Video Book Summary

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Book Summary Notes 

Can't Hurt Me

“Heraclitus, a philosopher born in the Persian Empire back in the fifth century BC had it right when he wrote about men on the battlefield. ‘Out of every hundred men,’ he wrote, ‘ten shouldn’t even be there, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior..."

"From the time you take your first breath, you become eligible to die. You also become eligible to find your greatness and become the One Warrior. But it is up to you to equip yourself for the battle ahead. Only you can master your mind, which is what it takes to live a bold life filled with accomplishments most people consider beyond their capability."

"I am not a genius like those professors at MIT, but I am that One Warrior. And the story you are about to read, the story of my f*****-up life, will illuminate a proven path to self-mastery and empower you to face reality, hold yourself accountable, push past pain, learn to love what you fear, relish failure, live to your fullest potential, and find out who you really are."

"Human beings change through study, habit, and stories.”

The Story or a Warrior

David Goggins is the epitome of the word warrior: 

• Navy SEAL

• Army Ranger

• World Record Holder

• Ultra Endurance Athlete

• Extreme Motivator!

But he wasn't always that way!  

David had an incredibly tough childhood..  He goes through this in the book more than I do in the mind map!

That tough child hood had him feeling sorry for himself at one point.  He was actually a 297 pound exterminator who probably couldn't have motivated much of anyone..

What follows is a story full of motivation and mental tactics to get you a little closer to becoming a warrior.  If you want to learn more about David and his story I recommend you pick up this book!  

Truth Hurts

“You are giving up instead of getting hard! Tell the truth about the real reasons for your limitations and you will turn that negativity, which is real, into jet fuel. Those odds stacked against you will become a damn runway."

"There is no more time to waste. Hours and days evaporate like creeks in the desert. That’s why it’s okay to be cruel to yourself as long as you realize you’re doing it to become better. We all need thicker skin to improve in life. Being soft when you look in the mirror isn’t going to inspire the wholesale changes we need to shift our present and open up our future."

"The morning after that first session with the Accountability Mirror, I trashed the shag steering wheel and fuzzy dice. I tucked my shirt in and wore my pants with a belt, and, once school started up again, I stopped eating at my lunch table. For the first time, being liked and acting cool were a waste of my time, and instead of eating with all the popular kids, I found my own table and ate alone."

"Mind you, the rest of my progress could not be described as a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it metamorphosis. Lady Luck did not suddenly show up, run me a hot soapy bath, and kiss me like she loved me. In fact, the only reason I didn’t become just another statistic is because, at the last possible moment, I got to work.”

Accountability Mirror

Goggins is intense..  as you can see here!

But aren't we all craving a little bit of intensity in our lives?

• So often we're too easy on ourselves..  
• People around us don't want to hurt our feelings..
• We're often too afraid to really see ourselves as we are!

Enter the Accountability Mirror..  

• When you look at yourself in the mirror what do you see?
• What are the things you're not proud of?
• Where could you be doing better? 
• Here is how Goggins puts it in the book.. 

“If you look into the mirror and you see a fat person, don’t tell yourself that you need to lose a couple of pounds. Tell the truth. You’re f****** fat!! It’s okay. Just say you’re fat if you’re fat. The dirty mirror that you see every day is going to tell you the truth every time, so why are you still lying to yourself? So you can feel better for a few minutes and stay the f****** same? If you’re fat you need to change the fact that you’re fat because it’s very f****** unhealthy. I know because I’ve been there.”

This might sound harsh..  But here is how I look at it!

See the beauty behind the things you hate.. 

Those things that make you uncomfortable to confront about yourself! 

That feeling is going to drive you to become BETTER!  

Don't ignore them!  Tap into that..

Bring Your Best

“Once you’re in the heat of battle, it comes down to staying power. If it’s a difficult physical challenge you will probably have to defeat your own demons before you can take your opponent’s soul. That means rehearsing answers to the simple question that is sure to rise up like a thought bubble: ‘Why am I here?’ If you know that moment is coming and have your answer ready, you will be equipped to make the split-second decision to ignore your weakened mind and keep moving. Know why you’re in the fight to stay in the fight!"

"And never forget that all emotional and physical anguish is finite! It all ends eventually. Smile at pain and watch it fade for at least a second or two. If you can do that, you can string those seconds together and last longer than your opponent thinks you can, and that may be enough to catch a second wind." 

"There is no scientific consensus on second wind. Some scientists think it’s the result of endorphins flooding your nervous system, others think it’s a burst of oxygen that can help break down lactic acid, as well as the glycogen and triglycerides muscles need to perform. Some say its purely psychological. All I know is that by going hard when we felt defeated we were able to ride a second wind through the worst night of Hell Week. And once you have that second wind behind you it’s easy to break your opponents down and snatch a soul. The hard part is getting to that point, because the ticket to victory often comes down to bringing your very best when you feel your worst.”

Staying Power

Are you trying to do something difficult? 

• Goggins points out here that it often doesn't take any special skills..  
• Probably it's not going to take certain connections or etc..
• Instead what it's going to take is staying power!  

When I read this I think of Rocky..

• How hard can you get hit and keep getting back up?
• That's the true secret to success..

Goggins is talking about physical feats here but where doesn't this apply?

