David Goggins, a book in review
A story of motivation from the toughest "motherfucker" on the planet.
Known as one of the toughest "motherfuckers" on the planet. The first time I had ever heard of David Goggins was in a YouTube video. I was training for an Ironman triathlon race and somehow stumbled upon one of his videos. I remember thinking to myself, he sounds like the voice in my head, as he was saying exactly what I say to motivate myself to achieve the next level. To some his harsh language might be offensive to some. The video was laced with expletives and vulgarity as too is his book, which makes it extremely raw and real. This is what some would call straight talk, telling it like it is or keeping it real. This is exactly how I talk to myself when I need to self motivate. He was echoing the same philosophies and hard nose determination tactics I used to hack into my own drive, but on an higher level in his case.
I have never been a person to get excited over celebrities or known to have a "man crush", but I must say I am truly enamored by his raw and honest persona. Moreover, I can relate to his style of toughness and grit, it spoke to me on a visceral level. It resonated with me and I see myself in every descriptive phrase or curse word he speaks in the book. Needless to say, I anticipated the release of his book with extreme excitement.
Long before his book was published I thought I knew all there was to know about "Goggins", as he frequently refers to his alter-persona. He is a retired Navy SEAL, and extreme endurance athlete, who had overcome some incredible early life challenges to attain those feats. It reminded me a lot of my life's challenges, although not as extreme, but it still resonated with me on a totally different level.
Without giving too much away, reading his book was more riveting than I had anticipated. He painted his life's experiences in High Definition and held no punches when it came to his transparency in his insecurities, which I'm sure most readers can relate to.
I was blown away by his honesty and ability to dive into himself and peel away the layers to expose the true reasons for his lack of success and how he cane to detest mediocrity.
Most people never allow themselves to get to such a point of introspection in hopes of navigating their way through life's challenges, which is the overall thesis of his book. Furthermore, what I found upon reading Can Hurt Me was I had developed some of the same traits of being able to look deeper into myself instead of point the finger at everything and everyone else in life that that stands in my way.
David Goggins is someone we can learn from on how to take control and be accountable of our own lives and stop waiting for the validation of others. We are the caretakers of our lives and it is up to use to be self determined and forge our own pathways to greatness on our own terms. This book can be used as a blue print for overcoming adversity as well as getting out of our own self-loathing, self-destructive and psychological hangups. Far to often we develop mal-adaptive coping mechanisms, which keeps us prisoners within ourselves. Goggins show us that we need not only to look in the mirror, but acknowledge, accept and be accountable for you limitations.
This book is a must read. The traditional self help books and motivational speakers are bland and tasteless in comparison to this eye opening perspective. He is real and honest in his approach, which is all drawn upon from his real life experiences.
If you do not posses the courage to take a good hard look at yourself, pleased think about reading this book. It will give you a totally different perspective and approach to self mastery.
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