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Go in there. Go into the suffering.
Search this video
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Go into the pain of your life and say, "Why did this suck for me so bad?
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Why am I afraid of all this stuff?" Yeah.
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Cuz the only way you're going to fix yourself is to go all the way back to the beginning, to your childhood.
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Cuz that's where everything starts.
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And that's what's blocking most of all of us. Yeah. All of us.
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Everybody thinks it's my God, like my marriage is messed up, this is messed up.
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You have to go back to fix all your problems.
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It all starts from the root.
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Everyone, thank you so much for coming back.
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I've just spent about an under an hour with our next guest, and I'm so excited to introduce you to him.
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He's been called the world's strongest man, the world's toughest man, the world's fittest man.
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He's consistently invited suffering and discomfort into his life to grow further.
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He's someone with a phenomenal background.
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He's a former Navy SEAL and ultramarathon runner, a triathlete.
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And today we're going to dive into his new book, which is called Can't Hurt Me, about mastering your mind and defying the odds.
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His name is David Goggins.
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David, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it, man. Thanks for having me.
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No, I'm so grateful, honestly, and I'm so glad we were just talking about it.
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I'm so glad that we got a moment to connect before, because I think this conversation would have been very different. have. It would have.
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I uh I I merely walked in and um you know, I sometimes look at people and what they have and you know, I'm like, "Oh, here we go. Here we go again."
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But you know, I got a chance to know you, know know a little bit about your backstory, where you come from, and know that uh we have some similar, you know, you know, just like a mentality of of of how to come up. So, it's nice. Absolutely, man.
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I think what you put yourself through, and I don't say this anyway, I'm not I'm not saying that I can say I've had the same experience at all. Right.
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feel we've been wanting to challenge our minds Right. in the same ways. 100%. And and that excites me.
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That that desire, that hunger, even though we we different paths. Right.
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I don't I could have ever chosen your path.
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That that we chose different paths, but we were testing the same parts of ourselves. Right.
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The mind is the one thing that we don't test enough.
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A lot of us are are so afraid of that of that test and that's the real test.
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That's where the real growth comes from is is the mind. So Absolutely, man. Absolutely.
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So I've had a beautiful fortune of actually diving into this book this weekend. Great.
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And I have to say and and I'm saying this honestly.
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So I was just telling you this earlier.
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2017 to 2018 I read a book a day.
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I read 365 books in a year.
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I made a video about the books I read and how I did that.
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And then 2018 to 2019 this year I read a book a week. Right.
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And one of the things I've struggled with recently and I'm saying this as a compliment to you Right. Right.
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is that it is so hard to read a book that isn't an article or isn't an Instagram caption or isn't a short video because we're living in a world where constantly consuming content. Right.
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When I picked up your book, the thing I loved about it is the amount of effort that you've been through to give us I'm sure this was suffering too like writing this book.
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The amount of effort that you've been through to actually give us detail Right. on your life.
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And and I just want to start there about the process of writing the book because I feel what you've done what a lot of authors have missed out on recently is you've gone a step further Right.
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to really do self-work to write the book.
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So in that book is is a raw very um humbling version of David Goggins.
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You know, I went down to the to the grassroots to the soil to the sewer of my life.
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It's the It's the stuff that we don't want to talk about.
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It's the stuff that we don't want that person next to you in line knowing.
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And I had to have the courage to uh say it out loud to people.
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And so I was able to really go back and and put so much detail in in my story was we all have different things in our life that have scarred us.
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We want to act like those scars don't exist.
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So, those scars, like you know, if you go out and you get cut, that scar is going to be there on your arm.
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You can go down and look at that cut and say, "Oh."
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Or or or that scar and say, "Oh, that happened from you know, I was in the kitchen." Or whatever happened.
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We have the same thing on our brain.
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I've all these scars on my brain from growing up, from, you know, being abused, from suffering through life, from having a learning disability, from stuttering, from having a just a really bad childhood.
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And so, all those memories either cut open that scar and go into it.
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And that was a hard process for me to do.
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Not only was that a hard process for me to do, for me to have the courage to share that with people, you know, cuz I'm the so-called toughest man on the planet, so they think.
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So, for me to break open that shell and and tell people, "Hey, that wasn't always me."
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You know, it's it's it's hard to do, you know? It's hard to do.
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So, it was it was a it was a tough process. Yeah, absolutely, man.
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I'm so glad you did peel that back. Yeah, it was hard.
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so easy to live that title. Oh, yeah.
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But when you break the fact that you had the courage to break down that title, Right.
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to actually lay it out, it just it's going to open up the door for so many more people.
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Well, I had to do it because, you know, throughout this journey, I started becoming this new person.
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I started creating this new person.
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People started seeing me as this amazing superhero.
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In the back of my mind, I knew the real story.
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And I was like, "Man, one day you have to really share it."
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And I'm like, "Man, but you have the courage."
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You know, like it's great to live right here. I've established this.
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People think you're great. Just stay here. Don't go back. Let's not go back.
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But the only way you can help people out is let them know that this is possible.
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So, I had to go back and say, "This is where I come from." Yeah.
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And where I come from is hell. Absolutely.
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And now, when you go back, you talk about how your childhood was a nightmare. Right.
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Tell us about some some defining moments in your childhood that actually framed that experience to being a nightmare.
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Well, my dad was a person that um he was an alcoholic.
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He was really big on being a powerful man.
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And he had two different sides to him.
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He had a side that once he left our house, so our house was the dungeon.
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No one knew what No one knew anything about what you know, about the inside that house.
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The inside that house was was horrible.
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It was evil, you know, like the evil monster came out to play.
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But once left that house, he was the nicest person on the planet.
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So no one knew, you know, who this guy was.
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So um the scarring started to happen inside the dungeon.
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And my dad didn't really believe in us going to school.
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He had a family business and the family business was a skating rink and also a bar.
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So my dad owned It was called the Vermilion Room was the bar and the skating rink was called Skateland.
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So from the time I was able to walk, I was working that that that that that that I'm skating rink.
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And I worked it from like 9:00 at night until like 12:00 in you know, in the morning pretty much. That's what we did.
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You know, I'm three I you know, I'm 4 years old scraping gum off the off the skating rink floor, doing stuff like that.
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Me and my brother, my mom.
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Once the skating rink was shut down, the bar would open up.
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The bar would be open from like midnight to like 4:00 in the morning, 3:00 in the morning.
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Once that closed down, we go upstairs and clean the bar.
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So by the time you work like this, you know, I'm a young kid.
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It's time to go to school.
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So most time we didn't go to school.
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So we missed school a lot, but thank God for me, I didn't like school anyway.
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With a learning disability, with a stutter, you know, I had white splotches all over my skin from being stressed out.
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Um hair, you know, patches of hair falling out at a young age.
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And once my dad got drunk, that's when the nightmare began.
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And you know, he'd get drunk, he'd get violent.
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And um we got beatings quite regularly.
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You know, probably at least once or twice a week.
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And and the beatings weren't like, "Hey, I'm going to give you a whipping cuz you did something wrong."
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It was like, "Hey, I don't feel good today."
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And you'd get beat for that.
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And my mom got a lot of beatings and it would just trickle down to me and my brother.
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So, that that foundation of life that I didn't have, that's how it started off for me and it progressively got worse.
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So, when you have a horrible foundation, it's like building a house on a [ __ ] up foundation.
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This is what you're going to get.
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You know, any kind of earthquake or something happen, the house is going to go down.
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Sometimes it don't you know, it don't even take an earthquake.
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Takes a little windstorm. So, that was me.
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I was just a little windstorm away from breaking. Yeah. All the time.
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A windstorm away from breaking, but no one knew it.
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I walked around like I was a pillar of strength at a young age.
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But, that internal conversation you're having back here as this weak little kid, very afraid.
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And um, I think that's what makes the book very powerful cuz I take you there. Yes.
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I take you to that spot of you know, I'm superhuman now, so you think.
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But, a lot of people have a lot of problems that they can't overcome. Absolutely, man.
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And that's I definitely felt when you were diving into that that I was reliving it with you. Right.
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think you do that so powerfully in the book because it's hard for people who haven't had the same experience to envision it. Right.
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But, you made that possible.
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But, the other thing that you do is I think you're highlighting something that is so huge for us that I genuinely feel that so many of today's challenges that we all face as adults Right.
9:18
are because of our childhood.
