You don't stop when you are tired, you stop when you are done (NQM020)

This NQM post is a big one, so big in fact that it will probably have a part deux, and a part three... That is because David Goggins is Goggins. One of the most inspirational people currently running around (literally). It has taken me this long to write about him because there is a lot to unpack.

His book, Can’t Hurt Me, is the one of the most honest, powerful and impactful stories I have read. It’s the only book I reread (ok, re-listened) right away after I finished it. It reframes your sense of personal capability and the perceived limitations that often bound our lives.

He has overcome struggles his entire life, from severe childhood abuse, to obesity and academic struggles, and a congenital heart-defect that could have de-railed his entire life. He is probably the most credible author of passion and self-accountability alive today. A cliff-notes version:

- Grew up in an abusive household filled with physical and psychological abuse from his father
- This resulted in severe learning disability in school, leaving him with a 3rd grade reading level in his senior year
- Suffered from sickle cell anemia and asthma
- Had to teach himself how to read and study to pass the military ASVAB entrance exam, which he failed twice before passing on a third and final attempt
- Had to teach himself to swim to get into the military
- Had to lose more than 100 pounds in less than 3 months to get into the US Navy
- Had to endure three separate hell weeks in US Navy SEAL BUD/S training
- Is the only member of the US military to qualify as a USAF TACP, US Navy SEAL, and Army Ranger
- Ran his first 100 miler on 3 days notice in order to fundraise for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation
- He broke the 24-hour word pull up record in 2013 after failing twice to do so, ultimately doing 4,020 pull ups in 17 hours.
-  After multiple ultra-endurance events and a successful military career in Special Forces, he found out he had an Atrial Septum Defect (a hole in his heart the size of a poker chip) since birth. That took two surgeries and several years of recovery to fix.

His social media presence is select, but very impactful. Some samples from the finest collection below. For maximum inspiration and maximum gains, watch one of these before a training session, before an exam, or just to start off your day. It is high intensity, and contains plenty of explicit language, but he articulates a message that few know how to articulate.

Rich Roll did two great podcasts with Goggins in 2017 and 2019, definitely worth a listen, highlights below: Also check out Rich’s book Finding Ultra.

On pushing yourself beyond the first signs of discomfort: People often see what I am doing and get it all wrong. It is not about push yourself until you die. It is about push yourself a lot hard then what you think you are capable of, and stop giving up when you feel a little bit of pain or something is uncomfortable. Push yourself harder than you did yesterday.

Get your priorities straightened out before tackling a big challenge: A lot of people set these great goals, they want to do Badwater or an Ironman. Goals are Important. But what we don’t do in life, and this is why people quit these things, we don’t look into the accountability mirror and take care of the number 1 thing before they start a goal, their insecurities. They are going to surface when you are at the peak of your crucible. You may be the fittest person on the planet, but if you haven’t prepared your mind, the question of why is going to surface during a race. When shit goes left, you have nothing to grab onto, your priorities aren’t there. What keeps a purpose in the fight is having a purpose. Leave the ego at the door, ego will kill you.

At mile 81/100, you have to dig deep into your soul: At mile 81 (of his first 100 mile race on 3 days notice), I realized how far short we have come as human beings, whenever we feel pain and suffer a little bit, we stop. And I didn’t stop, and my brain knew I wasn’t going to stop. At that point, that is when I knew, I really needed to rethink the capabilities of a human being. When you are in that much pain, you aren’t thinking about fundraising. I had to go dark, as bad as I was suffering, I had to make the suffering work to my advantage. I had to embrace the suffering. It sparked my endorphins, I before you know it I saw myself finishing this race.

People asking me why I take on these challenges: They ask why are you doing it, what are you getting out of it? Are you a glutton for punishment? What are you getting out of it? These questions are as much of a reflection of where we are at as a society, as it is about you as an outlier or freak athlete. I found what I was passionate about, it is my journey (not someone else’s). My journey is about how far I can go, what I was capable of. What is the best version of me? Everyone has their own version. I am just a guy that wants better for myself. It doesn’t take you to run a 100 miles, but for me it did. Everyone has their version of what finding the best of yourself looks like.

On the benefit of pushing himself routinely: With all this experience, I can do anything I want to do. I am going to fail a million times going to do, but I will get it done. I figured out how a human being can endure more than is possible with nothing. If you want to be better, you have to change the way you look at your perceived limitations, and take those barriers down.

On unpacking the inherent limitations of motivation, and why drive is critical:. Motivation is crap when it comes to the long game. Motivation is only kindling, it will burn up in a few days. Motivation is just a spark, it will not light unless you provide the fuel, which is your drive, which is your soul, passion, obsession. This is self generated, you cant will another person to become driven. It is cultivated from deep inside yourself. We often put a negative label on obsession, and people who are not misunderstand you. People do not understand, when people don’t understand you anymore you are in the right spot of drive and passion, they don’t understand because they will not be able to get it.

