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PERSONNAL OPENING THOUGHTS

At 16 years old, Can’t Hurt Me was the first self-development book that I have bought. I think that the first time that I saw David Goggins’ face was on one of his inspiring videos, and I immediately became intrigued by this man. Until then, I have read his book two times. The third time, I decided to read it with the audio book to hear David’s comments while Adam Skolnick reads the book, and note some important points and aspects figuring in this masterpiece. This book has changed me in a way that I cannot explain for a brief moment in my life.

But then, I started to go back to ‘normal’ and to live in my wonderful comfort zone, at 40% (even less) of my true capability. Today, I decided that I no longer want to live a life as such. I want to see what I am really capable of when I’m fully driven. To use all the pain to fuel my metamorphosis. To be limitless.

To go to war with myself.

AUDIO BOOK’S INTRO

• Life does not discriminate
• Trust that whatever life throws at you, you can overcome it
• Practise and repetition, repetition will callous your mind
• No one is comming to save you
• I was the ultimate underdog
• Believe you are here for a reason
• Your mind does not want to face your fears, insecurities, making you uncomfortable
  • It has a tactical advantage over you
• This is about being better and having a greater impact on the world
• Motivation changes nobody, it comes and it goes
• One warrior: hold yourself accountable, push past pain, love what you fear, find out who you really are
• Don’t stop when you’re tired, stop when you’re done

CHAPTER 1: I should have been a statistic

• Never judge a smile or a scowl
  • Sister Katherine VS Goggins’ dad
• His dad was emotionally and physically violent and manipulative towards his family
• Toxic stress from constant emotional and physical abuse can inhibit learning in children and make them deal with numerous mental and physical problems while developing
• When David decided to cheat throughout school, he thought he solved a problem, when, in reality, he was creating new ones by taking the path of least resistance
• Sometimes when you feel that your demons are dormant, they come back and hit hard
• Limiting exposure to save face

Challenge 1

What was your bad hand? What did you contend with growing up? Were you beaten, abused, bullied? Were you ever insecure? What are the curent factors limiting your growth and success? Are you standing in your own way?

Audio book’s comments

• My mindset is controlling my destiny
• Find power in everything negative that’s happening in your life
• Own it, it is now a part of your life. Find power within your own story. Flip that shit. Realize where you come from, the pain you’ve indured
• Play with your bad hand
• This challenge was for you to look at it and think ‘How can I fix this part of my life?‘
• Everything in life is about repetition, discipline
  • A lot of people do something once and move on
• No one is coming to save you
• Either you’re getting better or you’re getting worse
• Be your own hero, someone will always let you down

CHAPTER 2: Truth hurts

• In order to change you have to work through shit, confront it and get real
  • David started the Accountability Mirror – shaving his head and writing some uncomfortable truths and his goals on Post-Its
• I was one of those kinds who thought he was gaming the systen when, in reality, I’d been gaming myself
• I lived in a haze of hate, trapped in my own fruitless rage and ignorance
• It is possible to transcend anything that doesn’t kill you
• Goggins did not like who he saw starring back in the mirror. He then started lecturing himself. It was time to get real
  • It’s on you
• The negativity you’re feeling is your internal desire to change
• The only reason David didn’t become another statistic is because, at the last possible moment, he got to work
• He brainwashed himself into craving discomfort, developped obsession for learning, living with purpose

I looked at the people who were making me feel uncomfortable and realized how uncomfortable they were in their own skin. (…) But when you have no confidence it becomes easy to value other people’s opinions, and I was valuing everyone’s opinion without considering the minds that generated them. (…) As soon as I made that connection, being upset with them was not worth my time.

Page 72

• Hurt people hurt people
• Your mind is constantly looking for a path of least resistance
• He no longer could escape from his life

Challenge 2

This is about abolishing the ego and taking the first step toward becoming the real you! Write all your insecurities, dreams and goals on Post-Its and put them on your mirror. It’s okay to be unkind with yourself, because we need thicker skin to improve in life. Wether it’s a carreer goal (quit my job, start a business, find a job…). A lifestyle goal (get more active, lose weight, journal more…). An athletic one (run my first 5K, 10K, marathon…). You need to be truthful with yourself about where you are, and the necessary steps it will take you to achieve your goal, day by day. Break it all down, because each step each should be written as its own whole, until your ultimate goal is achieved. You need to hold yourself accountable for the small steps it takes to reach your goal. Self improvement takes self dedication and self discipline. The dodgy mirror will be your own truth. Stop ignoring it. Use it to your own advantage.