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When did you realize that your childhood was something that needed healing, that needed transforming as an adult?
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When did that come when you were like, "I need to go back there to transform, to to change my experience?"
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It happened when I could never get over the hump.
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I kept on feeling like I was getting over the hump.
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And then one little windstorm small little windstorm would come by and push me back to scratch. I was like, "Why?
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Why am I not You know, I'm You know, I'm learning how to read now."
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You know, I was a junior in high school and couldn't read that well, a fourth grade reading level.
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Cuz I would I would cheat on everything.
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And I learned how to read, I learned how to write.
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I taught myself all these things, all these disciplines.
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But whenever the first real big challenge would come that little windstorm would push me back in the hole.
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And I realized, man, I'm not I'm fixing stuff on a surface level. I'm all surface, man.
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I'm not going deep into the cellar of my mind and fixing the foundation of my soul. My soul is broken.
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And but you know, I knew I could fix it, but I was afraid to go back.
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I was afraid to face the demons of my life of you know, cuz you start lying.
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You won't anybody knowing this [ __ ] about you.
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You So So you start lying about who you're not.
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And you start creating a person about who you want to be, but it's not who you are.
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So that's when I started realizing, man, I'm never going to get over the hurdle.
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I'm always going to be on a surface level until I go deep, deep into the sewer of my mind to figure out and face all of these different demons. That's hard. It's hard.
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We all like social media.
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We all like everybody to see us for who we want to be.
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That's why we post beautiful things about us.
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That's not That's not going to fix you.
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So I realized that and that's when I started going back.
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So I was about um I was about 24 years old and I went from 175 to almost 300 lb.
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And um that's when I sat down on my couch and realized we got to go back.
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And it started with me going back to my father.
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So we we left when I was 8 years old.
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We went to a small town of Brazil, Indiana.
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There's about five to 10 black families in a town of 8,000 to 10,000 people.
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And um there was a big hub of clansmen that lived in Center Point, Indiana.
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And I And I talked about that in the book.
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So, the clan marched in a 4th of July parade in 1995 in Indiana.
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So, when you come from a messed up foundation like I did in Buffalo, New York, where where my dad beat me senseless, and now I have that messed up foundation, and now I'm here being the only black person, I call it the only in my book, being the only black person.
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My mom's working three jobs.
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We're living in a $7 a month place. She's never at home.
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So, it's not like I had some mentors coming in to help me.
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You know, they were trying to put me in these different group places for like having some shrink talk to me and these eight, nine kids, and one kid's setting his house on fire, another kid's peeing in the trash can, another kid had a helmet on banging his head up against the wall.
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And I'm looking at this at 8 years old.
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You know, and I and I I'm going to get back to your question that you asked me, but these are the things I had to go back and relive.
12:32
You know, I'm 24 years old now, and I have to go back to all these things that no one knew about me in this group place where I'm in this place where these people are crazy, and they think I'm crazy.
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And I'm looking at them thinking, I'm not crazy.
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You just don't know where I come from.
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I came from a place that truly damaged my mind, damaged my soul, and now I have to go back on my own to face this [ __ ] Mhm.
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So, you know, at at 24 years old, I sat there a lot of time.
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It wasn't like one day I woke up and said, I got to face this.
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This haunting [ __ ] voice in my head kept on saying, man, we got to go back.
13:10
The only way we can go forward is to go all the way back.
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And that's very scary to do for everybody.
13:16
But, the only way you're going to fix yourself is to go all the way back.
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To the beginning, to your childhood, cuz that's where everything starts.
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And that's what's blocking most of us. All of us. Yeah. All of us.
13:26
Everybody thinks it's My God, like my marriage is messed up. This is messed up.
13:30
You have to go back to fix all your problems.
13:33
It all starts from the root, man. The root.
13:35
Yeah, I was I was just about to say we have to go back to the root because otherwise, we're just dealing with the symptoms. That's it. Yeah.
13:40
Yeah, and and and and you cannot fix anything by giving it Motrin.
13:46
You got You have a jacked up knee, the swelling may go down, but it's still jacked up in there. You got to get it fixed. You got to fix the knee.
13:52
All those pills do, so you know, pretty much it's just let the swelling go down and you can live a little longer, but you're not fixing the problem. Mhm.
14:01
You're not fixing the problem.
14:03
guess that most people don't go back or all of us, like you said, we don't go back because we don't know how. Right. That right?
14:08
Like most people don't know how.
14:10
Like how do you start How do you go back?
14:11
And like you said, and I love that example that we start thinking the issue is our marriage or our relationship right now or our job or our career.
14:19
And I I totally agree with you that we need to go back, but we don't know how.
14:22
Like you start talking about in the book some ways in which we can start. How? Right.
14:27
Can you tell us about some of those?
14:28
So, one big thing is the accountability mirror. Mhm.
14:29
You have to start with yourself.
14:33
So, what happened in in my life was we start to get I call it like the rucksack.
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A rucksack is a pack that you carry in the military and you put all your stuff in it.
14:42
Your radios, your food, your water, all that stuff you have to carry in the military. That's your rucksack.
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It's a backpack, pretty much.
14:50
As you're growing up, we all have a backpack.
14:52
Most of ours, hopefully, is empty, you know, and what we put in it is all the crap we go through in life.
15:01
That's what is in the backpack for the civilians and we carry it around with us.
15:06
So, what you have to start doing is realizing that no matter where you're at in life, I got called [ __ ] a lot.
15:10
My dad abused me, you know, learning disabilities, stutters, immaturity, insecurities, self-doubt, so much crap on top of me. So much stuff.
15:19
I lied a lot to create friends, so people would So much stuff was in my backpack.
15:27
No one's coming back to help me.
15:29
So, it starts with that person in that mirror.
15:32
You have to realize you are on your own now.
15:34
And whatever else you believe in, I don't care what you believe in, but on Earth is a very lonely journey.
15:42
And it starts with the accountability mirror of looking at saying, "Hey, my daddy beat the hell out of me, he's not coming back.
15:46
All these things are coming back. I have to face myself."
15:51
And you have to own all those things that people may have done to you. Now, it's yours. You got to own it.
15:55
It's yours now to fix the problems that people did to you. It makes no sense. It's not fair. I get it.
16:01
But if you live in that woe is me mentality of guess what? My dad did this to me. My mom did this to me.
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People who bullied did this to me.
16:11
You're going to always live right there.
16:15
You have to figure out ways to move forward cuz you're not coming back.
16:19
It starts with the mirror.
16:19
And I call it the accountability mirror in the book. Yeah, I know. I love that. I love that.
16:24
I'm glad I'm glad you brought it up.
16:24
I Anyone who's watching listening to this right now, I really want you to take this seriously because this is like what what you're talking about, what David's talking about here is exactly why all of our suffering and pain that we're currently experiencing feels so tough and hard because unknowingly or knowingly, we are choosing to be stuck here. Right. Right? Exactly.
16:49
Unknowingly or knowingly, whatever situation you're in, you're choosing to stay stuck because we don't want to go and unpeel and uncover. That's right.
16:56
You don't want to break open that that callus, that that scar in your mind.
17:01
You don't want to break No, you have to break it open, let that blood flow.
17:05
You let blood flow in your brain.
17:05
You have to let all that stuff flow out.
17:07
All that toxic stuff that you have trapped in there has to start flowing out now.
17:12
So, like you said, you you are you are doing this to yourself.
17:18
Yes, people may have helped you get there, but it's now on you.
17:19
That's a painful truth, though. It's a painful truth. Painful truth.
17:25
Like all those people in high school and everything else, they don't know how you're going to end up.
17:30
So, you got to make sure that you constantly are rewriting your book.
17:34
You have to constantly rewrite your book every day of your life. Mhm.
17:36
You know, and that these aren't just words that I say.
17:40
This is how I have to live.
17:40
Like these are conversations I have with myself.
17:43
And I say it everywhere I go.
17:45
The most important conversation when you have with yourself. Yes.
17:47
You live with it every single day.
17:49
But most of our conversations are not the right ones.
17:55
They're not the ones that are going to push us to the place we need to go.
17:58
They're the ones that are going to keep us sitting in that toxic environment that you've helped create and everybody else helped create and you're just living in it. You live in that muck.
18:06
And that conversation that's plays in your head, that becomes you. Mhm.
18:09
Decode some of that conversation that you started with yourself.
18:13
Like how do you how do someone listening start that conversation with themselves?
