David Goggins: 6 Lessons From The Toughest Man Alive

“I broke this thing down into small pieces. I said I got to get nutrition; I got to be able to stand up before I can go through the 30 miles […] I taped up my ankles, and then my feet, and that’s how I got through that race”

It’s an experience the SEAL would likely never forget.

Hell Week is the toughest period of SEAL training; trainees are put through 125 hours of continuous training, and typically get only two hours of sleep during that period. They’re constantly cold, wet, and miserable.

The idea is to drain the trainees physically and mentally, and then see what sort of decisions they make. Instructors do their best to make trainees ring the bell, which is used to announce that they’re quitting. Nobody holds back here.

Broken down into small pieces, there’s no obstacle that is insurmountable. We find that there’s always a step that’s actionable. Add up the small bits, and we would’ve accomplished something we never thought possible.

One step at a time is how 100-mile marathons get completed.

“He [Goggins] showed me, proved to me right there that there was so much more, we’re all capable of so much more than we think we are. […] He would say that when your mind is telling you you’re done, you’re really only 40 percent done”

When he first walked into the Navy SEAL recruiter’s office, Goggins was told that there were only 35 African-Americans in the past 70 years who had made it through. Goggins asked himself — “what if I could be the 36th?”

These days, he asks himself the same question whenever he’s struggling through a run. It’s this question that helps him get through when his body and mind are broken and begging for him to stop.

Seeing himself succeed and do the impossible gives him the shivers. That drives him to attack every day and challenge with a vengeance.

“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”

We would accomplish so much more if we spent our time doing the work, and then occasionally looking back at how far we’ve come. The cookie jar should be used for fuel, and not a distraction.

“People respond to pain. If I go out and wash cars for $10, who gives a damn? People want to see you throw up, cry and go through tremendous suffering.”

 “suffering is the true test of life”.

Goggins isn’t training just for a race. He’s training for the tragedies that inevitably strike each and every one of us. He does this so he doesn’t fall apart if he gets the 2 A.M. call from the hospital informing him that his mother has passed away.

It’s absurd what Hoggins has been able to do despite the numerous disadvantages he was saddled with. Perhaps some of us are wired differently. Maybe he isn’t human at all.

Or maybe, we just need to leave our excuses at the door.