Can't Hurt Me | David Goggins Book Review
- amandalimqiyin
- May 22, 2020
- 3 min read
Time taken to read the book: Half a day
David Goggins is retired a Navy SEAL who went through Hell Week three times, Army Ranger and Ultra-Athlete. The book covers his journey from an abused child surviving on welfare to a guy in a dead-end job, killing rats and roaches to one of the toughest humans on this earth. You can hear his voice throughout the book; the raw, unflinching, and unapologetic language is something I appreciate.
Lessons learned:
Be honest with yourself, even if it's a brutal truth.
Own the truth of all your shortcomings. Don't sugarcoat things with yourself because they will eventually come back and bite you. Don't tell yourself you're "plumb" and that it's OK to be overweight if deep down, you'd like to be slim. Tell yourself you're fat. Any self-improvement starts with brutal honesty.
Face the accountability mirror.
Paste sticky notes on the mirror to remind yourself of the goals. These goals are small and bite-size, such that it's not too overwhelming for you to start. Keep your goals in plain sight, and look at them every morning. Hold yourself accountable to these goals.
Research is one part of preparation; visualization is another.
SEAL training is about showing that you can handle much more than you think you can, and with that comes a change in mentality. Visualize not just the successes, but also the challenges you might face. You need to have those answers to be ready when the difficulties inevitably arise.
Look into your cookie jar.
Each cookie is an achievement/ goal that you have achieved in the past. When you need motivation, you can open the cookie jar and remind yourself of all the great things you have accomplished. The cookie jar is not to make yourself feel good; it's to remind yourself what a badass you are so that you can use that energy when you need it.
Callous your mind.
Like your workouts, the callouses on your palms are excellent reminders of your discipline and hard work. The same applies to your mental strength. To develop an armored mind - one that is calloused and bulletproof - you need to face all your fears and insecurities. Make peace with yourself by facing those incidents and all of your negative influences and demons if you will. Accept them as your past, that they built your character. Use what happened to you as fuel.
Always push to the maxim.
Physical training is probably the most effective method to learn how to manage your thought process. Each workout requires intense focus, and your response to the stress and pain is immediate and measurable. In one of his exercises, Goggins failed to get his last rep in. That lost rep haunted him: Goggins knew that if he cut corners, he wouldn't achieve his dream. So he went back and re-did the entire pull-up workout later that night, finishing them all after doubling up for the day.
Life is one big mind game.
The 40% rule is simple: When your mind is telling you that you're done, exhausted, and cannot possibly go any further, you're only actually 40% done. The limits we create and accept become the lens through which people see us.
Be uncommon among uncommon.
Torch the complacency you feel gathering around you, continue to put obstacles in front of yourself because that's where you will find the friction that will help you grow even stronger.
There's a catch, however. When you live this way, there is no end to it.
Pain unlocks a secret doorway in mind. One that leads to both peak performance and beautiful silence.
Hello, I'm Amanda, perhaps better known as Alomonda on my social media channels. This is a space where I reflect and write about books that I read.
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