Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins — My Learnings
on Book Review
When I first picked up this book, the name David Goggins sounded very familiar. Then I remember Lex Fridman talking about him during his terrific workout schedule. Immediately my brain formed an image of an athletic genius in a zillion.
But little did I know back then that the book was not about being genius or the widespread idea of mediocrity that I’m not good enough to do this. Rather it’s about the relentless pursuit of one’s mind to achieve the impossible and believe in the idea that there’s no finish line, that there’s always more to learn, and weakness to strengthen. Hard enough to stay in the game and never give up, no matter how many failures come in the way.
The book started with David telling us about his childhood. It hit the weird nerve for me. It was terrifying, and all I could imagine was terrible fear and self-doubt for any individual in that situation. During the first few chapters of the book, I wondered why David kept his father’s last name when his dad was the worst part of his childhood. Why didn’t he scrape out his father’s identity away from him? Why still carry around that name that felt like an invisible boulder on the mind? After all this time, why?
Over time we do hide the scars we all face behind our victories. We don’t want to acknowledge that we were literally beaten up at that particular point in time. It doesn’t make us feel very great about ourselves, so the easiest thing to do is forget about it and move on. Pretend it never happened. But our past, our deepest fears, have a way of springing back at us with double pace. We can’t conquer our mind while telling white lies that even we won’t buy into. It’s only by knowing that though those were ruthless moments and chapters in our lives, they didn’t kill us. And what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. David Goggins stated that — In the future, it became crucial for him to rehash his life. He realized that every ruthless moment that could have killed him made him tough and sharp as hell.
As I move through the chapters of David’s life, the more I realized that for most of us, the race is with someone else, and so is our success measuring statistics. But for a few of us, the race is with our own mind itself, and there’s no finish line, only continuous pushing forward till the last breath. I want to be in the latter part of the chunk.
When he started talking about the Hell week, I was thrilled. Not only because I’ve huge respect for the Navy Seals but also in what an incredible feat they have over their own mind. I’d zillion questions regarding how to have a callous mind and how to find strength in times when it’s all falling and is a hell of a terrific scene?
The answer is — ‘You go Through!’. It ain’t pleasant for them either but they fricking love dealing with such atrocities. They thrive off the barbaric beauty of seeing the soul of a man destroyed, only to rise again to overcome every obstacle in their path. They go into the dark place where there’s just them and the pain and suffering. And they are willing to die to make it through that thing. As they say, they worship the God of Death.
Further down the line, he had an incident that flipped his entire life perspective. We all have such moments when we are overflowing with emotions and think of ourselves as victims of everything that comes our way. And slowly, the mist of self-doubt captures us in its inevitable vicious loop. That being said, in a split second, he was reminded of all the bullying and the taunts that he felt as a teenager. At this moment, he chose to understand that instead of thinking of his entire life as a series of victimhood of bad circumstances. He chose to think about it as the ultimate training ground to callous his mind. Time stood still till this day.
In his chapter — Taking Souls, David tells us that everything in life is a mind game! I always wondered about what attitude the mighty Navy seals carried with them into Hell Week? It’s fascinating what he said. During Hell Week, everyone is at their highest point when they’re being crushed by peaking pain or swayed by the cold and harsh water. The experience is beyond imagination without dealing with it in real. And it’s natural to give in control over our emotions and actions to other people, in their case, the BUDs instructor, who’d blatantly told them that they wanted to break them down and make them quit. David said that he went into Hell Week knowing what he was putting himself in and that he wanted to be there, and he had all the tools to win this fight that’s so rogue against him. But knowing and believing is a small part of the battle they were part of, and to get through the Hell Week torture, the only way is thorough. If you can spring back with maximum effort in those moments of pain, then by remembering what you’ve been through to get to that point in your life, you’ll unleash your potential to fight instead of flight.
Whenever he saw the pain, he used to look into pain’s eyes like it’s some person who’s trying to break him apart, and he used to stare back and smile in an act to disarm the pain from the mightiest weapon. That’s the spirit that I’m talking about. And it’s incredible!
I feel like talking about David’s Ultrarunning phase of his life. This was a bit terrifying to read, though. The reason because it was in such a raw form. The pain that sounded so terrifying was a heck of a deal in real for him. Now each one of us has heard one day or the other that we don’t use our full potential, but the truth is nobody even knows at what potential they are currently. But we always know that someone out there had successfully tapped their withheld potential and achieved the impossible. It opens a whole new level of possibility out there in the world. And the fact that we settle for something not even near it. The reason being, to us often, our half-ass attitude is pretty much enough, and we’ve excuses ready for the stuff that truly matter and would change our life for the better. Everyone is so fixated upon quick fixes, shortcuts, and path of least resistance. But this all hardly leads to an armored mind. Such a feat can only be achieved by the rigor of discipline and hard work.
Because passion and obsession, even talent, are only useful tools when you’ve work ethic to back them up.
— David Goggins
The military has been an integral part of his life and a source of his life lessons too. Whether it had been to learn to be always ready for a change like it’s in the wind, to be a true leader who fights for his men and help them find their best. One of the most important things that stood out for him in my eyes was when he said that he was living the SEAL ethos every day even when no one’s watching and the hell weeks over, so is your training. Even when there’s no enemy and no one to instruct him to work around, he would anyway stick to his commitment and would refuse to ignore his duties undone. He has his own uncommon standards of living up to. Forever mission ready!
Our widespread belief as humans is that we quit before even trying and blame it all on genetics. Call it god gifted. Obviously, at least David didn’t buy this crap. Alright, I don’t completely disregard the genetics factor but rather the mindset that people develop and pass on to others regarding accepting mediocrity and just not giving our best. They’re so fixated on genetics that they’ll go on to prove others wrong that they can’t do it just because they believe it.
David’s story is one big explosion in their stupid belief melodrama. In the chapter Uncommon amongst uncommon, he reveals that his heart had a big hole, and all this time, he’d been running with this damaged heart, smashing all the records and running ultras that a person with a normal working heart won’t, just because they believe God didn’t make them like that.
To David, his life is the absolute proof of what’s possible when someone dedicates themselves to harnessing the human mind’s full power.
People often cry regarding why they didn’t get what they think they deserve; instead, they should be thinking about becoming a person who deserves that particular thing. David understands this very well, and that had been the lighting torch of his journey.
Talking about Davids’s stories, they’re beautifully put and in a raw state. It had been truly an enlightening journey through different phases of his life. The book shows the transformation of a boy from a terrible teenage being in a phase of self-doubt and self-worth and in pursuit of discovering one’s true purpose in life to a Navy Seal and an athlete with countless achievements and, more than that, a human being with an armored mind. A mind prepared for life itself.
The book ends with David finally gaining clarity. As we can see, he’d obviously judged himself harshly at all times. He’d often thought of himself as a liar and an imposter. But he realized that all of that, he did for acceptance. Whether it was breaking the rules or something terrifying, he did it all to fit in, to prove again and again that he’s worthy. It makes me sad, but there are still millions of David struggling through this. But I hope that instead of chastising their younger self, they’ll understand themselves, and the story of David’s life would inspire generations to come.