Audio book’s comments

• We live in a soft generation, people hate to admit that they are wrong
• Accountability mirror = being able to take criticism and to criticize yourself
• Everybody is fucked up
• Your mind is always at the tactical advantage. Find your way out of the feeling
• Pick people that are going to hold you to a higher standart, people are afraid to hear what they don’t want to hear

CHAPTER 3: The impossible task

• At this period of time, David describes himself as a zombie selling his time on earth, going through the motions
• There is a big gap between being comfortable to confident

In a society where mediocrity is too often rewarded and the standard, there is intense fascination with men who detest mediocrity, who refuse to define themselves in conventional terms and who seek to transcend traditionally recognized human capabilities. The men who will adapt and overcome any and all obstacles.

Page 87

• When David realized it is time to change, he felt like a virus was taking over
• The fight wasn’t over yet
• By surrendering to our fears and feelings, we allow them to dictate our future forever
• Not all physical and mental limitations are real
  • We have a habit of giving up too soon
• Self doubt and anxiety was David’s confirmation that he was no longer living an aimless life
• He didn’t want to be just one of those he wanted to be the best
  • There are no shortcuts
• The pain was excrutiating, and I fucking loved it

I ran as fast as I could for as long as I could, from a past that no longer defined me, toward a future undetermined. All I knew was that there would be pain and purpose.

Page 100

• Never judge someone. You never know what they are going through
  • People forget how it feels to be judged, to be the only
• Bunker mentality

Challenge 3

The first step on the journey toward a calloused mind is stepping outside your comfort zone on a regular basis. Write down all the things you don’t like to do or that make you uncomfortable, especially those things you know are good for you. Do it and do it again. Trippling down on your weaknesses makes you mentally tougher. The more often you get uncomfortable, the stronger you’ll become.

Audio book’s comments

• Everything comes back to one thing: your mindset
  • How you speak to yourself
  • Constantly monitoring what you think
• Life is all about controlling feelings
• Life is relentless
• As Nelson Mandela said, leave the biterness behind you or you’ll never be free
• It’s the small battles and victories
• Nothing in life will be ideal, we have to be great in situations that are not always perfect
• From the book Make Your Bed by Admiral William H. McRaven: If you want to change the world, be your very best in the darkest moments

CHAPTER 4: Taking souls

• David needed to know whether or not he had what it took to belong in Navy SEALS
• It reveals your heart and character, but more than anything, it reveals your mindset
• Reality has a way of kicking everyone in the teeth, sooner or later
• While experiencing hell in Hell Week, David eventually asked himself: why am I here?

Becoming a SEAL is a choice. (..) which made the entire notion seem like masochism. It’s voluntary torture. And that makes no sense to the rational mind.

Page 110

• David was pulled out of Hell Week due to a double pneumonia, but even if he did not make through his first Hell Week attempt, he didn’t quit
• Play hard or don’t play at all
• Take inventory of your mind and body on the eve of the battle. List out your insecurities and weaknesses, as well as your opponent’s. Master them
  • Cookie Jar Method…
• Laughing at yourself along with them disempowers them. They will no longer hold any cards. Feelings are just feelings
• People who are secure with themselves do not bully other people. Sometimes the best way to defeat a bully is to actually help them
  • Hurt people hurt people
• You need to defeat your own demons in order to take your opponent’s soul
  • Answer the question: Why am I here?
  • Know why you’re in the fight to stay in the fight
• All emotional and physical pain is finite, nothing is permanent
• Second wind: the ticket to victory comes down to bringing your very best when you feel your worst
• The only way to get past it is to get through it

TAKING SOULS : a tool you can use to win any competition or overcome any life obstacle. It is a mind game you are paying on yourself. Taking someone’s soul means you’ve gained a tactical advantage

• You take someone’s soul at the end, not at the beginning
• At their worst time of their life, I am at my best time
• EVERYBODY has their own demons
• Example with running: you have to last one more second longer than the other person
  • Break their spirit by making them feel less that they are
• When you show people that you can pull out the impossible, cracking the code, going to the next level… you will receive the look
• People believe what other people say
  • They are not you
  • Don’t let their reality be your reality
• Life is one big mind game, but usually you are playing with yourself
• Your mind is always trying to find the easier way
  • Pushing yourself to the harder path gets you a lot more
  • Reprogram your mind
  • Doing tough things make you tougher
• I came to see if I was hard enough to belong and found an inner beast within
• Once, I was so focused on failing, I was afraid to even try
• Distance yourself from the pack

