Can't Hurt Me

Key takeaways

• Look honestly at your excuses before you can change anything about your life
• Your mind quits long before your body actually reaches its limit
• Seek discomfort deliberately, because comfort is where potential goes to die
• Keep a record of past wins to draw on when things get brutal
• Nobody is coming to save you, so take full ownership of your path

Inside this bit

1. From broken to unbreakable

   David Goggins grew up in a violent home, struggled to read, and by his early 20s was overweight and spraying for cockroaches for a living. He then lost more than 100 pounds in a few months to qualify for Navy SEAL training, survived Hell Week 3 times, and went on to run ultramarathons and set a pull-up world record.

2. Face the accountability mirror

   Goggins' first step was brutal honesty. As a young man he stood in front of his bathroom mirror and told himself the truth: he was lazy, afraid and lying to himself about it.

3. The 40 percent rule

   During SEAL training, Goggins noticed that when his mind screamed that he was finished, his body still had far more to give. He turned this into a rule of thumb: when you feel you are at your limit, you are at roughly 40 percent of what you can actually do.

4. Callous your mind

   Goggins' training method is to seek out discomfort on purpose, over and over, until your mind develops a kind of toughness the way hands develop calluses. Cold showers, early runs, the task you have been avoiding: each one is a small rep.

5. Nobody is coming to save you

   A recurring theme is total ownership. Goggins refuses to let his childhood, his race, his learning difficulties or a heart defect become reasons to stop.

6. Put it to work

   This week, stand in front of a mirror and say out loud the excuse you have been hiding behind, then write it on a sticky note and put it where you will see it each morning. Pick one uncomfortable thing you avoid, like a cold shower or a 5 am run, and do it 3 times.