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Jay Shetty PodcastDO THIS To Cure Your LAZINESS TODAY (Eye Opening Speech)| David Goggins & Jay Shetty
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70 min read · 14,082 words- 0:00 – 0:29
Facing pain directly: the need to return to the beginning
- DGDavid Goggins
Go in there, go into the suffering, go into the pain of your life and say, "Why did this suck for me so bad? Why am I afraid of all this stuff?"
- JSJay Shetty
Yeah.
- DGDavid Goggins
'Cause the only way you're gonna fix yourself is to go all the way back to the beginning, to your childhood, 'cause that's where everything starts.
- JSJay Shetty
And that's what's blocking most of us.
- DGDavid Goggins
All of us.
- JSJay Shetty
Yeah.
- DGDavid Goggins
All of us. Everybody thinks this, my God, like, my marriage is messed up, this is messed up. You have to go back to fix all your problems. It all starts from the root.
- 0:29 – 3:22
Setting the stage: why this conversation and this book matter
- JSJay Shetty
Hey, everyone. Thank you so much for coming back. I've just spent about an- under an hour with our next guest, and I'm so excited to introduce you to him. He's been called the world's strongest man, the world's toughest man, the world's fittest man. He's consistently invited suffering and discomfort into his life to grow further. He's someone with a phenomenal background. He's a former Navy SEAL, an ultra-marathon runner, a triathlete, and today we're gonna dive into his new book, which is called Can't Hurt Me, about mastering your mind and defying the odds. His name is David Goggins. David, thank you so much for being here.
- DGDavid Goggins
I appreciate it, man. Thanks for having me.
- JSJay Shetty
No, I'm so grateful, honestly, and I'm so glad, we were just talking about it, I'm so glad that we got-
- DGDavid Goggins
[laughs]
- JSJay Shetty
... a moment to connect before, because I think this conversation would've been very different.
- DGDavid Goggins
It would've. It would've.
- JSJay Shetty
[laughs]
- DGDavid Goggins
I, uh, I, I immediately walked in and, um, you know, I sometimes look at people and what they have and, you know, I'm like, "Oh, here we go. Here we go again." But, you know, I got a chance to know you, know, know a little bit about your backstory, where you come from, and know that, uh, we have some similar, you know, you know, just, like, a mentality of, of, of how to come up, so it was nice.
- JSJay Shetty
Absolutely, man. I think what you've put yourself through, and I don't say this anyway, I'm not, I'm not saying that I can say I've had the same experience at all-
- DGDavid Goggins
Right
- JSJay Shetty
... but I feel we've been wanting to challenge our minds-
- DGDavid Goggins
Right
- JSJay Shetty
... in the same ways.
- DGDavid Goggins
100%.
- JSJay Shetty
And, and that excites me. That, that desire, that hunger, even though we chose different paths.
- DGDavid Goggins
Right.
- JSJay Shetty
I don't think I could have ever chosen your path. [laughs]
- DGDavid Goggins
[laughs]
- JSJay Shetty
But, but we chose different paths, but we were testing the same parts of ourselves.
- DGDavid Goggins
Right. The mind is the one thing that we don't test enough. A lot of us are, are so afraid of that, of that test, and that's the real test. That's where the real growth comes from is, is the mind, so.
- JSJay Shetty
Absolutely, man.
- DGDavid Goggins
Yeah.
- JSJay Shetty
Absolutely. So I've had a beautiful fortune of actually diving into this book this weekend.
- DGDavid Goggins
Great.
- JSJay Shetty
And I have to say, and I, and I'm saying this honestly, so I was just telling you this earlier, 2017 to 2018, I read a book a day.
- DGDavid Goggins
Oh.
- JSJay Shetty
Read 365 books in a year. I made a video about the books I read and how I did that, and then 2018 to 2019, this year, I read a book a week.
- DGDavid Goggins
Right.
- JSJay Shetty
And one of the things I've struggled with recently, and I'm saying this as a compliment to you-
- DGDavid Goggins
Right, right. [laughs]
- 3:22 – 5:51
Writing as self-exposure: reopening mental scars
- DGDavid Goggins
So in that book it's, it's a raw, very, um, humbling version of David Goggins. You know, I went down to the, to the grassroots, to the soil, to the sewer of my life. It's the, it's the stuff that we don't wanna talk about. It's the stuff that we don't want that person next to you in line knowing. And I had to have the courage to, uh, say it out loud to people. And so I was able to really go back and, and put so much detail into my story was we all have different things in our life that have scarred us. We wanna act like those scars don't exist. Those scars, like, you know, if you go out and you get cut, that scar is gonna be there on your arm. You can go down and look at that cut and say, "Oh," or, or, or that scar, and say, "Oh, that happened from, you know, I was in the kitchen," or whatever happened. We have the same thing in our brain. I have all these scars on my brain from growing up, from, you know, being abused, from suffering through life, from having a learning disability, from stuttering, from having a, just a really bad childhood. And so all those memories, I had to cut open that scar and go into it, and that was a hard process for me to do. Not only was that a hard process for me to do, for me to have the courage to share that with people, you know, 'cause I'm the so-called toughest man on the planet, so they think. So for me to break open that shell and, and tell people, "Hey, that wasn't always me," you know, it's, it's- it's hard to do, you know? It's hard to do. So it was, it was a, it was a tough process.