Challenge 4

Chose any competive situation that you’re in right now. Who is your opponent? Teacher, coach, boss, client? No matter how they are treating you, the only way to not only learn respect but to also turn tables is excellence. Work harder on that project than you have ever before. Do everything they ask and whatever standart they set as an ideal outcome, you should surpass that

• Check out the best guy on the squad and show the fuck out
• Putting time in off the field
• Study your opponent’s tendencies and training
• Make that coach pay attention… close fucking attention
• Get to work before them and be the last to leave
• Make sure they see that shit
• When it is time to deliver, surpass their max expectantions

Show who you are and who you want to be. Make them watch you achieve what they could never have done themselves. Take their negativity and use it to dominate their task with everything you’ve got. TAKE THEIR SOUL

Audio book’s comments

• Do not let anybody get the advantage over you. You must dominate yourself
• Change the game
• Always do it with humility
• It can piss the fuck out of people, makes them look at you differently

CHAPTER 5: Armored mind

• While David was experiencing hell during the knot drill, he started to ask himself why was he here, why suffer when he could quit and be comfortable again?
• David realized that he looked at everything from the wrong perspective
  • life is the ultimate training ground
  • our disandvantages, our life experiences (especially the negative ones) callous our mind
  • everything comes down to how you see yourself, as a victim or as a learner
• We have to remain open and ready for more – willingness to fight for our life – callous our victim mentality
• A second wind is delivered by a calloused mind

CALLOUSED MIND

Remembering what you’ve been through and how that has strengthened your mindset can lift you out of a negative brain loop and help you bypass those weak, one-second impulses to give in so you can power through obstacles.

Page 139

• Accepting pain as a natural process and refusing to give up will engage the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight mode), wich shifts your hormonal flow
• The vast majority are slaves to their minds

The reason it’s important to push hardest when you want to quit the most is because it helps you callous your mind. It’s the same reason why you have to do your best work when you are the least motivated.

Page 141

• A callous can either work for you or against you
• Mindset is like training a muscle, it takes time
• A normal person would give up, but I wasn’t wired normal
• The shame of quitting would be like a lifelong purgatory. There is no shame at getting knocked out, shame comes when you throw the towel
• You need to go to the source of all your fears and insecurities in order to build an armored mind
• Rejecting your past means rejecting yourself
• The barbaric beauty of destroying a soul, only to rise again and destroying every obstacle on your path
• The only way to guarantee failure is to quit
• Giving yourself permission to be vulnerable is a huge form of strength

• David loved the beat downs so much that the instructors had to exclude him from them because he enjoyed them too much (!)
• David Goggins was the thirty-sixth African American BUD/S graduate in Navy SEAL history

Challenge 5

Visualizing. The average person thinks 2000 – 3000 thoughts per hour. Instead of focusing on some bullshit that you cannot even change, imagine visualizing the things you can. Visualize achieving or overcomming every goal or obstacle in your way. What it looks and feels like

• It is also about visualizing the challenges that might arrive and now how you will deal with them. Makes you more prepared
• Simply answering the simple question of why am I doing this? Why am I here? What is driving me towards these achievements? What has calloused my mind?
• Remember: visualisation will never compensate for undone work. You have to put in the work.
• It takes relentless self-discipline to schedule suffering day to day, but if you do, at the other end of your suffering is a whole other life waiting for you.
• Victory doesn’t always mean first place, it can also mean that you’ve finally overcome a lifelong fear or any other obstacle that made you surrender in the past.

CHAPTER 6: It’s not about a trophy

• Goggins was participating in the San Diego One Day 100 mile race
  • He used a heart rate monitor, keeping it between 140 and 145 hbm
  • He started his race too fast, wich fucked his pace up
  • The night before, he had a hard workout at the gym
• At mile seventy, David’s body broke down (blood, mucus, stress fractures…)
• David realised that this race was not about Operation Red Wings (an association which helps the families of the soldiers that died in battle). If he wanted to make it through, it would have to be about how much he was willing to suffer, how much he could take and give. It had to be personal

COOKIE JAR METHOD

• Humans tend to hatch their most crazy goals and dreams when tucked in their comfort zone
• He gained the kind of self-knowledge that can only come from being broken down and fighting for something more within
• I am the reason I still have a chance
• Cookie Jar –> all your past victories and successes
  • Remembering the emotional state you were in when you experienced a victory
  • Helps you to remind yourself who you are and what you are capable of
  • It can be small accomplishements
• The engine in a rocket ship does not fire without a small spark first
  • It is the small sparks, wich start small fires, that eventually build enough heat to burn the whole fucking forest down
• This method helps you to feel the wins again – utilizing past successed to fuel you to new, bigger ones

Challenge 6

Take inventory of your Cookie Jar. Not only your achievements, but also your life obstacles. Add in some minor tasks you failed earlier in life but that you’ve tried again a second or third time and succeeded. Feel what it’s like to overcome those struggles, those opponents, and win.

