I Listened to David Goggins Motivation Every Day for a Month, Here’s What I Learned
Lessons from the toughest man alive.
At age 24, David Goggins was nearly 300 pounds and worked for Ecolab spraying cockroaches. Today, he is the only member of the US Armed Forces to complete SEAL training, US Army Ranger School, and Air Force tactical training.
If you know anything about the military, you understand how rigorous and intense the training is. Completing just one of the courses listed above is an achievement of its own, as the dropout rate for SEAL training is roughly 75%.
Coming from very humble beginnings and battling a broken home, David struggled with insecurity and anxieties. Listening to his life stories and the tribulations that he had to overcome struck a chord within me. I related to his life story and the mountains he had to climb over to get where he is today.
I, too, come from a broken home and have struggled with insecurities and anxiety. I realized that nobody was coming to save me. That I needed to address my fears and work on my struggles to unlock my full potential.
I started listening to David’s motivational speeches a little over a month ago and can honestly say it’s changed my perception and approach to life and everything that I do. Here’s what I learned.
Stop Giving a Fuck About People
Too many of us in life make decisions and live based upon other people's opinions. For example, Goggins says in a speech:
“I realized that everybody’s fucked up. I put people on a pedestal, everyone was better than me. Once I understood that the only thing they’re doing better is hiding how fucked up their world is, all the weight that I carried come off.”
One of my biggest struggles was living in fear of what other people would think of me. I hindered myself from doing things I wanted to do or saying exactly how I felt in fear of judgment. Finally, I learned that people aren’t thinking the things you assume they’re thinking about you.
Other people will project their doubts and insecurities on you and try to tell you what you can and can’t do. Although, unfortunately, there are many negative people in this world. Once you learn to shut out those outside voices, your whole mindset changes.
Accept What You’re Not
You have first to accept it before you can fix it. But, unfortunately, when problems arise in our life, we tend to bottle everything up and walk around saying, “I’m good.” Most people don't want to accept the fact that they have failed or they need help. David goes on to say:
“You have to accept it; that’s the only way to fix it. We never even start the journey because we live this fake life and pretend to be something we’re not. People don’t reach their full potential because they never address their problems beneath the surface.”
It’s okay not to be okay. We all have things in our lives that we’ve failed at. Although I’m my own worst critic, one of the hardest things I had to learn is it’s not about avoiding failure.
Failure is where learning and growth happens.
It’s about accepting that I have failed at something and, in turn, using that as motivation to try again and be successful.
Stop Making Excuses
Life is one big tug of war between mediocrity and trying to find your best self. When you make excuses, you’re running from the truth. You can’t stay the same. You’re either getting better or getting worse.
The most important conversation you’ll ever have is the one you have with yourself. Another lesson I learned from listening to David Goggins is the 40% rule. He describes the 40% rule as:
“When your mind and body start to tire, you're only at 40% of what you are truly capable of achieving. That’s just the limit we put on ourselves.”
Our mind always looks for comfort and a way out. It tells you to hit that snooze button in the morning. But, once you discipline your life and show up to push yourself every day no matter the circumstances that stand in front of you — that's when life starts to change, and your dreams become clear.
Listening to David Goggins every day and reading about his life has made me realize how unfulfilled I felt with my own. That I’m capable of achieving so much more and that my dreams and goals are truly attainable. Many of us don’t know about another world that exists for us because it’s on the other side of suffering. That’s the real growth in life.
