Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins [Book Takeaways]
Book #3 of 2023.
“The human body is like a stock car. We may look different on the outside, but under the hood we all have huge reservoirs of potential and a governor impeding us from reaching our maximum velocity. In a car, the governor places a ceiling on performance. If you disable yours, watch your car rocket beyond 130 mph.”
Can’t Hurt Me is a powerful and gripping book that chronicles the famous David Goggin’s journey from an extremely challenging childhood to becoming a Navy SEAL, ultra-endurance athlete and motivational speaker. I was made known of Goggin and his book by multiple people in my founders circle and it got me intrigued to learn what the buzz is all about.
Oh boy does he have a remarkable story and mindset that challenges the limit of our human potential. Goggins really had it rough in his early life. He went through extreme physical and emotional abuse from his father. His mom and he eventually had to run away and he ended up living in extreme poverty in rural America. He was labeled dumb in school and faced racism being the only black person in the class. The severe stress led him to be obsessed with weighing 300 pounds. Instead of losing himself to the negative spiral, he decided to turn his life around by 180 degrees. He lost 100 pounds in two months to join the Air Force and become a member of the elite Navy Seals. He faced some of the most grueling training exercises that got me exhausted and wincing just at the thought of them. Over and over again, he kept pushing and stretching his limit. He would finish a race on a broken ankle, compete in endurance events with holes in his heart and complete over 4,000 pull-ups in 17 hours with bloody hands.
Reading this got me to contrast the new-age spirituality practice of feeling enough and finding joy in the now vs Goggin’s way of finding peace through constantly pushing and breaking our limitations. I’m compelled to delve deeper and write about the balance between the two mindsets one day. Overall, his story is a powerful inspiration for us to tap into the reservoir of power that lies within us to transform our lives, no matter where we come from and the insurmountable obstacles we face.
Key takeaways:
Turn our pain into our greatest power. We all have our own version of the bad card we were dealt in life. Instead of making ourselves a victim, we can turn our lack into our greatest strength. From “ I’m screwed because of this” to “You can’t hurt me because of this”. Facing our challenges despite our setbacks is what builds resilience, mental toughness, and self-confidence.
Callous our mind by seeking discomfort. A lot of us want to have it easy in life. These days people are all obsessed with hacks and shortcuts. The truth is, to be resilient, we have to go through discomfort and pain. We have to do what we don’t want to do. That’s the only way to expand. It’s not about passion or enjoyment, it’s about expanding our strength.
Push through our artificial pain barriers. Goggin often talks about the "forty percent rule", how when we think of giving up, we're usually not even at half of our full potential. Our mind will try to limit us but it doesn’t have absolute control. We can work on stretching our pain tolerance and get over our mental “governer”.
Start at zero every day. No matter what we’ve achieved, we can’t dwell in hubris. We are either getting better or getting worse. We need to celebrate our victories but afterward, we need to be willing to be the beginning in the classroom again and look for new goals to pursue.
Radical acceptance is the key to self-mastery. Have an honest look at our lives and pinpoint where we fall short. While it can be painful to confront the harsh realities of our limitations, it’s the essential first step toward personal growth.
Dip into the cookie jar of past victories. Take stock of all the victories in our lives. When we find it hard to continue, we can access our “cookie jar”, tap into the emotional state we felt during those moments and remind ourselves who we are at our best.
I recommend listening to the full audiobook. Buy it here.