Then, get to work

• In any type of exercise where you put effort in, you’ll come down to a point where pain, boredom or self-doubt kicks in and you’ll need to push them back to get through
• The Cookie Jar can be used as a shortcut to take control of your own thought process in the heat of the battle

Audio book’s comments

• We tend to dream about the glory, not the pain
• When you are in control of your mind, you will unlock more. It is your most powerful tool
• Do not multitask – put all your focus on one thing
• A fixed mindset is the worst mindset you can have
  • We change a lot of things in our lives, but rarely the way we think
• I’m not crazy, I’m just not you

CHAPTER 7: The most powerful weapon

• David still went to work the day after running 100 miles (!)
• After San Diego One Day, David did not plan to run the Las Vegas Marathon with Kate and his mom
  • But… after the countdown, like Pavlov’s dog (lol), David took off. He underestimated his competitive spirit
  • Even if his body was still broken from the previous ultra, adrenaline southed his pain
  • He got qualified to the Boston marathon (!)

• New opening question: What am I capable of ?
• We habitualy settle for less than our best
• The one thing that really separates all of us is our mindset
• Hapiness comes at the end of suffering

• David had one month to prepare for Badwater
  • He loved waking up early and finish training before his teammates had not even finished their coffee, it gave him a mental edge (this reminds me of the intervew where Mike Tyson was saying that he would wake up at 4 a.m to do road work while his opponents were still sleeping)
  • Waking up early makes you better in all facets in life
• Before Badwater, he first studied the terrain
• When people found out that it was his first trail race, David endured numerous negative and discouraging comments, while still having to run 70 miles with fucked up legs
• We’re all just a bunch of idiots
• The races are a constant dance between competition and camaraderie (similar to Hell Week)

THE 40% RULE

• Shortcuts are bullshit
  • Only when you push beyond pain and suffering that you are capable of accomplishing more – mentally and physically – and in life as a whole
• Our governor can be removed
• 40% RULE – unlock your mind to new levels of performance and your rewards will be much more than material success
• Almost nothing will turn out exaclty as we hope
• That impulse to give up is driven by our mind’s desire for comfort. It is not helping you to grow
  • Choose pain like it’s your damn job, callous your mind
• Staying in the fight is the hardest but most rewarding first step
• Be willing to scrap your identity and make the effort to find more in order to become more
• Some people will talk out of our dreams and our governor will help them do it
• When you are all alone, it takes a lot of will to push yourself
• To defy the odds, you need to go to war with yourself and create a whole new identity
• I hurt like everybody else
• There is no finish line

I hurt like everybody else, but I was committed to working my way around and through it so it would not derail me

Page 222

• GOGGIN’S LAW OF NATURE
  • You will be made fun of
  • You will feel insecure
  • You may be the only (identity) in a given situation
  • There will be times when you feel alone

• There is no finish line

Challenge 7

Remove the governor from your brain. Gradually push past you usual stopping point. 5 to 10% further gradually (every week) to let your mind and body adapt. Physical training is the best training to take command of your inner dialogue.

Life is one big mind game, and the only person you are playing against is yourself.

CHAPTER 8: Talent not required

• David is competing for his first triathlon, looking to be Ultraman
  • 2,4 miles swim, 112 miles bike and a marathon
• Talent is not required – it’s all about heart and hard work
• On the third day of the triathlon, ‘The Land Shark’ took David’s soul – he was focused on his own pace while David was all motor and no intellect
  • You take someone’s soul at the end, not at the beginning
• Admiral Ed Winters met David to give him the mission of recruting more people of color in the army
  • David was searching for diamonds in the rough, like himself
  • He was his own best prop – running fifty miles to a speaking engagement with a SEAL T-shirt with a Trident, showing up soaking wet. He would even do pull-ups and pushups in the beginning of his speeches
  • He would often train with students who dared to show up
• When kids asked him how they could reach their full potential, David responded that our culture has become hooked with the quick fix, the life hack. The maximum profit with the least amount of time and effort. Those would not lead you to a calloused mind or self-mastery
  • You have to be addicted to hard work
  • Passion, obsession or even talent are only useful if you have the work ethic to back them up
• Do not allow injuries set you back and shatter your focus. Always be ready to adjust and find a way to get better
• While David was preparing for Race Across America, he suffered cardiovascular problems, and discovered he had a hole in his heart and had two surgeries
  • A victim’s mentality does not give you anything at all out of a fucked up situation
• You need obstacles to grow – attitude changes everything
  • Become a master of your insecurities. Own them

Challenge 8

Schedule it in. Compartementalize your day.