18:16
And and what are the general transitions that you need to start seeing?
18:20
So, my first conversation when I was absolutely nobody, and that's one thing you have to say.
18:26
We live in the world now that's so kind.
18:28
We we find a kind way around everything.
18:34
Like if you don't look good, I have to find a kind way of saying I don't like your shirt. Right. That's not the approach.
18:40
If that's the approach you're looking for, that book is not for you. Mhm.
18:45
Can't Hurt Me is not for you.
18:45
The approach you have to take, at least I took.
18:50
You take whatever approach you want.
18:52
The conversation had to be a real, honest conversation in the accountability mirror of guess what? I was fat.
19:00
Don't find a kind word to say that, you know what? I've gained some weight. No, you're fat.
19:06
When I couldn't read, not like, hey, you know, you have a learning disability. No, I cannot read.
19:12
I have a fourth-grade reading level. I'm struggling.
19:14
And sometimes I call myself stupid.
19:14
Not in a way to put myself down.
19:19
So, don't take it like my god, those are so hurtful. Yeah, they're hurtful. It's honest.
19:24
The conversation has to become an honest conversation of where you're at mentally. Where am I at mentally?
19:28
I look like [ __ ] I feel like [ __ ] I'm not this I'm I'm falling behind in school. I'm lazy. My house is a mess.
19:38
You have to look at what it is and call it what it is.
19:40
Don't find words to make yourself feel better cuz that's what So, we hang around people that make us feel better.
19:47
That tell us what we want to hear, not what we need to hear.
19:54
And so, we stay away from those people.
19:56
And we stay away from those people like our internal dialogue becomes that kind it's okay. It's not okay.
20:04
So, that's where it starts.
20:04
It starts with that accountability of it's not okay anymore.
20:10
This can no longer be okay.
20:12
And calling yourself out for exactly what you are and exactly how you need to fix it. That's where it starts. I love that. I love that.
20:19
I I think that's awesome.
20:21
I I I think you're so right that so many of our conversations with others are politically correct.
20:27
That's why our conversations with ourselves are politically correct and then we continue to feed the illusion. That's right.
20:33
Right, we continue to feed it.
20:33
Nothing gets solved by that, man. Nothing.
20:35
And if you look at America right now, and I won't get off on this, nothing is getting solved because we have there's so much racism.
20:46
There's so many There's so many things and that's just one of them.
20:47
We can't talk about anything.
20:51
We are skirting all these conversations because if I say this, I'm going to offend the black person or white person or Jewish person or or a gay or lesbian person.
20:59
We skirt around the dadgum problem.
21:03
So, we can't fix [ __ ] Everything is like, well, if I say this on TV, I'll lose my damn job. We have to say it.
21:12
We have to break the barriers within our minds, within the world, and it starts with yourself. Mhm. It starts with yourself.
21:18
You got to break the barriers down within yourself and and just go there.
21:22
You got to go over yourself. Absolutely.
21:23
That was the honest conversation you had then.
21:25
What's an honest conversation you've been having with yourself this year?
21:27
Like what's Because like you said, and I completely agree with you, it's a constant cycle, it's repetition.
21:32
We have to keep doing it.
21:34
So, I talk about the repetition in my book a lot.
21:36
You got to get the reps in.
21:38
So, now my conversation is this.
21:41
I never set out to write a book.
21:44
When I was in the dungeon and no one's coming back to help me, I just wanted that reflection in that accountability mirror that I hated it so badly to be something that gave me pride.
21:52
To be something that made me feel It wasn't about It's not about money. It's not about success.
21:58
It's not about people, "Oh my god, that's David Goggins. Sign my book." No.
22:03
When I started this journey out years ago, it's about I just want to learn to read.
22:08
So, now I'm at a place now where I see the possibilities of the human of human potential.
22:16
What are we capable of is the conversation now.
22:20
The conversation now is, "How can I now talk to people in a way they can understand the message that I have for so many people?" For so many people.
22:28
So, that's the That's the new conversation now is that I You are constantly evolving.
22:35
You never stay Either you're getting better or you're getting worse. You don't stay the same. Mhm.
22:37
So, for me, I have to constantly be getting better.
22:39
I have to constantly be evolving my message.
22:43
So, I'm constantly thinking in the quietness of my mind.
22:46
That's That's a key point, too.
22:49
The world is so fast-paced. The world is so noisy.
22:51
So, my conversation now a lot of times is, "My God, slow down." Mhm.
22:58
The world can take you here, here, be here, be there, be everywhere and I lose myself sometimes.
23:05
So, I catch myself in the airport.
23:05
I catch myself in the plane around writing stuff down.
23:08
Okay, remember this, remember that.
23:10
And I'm going to hang on a second.
23:11
God, what what got you here?
23:14
This isn't what got you here. Slow the [ __ ] down.
23:19
Go back to the quiet place of that dirty mirror in that $7 a month place you used to live in. That's where you grew.
23:27
You So, I So, that's what I'm I'm constantly reminding myself go back to your roots.
23:33
I'm not saying go back to hell, but I'm saying don't forget where you come from as you start to explode out of the gate when you become someone.
23:39
My conversation is do not forget your roots.
23:47
Do not forget your roots.
23:47
Don't let this become so big that you lose yourself amongst the noise.
23:52
Go back to the quietness of what made you successful.
23:58
That's the conversation now.
23:58
It's a constant reminder of that. I love that, man. That's the mantra.
24:01
Do not forget your roots. Repeat that.
24:03
Repeat that again and again.
24:05
And I have a meditation that I developed for myself to to do that for me that I want to share with everyone because it aligns so closely in in what you're sharing.
24:14
So, every morning I sit and I look at my intentions to do anything.
24:20
So, whether there's a new deal on the table or there's a speaking gig that I've been invited to do or whatever it may be.
24:26
And in your life it could be anything.
24:28
Whether you're starting a new business, you're writing a book, it may even just be an Instagram post. For whatever it is.
24:32
And I look at whatever my options are and I ask myself which one of these is a seed and which one of these is a weed. Right.
24:42
Because the incredible thing in our garden is that weeds end up looking like seeds and can confuse you. 100%.
24:48
So, so often that thing that's giving you ego and pride and fame and control and power looks like it's amazing. Right.
24:56
But actually it's just strangling you. 100%.
24:59
So so every day what I'll do is I'll look at the garden of my life and I will try and unweed my garden.
25:02
So I'll look at everyone and be like, "Why am I doing that?"
25:06
And ask myself, "Why am I doing that?"
25:07
If the answer is not love, compassion, empathy, growth, Right.
25:12
personal push, sacrifice, service, if the answer is the opposite, greed, money, power, fame, if those are my reasons, Right.
25:19
then I have to take that weed out. 100%.
25:21
to pull it out because if I don't pull it out, that weed's going to keep growing. Right.
25:25
And one day it's going to be so big Right.
25:27
that I wouldn't even have a seen it. Exactly.
25:29
And so I'm with you, man.
25:29
And that's why when I walked in here, the first thing I do is I is I want to know the person.
25:38
Because there's so many people right now doing exactly what we're doing.
25:41
What turns me off so badly that I see so many people out there trying to motivate people, inspire people, help people find what's going to drive you.
25:50
I see all this [ __ ] It's all [ __ ] a bunch of [ __ ] And I walk in and I see it everywhere.
25:58
Everybody's got this going.
25:58
Everybody's got a new podcast, this about I'm going to help you find yourself. They're not living it.
26:05
They're not living it, which is why I look at people and I'm like, "What are you about?
26:10
Are you Are Are you actually doing what you say you're doing?"
26:13
Which is why when I heard some of your story, I realized that you have substance to what you're saying.
26:22
Which is why now I can speak to you.
26:22
A lot of times I go on these podcasts, I don't want to [ __ ] be there.
26:27
You know, cuz I start realizing this person is just talking. He's not living.
26:31
And we share this with people and we expect them to change.
26:33
They can see right through you.
26:37
They can see you're not doing this.
26:37
So that's what I think about it.
26:38
Don't do everything in your life for money.
26:43
Don't do everything Yes, we need it to survive.
26:46
There's a great drive and passion behind doing things for the mind and the soul.
26:52
There's a great drive in that. Everyone's mad.
26:53
You You talk with such passion. This is a life. This is my life.
26:58
So, that's So, that's what I want people to get from all this stuff, man.