On how most of society tends to view people who push themselves: Think I am crazy, because you cant see yourself going further than what you are capable off, that is why people put a label on me. Beyond motivated, it takes that to be successful. A person that is driven and passionate is more. You find passion/drive by getting in a quiet space in your brain. We live in a society now where this is hard to do.

On failure: Pain is the greatest motivator, but you don’t have to be in pain to change. You really have to want something bad, you have to be willing to fail a hundred time to succeed once. If you aren’t willing to do that, you aren’t going to achieve a fraction of what your truly capable of. I think we need to reframe failure. It implies a negative outcome/perspective. Failure is just a word. For me, it is having more information on how to succeed. I failed because of these reasons here, go back to the drawing board, and reattack.

Where his inner drive comes from: As a guy who came from nothing, afraid of the water and heights, He put his whole life on being one of the hardest in the world. He did all that just to get the opportunity to succeed. People see the end result. He put everything to become something in this world. The drive comes from a disgusting place of not being fulfilled in your life, afraid of dying never having accomplished anything, being in the state of feeling like I left something on the table didn’t make me feel good.

On pain being a critical part of growth: Look at pain as your friend as a catalyst for growth. If you are enough pain to move the needle for you. A lot of people are in an amount of pain that isn’t moving the needle and they are willing to settle for that. It takes a certain amount of pain to drive change. The ability to see the end before the beginning even begins. That feeling allowed me to suffer, to realize it is worth it. It woke me up every morning.

Visualize not only the finish, but also the struggle: I am able to put myself at the finish line of an event before it even start the event. Even if I don’t have a personal finish line. Visualization is important, not just about success, but also visualizing how to navigate all the obstacles that are going to be thrown in your path, visualize the misery and pain.

Seek out your weaknesses, and work on them: Whenever I am weak at something or scared of something, I try to master it. I was a weak-minded person so I mastered my mind, and in that process I mastered the human mind. We all have demons, some people hide them better than others. But I know most alpha males are very fragile, they never want to see anyone tougher than them, they don’t want anyone to see they have a weakness, their ego makes them weak. If I can hurt your ego, I got you. Me having such a fragile ego growing up gave me an advantage. That is the foundation of taking souls.

On taking souls, feeding off other’s lack of energy and commitment: it is about finding energy/strength when you don’t have any. There is energy all around you, but we think it needs to come from an external source (like movies, podcast, music). A lot of times in life it is quiet, you have to be able to find energy, make up tricks or games, whatever it takes to get to the next evolution when things are quiet. Taking souls is not about hurting the person you are facing, it is just about getting a tactical advantage. We get so stressed out when the end is so far away, that we cant find that next foothold and give up.

On people calling him crazy: Don’t Put a title on me, once you title me as a freak, you put yourself in a position where you allow yourself to be comfortable and say its just not possible for me. Its easy to say he is a crazy outlier, to say he is that special guy. It’s the only thing that gets me mad nowadays, so many people die with untapped potential because they think others are better than them. They think they weren’t born with the right tools. I can tell you that you don’t need shit. You need the ability to grind yourself to a fine powder and then rebuild yourself.

On the “I don’t have the time excuse”: People often say I don’t have time. They say you don’t know my life, I got this and that going on. The problem is that you haven’t prioritized your life correctly. You didn’t prioritize yourself. You have to get up and win this war against yourself. Whatever you have to do, do it. Take inventory of your schedule, write it down. A lot of people don’t realize how much time they waste unless they write it down. We waste so much time it is unreal, and then we say we don’t have time. I can guarantee everyone can find an hour. Then it becomes about willingness, they don’t want to get up that early to change their life. Do you want to do it or just talk about it?

Valuing self-esteem over comfort is the key: We are in a culture that is driving everyone to believing that happiness is driven by buying comfort and ease. The way you come to peace with yourself is through self-esteem. Self-knowledge is only going to be found through sacrifice, getting uncomfortable, reevaluating what your normal is, and put yourself in situations you don’t want to do. It takes patience, you will see pitfalls and you will see plateaus. If you don’t know how to get around that you will fail everytime.

On the role suffering (and willingness to suffer) plays in life: Suffering starts to peel all those artificial layers away. When you are uncomfortable, it is a scary unfiltered no lying dialogue with yourself. When you are in a bad spot in life, your mind tells you who you really are. That is where the growth happens. If you are able to stay in the moment and get back into the suck, you start building calesces. That’s why ultras are such a great vehicle for self exploration and self enlightenment. You can’t bullshit yourself through a 100 miler. It strips you down to who you are and when you are confronted with the truth and reality, and you have to wrestle with that and there is no escape hatch.