6 Strategies From The World's Toughest Man That Will Change Your Life | David Goggins

Hello and welcome. In this post I’m going to give you 6 Strategies of David Goggins that will make you overcome any difficulties in life and achieve your goals.

Let start, just imagine a guy who today is considered the toughest man in the world, in the past was just an ordinary guy who suffered from asthma, had several allergies and on top of that had an abusive father who beat him and his mother.  Furthermore, during his childhood he was the butt of jokes at school, he suffered severe racism and the result of this was such severe trauma that in his adolescence he could barely read or learn anything at the same speed as others.  And when he reached his mid- 20s, there he was weighing 300 pounds, working as a cockroach exterminator, earning $1,000 a month, and deep in depression.  But one day all that changed.  He was on the couch with his milkshake in his hand when he saw the documentary about the Navy SEALs, the US Navy's special operations force, on TV. 

These guys are trained to operate anywhere, be it in the air, on land or at sea, but the preparation to become one of them is so brutal that very few people manage to complete the course.  But seeing it on TV, lit a spark in David.  So he thought, "Man, this is it, this is the discipline, this is the determination I want for myself. I want to be as badass as these guys. This is the only way I'm going to get out of this hole I'm in."  And when he made that decision, of course everyone laughed in his face because no one believed him.  But he ignored it, put his head down, and began an insane training and diet protocol. 

To give you an idea, in three months he lost almost 50 kg just so he could do the Navy training.  And even after he had become one of them, he didn't stop there.  In fact, he went after the toughest endurance challenges in the world, like the Bed War 135, which is another 217km marathon that runs through Death Valley, which is a desert region so hot that it can reach 53ºC. In short, that same guy who was once being defeated by life, has now completed more than 50 ultra marathons, become an ultra distance cyclist, triathlete, bestselling author and even broke the record for more than 4,000 pull-ups in 24 hours.  It's no wonder that David Goggins is considered the toughest guy on the planet. 

But my mission in this post is not just to tell you about his great achievements, but to give you the six main strategies he used to get out of that situation and get to where he is today.  And it's that thing, even if you don't apply all six, if you manage to apply just one in this will have already fulfilled its mission.  Because I hope that just as that documentary was the trigger for David to start changing his life, I also hope that this video is the trigger you need to start changing your life.  So, let's go. 

First strategy: use the mirror of responsibility.  

David says that most people are afraid to face their real problems and I agree with him, you know?  Many people prefer to live making excuses, placing the blame on other people or external factors.  People point the finger at the world, the government, their family, their routine, their luck, but they never really look at themselves, they never admit what they are doing wrong.  As you saw at the beginning of David's change, he was overweight, aimless and undisciplined.  And the first step he took was simple, but extremely difficult, which was to stop running away from the hard truths.  And the way he found to deal with this was by going to the mirror and starting to tell himself the truth in a raw and unvarnished way. Then he would say, "You're fat, you 're lazy, and you're wasting your life."  That is to say, he did not treat himself with pity, but with self-responsibility.   That's why he calls this strategy the mirror of responsibility, because it's a moment of brutal and honest confrontation, where he looks himself in the eye and faces everything he needs to change.  In other words, no pretending that everything is fine, no telling yourself stories, just the truth. 

In this mirror, his role was only one: to accept reality as it is, not as he would like it to be, and from there, chart a real path to improvement. So David began to use this as a daily practice, a ritual of introspection, where he eliminated every excuse he tried to use to justify what he wasn't doing.  And then every time his mind tried to escape, he would go back to the mirror.  And there he asked himself: "What excuse am I using today to not do what needs to be done? This kind of honesty with yourself hurts, but it is precisely this pain that destroys the comfort zone, because it is what breaks the limits that your own mind imposes to protect you from effort, rejection or failure. And now the question that remains is: how long will you continue to blame your past, your upbringing, the people around you or the circumstances? How long will you use all of this as an excuse not to change? Because one thing is a fact, you may not be occupied by what happened to you, but you are 100% responsible for what you will do from now on.

Second Strategy: Denial is the ultimate comfort zone. 