27:02
Like, there's something inside you.
27:03
The The brain is the most powerful thing.
27:05
The mind's the most powerful thing that we have. It's not your phone. It's not the computer. It's not anything. It's your mind.
27:10
And if you can tap into that, you can come from the from the dead gone roots of hell and become such a great seed.
27:21
A powerful seed that can grow into some great dead gone garden.
27:25
And people don't get that. It's all up here.
27:28
The power and the magic's up here. Yeah.
27:31
No, I really appreciate that, man.
27:31
And And thank you for saying that because for me, too, that was, you know, my desire, what I was sharing with you earlier.
27:37
It's changing people's relationship with perception. Right.
27:41
And when I started I will I will complete this.
27:43
When I started making videos or any of this, and I've been talking about these things and studying them for the past 13 years.
27:47
And when I started making videos, which was only 2 years ago, I had no idea that anyone would care. Right.
27:54
I made it because I wanted to share what I'd learned. Right.
27:57
And I put it up, and I genuinely thought my life was going to be I was going to go to my 9:00 to 5:00 job, my 9:00 to 9:00 job.
28:01
I used to work 12 hours a day in the corporate world, and I thought, "That's what I'm going to do.
28:04
I'm going to make videos on the weekends." Right. they'll help someone. Exactly.
28:08
Like, there was never a desire to for this to be anything more than a service. Right.
28:13
And so, when you When I hear you say that, and and also just about how much we perceive each other, and I mean, how we perceive other people, etc. Right.
28:20
It's It's so important for all of us to give each other the benefit of the doubt. That's right.
28:25
And hear from each other. To connect. Exactly. To see.
28:28
Like, I I said that to you earlier, I already knew I was going to like you.
28:30
I was hoping you were going to like me. know that about you.
28:33
So, you know, I I I make sure I And that's something that that's that's very powerful.
28:38
A lot of times we hear about someone else through the grapevine. Mhm.
28:42
And they don't And then I won't like you because I heard from somebody else that they don't like you.
28:48
Always do your own judging. Always meet the person.
28:51
Look at the person in the eyes before you say you don't like that person. Listen to their story. Listen to who they are.
28:56
Listen to where they come from, how they lived.
29:00
Get your own opinion about people. It's very huge.
29:02
A lot of people didn't like me coming up cuz they they they see this hardness, this crust.
29:06
Break away at the crust and see what's inside that person. Absolutely. And don't judge a tweet. Don't judge one post. No. Don't judge one message.
29:16
And don't judge somebody from 30 freaking years ago.
29:17
Or I say 30 [ __ ] years ago.
29:20
You know, there's so much stuff going on right now in the world.
29:23
People are trying to evolve. Let them evolve. Yes. Let them evolve.
29:28
Don't bring them back into the Don't bring them back where they came from. Yes.
29:32
Don't don't bring If someone wants to get better, don't bring them back to where you knew them when they were a piece of [ __ ] Mhm. Let them fly.
29:40
And if you feel like hell because they went away and they escaped the hell that you all once lived in, fix yourself. Fix yourself.
29:50
Don't hold them accountable cuz they got away.
29:52
Don't Don't constantly remind them that they were once here. Fix yourself.
29:57
Cuz a lot of people feel like crap once people start to leave their little nest.
30:02
Like Like if you're an alcoholic and this guy says, "I'm I'm going to stop drinking."
30:06
You want to bring him right back in. No.
30:09
Look at yourself in the mirror and say, "Wow, this guy is doing better."
30:13
Take that feeling of feeling like [ __ ] and do something about it. Change your own life. Absolutely. Well said, man. Well said.
30:20
Do you think we Do you think we do that subconsciously?
30:22
We don't want to see other people grow and fly because we're not growing and flying. It's 100%.
30:28
It makes us feel like [ __ ] It's a constant reminder of where where we're at in life.
30:34
When you see people start to Even this one person.
30:36
Let's say you have a group of 10 friends, best friends.
30:37
You guys party, smoke weed, drink.
30:39
You guys are just nine-to-fivers making minimum wage. We're just getting by. Like Goodwill Hunting. Mhm. You watched that movie?
30:50
Yeah, yeah, absolutely love it.
30:52
That guy wanted to stay there.
30:52
Matt Damon wanted to stay there.
30:55
You know, Ben Affleck Ben Affleck was like, "No, man, get the [ __ ] out of here, man."
30:58
That's the kind of people you want to be around.
30:59
And those people that very few people like that exist in those crowds cuz you're a constant reminder of who they are now. This guy got out.
31:08
Now, every day I wake up thinking, "God, I'm a piece of shit." Mhm.
31:13
I'm a piece of [ __ ] but I don't have the courage and the strength and the self-discipline to do what he did.
31:19
So, it's a constant reminder.
31:19
I don't have the courage, but you do. Mhm. You do have the courage. You just got to find it. Absolutely. to find it. That's the hard part. Yeah.
31:28
And where where did Yeah, so where Let's talk about suffering a bit because I think what we're talking a lot about right now is that journey for it to begin for anyone. Right. It start It's painful. Yes.
31:38
It's an inconvenient truth.
31:40
It starts with suffering. It starts with pain. There's no other way.
31:43
You're saying You've got to go back to your demons.
31:44
You've got to go back to their stories. It's suffering.
31:48
How have you changed your relationship with suffering?
31:52
Because I think everything's a relationship. Right.
31:54
relationship with suffering fascinates me. So, right.
31:56
So, I want to know how have you evolved in your relationship with suffering and discomfort?
31:59
So, the thing about it is when I say suffering, people cringe.
32:04
People That's the That's the one word whenever I post about it, people cringe.
32:10
It's not about suffering and how people may look at suffering.
32:12
Like you have to just go to a place that just every day of your life is suffering.
32:19
You have to tap into suffering every day of your life because we have so much scarring that we have to clean up.
32:26
You have to look at suffering as almost like I look at failure.
32:31
To succeed, you must fail.
32:34
In failure and in suffering, all the answers are in there.
32:39
All the answers to all the test questions, the test is your life.
32:43
All the answers are in there.
32:43
You don't have to live in suffering and pain and failure all the time.
32:48
You have to learn, I need to visit it.
32:51
Like people hate working out.
32:53
You're only going to visit working out maybe an hour a day.
32:57
23 other hours of the day you're not in it. Mhm.
33:00
But how you become in shape is you must visit suffering, visit working out 1 hour a day.
33:06
Visit suffering 1 hour a day.
33:09
Visit your past failures 1 hour a day.
33:12
The relationship with it is the answers are in there. They They are in there.
33:18
Within the suffering, go in there and I call it the live autopsy.
33:23
The live autopsy, how you find out someone died, they crack you open after you're dead.
33:28
How you can live is do it while you're alive. Mhm.
33:30
Go back in your brain, crack it open while you're alive.
33:33
Don't wait until you're [ __ ] dead to figure out why you died.
33:39
Do it while you are living.
33:41
Go in there, go into the suffering.
33:41
Go into the pain of your life and say, "Why did this suck for me so bad?
33:48
Why am I afraid of all this stuff?
33:50
Why have I shut down the whole world?"
33:53
I guarantee I'll tell you why you shut down the whole world.
33:54
It's in these nooks of the suffering within your brain, in the scarring are all the answers to why you are on the couch feeling sorry for yourself.
34:04
They lie within the scars.
34:08
Visit them for at least an hour a day, study them.
34:12
And then you'll find out more about yourself. You will then grow.
34:15
So don't look at it as every day I suffer.
34:18
Go into it an hour a day.
34:20
Learn from yourself, learn from life, learn from your failures, learn from your insecurities, learn from your self-doubt.
34:25
Don't just say, "I'm afraid to jump off an airplane." Mhm.
34:29
What makes you afraid of it? Study it.
34:32
That's why I studied my mind, why I became so powerful in the mind because I realized I was weak.
34:38
So, instead of running away from the mind, I dove into it and said, "What is making me weak?" Oh, this makes sense. I came from hell.
34:47
I came from a place that beat me down to nothing, which is why I'm afraid. All this makes sense.
34:55
So, systematically, one by one, I went back and met every single person in my mind, every situation.
35:02
I went one-on-one with them again in my mind and said, "Okay, let's now revisit this."
35:07
And that's how you do it. That's how it works. Absolutely, man. That is I love that.
35:13
That is brilliant advice.
