Review: Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins

An entertaining, inspiring, and educational read about perseverance, toughness, grit, willpower, and self-discipline. It focuses on the story of David Goggins, who came up from a tough childhood and weighing over 300lbs, to becoming a Navy Seal (which required him going through BUD/S training and hell week three times), an Army Ranger, an ultra-marathon runner, a tri-athlete, a world-record holder for pull-ups, and more. The shit this guy went through—losing 100+ lbs in just 3 months so he could qualify for BUD/S training, finishing BUD/S training even though he had broken shins (this guy literally ran on broken legs), completing an ultra marathon despite peeing blood, shitting himself, and nearly having his kidneys shut down, and so much more—is insane. The guy simply would not give up, ever.

I listened to it as an audiobook, and highly recommend this version, as it contains not only the text of the book, but also podcast-like chats between David Goggins (the author and focus of the book) and Adam Skolnick (the ghostwriter), and those chats add a ton of wonderful material.

Here are some of the takeaways for me from this book:

Be your own hero

Although the book describes some of the crazy, heroic stuff David Goggins has accomplished, he repeats over and over again how his goal is not to become your hero. Instead, his goal is to help you become your own hero.

Why? Because:

“No one is going to come help you. No one’s coming to save you.”

The only hero you’re going to find in your life is yourself.

Everything in life is a mind game

“The most important conversations you’ll ever have are the ones you’ll have with yourself. You wake up with them, you walk around with them, you go to bed with them, and eventually you act on them.”

This isn’t a book about exercise or fitness or positive thinking or motivation. In fact, Goggins explains that he thinks motivation is bullshit: it’s just kindling, and while it might be nice to get you started, if all you have is motivation, as soon as things get tough, that fire will go out.

So you need more than motivation: you need drive; you need obsession. That’s what gets you through the bad days. And the kind of drive you need starts with how you talk to yourself.

Therefore, most of the lessons in this book are about this internal dialogue: “Everything in life is a mind game!”

Honestly, just hearing David Goggin’s thought process from the book (and podcast interview) was super helpful. For example, he tells one story where, during a Navy Seal BUD/S training hell week, he and his boat crew are being forced to do a brutal workout, and they are all suffering. Suddenly, Goggins starts singing. After a little while, his team members join in, and somehow, they started feeling better. They were still doing the exact same exercises and their bodies were undergoing the exact same suffering, but with everyone singing together, there’s a change in the internal dialogue, and everyone starts laughing and feeling much better.

After reading this book, I’m much more aware of my internal dialogue. When times are tough, I’m able to spot when I’m feeling bad for myself, or feeling like a victim, or feeling helpless, and often, I’m able to stop it and take control, sometimes by just talking to myself in a different way, sometimes by doing something silly. What matters is to be aware that (a) this stuff is happening in your head and (b) you can change it.

Write down the bad in your life

This book introduces 10 challenges that help you develop the drive you need. One of the first challenges is to write down all the bad in your life: get a journal and write down all the challenges you’ve faced, all your disadvantages, all the bad things that have happened to you. And then share it.

Why? Because this is how you take control. These bad things are a part of your life, whether you like it or not. So you may as well start liking it! You can’t change the past, but by writing and sharing these things, you can start to get control over these things. You can start to own it.

Do what makes you uncomfortable every day

Another challenge in the book is to write down all your weaknesses and everything that makes you uncomfortable, and then to do the things that make you uncomfortable every single day until your weakness becomes your strength.

Why? Because this is the only way to become hard and to become disciplined. In fact, this is the definition of being hard and disciplined: you are able to get yourself to do the things you don’t want to do! Through repetition, you build up a callused mind: you build up layers and layers of toughness.

Note that your natural tendency will be to do the exact opposite, and instead, to seek the path of least resistance. But the path of least resistance only leads to comfortable failure.

If you want to succeed, you have to embrace the path of max resistance. The more suck the better: e.g., if it’s raining or cold out, that’s the best time to go on a run; if you hate public speaking, that’s the time to sign up to do a dozen talks. Seek out discomfort intentionally. Do things that suck every day. Growth only happens outside your comfort zone.

Shut off your governor

In a mechanical system, a governor is a device that automatically limits your speed (e.g., to prevent overheating). The human mind also has a built in governor, where your mind will start telling you to stop (e.g., to prevent injury).

Here’s the secret: for most people, your internal governor stops you when you’re at only ~40% of what you’re truly capable of.

When you start feeling pain and discomfort and your mind is screaming at you to stop, you aren’t even half way to your limits.

To accomplish great things, you need to learn to override your governor. The only way to do that is to gradually and consistently push just a little past your bounds. One day, push yourself past your normal stopping point, getting to 41%. The next time, go for 42%. And the time after that, try for 43%. Yes, you’ll feel pain and discomfort. But over time, you’ll learn to withstand that pain, and you’ll realize that (a) that pain is temporary and (b) you have so much more in the tank.

Use landmarks and backstops

When you are learning to navigate, one of the techniques you can use is to identify landmarks and backstops. Most people are familiar with using landmarks: you identify some feature or object that’s easy to spot and distinguish, and lets you know where you are, and what you need to do next (e.g., take a turn). The new thing here for me is to also use backstops: these are landmarks you identify in advance to tell you when you’ve gone wrong (e.g., missed a turn or gone too far).

So, for example, you might identify a certain building as a landmark where you should take a turn, but in addition to that, you might identify a second building a few hundred meters beyond that as a backstop to tell you that you missed the turn, and perhaps even a 3rd building several hundred meters beyond that as a second backstop to let you know that you’re now really off track and missed both the landmark and the first backstop.

It turns out this is a useful technique not only for navigation, but all sorts of planning in life. You may want to define backstops when coming up with a business plan (e.g., if we are N months in and revenue is still below $X, we need to stop, and come up with a new plan), a sports plan (e.g., if we haven’t scored a goal with this formation by the halfway point of the game, we should use a different formation), and so on.

Take their souls

Everything in life is a mind game, not only for you, but everyone around you too. That means you can play games with their minds too! If you’re competing with someone, one technique you can use is to try to “take their soul”: that is, identify your opponent, and while they are looking, push extra hard, way beyond what seems reasonable or possible.

Why? Because if they see you doing something they believe is impossible, it will completely crush their spirit, and they will give up. And in most cases, they’ll give up entirely. And as soon as they do, you can go back to your normal level of effort, or even a bit slower, and recover. But while you will recover, there’s a good chance they never will. So a crazy amount of effort, even if it’s unsustainable in the long term, may allow you to win even if done just temporarily.

Cookie jar

Get a journal and write down all the obstacles you’ve overcome and all the tough things you’ve accomplished in your life that you’re proud of. This is your metaphorical cookie jar. The next time things get tough, you can reach into this jar, and take out a “cookie”—take out a memory—as a reminder that you’ve gotten through tough things before, and use it to push you forward, and help you get through the current tough situation.

Rating: 5 stars