David Goggins

The reason it’s important to push hardest when you want to quit is because it helps callous your mind. It’s the same reason why you have to do your best work when you are least motivated.

I’d come to SEAL training to see if I was hard enough to belong and found an inner beast within that I never knew existed. A beast that I would tap into from then on whenever life went wrong. By the time I emerged from that ocean, I considered myself unbreakable.

It takes great strength to be vulnerable enough to put your ass on the line, in public, and work towards a dream that feels like it’s slipping away.

Remember, visualization will never compensate for the work undone. You cannot visualize lies. All the strategies I employ to answer the simple questions and win the mind game are effective because I put in work. It’s a lot more than mind over matter. It takes relentless self-discipline to schedule suffering into your day, every day, but if you do, you’ll find that at the other end of that suffering is a whole other life just waiting for you.

But as I became conditioned to the risk, my tolerance for that same fear increased. It was always there, but I was used to the discomfort and before long I was able to handle multiple tasks on a jump and appreciate the moment too.

That’s one reason I invented the Cookie Jar. We must create a system that constantly reminds us who the f*** we are when we are at our best, because life is not going to pick us up when we fall. There will be forks in the road, knives in your f****** back, mountains to climb, and we are only capable of living up to the image we create for ourselves.

First, a quick reminder of how this process works. In 1999, when I weighed 297 pounds, my first run was a quarter mile. Fast forward to 2007, I ran 205 miles in thirty-nine hours, nonstop. I didn’t get there overnight, and I don’t expect you to either. Your job is to push past your normal stopping point.

Do you know who you really are? I’m sure you think so, but just because you believe something doesn’t make it true. Denial is the ultimate comfort zone. Don’t worry, you’re not alone.

You have been preoccupied by bullshit for way too long. It’s time to switch your focus to the things that will slingshot you forward.

Remember, your greatness is not tied to any outcome. It is found in the valiance of the attempt.

And I wanted to be uncommon. Because it is the uncommon story, the uncommon leader, that inspires others to seek more of themselves, work harder, and rise to the occasion.

Have the courage and mental endurance to do whatever it takes to start knocking down those walls. You are the warden of your life. Don’t forget you hold the keys.

There are 86,400 seconds in a day. Losing just one of those seconds can change the outcome of your day and, potentially, your life.

The world needs doctors, lawyers, and teachers, but we also need savages to prove that we are all capable of so much more.

I accepted the hard truth that hoping and wishing are like gambling on long shots, and if I wanted to be better, I had to start living every day with a sense of urgency. Because that is the only way to turn the odds in your favor.

Do something that sucks every day.