KokoRead - Summary of Cant Hurt Me by David Goggins

Summary

Of

Can't Hurt Me

Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds

By

David Goggins

Koko Read

Copywrite (c) 2018

About the Author :

David Goggins is a former US Navy SEAL ultra endurance athlete and a world record-holder for the maximum number of pull-ups done in 24 hours. He has physically done some of the craziest things in this world, but his life didn't start all rosy.

His dad used to beat him up and his mom, and for a long time they didn't have that much money. He was lost. He played the victim card, but slowly and surely he started to turn it all around.

This is the story of what took David from the depths of despair to becoming one of the toughest men in the world. It contains a lot of great stories, techniques, and strategies on how to become mentally tougher in life.

TOP 8 LESSONS FROM THE BOOK

8) The Most Powerful Force in Human Nature

In the book Awaken the Giant Within, Tony Robbins talks about the idea that identity is the greatest driving force in human nature, and that we will do whatever it takes to be congruent with it.

When David Goggins was on a 24-hour race covering 100 miles, he said it was the highest level of pain he had ever gone through in his life. In the middle of that excruciating pain he asked himself: Why are you doing this to yourself?

What he came up with was a very powerful answer: Because you are one hard motherfucker. That is his identity, and throughout the book its what he talks about. He does everything in alignment with that identity.

When he was abused at a young age, he would feel weak like a victim. So what he did was he figured out how to become the toughest man alive. He told himself:

• I am the toughest man alive.
• I will be the toughest man alive.
• I am becoming the toughest man alive

Similarly, in the book Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger says in order to be able to do whatever you want to do in life, first you have to decide who you want to become. Then decide what you need to do in order to become that person.

So it's not about starting with what you want to have. You have to start by identifying who you want to be, and that is the most powerful force in human nature, as Tony Robbins says.

Eventually you will have what you want to have.

7) Finding Your Power

The hardships in our life toughen us when we go through them and survive them. They make us much more powerful than if we never faced them.

If you think you had a bad hand in life, you have to own it instead of trying to look for the advantages. Think of how all the pain, challenges, and sacrifices you had to go through have made you much stronger and powerful.

Doing the hard things makes us stronger. It's just like lifting weights in the gym. It makes our body stronger. That wont happen by just sitting around on the couch or eating junk food. It takes working out, playing sports, and doing all the hard things to be stronger.

In Senecas Letters from a Stoic, he said:

I judge you unfortunate because you have never lived through misfortune. You have passed through life without an opponent. no one can ever know what you're capable of, not even you.

If you haven't lived through hardships, life will be very difficult for you. You will have no power. You will have no reserves. So find power in everything negative in your life.

Write down the hardships that you've gone through and that you're going through right now and own them. Look at your story and tell it to yourself. Use the negative to propel yourself forward. Yes, you started with something difficult, but you are overcoming it every day and that is where your power is. You will become better.

6) 40% Rule

David Goggins 40% rule means that in any situation, we only do 40% of what we are truly capable of.

Most of us know that we're capable of much more than what we are doing day to day. We are not tapping into that beast mode inside of us that exists in all of us.

There is a lot more inside of us. However, there is a governor inside of us that stops us from doing the hard things and from taking risks because of the pain we have to endure.

5) Remove the Governor Every Day

The governor is a concept that's used in cars. Every car has a governor that limits the flow of fuel and air into the motor so that the car doesn't run too hard. Without the governor, the car will go much faster than it normally does.

Similarly, we have governors in our minds. It knows our limits. It delivers personalized feedback to us, telling us not to take the risk. It feeds on our insecurities.

If we want to live great lives, we have to be able to figure out how to remove the governor thats stopping us. We have to challenge our comfort zone.

Seek pain like it's your job. This is very different from what most of society will tell you. You have to push yourself 10% past what you can normally do. It will be painful and hard, but over time youll be removing that governor that's inside of you.

EXAMPLE: If you were a boxer, youd train yourself to take as many punches as you can so that you can take a lot of punches in the fight. Youd push yourself past the limits of what you can normally do. Youd chase down pain.

A lot of the things that we want in life will only come as a result of challenging our comfort zone, and this only happens when we have some sort of pain involved.

Similarly, in the book Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, Dr. Susan Jeffers says that in order to live great lives, we have to expand our comfort zones, and in order to expand our comfort zones, we have to face our fears and overcome them.

4) Accountability Mirror

This is a great strategy on how to remove the governor: every day, write your goals on the mirror.

We need constant reminders of what needs to be done. Otherwise, our brain tends to take the easy path.

If you don't know exactly what you need for the day, you might just go and watch TV or play some games or do the easy things. But if you knew exactly what you need to do every single day and you have your accountabilities on your mirror, you're going to keep yourself aware of those and you're going to try and meet them every single day.

The mirror helps you constantly face the truth:

• Did you do what you said you were going to do?
• Did you deny yourself the truth?
• Are you following through on your goals?

Don't be soft on yourself. Call yourself out if you need to. Own the truth of where you are any day and admit to yourself if you have been taking it easy or slacking off.

Here's the challenge for you:

• Write down on your mirror your biggest goal. (You can also write it on a post-it note and stick it on your mirror.)
• What are the specific steps you have to do today in order to accomplish your goal?

Create performance challenges for yourself every day or every week. For example, the challenge of removing the governor. Then hold yourself accountable.

David Goggins is actually using all the 6 steps in turning desires into riches from the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill:

1. Identify your exact goal.
2. Identify what you will need to give in order to get that goal.
3. Have a deadline.
4. Create a definite plan and put it into action.
5. Write out a statement of steps 1 to 4.
6. Read out loud your statement every day, morning and night, and see and feel as if the goal is accomplished.

It's more or less the same thing as what David Goggins is talking about in the Accountability Mirror: giving yourself the challenges that you need to face and overcome every day, and then attacking them.