Can’t Hurt Me

Can’t Hurt Me is the story of David Goggins, who went from being overweight and depressed to becoming a record-breaking athlete, inspiring military leader, and world-class personal trainer.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger?” According to Goggins, this rings true.

He had escaped his abusive father as a child, but the trauma he had endured continued to negatively affect him into his twenties. He experienced “toxic stress” that made him do very poorly in school to the point that he was barely literate. In his twenties, he had a dead-end job and began to cope with his feelings through food. Soon, he was almost 300 pounds.

After seeing a documentary about the Navy SEALs, he became determined he would become a SEAL himself. He was well over the weight limit of 191 pounds, but he didn’t let this stop him. Remarkably, he lost 109 pounds in just 3 months.

After achieving the goal of becoming a SEAL, he continued to push himself. At one point he set the world record for pull-ups, among many other impressive fitness accomplishments.

How could he achieve all of this? He made the decision to stop seeing himself as a victim of circumstance, and instead began seeing life as “the ultimate training ground.” He says remembering the things you have been able to overcome is the best way to convince yourself to keep going when you want to quit.

If you’ve been given a bad hand in life, look for the advantages it gives you. All of the difficulties and pain you experience make you stronger. Challenges in life are like weight-lifting. The more we lift and overcome, the stronger we will be.

Goggins is not only a SEAL but an ultra-endurance athlete. Forget marathons; he has done day-long 100-mile races. Whenever people ask how he was able to do so much, he says it all comes down to work ethic. Society today loves quick fixes to things. But when it comes to mastering yourself, there is no quick fix. The reason he can do so much is because of his ability to work hard. And to those who say they don’t have time to accomplish lofty goals in life, Goggins says they need to be early birds. Goggins also teaches us that part of our mind that holds us back in life is the “governor” in our mind. It knows our limits, tells us not to take risks, and feeds on insecurities. To remove the governor, we need to push past our comfort zone. We need to realize when things get the hardest is when we have the chance to callous our minds and push past our…