So, as long as you continue to deny your failures, you will never evolve, because no one improves what they pretend does not exist. And this applies to everything, including the habits that you want to change in your life, because I know that you have one or several behaviors that you know you need to change, but for some reason you keep doing it. And there's no point in pretending that this isn't a problem, because bad habits or addictions will always lead you to the destruction of one or more areas of your life. Always, It's just a matter of time. According to David, the human body is like a car, because many of them have much more power than they seem, but they come with a factory limiter. So, when you drive one of these cars and reach a certain speed, the car simply doesn't want to go beyond that. Not because it can't handle it, but because they put a safety system in place to prevent you from going beyond that speed. And it's exactly the same with us. Only in our case, this limiter is in our mind. And so, whenever you feel pain, tiredness and discomfort, it tries to convince you that it's okay, that's it.

And David learned this the hard way, because in the biggest physical challenges of his life, like the ultramarathons. And during the training of the Navy Seals, he discovered that when you think you're at your limit, that you can't take it anymore, in reality you've only used 40% of your capacity. So, when he was running and his mind started telling him that he couldn't do it anymore, he said to himself: "Man, you're only using 40% of your potential.  Let's do more". And, surprisingly, his body obeyed until the end of the race. The truth is that we come with this limiter from the factory, because our brain is programmed to protect us from any danger, including excessive effort that could hurt us. So it sends signals of pain and discomfort long before you actually reach your limit and consequently most people stop at the first sign of discomfort that the brain sends.

At the beginning of David's journey as a runner, he says that he could barely run 1 km without getting exhausted, but little by little he broke this physical and especially mental barrier. And today he runs ultra-marathons of more than 150 km. And this principle is something that applies to both physical and mental effort, whether in studies or at work. So, that first sign of discomfort that the mind sends when you are doing some cognitively demanding task is usually far from your true limit.

Third strategy: resort to the cookie jar. 

David has a very interesting concept that he had a nickname called the cookie jar, but unlike what it seems, this jar has nothing to do with food. In fact, the jar is your mind and the cookies are memories of achievements and overcoming that you have had throughout your life. Basically, difficult things that you have faced and overcome. So, whenever he is going through a brutal challenge and feels like throwing in the towel, because, after all, he is also a human being, he goes there and starts pulling out these cookies. So, he remembers that he survived an extremely abusive and difficult childhood. He remembers how much weight he managed to lose in a short time. He remembers becoming a Navy SEAL, even though the recruiter at the time said that only 35 African-Americans have achieved this feat in the last 70 years. He remembers running an ultra-marathon with practically no preparation.

Anyway, he remembers all of this and by remembering these things, he leaves the cycle of doubts and enters a state of strength, because he realizes that if he was able to overcome all of that, he can also overcome what he is facing now. But there is one detail: he does not use this jar to massage his ego, nor to brag. He only uses it in those moments when he really needs fuel to keep going.  And that's where a lot of people go wrong, because while David uses this evidence as an impetus to move forward, a lot of people hold on to it for too long and get complacent. They're the kind of people who only live in the past and never make progress. So use this strategically to keep moving forward when things get tough. But be careful not to get too attached to the past that you start to stop looking to the future.

Fourth strategy: callous your mind. 

You know when you look at the hand of a bricklayer or the hand of someone who trains hard without gloves and see a bunch of calluses? Well, that’s the body protecting itself. It's a natural mechanism that the body uses to make the skin in that area withstand more and more friction and pain. And David says that just as you can callous your hand, you can also callous your mind to be able to deal with more and more discomfort and pressure. But to do that you need to intentionally expose yourself to discomfort, because that’s the only way you'll create those calluses. There's no other way. If you see someone's hand calloused, you don't even need to ask. You already know that it is the result of a lot of friction, of lifting heavy weights, etc.

And the idea of ​​hardening the mind is that in the same way that a calloused hand is able to withstand other friction without much pain, a calloused mind is also able to withstand pressure and uncomfortable things of all kinds. For example, the callouses that came from using a hoe are the same callouses that will protect your hand at the gym and vice versa. And in the same way, the mental calluses that you build up by doing things that are uncomfortable but beneficial to you, like reading every day, running, meditating and taking cold showers, are the same calluses that will make your life easier at work, in your studies or in your relationships. In fact, David once said the following: "I don't train to win a race, I train for life.  I train so that if I get a call in the middle of the night saying my mother has died, I don't break down. 

