Why David Goggins inspires me: Part 1

A difficult background, making excuses, and then going all in 🔥🔥

I first heard about David Goggins in Spring 2019. His audiobook ‘Can’s Hurt Me’ popped up on my audible homepage, and the haunting cover image made me take notice. It’s a photo of Goggins in his Navy SEAL uniform, but behind him, ever so faintly, you can see his younger, much heavier self.

He's a badass. Photo: Amazon

If you haven’t heard of David Goggins, he’s one of those rare “motivational experts” who actually knows what he’s talking about. Who has the experience to back shit up! And in terms of self-help books, this one has had the biggest input on my behaviour after reading and listening to it – as well as his various interviews which are on YouTube. A quick note on the format of the book, it’s worth getting the audiobook because, as well as the book being read, there are interludes after each chapter where Goggins discusses what happened with a host, a bit like a podcast. This amplifies his message and makes his story even more interesting.

Life was never easy for him

Photo: Elias Sch. from Pixabay

The book begins with his childhood, which was pretty rough. His pimp dad was physically and emotionally abusive to Goggins and his brother, but especially so to Goggins’ mother, once dragging her down the stairs of their family home. By her hair. Having already knocked her unconscious. He was also forced to work all night at his dad’s roller disco (surrounded by guns and prostitutes), was harassed by racists at school, and lived nice and close to the local chapter of the Klu Klux Klan. He was bad at reading and writing so started to cheat at school, had social anxiety, and really didn’t like himself – at times lying to his peers just so they might like him.

He used to make excuses

Photo: Instagram/davidgoggins 

Goggins joined the Air Force after high school and did special ops training. He dropped out after discovering he had sickle-cell anaemia trait – which he said was actually an excuse for him to quit, as the water training element of the programme had “kicked his ass.”

He then worked an office job in the Air Force from age 19 to 22, gaining lots of weight – he went from 175 pounds (12.5 stone) to nearly 300 (over 21 stone). After that, he found himself working the night shift in pest control – or “spraying for cockroaches” as he put it.

Then he went all in

Photo: Instagram/davidgoggins 

One morning, while he was having his shower after work, Goggins heard something from his TV. It was the sound of man after man giving up and “ringing the bell” during hell week – a punishing part of BUD/S Navy SEAL training that involves sleep deprivation, training 20 hours a day, extreme cold, prolonged time in the sea at night, and being purposefully broken down by instructors – both physically and mentally. Goggins watched in amazement. What if he could become a Navy SEAL too? Never mind that he was afraid of water. And would need to lose about 100 pounds (7.5 stone) in three months to even be allowed to test for the SEALs.

That night, after a particularly rough shift that saw an army of cockroaches invade the restaurant he was spraying, as well as an invasion of locusts, Goggins decided he’d had enough. He quit his job then and there, left his pesticide canister at the restaurant, and drove home. To work out!

No more excuses

Photo Gerd Altmann from pixabay 

Through running as much as he could (even if it was only a quarter of a mile in the beginning), biking around the clock, and an 800-calorie-per-day, high-protein diet, he lost the weight and joined the Navy SEALs. There’s more to that story but I’ll come back to it another time!

Given his background, David Goggins had every reason not to do anything with his life. But he ended up doing the most! He’s the only person to have completed training for the US Air Force, Navy SEALs, and Army Ranger School. He’s the only person to have completed Navy SEAL hell week three times. He broke the world record for the most pull-ups in 24 hours (4,030). And he ran 100 miles in under 24 hours after not having run at all for a year (and having never even done a marathon) – then going on to run the notorious Badwater Ultra Marathon just eight months later. Badwater entailed running 135 miles through the Mojave desert, which boasts the highest temperature ever recorded on the planet. He came fifth. By then’d gotten really into taping up his legs to alleviate stress fractures, shin splints, and the like while still running.

Losing 106 pounds (7.5 stones) in 3 months

Photo: Instagram/davidgoggins 

There are quite a few techniques and ways of thinking that David Goggins has inspired me with, but as I’ve focused particularly on his weight loss here, I’ll start with that. Losing 7.5 stones in 3 months – how?

Well, there’s the obvious practical things like doing cardio for hours and hours and eating just plain chicken, broccoli, and a banana day after day. But how did someone so overweight, and presumably not the most disciplined, manage to make such huge changes all of a sudden?

He kept his eye on the end goal

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

In interviews, Goggins talks about taking things step by step. Instead of thinking about the entire weight loss journey, he’d just focus on the next pound he needed to lose. But at the same time, he’d also visualise how good he’d feel once he’d lost the weight and became a Navy SEAL. “I have the ability to see the end before the beginning even begins,” he said. According to Goggins, if you can picture yourself doing something, you can do it. If you can’t see yourself doing it, you probably can’t. So when you’re approaching a challenging goal, think to yourself, how are you going to feel at the end of this?

Other techniques

Image by Vidmir Raic from Pixabay

• What if mentality: “What story would it be if my fucking fat, dumb, lying-to-be-friends-with-people insecure ass could overcome this shit?” Goggins asled himself. What if you could do that thing you want to do?

• Self-talk. Goggins, who weighed nearly 300 pounds (over 21 stone), started saying to himself things like “No-one could do this shit! You’re the baddest motherfucker around, you’re the baddest motherfucker that ever lived!” Over time, it became a reality.

• He realised the thought “I’m just not good enough” was an excuse for giving up and trying something else. He didn’t let himself do that. Instead, he thought “I’m gonna fucking make myself good enough!”

• He flipped all of his struggles and negative experiences into something positive, telling himself “hold up, this might be exactly what I need”, or “who on this fucking earth would still be going right now? You are. You’ve got to be the hardest motherfucker on the planet!”

There is so much more about David Goggins that inspires me, and so many other techniques and ways of thinking I want to share. I’m going to need to write a part 2 to this! So look out for that next week. And in the meantime… Stay hard!