1. Change your internal dialogue
Former Navy SEAL Commander David Goggins said that self talk is the biggest secret he has to accomplish anything. Goggins, who is now an ultramarathon runner and author of the New York Times Best Seller "Can't Hurt Me", constantly talks to himself through any arduous task to sort of motivate himself to finish that certain task and dispel any weakness or intention of quitting. In one interview, Goggins said that when he was running a 200-mile marathon, he would feel like shit at 100 miles and couldn't stop wanting to quit. What he would always do was calm down first, then start remembering why he was there in the first place to sort of remember his purpose, and then starts talking or shouting to himself very loudly as if it was some sort of a war cry.
2. Stop overthinking
Before joining the Navy SEALs, Goggins lost a total of 100 pounds of weight in only 3 months, by exercising for 8 hours per day which burned around 5000 calories, and only eating 800 calories of food every single day. David said many people do a lot of overthinking of how to get started rather than putting in the work straight away. After deciding to join the SEALs, instead of doing some fancy sophisticated research on how to lose the weight, or find the best gym fitness instructor in town, he started doing ridiculous amounts of reps for simple exercises such as cycling and push-ups, and just stopped eating a lot - cutting his calories down to 800 per day. Goggins often told his fans that it's not rocket science to lose weight, you simply stop eating a lot, start exercising more and stop thinking about it.
3. Stop making excuses
If there's one thing you can always hear from Goggins when he's motivating a crowd of 5000 people, it is to stop making fucking excuses. Goggins used to weigh 300 lbs (136 kg) before he joined the SEALs, and worked 8 hours every single day as an exterminator earning only $1000 every month. At the end of his shift in the morning, he would go to Steak 'n Shake and get a large chocolate milkshake, before getting a box of mini donuts from 7-Eleven and popping them like Tic Tacs on his 45 minute drive home. When he saw an ad on the TV about Navy SEAL recruitment, he stopped making excuses and fully decided to quit all of his bad habits, cut down his calorie intake, and started rigorous exercising which made him lose 100 lbs in 3 months making him eligible to join the Basic Underwater Demolition training of the SEALs for starters.
4. Do what sucks
Goggins is a big believer in staying out of your comfort zone and consistently doing what you think sucks for you every single day. He says this is a good exercise to develop mental toughness and will also benefit you physically, as it will increase your threshold for discomfort and in other circumstances, exhaustion during exercise. Goggins said he hates running, which is why he does it everyday and has even become a professional ultramarathon runner to constantly callous his mind. In 2016, Goggins won the Infinitus 88k in 12 hours, the Music City Ultra 50k in the same year, and placed second on the Moab 240 mile run in 2020, with a time of 63 hours and 21 minutes.
5. The 40% rule
The 40% rule, first coined by David Goggins, has been a term used to explain that when your mind and body are starting to tire and you feel like giving up, you’re actually only at 40% of what you are really capable of giving. Goggins believes that most human beings are only living up to 40% of their capability, but he is not most humans is he? The former SEAL commander says that once we reach that 40% mark, our mind will automatically tell us to stop whatever we're doing, which is what it does anyway to maintain homeostasis or balance and prevent our bodies from breaking down, but we can actually counteract this instinct and decide that we can still give more and go up to 45% or even 50%. Goggins said that most SEAL commandos are aware of this rule which is why they can accomplish more and can last longer in warfare despite really bad injuries.
6. Take souls
In his Navy SEAL training, David Goggins went through 3 hell weeks all in a span of a year, which is too much for any person doing the training. On top of the sleep-deprivation, hypothermia, heavy boat lifting and the rest of the shit happening in hell week, the instructors who made sure every single one of them quit the training, was the worst of it. In his book "Can't Hurt Me", Goggins mentioned that by showing an unflinching determination to endure any form of suffering thrown at them during hell week, they were taking the souls of each of their instructors instead of breaking their own spirits. Despite all the pain and suffering that these instructors have given them, Goggins and his Boat Crew 2, outperformed the rest of the SEAL trainees, and overcame every single obstacle with flying colours, beating the instructors at their own game.
7. Keep a cookie jar
Goggins said every single one of us has a cookie jar, be that a literal cookie jar of Oreos or Chips Ahoy, a stash of Twinkies, or a fat bank account, our cookie jar is what we use to find comfort or pleasure when the situation gets tough. At some points in our lives, we always hit a brick wall, maybe get depressed and feel unmotivated most days. Goggins said that he was no exception to this and despite being the hardest man in the planet, he sometimes forget who he is and what he has been through. He looks into his cookie jar and sees all his achievements - his successful journey in the SEALs, his weight loss and strength, his ultramarathon running, and he picks them all up and in an instant he is back to his usual confident and highly motivated self.
8. Live life on your own terms
Goggins often discussed in interviews that one should always live their lives on their own terms. Just because you are 200 lbs overweight or maybe an underweight skin-and-bones type of person, it doesn't mean this has to be you forever. You can literally decide who you want to become and not stop until you've achieved it, making it your life's mission. Goggins said he chose to be a Navy SEAL and was fully decided and determined to become one, even though at that time he was 300 lbs and had absolutely zero tolerance for any physical exercise.
9. Become a savage
One of Goggins' favourite mantras is his constant portrayal of becoming a savage in the battlefield, whether it be in the literal warzone when was still a SEAL or in the middle of his runs in marathons. Becoming a savage basically means transforming into someone who is ten times tougher than your normal self, someone completely unhindered by any sort of weakness, who keeps pushing forward despite the level of difficulty, or even the impossibility of any obstacle. Part of this savagery is the conditioning of his mind to not giving a fuck to anything that stands in the way between himself and his goal. In his 200 mile runs, Goggins said that he doesn't become a savage at the beginning, he becomes a savage when his mind starts to want to quit, which suddenly gives him a boost of motivation, amplifying his energy and strength multiple times therefore finishing the race.
10. Outwork everyone
The former SEAL commander is famous for the ridiculous amounts of reps he does for certain exercises. In the book "Living with a SEAL" by Jesse Itzler, Goggins made Itzler do 100 burpees under 10 minutes, 150 push-ups with a 50-pound vest under 15 minutes, 800 jumping jacks and many more. Goggins, back in the day when he was working out to lose his excess 100 lbs of fat in 3 months, would do hundreds and hundreds of reps of different exercises such as push-ups and pull-ups, and would do an intense cycling every morning for 2 straight hours without breaks. He further commented that if the average guy can do 100 reps of push-ups, you have to outwork him by doing 500 push-ups; if the average guy can run 4 miles, you have to run 10 miles to outwork him. He always tells people to find out what the average person can do, then outdo them by doing it ten times.
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