Jeff Hirsh Read: September 2022
Inspiration: Saw David Goggins on Instagram discussing his Navy SEAL experiences and wanted to learn more about him
Summary
Written with the help of ChatGPT, below is a brief summary to understand what is covered in the book.
“Can’t Hurt Me”, published in 2018 by author and Navy SEAL David Goggins, tells the story of Goggins’ journey from a troubled childhood to becoming a Navy SEAL and one of the toughest endurance athletes in the world. The book discusses Goggins’ struggles with mental and physical challenges, including depression, obesity, and asthma, and how he was able to overcome these challenges through determination and hard work. Goggins also shares the lessons he has learned from his experiences, including the importance of setting high goals and the value of persistence. Can’t Hurt Me is a motivating and inspiring story of personal growth and achievement, and is filled with practical advice for anyone looking to push their limits and achieve their goals.
Unedited Notes
Direct from my original book log, below are my unedited notes (abbreviations and misspellings included) to show how I take notes as I read.
David Goggins grew up in well-off household monetarily but severly abusive father to mother and him, beaten badly until move out with mother at 8, move around to many high schools in Indiana, struggle with racism/feeling like the only one, drift off to bad crowd/habits, towards latter half of high school confronted self, honest with current state and that it is his responsibility (no one else to blame), start Accountability Mirror with post-its on mirror to remind self of goals/steps to take, important to be harsh with self but recognize it is to improve, key is to start doing something daily that makes you uncomfortable, small steps daily, not all at once, Goggins opt to quit first stint in Air Force (use medical as excuse) then struggling through exterminator job/gain weight, then make decision to pursue Seals, Taking Their Soul is about using someone’s negativity to fuel your hard work/surpass expectations, recognize others weakness and use that to drive you to do better, get second wind instead of giving of giving in, Goggins had to leave second iteration of BUD/S training with broken kneecap meaning had to come back for 3rd time, push through points of peak pain by remembering what you’ve been through (energize yourself if others antagonize), power comes from having a “calloused mind” (going through challenges and persevering), Goggings graduate on 3rd attempt, key is to turn off governor in brain that stops you at 40% of tolerance—first instance you want to quit is not max tolerance, control inner dialogue and push past, Goggins run 100 miles in 24 hrs 2006 then 205 miles in 39 hrs 2007, prep and visualize challenges you’ll face and be blunt to self on weaknesses, strong technique is to audit your day to day in detail if feel lacking time to pursue other goals–see where wasting time then leverage calendar/alarms to block day 15-30min intervals, Goggins learned he had hole in his heart after years as Seal, embraced being uncommon amongst uncommon but made enemies being too hard as leader and not leaning into team to lift them up, even those who succeed in one field become complacent—make yourself dumbest person in the room, learn something new, make self uncomfortable
