Insights from Never Finished by David Goggins. How to unshackle your Mind and Win the War within.
“Respect is earned every day by waking up early, challenging yourself with new dreams … and embracing the suck like you have nothing and have never done a damn thing in your life.”
– David Goggins
Reignite your drive with a task that will test your limitations if you’re feeling content after a period of hard work and relaxation.
COMMIT TO WAKE-UP CHALLENGE
One late night, Goggins got an email from a friend asking whether he might participate in the Leadville Trail 100 race to benefit his charity. The Leadville Trail 100 is a 100-mile foot race that begins 10,000 feet above sea level and involves a 15,000-foot elevation shift in the Colorado Rockies. A few years ago, Goggins would have jumped at the chance to race Leadville, but now he was full of hesitation and excuses.
He says, “After decades of hard charging, I was stuck in neutral, nowhere close to the mental beast I’d once been.”
But Goggins’ thoughts kept returning to Leadville. Because he understood that the challenge was what he needed to unleash his inner savage, shift out of neutral, and resume his journey of self-discovery, it tormented him.
Your wake-up challenge doesn’t have to be physical. It could be academic, like passing a challenging career exam, taking part in a contest, or introducing a new product. Whatever your wake-up challenge is, it must satisfy two requirements:
- Your wake‐up challenge needs to be a fear pod – This is a challenge that makes you afraid to take on, but once you do, confidence and self-discovery seeds start to appear along your path. You will become a more confident and self-aware person if you choose this path.
- Your wake‐up challenge must involve everyday effort ‐ Even on rest days, Goggins didn’t skip a day of training for Leadville. To get his body and mind ready for the task, he imagined different parts of the marathon.
After choosing and committing to a wake-up challenge, develop the practice of conducting self-talk audits.
PERFORM SELF-TALK AUDITS
Goggins’ body started to hurt soon after he intensified his Leadville training, and he kept telling himself he needed a day off. He took a voice recorder, got comfortable on his couch, and started whining into it.
He articulated his feelings in detail and presented a compelling argument for a much-needed day of relaxation. But when he played it back to himself, he wasn’t convinced. The excuses he heard lacked substance and were just a desperate plea to quit and seek comfort.
Use a voice recording software on your phone to vent about the things you hate doing when you wake up drained and unmotivated to get started. Then, replay it for yourself. Chances are, you’ll discover that the voice on the other end is not one you want in charge of your life.
Once you’ve finished listening to yourself complain about the things you don’t want to accomplish, press record once more on your voice recording app and act as though you’re inspiring a friend to overcome a struggle.
REMEMBER CAPTAIN CONNOLLY
Goggins frequently recalled his experience at the Air Assault school of the US Air Force as he began his preparation for Leadville. On their route to class, all Air Assault students had to cross under the arches while performing five pull-ups and ten raised push-ups. One day, Goggins and his classmate Connolly, a captain in the US Army, both passed through the arches at the same moment.
When Goggins finished his five pull-ups and squatted to finish his push-ups, he saw Captain Connolly still using the pull-up bar and going much above the five pull-ups required. He had observed Captain Connolly acting in a similar manner before. Throughout the 10-day Air Assault training, Captain Connolly persisted in going above and beyond on practically every drill. For the first time in his memory, someone went above and beyond what was expected of them.
In the book, he says, “Connolly made me uncomfortable because he exposed my lack of dedication to giving my best effort each and every day… Captain Connolly did not show up to simply get through the program and graduate so he could collect some wings for his uniform. He came to explore what he was made of and grow.”
Goggins thought about Captain Connolly as he prepared for Leadville, asking him daily, “Are you merely meeting the standards or are you providing all you can give?” Forget what other people are doing or what people before you have done, and instead go inside to see what more you can do. You will surpass the norms that everyone else is following and enter a space of unrestricted mental expansion if you are constantly looking for methods to improve.
“The world needs all of us to evolve into the very best versions of ourselves. That’s a moving target, and it isn’t a one‐time task. It is a lifelong quest for more knowledge, more courage, more humility, and more belief. Because when you summon the strength and discipline to live like that, the only thing limiting your horizons is you.”
– David Goggins
Author: The Pinoy Engineer
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