true leader leads by example, fights for his men, sucks up exhaustion, and never ignores the weakest link
  • Treat everyday and every new goal as starting from zero
    • Never feel like your work is done, there is always something more to do
    • Be willing to be the dumbest and unskilled person again, because that is how you will grow
  • Don’t let your desire for comfort stop you
  • Most people hit a comfort plateau, stop, and enjoy their rewards
  • Everyone is fighting the battle of being their best selves and suffering or staying in comfort
  • You can’t control every variable in your life, you can only control how you use the opportunities presented to you
  • You must be willing to accept any negative prejudice coming with being the only one in a situation
  • If you give it all you’ve got and you still don’t make it, your efforts will not go unnoticed
  • Watch out when being too blunt, you may make unnecessary enemies along the way
  • Being extraordinary requires intense focus and may disrupt life balance, which is not for everyone

• The empowerment of failure

  • One mistake in a critical situation can lead to grave consequences
  • When something or some activity that you’ve relied on all the time gets taken away, it’s easy to be depressed and stop doing what you can do
  • Failure is but a stepping stone for success
  • It is critical to analyze what went right and what went wrong when after a mission/event, especially if you are analyzing a failure
    • This is so you can learn from your mistakes, especially when you are heading into unfamiliar territory
    • Make sure you focus on your thinking/psychological state before and during the event
  • Surround yourself with people that tell you what you need to hear, not people that will comfort you
    • Also surround yourself with people that encourage you to persevere in your failures
  • Failure is a gift
  • Learn to listen to haters from time to time, there may be truth in their negativity
  • Things will not always go your way, do not let one failure make you deviate from your mission
  • We often let experts or people more experienced in a field to cap our potential
  • Just because you desire a goal in your mind does not mean you deserve it
  • Make sure to watch what you did before and during your failure
  • We often don’t know when we reach our absolute 100% and reach complete muscle failure

• What if?

  • When you go beyond your perceived capability, your mind will not leave you alone
  • There are multiple practices to achieve self realization, but they require intense discipline, which is why only a few perform them
  • Being close to death or being extremely sick can humble you and can help you develop gratitude with life
    • It can make you forgive others that have done you wrong in the past
  • Rage can be very powerful, but it can be detrimental if uncontrolled
  • There is something in pain that brings about something within you that leads to heightened performance and much needed peace and silence
  • You can not let fear and doubt bring you down
  • You can choose to not be defined by your talents, fears, or weaknesses
  • The source of your problems can be where you least expect them
  • Stretching will help with your overall health and in injury prevention
  • “What if?” is the question that reminds you that you don’t know what you are capable of until you put everything on the line
  • We collectively want to numb life’s suffering by seeking comfort and safety

Citation:

Goggins, David. Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds. Lioncrest Publishing, 2018.