• Are you trying to make more sales?  How many more calls are you willing to make.. 
• Are you trying to grow your business?  How much more work can you put in than the competition?
• That's why I'm doing three books a week on my channel right now..

• Who else is going to have that discipline?

Armoured Mind

“Time stood still as I realized for the first time that I’d always looked at my entire life, everything I’d been through, from the wrong perspective. Yes, all the abuse I’d experienced and the negativity I had to push through challenged me to the core, but in that moment I stopped seeing myself as the victim of bad circumstances, and saw my life as the ultimate training ground instead. My disadvantages had been callousing my mind all along and had prepared me for that moment in that pool with Psycho Pete."

"I remember my very first day in the gym back in Indiana. My palms were soft and quickly got torn up by the bars because they weren’t accustomed to gripping steel. But over time, after thousands of reps, my palms built up thick callous as protection."

"The same principle works when it comes to mindset. Until you experience hardships like abuse and bullying, failures and disappointments, your mind will remain soft and exposed. Life experience, especially negative experiences, help callous the mind. But it’s up to you where that callous lines up. If you choose to see yourself as a victim of circumstance into adulthood, that callous will become resentment that protects you from the unfamiliar. It will make you too cautious and untrusting, and possibly too angry at the world. It will make you fearful of change and hard to reach, but not hard of mind. That’s where I was as a teenager, but after my second Hell Week, I’d become someone new. I’d fought through so many horrible situations by then and remained open and ready for more."

"My ability to stay open represented a willingness to fight for my own life, which allowed me to withstand hail storms of pain and use it to callous over my victim’s mentality. That shit was buried under layers of sweat and hard f****** flesh, and I was starting to callous over my fears too. That realization gave me the mental edge I needed to outlast Psycho Pete one more time.”

"Victim of bad circumstances"

This is a very powerful shift in the book for Goggins and something I think we can all look at for inspiration..

• Goggins had one hell of a childhood..  Nobody would blame him for thinking of himself as a 'victim'
• But even those of us without a terrible childhood often look at ourselves as victims of circumstance..  

Often we think about how this person did this or that to us and that caused us to fail..

• Inside this excerpt we can see how harmful seeing ourselves as the victim can be..
• By blaming other people we're not taking responsibility for ourselves! 
• Leaving us weak and giving up control to everyone else..  

Instead of seeing ourselves of the victim..  Try asking these questions!

• How did this circumstance teach me something?
• How can I use this negative event to push me forward?
• Where can I actually try to put myself into difficult situations to 'callous' myself to hardship?

Removing The Governor

“The main objective here is to slowly start to remove the governor from your brain."

"First, a quick reminder of how this process works. In 1999, when I weighed 297 pounds, my first run was a quarter mile. Fast forward to 2007, I ran 205 miles in thirty-nine hours, nonstop. I didn’t get there overnight, and I don’t expect you to either. Your job is to push past your normal stopping point."

"Whether you are running on a treadmill or doing a set of push-ups, get to the point where you are so tired and in pain that your mind is begging you to stop. Then push past 5 to 10 percent further. If the most push-ups you have ever done is one hundred in a workout, do 105 or 110. If you normally run thirty miles each week, run 10 percent more."

"The bottom line is that life is one big mind game. The only person you are playing against is yourself. Stick with this process and soon what you thought was impossible will be something you do every f****** day.”

Not what you think..

When I first came across Goggins I was super motivated to get out and get after it..  He just has that effect on you!

• But as many people have probably realized after over dosing on Goggins motivation that's not all it takes..  
• Instead it's a process of removing the governor that you're body and mind both have..

Getting out of your comfort zone again and again..  Leading towards some of the amazing changes that Goggins and many people following him have accomplished!

• This is talked about in personal development alot..  
• The idea of getting just 1% better every single day!

I love the idea of the compound effect and the way that Goggins explains it..  

• Because I think most books tell you how easy it really is to improve 1% a day!
• But they forgot that 1% improvement is still going past your rate limiter..  
• Not past your potential..  But past where you've previously gone!

How can you go past your rate limiter today?

• How far do you usually run?
• How long do you usually work?
• What do you usually eat?
• How can you get just a little uncomfortable today?

A Boatload of Pullups

“That doesn’t mean I was having any fun. I wasn’t. I was over it. I didn’t want to do pull-ups anymore, but achieving goals or overcoming obstacles doesn’t have to be fun."

"Seeds burst from the inside out in a self-destructive ritual of new life. Does that sound like f****** fun? Like it feels good? I wasn’t in that gym to get happy or do what I wanted to be doing. I was there to turn myself inside out if that’s what it took to blast through any and all mental, emotional, and physical barriers.”

4030 Pullups in 17 hours..

During this chapter Goggins explains what it was like to accomplish this world record..  

But don't think this is a chapter about success and how good it feels to have accomplished something!

Actually Goggins failed this world record TWICE before he accomplished the goal!  (Once on live TV).  Imagine how difficult it must have been to go back to it..

Plus it's a crazy goal..  But not something normal people would probably set..  So why keep going?

Because the beauty isn't in the accomplishment of this goal..  It's in the suffering and transformation required to be the person who accomplishes this goal!

For me this is what goal setting is all about.. 

Not "What can I achieve that will fulfill me"

But "Who will I need to become in order to achieve this"