Fifth strategy: focus on small wins.  

In Navy’s' training, there is a phase called Hell Week.  And the name says it all, it really is hellish, because it's where you are taken to the extreme.  You deal with cold, heat, stress, pain and are practically sleepless.  It's a physical and mental test at the same time.  And David says that during that week he wasn't thinking about how he was going to survive all those days.  He didn't even try to visualize the whole week, because that would mess with anyone's mind. So what he did was break the objective into small pieces and use each of them as checkpoints.  Like, I just need to make it to lunch.  And after he arrived, he said: "Now I just have to hold out until dinner."  And if that still seemed too far away, he shortened it even further.  So he thought about just completing the next exercise, the next repetition, the next step.  And so he went.  Because the secret is not to keep looking at the end goal all the time, you know?  It's just focusing on what you're doing now, because task by task you'll end up getting there.  It is inevitable.  If you complete each task without giving up, you will inevitably get there.  And it’s not that you need to celebrate every small victory you achieve, but you need to recognize that you've made progress, you know?  Because this recognition, even if it is just a mental compliment like: "Congratulations, you did well", already gives you valuable strength? David says that in long distance races he did the same thing. So when he needed to run 100 miles, he didn't think about that distance right away.  Wow, that's 160 km. So he would break it down into smaller milestones, like micro finish lines, even if it was just kilometer by kilometer. 

And when he needed to lose 45 kg in 3 months, his mind wasn't focused on the final weight either.  I was focused on completing the day's training, doing push-ups, running the scheduled time, maintaining my diet.  It was today that mattered most, not the goal ahead.  So, if you want to lose 20 kg, for example, beauty, you can have that goal, but don't think about it all the time.  Focus on going to the gym today, on eating right at your next meal.  And whenever you do this, recognize that you have made progress, because that way you will accumulate evidence that you are becoming a type of person who is increasingly capable of achieving your goal.  So, you want to pass a difficult test, OK, but your focus has to be on meeting your study goal for the day.  This works for everything.  Focus on winning the day.  And a very practical thing that can help you with this is to take a piece of paper or cell phone and list everything you need to do, but break it all down into small tasks.  And every time you fulfill one of them, give yourself a check there, because every time you make that check, it serves as reinforcement.  It triggers a feeling of mission accomplished and your brain starts wanting more of that, that is, your motivation increases and you have less friction to move on to the next task. 

 

Sixth strategy: arm yourself with a great reason.  

If there is one thing that is essential to maintaining discipline in the long term, it is having a strong reason.  It’s no use just wanting to do something or knowing what you need to do.  And David was very clear about that.  He didn't just want to change his appearance or win a title.  What really drove him was the desire to leave a mediocre life and build an exceptional life.  So he knew exactly why he needed to be disciplined.  He no longer wanted to live with guilt, shame, and regret.  He wanted to live with pride, with satisfaction and with purpose. And that's what fueled his flame every day.  And then you might ask, "Okay, I want to change, but how do I find my why? How do I find that big reason?"  And so, oddly enough, the answer is often much closer than it seems.  You just need clarity.  And the best way to gain this clarity is to ask yourself why things happen over and over again until you find your main reason.  For example, maybe you think you want to grow professionally to earn a lot more money, but that is a very superficial and weak reason.  Now, if you ask yourself: "But why do you want to make more money?" "Ah, it's to achieve my financial freedom."  "But why?"  "Ah, so that my family and I no longer have to go through financial difficulties." "Or for me to buy a house for my mother?", Oops!  Then you start to come up with specific and extremely strong reasons.  And you need to have these reasons on the tip of your tongue, in all the most important areas of your life, because otherwise you won't be able to endure the process.  So, get one thing into your head, no one is disciplined without having a strong reason behind it.  Nobody, not even David Goggins.  Because even though he has an extreme routine to this day, apparently for no reason, I can assure you that he has strong reasons to continue doing this, even if one of them is just not going back to being who he was before. 

The big truth is that most people don't connect with that deep reason, they only think about the superficial reason.  And then when they get tired or face difficulties, they give up, because the reason was never strong enough to sustain them through the process. But when the reason is strong, giving up barely crosses your mind.

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