35:15
Brilliant advice because it's ultimately, it's observing and self-study.
35:19
Like, observing and self-study, becoming an expert in observation of oneself.
35:24
And the reason why that that process can be so challenging or that process is because, like you said, and I love that.
35:34
You literally went through and re-met every person that caused you pain. I love that. And guess what?
35:38
People say, "How'd you do that?"
35:42
You know every painful moment. Yeah, you remember it. You remember it.
35:46
You try to put it under a rug.
35:48
Lift the rug up, you'll find them.
35:51
Yeah, the dust will come up in your face. come up quick. Yeah.
35:52
So, how's Yeah, that's how That's how I was able to write that book.
35:55
I You You don't forget that [ __ ] You want to. Yeah.
35:57
And that's where you fail Mhm. by trying to forget it. That's where you fail.
36:02
That's where there's no growth.
36:04
Let's just move forward from all this. Yeah. There's no growth there. There's no growth there. No.
36:08
You just want to You just want to forget about it. Yeah.
36:10
You will continue making the same [ __ ] up mistake. Yeah.
36:14
You will continue doing the same things wrong if you don't go back. Yeah.
36:16
And the challenge we have is when we do revisit it, when someone tries or starts, they end up revisiting it, but then we end up and the we, me too, all of us.
36:26
Like, I'm not saying when I'm whenever I'm referring it's me too.
36:28
It's it's also we become complaining or criticizing or comparing.
36:33
So, we do start like I know a lot of people who are and myself too, I sometimes start revisiting something. Right.
36:39
But then I just use it as a crutch or an excuse.
36:41
Then I'm still not getting there. That's right. I do the same thing. Yeah. Right? the same thing.
36:47
How have you broke through that times when that's happened sometimes when So, as I'm talking and as I'm going back I'm very aware that I'm going to do that. Yes.
36:57
And I may do it for 45 minutes.
37:01
And then I'm like You knew you were going to do this.
37:05
You have to be very aware of the conversation you're having while you're doing it.
37:08
Cuz your mind chooses the path of least resistance.
37:13
Your mind has the ultimate tactical advantage over you. It knows what scars you.
37:19
It it it knows your fears, it knows your insecurities, and it protects you.
37:21
Which is what I talked about the 40% rule in my book.
37:25
The 40% rule is all about the brain has the tactical advantage over you.
37:30
It knows and it it keeps you away from all that.
37:33
That's why it says don't jump out of airplane.
37:35
Don't go in the ocean where there's sharks.
37:37
It's a protective mechanism.
37:39
Don't go back to the place where your dad beat the [ __ ] out of you in your mind. Don't go back. The brain protects you.
37:48
But protects you so much it doesn't allow growth.
37:52
So, the brain is an amazing thing, but the brain controls you. You must control it.
37:57
You must take power over your own mind or your mind will guide you into all the soft spots soft places that your brain wants to live in. Mhm.
38:05
Your brain has enough information.
38:07
It doesn't want to go through that process of of mind hardening.
38:12
It doesn't want to do that.
38:12
I got to remember what time I got to be here, what time I got to be there.
38:17
This is where I want to stay. I'm peaceful.
38:21
It wants to stay very peaceful and away from scarring.
38:24
So that's that's that's what it is, man. Yeah, that's what it is.
38:25
It's as simple as that and we just never touch it like a like a box that you never look inside. You just leave it there. You just mark it scar. Yeah. Put it up in the attic. Never touch again. Let it get dusty. Yeah.
38:38
I wanted to talk to you about this because when I was reading about it in the book, it fascinated me because it reminded me of my my 3-month boot camp as a monk. I love that.
38:46
the first 3 months, I was sharing with you earlier, the first 3 months of of monk training is super intense.
38:49
Like really really tough because the whole point of it is to figure out who's in and who's not. Right.
38:55
Like they don't want people to just be be passengers on this side.
38:57
It's not a It's not a place you come to just to have quiet and and don't do anything.
39:00
So that 3-month boot camp something that taught me so much.
39:05
I'd love to hear about Hell Week and specific programs you built in your life that you went on and what did you learn from that? What did you take away?
39:13
But tell us first a bit about the program and then tell us about what you learned.
39:16
So what I liked about your 3-month Hell Week Yeah.
39:17
you know, was the fact that that's where you find yourself.
39:25
You find yourself when you are the at when you're not comfortable.
39:30
When you're not comfortable on a daily basis.
39:33
And that's how I started to grow.
39:35
Like I said about the mind, it wants to put you in that nice 72° temperature with with everything right there.
39:40
It wants to be in that nice with a little massage therapist.
39:43
That's where your mind wants to be.
39:45
Doesn't want to be If we're going to talk about Hell Week.
39:50
So it doesn't want to be in Hell Week.
39:51
In Hell Week, I I was in three of them.
39:54
I finished two of them in one year.
39:56
Only person to ever do that in SEAL history.
39:57
There's been people who who you know who who have gone through a couple of Hell Weeks but in like 5 years, 6 years, 7 years, 8 years.
40:06
I did I was in three in one year.
40:08
They say it takes off 3 to 5 years of your life.
40:11
So Hell Week is 130 hours of continuous training.
40:14
You might get 2 hours of sleep.
40:16
And what it does is it's designed to break a man.
40:23
To break a man down to the parts where like I talked about the surface, how I was fixing the surface.
40:27
If you only fix the surface, you will never get through Hell Week.
40:32
Cuz what it does, it starts to bring out these demons.
40:34
Cuz even though there's a lot of yelling and stuff like that, there's times where it's very peaceful in a very eerie way.
40:42
So, the first hour of the 130 is breakout. They're shooting guns. It's loud. It's noisy. Your mind is in chaos.
40:50
When your mind's in chaos, you can't think. So, you having fun. Yeah, this is great.
40:56
Yeah, we're in Hell Week. We're Navy SEALs.
40:57
We're trying to be Navy SEALs. We're badasses.
41:00
Then what they do, and I don't even think that they understand what they're doing. But I studied the mind. It's perfect.
41:07
It's psychological warfare.
41:08
They go from a hour, the first hour when you're going crazy.
41:11
The second hour of the 130, they put you in the cold water.
41:17
It's called surf torture.
41:19
Now they don't call it surf torture because it's a kinder, gentler word.
41:22
It's called surf acclimation or something like that. Whatever.
41:26
Everybody's getting soft.
41:28
So, they call it surf torture for a good reason. They put you out there. No one's quit yet. It's only been an hour.
41:34
Maybe a couple of guys have.
41:37
And you're in the Pacific Ocean, which is never warm. You're all linked arms.
41:42
You're sitting there and the waves are crashing over you.
41:45
I went through winter Hell Weeks, which is cold.
41:47
The Pacific Ocean is like 50°.
41:49
It was 49 this particular night in my third Hell Week.
41:54
And what it does is it makes your mind flip out.
41:57
We've been doing this now for 3 weeks, being in this water.
42:01
But for some reason now the water is colder than it's ever been. It's not. Our minds are fragile. We can process a day.
42:12
It's hard to process 130 hours. There's no end. There's no end.
42:16
So, the mind starts to ramp up.
42:19
So, you're sitting there, it's quiet, no one's yelling at you, you hear the ocean. And you're freezing.
42:25
And your mind goes [ __ ] Starts to think, "I have another 129 hours. You're not going home.
42:34
You're getting yelled at. You could be frozen." So, you panic.
42:39
You freak out and you want to quit.
42:43
What I realized about the mind is those people who can be in that time and embrace that time and be in that moment and not allow the mind to go to 129 hours on hour one.
42:57
It's the control that we don't have in our minds.
42:58
It's the control that you had to have for 3 months when you're miserable, when you're suffering, when you're laying on the floor, when you're doing all the disciplines it takes to be a monk.
43:07
You cannot think about the whole process.
43:11
It will make you it it will it will make you so insanely crazy. It's impossible.
43:18
It's inhumane what I'm about to do to myself.
43:20
You have to be able to break all these big, humongous, painful things in life down to the smallest molecule cuz that's all the brain can handle.
43:29
The brain can't handle hours and hours and hours of suffering.
43:35
But, it can handle right now, "I'm in the Pacific Ocean and it's very cold.
43:39
And this is what I'm doing."
43:41
Don't think about the rest of it.
43:41
So, that's what I learned from Hell Week.
43:45
That's what I learned from being in three Hell Weeks.