• 168 hours in a week
• Evaluate your life and habits in its totality – we all waste so much time doing meaningless bullshit that, at the end of the year, would add up to entire days and weeks of wasted time
• Block everything into windows of time
• REST is important
• It’s all about getting up and getting uncomfortable

Week 1 = take notes about your schedule (when you work, do you work nonstop or checking your phone?)

Week 2 = build your optimal schedule, lock everything into blocks, one thing at a time (no multitasking)

Week 3 = have a schedule that maximizes your effort without sacrificing sleep, use a journal

CHAPTER 9: Uncommon amongst uncommon

• Even if Navy Seals were treated like rockstars at the bases they visited around the world, partied and drank, David still had a discipline to rest/recharge and study at night to be ready for the battle ahead
• Life will present you opporunities where you can prove to be uncommon
• A true leader stays exhausted, abhors arrogance, and never looks down on the weakest link
  • Be one of the best and help others be at their best too
• We’re either getting better or we’re getting worse
• Embrace ignorance and starting at zero (there is always more to do) – that’s how you never stop learning
  • The best of the best never stop learning and training
• Your supposed superiority is a fragment of your ego
  • We’re all fighting the same battles, between comfort and performance
• It is about what we do with the opportunities presented to us that determines how the story ends
• If you are the only on any given situation, it is on you to decide

Challenge 9

This is for the unusual motherfuckers. You always have to find more – there is no finish line. Greatness is not something that stays with you forever.

• To really be the uncommon amongst the uncommon, it requires staying in constant pursuit of effort that may derail your life balance
• Ask yourself what are you going to do differently in order to stand out
• Before you know it, you will stand alone

Audio book’s comments

• On the other side of suffering, there is a beautiful world that has no limitations, no finish line
• Either you love me or you hate me – my actions make people feel bad about themselves
• Do not fear failure – that’s where you need to be

CHAPTER 10: The empowerment of failure

• After failing twice to get the world record of the most pull-ups done in 24h he used the After Action Report (AAR) to evaluate those
  • Analysing a failure is crucial (what went right and wrong)
• We need to surround ourselves with people who tell us what we need to do, not what we want to hear
• There are people who simply do not want to see you succeed because you make them feel bad about themselves
• Do not listen to anybody who is not trying what you’re trying to do
• People blame everything but them
• Start slower to go further
• On his third attempt, David Goggins managed to break the record of 4020 pull-ups in 24h by doing 4030
  • He put it in his Cookie Jar, and moved on
• No one cares as much as you do. It is not as bad as you might think

Challenge 10

Think about you most important/recent failures. Journal. Feel this process – file your own AAR

What you should write: everything that went well from your failures (it’s never black or white), preparation, make a list of the things you can fix, schedule another attempt, remember the power of a calloused mind ; a cookie jar and the 40% rule

Life is all a fucking mind game – own it

Take the pain repeat those steps and keep fighting

Audio book’s comments

• It’s okay to be alone
• We all have tools but we’re just too stuck up to our poopy pants mentality

CHAPTER 11: What if?

• David was not really wired to appreciate life – only at his lowest point did he found clarity
  • Peaceful but never satisfied
• Rage is a powerful thing
• I apreciate the people who’ve hurt me because they helped me create me
• Pain unlocks a secret doorway to the mind: it leads both to peak performance and a beautiful silence
• When you own your own failures, they no longer own you

The Buddha famously said that life is suffering. I’m not a Buddhist, but I know what he meant and so do you. To exist in this world, we must contend with humiliation, broken dreams, sadness, and loss. That’s just nature. Each specific life comes with it’s own personalized portion of pain. It’s coming for you. You can’t stop it. And you know it.

Page 352

• The few who still continue to go after it will encounter more pain, suffering, and self doubt
• The most important conversations you’ll ever have are the one you have with yourself
• What if? is as fuck you to anyone who has ever doubted you or stood in your way. That person can also be yourself
  • Remember that you don’t really know what you’re capable of until you put everything you’ve got on the line
• We live in a world with a lot of insecure, jealous people. Failure terrifies them. So does our success
• When you live this way, there is no end to it

Audio book’s comments

• You cannot find peace without going to war with yourself
  • Peace is not a face, it’s in your heart
• People often speak but don’t do
• My biggest fear is not living to my full potential because I was not willing to suffer
  • I want to exceed even God’s expectation that he has about me
• There is no finish line