I came across this book via an Instagram account that I follow called Goalcast. The page regularly posts inspiring 5 to 8 minute montages of inspiring and motivating stories. One of those featured was that of the author David Goggins. A read of the reviews on Amazon on how motivating the book was convinced me to give it a try.
Summary
Goggins gives us the story of his life and he starts at the beginning as a child in Buffalo New York. There he goes into detail about the situation he faced with his abusive father. His father ran a skating rink and bar which was popular in the black community in Buffalo, as well as running a small prostitution ring. His father also treated the family like slaves to make him more money and help him run his business. Goggins gives graphic accounts of the physical and mental abuse his entire family faces until his mother works up the courage to leave his father.
The story then moves to Brazil Indiana, a small town which is essentially all white. Goggins shares his struggles of not being able to read and his lack of self esteem he felt but was likely unaware of, through much of his childhood. He brings us through how this affected his struggles in adolescence, using cheating and a false bravado to get by for much of his youth.
Goggins graduates high school but is insecure and directionless. The seeds of an obsession with challenges and growth start to show their signs though. He becomes obsessed with the Rocky movie and watches hours of video of Air Force para rescue and other elite soldier units and convinces himself he would like to join. To join however, he has to teach himself to actually read which he never did in school. He spends hours reading the same paragraph over and over and taking notes to actually start to read correctly. It’s one of his first small steps towards triumph against the odds where the ability to read is taken for granted by most adults.
Goggins also cannot swim, so the fact that he trains for an elite unit which spends much of its time in water during training is amazing. Although he makes a valiant attempt, he fails out of para rescue training and eventually goes back to civilian life. Here he stumbles around again. He marries, has a child but is unfulfilled in his life working as an exterminator back in Indiana. After a terrible encounter with a nest of roaches which covers him all over with them, he decides to make a change and this decision is what also seems to set Goggins apart from from others.
At this point, Goggins is almost 300 pounds. He visits a Navy recruiting office explaining that he wants to be a Navy Seal. One recruiter specializing in finding diamonds in the rough, sees his vision and explains to him he will have to pass the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery or ASVAB with a particular score, as well as lose 100 pounds or else he would not be able to get into the Navy. He has to do this over the course of just a few months in order to qualify.
This is where Goggins starts to distinguish his motivation, focus and drive from many of the rest of us, even if it seems he hadn’t accomplished much yet. He spends most of the day running, training and studying. He barely eats and pushes his overweight body and mind towards the goals of passing the exam and losing the weight.
Goggins does lose that weight and does pass the exam. He shares his harrowing story of surviving hell week for the Navy Seals twice as he was injured the first time. The second time he has no redo and no out, if he gets hurt he cannot be a Navy Seal, at that point he essentially finishes the training on taped up broken legs.
This seems to start an obsession for Goggins. After he becomes a Seal, he later on starts to take an interest in pushing himself even more and turns to the world of ultra marathon running. He actually runs a 100 miles race with no preparation and no training which aides in his qualification for other ultra marathons and triathlons. The second half of the book shares further struggles, from trying to qualify for the elite Delta Force unit, to recruiting for the Seals, to his ultramarathon runs and triathlons. His health gets in the way multiple times, including an amazing revelation that puts all his prior efforts into amazing perspective.
Thoughts on the Tone and Message
It’s important to know that this book is in, what one commentator called “bro speak”. There is a lot of casual use of the F word and crude “grunt” military terms. This may turn off some readers but I tend to look beyond the use of language and style to try and grasp the greater message because Goggins is very clear and consistent in his message: our biggest challenge is ourselves and our own mind. He comes up with a few concepts which, although not new, help shine a light on his thought process while enduring excruciating suffering and pain.
One of these that I have heard military people speak of before is the 40% rule. When you think that your body cannot give any more and you are at your limit, you are really only at 40% of your capability. There is a whole other 60% there that many of us never tap into. Goggins also uses the metaphor of a governor on an engine. The governor is a device that limits the speed of the car so as not to push the engine to overheat, Goggins claims that we all have a governor in our minds that seeks out comfort rather than pain and learning to release the governor will show us the possibilities of achieving what we each thought was impossible for ourselves.
Make no mistake about it, although this book is about overcoming incredible odds and a life long passion for self improvement, Goggins is very candid about his failures. What I took away was his ability, even at a young age to take responsibility for his denial and admit to himself that he was limiting himself and couldn’t blame anyone else. I find this rare in today’s society and is one of the things I think that helped push Goggins.
Another point that stood out to me was his learned adaptability. Multiple times in his career Goggins faced situations that limited or totally stopped an activity he had excelled at like long distance running. Each time, what also seems to make Goggins unique was his ability to channel his desire for focus and goal completion to a new task. He talks of performing desk work when he was injured and mastering becoming extremely detail oriented with paperwork. At one point he can no longer run so turns his energy towards pull ups and decides to attempt the world record for most pull ups in a 24 hour period.
These are great takeaways for all of us. Just because you faced a setback in one area doesn’t mean you can no longer master things. Focusing on what you can do can make you a master in something else as long as you have the right mindset.
There are a few areas where I would have liked to hear a bit more to get a better picture of other struggles besides the physical ones that Goggins faced. He barely mentions his kids and his 2 (by my count) ex wives. I found it a bit odd that for someone so focused on self improvement, that he didn’t want to delve into his mistakes, failures and learning experiences from this part of his life. Of course, this could be just for the privacy of his ex-spouses and children, which is also understandable.
All in all, I found this to be a good addition to those searching for motivational and inspiring reads. I use some of the mental exercises that Goggins describes when I am doing my own humble workouts. I think of digging deep in my mind for past victories to push me forward or for pushing back on my “governor” when my mind is telling me to slow down or stop while exercising. I have used this thought process to achieve personal bests in my workouts on days where I initially didn’t even feel like working out at all. That is progress that was directly taken from what was shared by Goggins in this book. It has also helped me reframe my mind to take a step back and see where I am limiting myself through poor self talk and working towards turning that part of my brain off or shifting the internal dialogue towards something more positive.
If you don’t mind the liberal use of the F word and his other crude “knuckledragger” language as he puts it, there is a deep and profound message in this book of personal growth and improvement which will be relatable for anyone who would like to change things in their life. If this interests you, give Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds a try.
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