43:47
That's what I learned from all the military. I went to Ranger School.
43:51
I went to all these different schools to learn all of that.
43:55
To learn how the mind process.
43:55
So, I I talk about theorists.
43:58
I talk about practitioners.
44:01
A theorist is a person who reads a book. Doesn't do it. Reads a book.
44:04
Learns about something, and then talks about it.
44:10
A practitioner is myself.
44:10
A practitioner is a person like me.
44:12
I wanted to be an expert on the mind.
44:16
A mental toughness guy, beyond mental toughness.
44:18
The only way to do that in my eyes is to put yourself in hell. Put in hell repeatedly.
44:23
Repeatedly put yourself in hell and study how you process it.
44:29
And that's how I was able to come up with all these different ways, all these different tools to to slow the mind down in hell.
44:37
Cuz the mind just speeds up.
44:37
The mind wants to get out of the painful situation, the suffering.
44:40
It can't It can't process it.
44:42
So, that's what I realized by going through all these different processes of being in hell weeks.
44:48
You know, it's it's just that.
44:51
How the mind processes in hell.
44:52
Were you ever scared that you would lose the processing ability to be able to coach yourself through it?
44:58
Were you ever scared when you were there?
44:59
I was There's sometimes where the mind gets overwhelmed and you cannot slow it down.
45:06
But, by these these certain tools I developed, by not allowing your mind to get away from the moment.
45:13
You cannot You have to think about the exact moment that you're in.
45:15
But, I saw when I was younger, the moment became too big.
45:22
When it became too big, I spazzed out and I would quit.
45:25
But, now I don't think about even like an hour from now I'll be eating. I don't even go there. Cuz then your mind Oh. No.
45:34
We must embrace this because now there's You have to be a leader in this moment.
45:39
It's not about you just getting through it.
45:41
I had six guys I had five guys and six including me in my boat crew.
45:46
Now I was the boat crew leader.
45:48
So, now another trick is this.
45:51
If you don't think about yourself, there's no pain.
45:55
Which can also lead to pain later on in your life.
45:57
But, in these moments when you're struggling, if you are a true leader and you're worried about your men or women beside you, your mind doesn't care how cold you are anymore.
46:07
Your mind's only worried about taking care of the men and women beside you.
46:11
So, I started realizing, man, if I take care of these cats to my left and my right in the worst moments, my mind is no longer thinking about, "You're miserable, David Goggins.
46:18
Get the hell out of here."
46:20
You're thinking about "How was John? How was Andy? How was Sam? How was Pete?
46:23
How Hey, how are you guys doing?"
46:25
You're not thinking about me.
46:27
So, there's so many things you can do to get outside your own head to then allow your body just be like, "Hey, we're just a machine."
46:35
But, you have to let your mind be able to process all these different tactics to do that.
46:39
Take a different vantage point in life.
46:40
When you are in the hell, you can't see the beauty of being in it when you're in it.
46:47
Get on top of that mountain top in your mind.
46:50
Get on top of that mountain top and look down on what you're doing.
46:53
You can see a whole different world, and that world is beautiful.
46:55
But, you got to get a different vantage point in this in the suck. Don't be in it.
47:00
Spiritually, get out of it. Get that soul.
47:04
Look down on what you're doing.
47:07
Be amazed by the process of where you're at now and where you came from. Wow.
47:12
I've got I've got so many questions from that.
47:15
I've got so many questions from that. Okay.
47:17
Let's Let's start with you said And I love that.
47:20
So, you said one of the tricks is when you stop thinking about yourself, because when there's no self, there's no pain.
47:24
You start living for your team, the people, the other people suffering. Is that I love that. Yes. Totally understand that.
47:31
Servant leadership, wanting to go beyond oneself.
47:35
But, you pointed out something really fascinating.
47:38
You said it can lead to pain later. That's right.
47:39
Explain that, because I I I get that.
47:42
So, I've had this mentality for years.
47:46
It got me through a lot of hard times.
47:48
You cannot use it every day of your life. That's yeah.
47:51
That's what I was thinking.
47:52
You cannot use it I use it as like, "My god, this is the perfect I found it. This is the trick.
47:59
You just totally you don't even matter. You're just a machine.
48:02
You are a machine that's just just just like a lever. That's all you are, man. You're not. You're not.
48:09
And in my book, I talk about when that lever starts to get rusty, starts to get crusty, it starts to like I can't even think about anybody but myself.
48:19
So, through the process what I started to learn was that helps a lot and you can tap into that all the time.
48:26
But you have to be able to heal yourself.
48:28
You have to be able to recover yourself.
48:30
It can't be something that you continue to do and do and do.
48:31
There has to be a recovery process for your mind, your body, your soul, your spirit.
48:40
Encompasses your whole body. Mhm.
48:40
So, those are tactics, but those tactics must be oiled up.
48:44
That lever has to be oiled again to go back in it. Absolutely.
48:49
Yeah, it's it's it's not it's not emergency use, but it's used in specific moments.
48:54
Knowing you can go back and it's so true that for so many people who want to serve, it becomes the default.
49:01
And I made that mistake myself.
49:04
When I became a monk, it was because I wanted to wake up every day and serve. That was my goal.
49:07
I was like, I want to wake up every day.
49:09
I want to use everything I've been given to serve humanity.
49:11
I just want to serve people. I just want to give.
49:13
And I was just being that. Right.
49:17
And so I would go through sleepless nights.
49:18
I would push myself for weeks on end to go further for other people.
49:22
And it was amazing because it felt fulfilling and it and it helped them, too.
49:26
But after a while, I was broken.
49:28
I I I lost my voice for 6 months.
49:31
I was eating out of tubes for 6 months.
49:33
I was writing on a whiteboard.
49:35
You know, it was just my whole life kind of crumbled.
49:37
I was sleeping 14 hours a day then because my life kind of went to the other side because I'd worked so hard to just give give give give give and I loved it. Mhm.
49:45
But in the process, I broke myself because I wasn't refueling. I wasn't That's right. renewing. That's right.
49:50
Even though I was still taking, I was still meditating, I was still doing everything. Yep.
49:54
I talked about that big time in my last chapter, how it just takes me to nothing.
50:00
How I'm where you were at.
50:00
You know, it's taken me 5 years of doing my meditation, my stretching, my eating right, my sleeping right.
50:07
And you have to be on a constant reminder.
50:12
Almost like how you put a reminder on your phone, 15 minutes you got this.
50:16
That has to be in your brain. You've done too much. Stop. Mhm.
50:21
And what happens in life is that we start to see our lives become so successful. Mhm. We're making money. We're doing this. We're doing that. I want more. I want more. I push harder.
50:31
I'm all about pushing hard, don't get me wrong. Obviously. I'm all about it.
50:38
But to push as hard as you can, you have to be mindful of the machine that's pushing.
50:45
It is going to end up dying.
50:47
And then it takes years to get it back to you. You lose that time. Totally. That time is gone.
50:51
You know, I lost 5 years of I could be crushing it.
50:56
Where now I'm just now back to crushing it, realizing, "God, man, I learned the hard way."
51:00
But that's really sometimes the only way to learn. Yeah, sometimes, yeah.
51:03
Sometimes the only way to learn.
51:05
That's how I've learned the best. Yeah.
51:07
How do you know those indicators?
51:07
So, what are those indicators to know I'm pushing too hard or I'm I'm suffering too much because it's hard to know. Mhm. Right?
51:15
Everyone gets in the gym even once a week or whatever and it's like if you don't go often, you can feel like you're falling apart after 10 minutes. Do me a favor.
51:22
Go to the first Go to the first page of the of of not No, not my fault.
51:27
Go to like the first three pages of that book.
51:28
You see one one sentence. Okay.
51:33
To the unrelenting voice in my head that will never allow me to stop. Okay.
51:36
The unrelenting voice that we all have.
51:42
What happens to that voice?
51:42
I'm going to I'm going to answer your question.
51:43
We all have a voice in our head.
51:47
Some of us are very spiritual, some of us are not, but we all have this voice in you're doing [ __ ] up [ __ ] This is wrong. Don't do that.
51:53
The more you don't listen to that voice, the further that voice gets away from your head.
51:58
Some people call it the Holy Spirit, some people call it God, some monks, whatever whatever you call it. It's there. We all have it.
52:05
It's the right or wrong voice.
52:08
But the more we don't listen to it, the more that voice goes away.
