David Goggins: The power of relentless challenge

This is the first in a series of posts I about what I have learned from my authors.

Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds

Never Finished: Unshackle Your Mind and Win the War Within

David Goggins is a force of nature, driven both by a traumatic past and a harrowing glimpse into a likely future of a failed life. David was imprisoned by his own low expectations of himself. So, he changed them. He decided to be more than he thought he could be, to explore the limits of physical and psychological achievement. He drove himself to change who he was and become someone he could not have imagined. He became one of the most impressive endurance athletes on the planet. 

I edited both of David’s books, and the thread that runs through them is that each of us is harder and tougher than we think we are. Life in the modern world can be pretty soft; we generally are not challenged to understand what we truly are capable of, physically and psychologically. First in the Navy SEALs, then in other military branches, ultra-endurance races, and other feats of physical achievement, David sought those challenges. He ran toward them because he wanted to know what he was made of. He set a high bar time and again. When he achieved it, he found something newer and harder to try, because he had not yet discovered the limits of his capabilities.

Most of us, he writes, think we’re doing the most that we can when, in reality, we’re at 40% of our capability. Am I going to run the Leadville 100 Ultramarathon, or do 4,000 pullups, or race the 24 Hours of Moab, as David did? No. But am I  going to throw on five more pushups than I think I can do, set my business goals higher than seems reasonable, and will myself to manage my emotions when my teenagers push my buttons? Yes. I am capable of more. I can be better. By living an ethic of daily self-improvement, daily self-challenge, I step into a profoundly rewarding way to move through the world.

The lesson I took from editing David’s books: We limit ourselves by underestimating our own capabilities and backing down when things get hard.