52:09
And only voice you hear is yourself.
52:14
We all When when the only voice you hear is yourself, you're wrong.
52:17
There's a voice that guides you through life.
52:19
And sometimes it's guiding you in a direction that you don't want to go, that's usually the right place to go.
52:26
It's that uncomfortable place.
52:26
So that voice is always talking to me, but we don't listen to it. I listen to it.
52:31
And when I start getting anxious, nervous, like I've done We all know when we've done too much cuz it's telling us, "I'm getting tired. I'm wearing down."
52:43
But we we go, we go, we go.
52:43
I start talking to my fiance, "Hey, I'm doing too much."
52:50
You start now like like I did in Hell Week, like I do all the time. The one-second decision.
52:55
It's that decision when your mind starts to get so amped up, whenever you can't hear yourself think, you got to slow down.
53:02
Whenever you living off a schedule, every day is a schedule, every day is a schedule, you have no time for yourself.
53:07
When you start And we all know it.
53:07
I don't have time for this anymore, I don't have time for that anymore.
53:10
That's when your mind and your body are saying, think about that.
53:15
I'm neglecting my fiance, I'm neglecting my disciplines of life, I'm neglecting my reading, my learning, my my workouts, my my my diet.
53:22
When you start neglecting all of that, you neglect one of them.
53:27
You can You can neglect all of them a long time. It's going to hurt you.
53:33
When you start seeing that, my god, I haven't eaten right in a long time.
53:37
Haven't been sleeping right in a long time.
53:38
It going to be one of those things to take you off.
53:41
So I'm I'm I'm very aware of my eating, my sleeping, my my my disciplines of life.
53:49
You know, I start to get too far away from them, it's a hard stop. Mhm.
53:54
Because what made me me are the self not just disciplines, the self-disciplines of life. Mhm.
54:00
And those are always in front of you if you have any.
54:05
They're always in front of you. Mhm.
54:06
So, that's So, that's my hard stop. Yeah, I love that, man. And that's great advice.
54:10
And I guess a simple example is is of like sleep.
54:11
Like when you wake up in the morning, That's right.
54:15
there's a part of you that's going, "Ah, just go back to sleep." Exactly. Right?
54:18
When we used to wake up at 4:00 a. m.
54:19
as monks, sometimes 3:00, it's like there's the part and then that's what you're saying.
54:22
And then all you hear is yourself saying, "Ah, it's all right. Just go sleep. It's okay." That's right.
54:28
But then that voice has got quieter that says, "No, you need to get up. You need to get up."
54:31
And you've just pushed it away. Mhm.
54:32
You've just pushed it away.
54:34
And that's the discomfort that you need to That's right. embrace. Exactly.
54:37
So, those voices are very important. They They can guide you.
54:41
And that's the thing about Like I said, the mind is the most powerful weapon in the world. Yeah.
54:46
It can guide you to being very comfortable also. Yeah.
54:47
So, you got to be You got You got to be careful.
54:49
The The The mind will trick you. Yeah.
54:51
And it's saying, "Just sleep in today. You deserve it." Yeah.
54:54
Sometimes you don't deserve it.
54:57
So, there's that There's that fine line of of the mind getting a tactical advantage over you to where you're like, "I've worked too hard." Yeah.
55:03
You really haven't worked hard enough. Mhm. So, Yeah. Absolutely.
55:07
Yeah, in in when we were trying to monks in the Vedic philosophy, it talks about the difference between the mind and the intelligence.
55:13
So, the mind is compared to a child and the intelligence is compared to a parent.
55:18
And so, when the child goes loose, when the mind goes loose, when it's not trained, controlled, disciplined, self-disciplined, etc. , it can have tantrums.
55:26
It can throw things out the pram, right? It It demands more.
55:28
Like a child always wants to sleep in. Right. Always. Right. Always.
55:32
Even if the child knows that it's better to wake up to go to school, A child doesn't want to.
55:36
A child doesn't want to study for exams cuz it's hard, it's painful.
55:41
And the adult's role, which is the intelligence, which is often we forget that it exists, the intelligence is that voice coaching the mind. That's right.
55:49
But what often happens is the intelligence just tries to shout at the mind like a bad parent. Exactly. just shouts.
55:56
That's 100% No teaching, no education, no no knowledge, just shouts.
56:01
That is 100% the way you explain that about the child's mind is 100% the truth.
56:08
I just want to sleep in, always throwing tantrums.
56:11
Never getting what they want.
56:11
Whenever they don't get what they want, they throw a tantrum.
56:14
But what happens is we never grow.
56:17
We we are 40, 50, 60, still throwing that tantrum we once did at 7 and 8 years old.
56:25
So people think with age is growth. No, it's not.
56:29
You have to go back into the scarring to get the growth. Absolutely.
56:33
Because if if with age you just repeated what you did when you were younger, it's just stronger. That's it. Right?
56:37
You've just strengthened a bad muscle.
56:40
I'm throwing a bigger tantrum at 43 than I did at 8. Yeah. So true.
56:43
Yeah, you just strengthen a bad muscle.
56:45
Stronger, stronger, stronger, stronger.
56:49
And then that can break you. It 100%.
56:50
That's why I love the monk mentality. Yeah.
56:51
And that's why I talk about my book a lot too is that mentality.
56:54
I'm not one, but I've taken a lot of the disciplines, the self-disciplines from that mentality to grow. Yeah, I love that, man.
57:04
That's That's what fascinates me so much and I'm excited for us to This conversation is phenomenal and I'm loving it about your book and I'm excited to have more offline conversations too because that's that's literally why I did it.
57:14
When I met monks who were living extreme scenarios.
57:16
And when I look at you, I I think about it, too.
57:20
You're You're an extremist Right. in a good way.
57:22
I'm saying in a good way.
57:23
Like And And when I became a monk, it was the same thing.
57:25
I I had to go to the edge of myself. That's right.
57:29
Like I had to go to the extreme of myself 100%.
57:32
realize where I could be placed.
57:32
And what's funny about that, I often say it on the other side of that extreme place that I call suffering, call whatever you want, there's a whole 'nother world that people have not even examined.
57:46
But you have to go to that extreme place to examine it.
57:50
We want to stay here in this comfortable place.
57:51
Once you're going to push yourself to that extreme place, it's like a whole 'nother universe.
57:55
It's almost like like you're an astronaut and you've examined something like up in outer space.
58:00
No, it's always been there.
58:02
But you have to be going through all the muck and all the [ __ ] to examine it.
58:04
You realize, "My god, through all this crap, there's a whole 'nother whole 'nother universe over here in my mind." Yeah. Whole 'nother universe. Absolutely.
58:12
What's your take on capacity in the sense of So, if someone's listening right now, someone's watching or listening to us and they're just like, "You guys are crazy, right?"
58:19
As I hear it all the time.
58:21
Yeah, I'm sure you I'm sure you hear it all the time.
58:22
I haven't I haven't actually The The reason why this is so exciting for me, and I'm I'm sure you can guide me a lot, is I haven't shared as many moments in my story, even the ones I've shared with you today.
58:32
I've not I've not really shared them because I'm I'm writing them right now. Right.
58:36
But I'm sure you hear it all the time that you're crazy.
58:38
What's your take on capacity?
58:39
If someone's listening, they're going, "David Wright, you can stand in the middle of the ocean and it's 49° and you can do that.
58:45
But for me, that suffering is me just starting something new."
58:51
Is that true or can they also achieve that capacity?
58:53
They can also achieve that capacity, which is why I wrote the book So Raw. Mhm.
58:57
Because what we do so well in this world is we see superhuman people and we title them.
59:02
The second we title them, what that does, that gives us a get-out-of-jail-free card.
59:09
Is that they're the 1%ers. Mhm.
59:11
I'm not even going to try to do that because that's not even in me. God made them special. They're special people.
59:18
There are no special people.
59:19
There are special minds, and the mind can be created on your own.
59:23
You can do that yourself.
59:23
So, that's why I write the book like I write it, so people can look at me and say, "My God, he came from this?
59:31
He had to overcome all of this?"
59:33
So, I take away all the titles. Even crazy.
59:38
Even the fact that he's superhuman.
59:38
All those titles are now stripped away.
59:41
But, what's funny about that, you will have my book in your hand, you will read it in its entirety.
59:48
You'll hear the audiobook, whatever you get.
59:49
And by time you get to chapter 9 or 10, you already forgot chapter 1, 2, and 3 of the hell I came through.
59:56
That's how fast the mind wants to soften you up and say, "This guy's just nuts. He's superhuman."
1:00:03
That's how fast the mind You will already forgot what you read.
1:00:07
And you're And you're And And you love the book. You're loving the book.
1:00:12
And you already forgot the first three chapters cuz your mind is saying, "This is impossible."
1:00:17
It's already guiding you down that path of least resistance as you're reading the book. It's how powerful it is.
1:00:21
So, we got to constantly remind ourselves of go back to chapter 1, 2, and 3.
1:00:27
Always remind yourself of those chapters.
1:00:28
Of that you can also do this.
1:00:31
But, you have to first self-examine or live autopsy your own personal life.
1:00:37
The tricks of the mind, man. That's it.
1:00:39
That That is such a great explanation of how fast the mind can fool you into something someone has just explained.
1:00:47
I do it all the time when I speak to people.
1:00:49
I tell them at speaking gigs.
1:00:51
And I And I And I break my life down.
1:00:53
And by time I leave, my God, I'm like, "You didn't hear the first 30 minutes of my story, did you?" Yeah. No, I heard it, man.
1:00:59
I'm like, "But, you forgot it already.
1:01:00
The mind's already tricking you." Yeah. I love that, man.
1:01:03
Thank you so much, David, man.
1:01:05
Listening to you today, honestly, like I was reading and then listening to you, and I've seen you on interviews as well, but just having the honor of being able to sit down with you and and talk to you about it has actually like been one of my one of the most meaningful conversations in my life, not just on the podcast.
1:01:20
I'm just saying this conversation, I listening to you, some of the things you've said and and the alignment we have, genuinely it's been it's been a powerful conversation.
1:01:28
The one we had before the podcast and the one we've done now. Thank you.
1:01:31
It's it's been really meaningful to me, man.
1:01:32
So I've definitely like it's done a lot of work for me.
1:01:35
Like just listening to you I've been doing the work sitting here. So it's been meaningful.
1:01:39
I'm going to listen back for myself.
1:01:40
So I I always end each podcast with five questions.
1:01:44
It's called my final five. Okay. Final five minutes.
1:01:45
This is easy for you because you're used to drills. Right.
1:01:49
Uh it's it's the rapid fire.
1:01:49
I like doing this because I mean I don't know if anyone can catch you off guard because you're you, but uh but these are questions that we just want instant quick answers to the first thing that comes to your mind.
1:02:01
The first question I have for you is what's the best advice you've ever received?
1:02:06
I didn't receive any advice.
1:02:06
And that's the thing about it.
1:02:08
When I grew up I just didn't receive any advice.
1:02:09
My my family was in such turmoil that the best advice I received is from myself.
1:02:16
And and that has to be to study yourself. All the bad.
1:02:17
Cuz the good's already there.
1:02:20
You don't need to study that.
1:02:21
Study study the best of about yourself and learn from that and grow. I love that, man.
1:02:25
That's that's such a beautiful way of looking at it.
1:02:26
And that's true because I think we live in a culture where we're waiting for someone else to come solve our problems. Yeah. Right?
1:02:31
We're living in that culture.
1:02:32
I was very blessed to not have that. Mhm.
1:02:35
And you know, and that's how I looked at my life too, not to get off the five questions, but I looked at my life in a way that I was able to find so much strength in negativity.
1:02:44
I was able to flip it upside down versus me thinking my woe is me, my life sucks.
1:02:49
I was able to say my God, God put me in the most in the perfect training ground to study myself, to become a straight up, you know, scientist of my mind. Yeah. Absolutely.
1:02:59
Yeah, don't worry about going away from the five questions. I did it.
1:03:01
I was I was getting into your answers. So I was yeah.
1:03:05
Second question, Can't Hurt Me.
1:03:05
If there's anything that can hurt you, what is it?
1:03:09
Oh, there's tons of things.
1:03:09
You know, everything I talk about I'm a I was afraid to jump out of airplanes, afraid of the water, afraid of afraid of myself.
1:03:18
So, there are so many things that can't hurt me, but the biggest thing that can hurt me is myself. Mhm.
1:03:20
Is allowing my mind to get away from the reality.
1:03:23
We do We we build a false reality in our minds. Mhm.
1:03:30
The real reality is the one thing that can the the false reality is the one thing that can't hurt you. Yeah.
1:03:37
The real reality is the one thing you can help and and fix yourself. Absolutely. Third question.
1:03:43
Uh what's the The third question that I wanted to ask you is all around what's the uh one thing that you're trying to learn this year?
1:03:50
What's the one thing you've been kind of like tackling this year?
1:03:52
I'm attacking I'm a big introvert. Mhm.
1:03:54
So, this is very uncomfortable for me.
1:03:58
Even though I'm comfortable with you, I know there's a lot of eyeballs on me right now.
1:04:01
So, it's very uncomfortable for me.
1:04:03
I used to stutter real bad.
1:04:06
So, it's trying to be in a spot where I am in that monk-like mentality everywhere I go.
1:04:14
And not allow the past demons of even I'm successful now, but you still have those moments where you go back and your mind's like, "Remember when you were 6 years old and you stuttered profusely at this play?"
1:04:26
And you were so, you know, it's those things that come back to you all the time. So, that's what it is. Awesome.
1:04:31
What's your daily meditation or mantra or repetition to yourself?
1:04:35
Every day I tell myself I used to believe I was the weakest man that God ever created.
1:04:40
So, now I believe that I'm the hardest human being that God ever made.
1:04:44
I don't care if it's true or not, it's the most important conversation to me.
1:04:47
It's the thing that drives me every day.
1:04:49
It it It's the one thing that keeps me going every day is that you must constantly be that man that you want to be. Awesome, man.
1:04:55
And fi- fifth and final question, what's your purpose right now?
1:04:59
My purpose right now is to continue I used to have a washcloth rag when I did this.
1:05:06
And you know how you take a shower you have a washcloth rag and the cloth and you uh you're sitting there and you just lathering up and before you hang your rag up, you want to get all the water come on it and you know, get it all all that you know, all the suds out of it. You want to ring it out. You want to hang it up.
1:05:21
So, my big thing is when I live my life, I want to make sure that when I'm dead and gone that I ring that wash rag out and that wash rag is my soul.
1:05:28
I also believe that we're going to end up one day meeting the maker, if you believe in one.
1:05:35
And I believe that maker knows everything about you. Everything about you.
1:05:37
Knows I was going to be here and talking to you. Knows everything.
1:05:41
But you also have a choice to make.
1:05:44
You have a choice to make. We have choices.
1:05:45
And the one thing that scares me to death in my life is getting to heaven and not being what I was supposed to be.
1:05:54
And I believe that God has a chart and he looks at the chart and he puts it in front of you when you get to heaven.
1:05:58
He says, "Hey, this is what you're supposed to be."
1:06:01
And one of my biggest fears in life was to see that chart and not have every block checked off.
1:06:09
You know, I want to make sure that I'm constantly pursuing whatever it is I'm pursuing just to be the best I can just constantly grinding myself into a fine powder.
1:06:19
You know, and but doing it in a smart way.
1:06:21
Like I talked about, you can constantly grind yourself into a point where you're just sick.
1:06:26
There's a there's a happy medium of grinding.
1:06:28
So, that's that's that's my purpose now to continue to push myself so others can see what is possible. That's beautiful, man.
1:06:34
Everyone, that is David Goggins' new book.
1:06:36
It is out, Can't Hurt Me, Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds. Go get it.
1:06:41
If you love this conversation, it was literally just the tip of the iceberg.
1:06:44
We just got into like, I'm going to say 1% of the book.
1:06:49
There is so much more in here.
1:06:49
Personal stories, accounts, and the best thing is that there's challenges at the end of every chapter where there are practical tools and tips that you can actually do at home with your friends, people that you're reading the book with.
1:07:02
I think it's such a powerful book in the way that it's written, in the way that David is so vulnerable, so open, hoping that you're going to go there yourself as well.
1:07:13
I hope you're going to go there.
1:07:14
David, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
1:07:16
Genie, so grateful, man, to meet you.
1:07:17
And and the fact that you turned up on this podcast and shared in an incredible way, man. Thank you so much. it, man. Thank you, man. Thank you.
1:07:25
If you want even more videos just like this one, click on the boxes over here.
1:07:31
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