- JSJay Shetty
Yeah, absolutely, man. I'm so glad you did peel that back-
- DGDavid Goggins
Yeah, it was tough
- JSJay Shetty
... because it's so easy to live that title.
- DGDavid Goggins
Oh, yeah.
- JSJay Shetty
But when you break, the fact that you had the courage to break down that title-
- DGDavid Goggins
Right
- JSJay Shetty
... to actually lay it out, it just, it's gonna open up the door for so many more people.
- DGDavid Goggins
Well, I had to do it because, you know, throughout this journey, I started becoming this new person.
- JSJay Shetty
Mm.
- DGDavid Goggins
I started creating this new person, and people started seeing me as this amazing superhero. In the back of my mind, I knew the real story, and I was like, "Man, one day you have to really share it." I'm like, "Man, but do you have the courage?" You know? Like, it's great to live right here. I've established this. People think you're great. Just stay here. Don't go back. Let's not go back. But the only way you can help people out is let them know that this is possible, so I had to go back and say, "This is where I come from."
- JSJay Shetty
Yeah.
- DGDavid Goggins
And where I come from is hell.
- JSJay Shetty
Absolutely. And now when you go back, you talk about how your childhood was a nightmare.
- DGDavid Goggins
Right.
- JSJay Shetty
Tell us about some of the defining moments in your childhood that actually framed that experience to being a nightmare.
- 5:51 – 9:33
Childhood “dungeon”: violence, labor, and instability
- DGDavid Goggins
Well, my dad was a person that, um, he was a alcoholic, and he was really big on being a powerful man, and he had two different sides of him. He had a side that once we left our house, so our house was the dungeon. No one knew what, no one knew anything about what, you know, about the inside of that house. The inside of that house was, was horrible. It was evil. It, you know, like the evil monster came out to play.
- JSJay Shetty
Right.
- DGDavid Goggins
But once you left that house, he was the nicest person on the planet. So no one knew, you know, who this guy was. So, um, the scarring started happening inside the dungeon, and my dad didn't really believe in us going to school. He had a family business, and the family business was a skating rink and also a bar. So my dad owned the ... It's- it was called The Vermilion Room, was the bar, and the skating rink was called Skate Land. So from the time I was able to walk, I was working that s- that, that, that, that, that, um, skating rink, and I worked it from, like, 9:00 at night until, like, 12:00 in the, you know, in the morning pretty much. That's what we did. You know, I'm three, I mean, I'm four years old scraping gum off the, off the skating rink floor, doing stuff like that. Me and my brother and my mom. Once the skating rink was shut down, the bar would open up. The bar would be open from, like, midnight to, like, 4:00 in the morning, 3:00 in the morning. Once that closed down, we'd go upstairs and clean the bar. So by the time you work like this, you know, I'm a young kid. It's time to go to school. So most the time we didn't go to school. So we missed school a lot, but thank God for me, I didn't like school anyway. With a-
- JSJay Shetty
[laughs]
- DGDavid Goggins
... learning disability, with a stutter. You know, I had white splotches all over my skin from being stressed out. Um, hair, you know, patches of hair falling out at a young age. And once my dad got drunk, that's when the nightmare began. And you know, he'd get drunk and he'd get violent, and, uh, we got beatings quite regularly. You know, probably at least once or twice a week. And, and the beatings weren't like, "Hey, I'm gonna give you a whipping 'cause you did something wrong." It was like, "Hey, I don't feel good today," and you would get beat for that. And my mom got a lot of the beatings, and it would just trickle down to me and my brother. So that, that foundation of life that I didn't have, that's how it started off for me, and this progressively got worse. So when you have a horrible foundat- It's like building a house on a fucked up foundation. This is what you're gonna get. You know, any kind of, uh, earthquake or something happen, the house is gonna go down. Sometimes it, you know, it doesn't even take an earthquake. It takes a little windstorm. So that was me. I was just a little windstorm away from breaking.
- JSJay Shetty
Yeah.
- DGDavid Goggins
All the time. A windstorm away from breaking, but no one knew it. I walked around like I was a pillar of strength at a young age, but that internal conversation you're having back here is this weak little kid, very afraid. And, um, I think that's what makes the book very powerful 'cause I take you there.
- JSJay Shetty
Yes.
- DGDavid Goggins
I take you to that spot of, you know, I'm superhuman now, or so you think. But a lot of people have a lot of problems that they can't overcome.
- JSJay Shetty
Absolutely, man. And that's ... I definitely felt when you were diving into that, that I was reliving it with you.
- DGDavid Goggins
Right.
- JSJay Shetty
And I think you do that so powerfully in the book because it's hard for people who haven't had the same experience to envision it.
- DGDavid Goggins
Right.
- JSJay Shetty
But you made that possible. But the other thing that you do is I think you're highlighting something that is so huge for us, that I genuinely feel that so many of today's challenges that we all face as adults-
- DGDavid Goggins
Right
- JSJay Shetty
... are because of our childhood. When did you realize that your childhood was something that needed healing, that needed transforming as an adult? When did that come when you were like, "I need to go back there to transform, to, to change my experience"?
- 9:33 – 11:22
Realizing surface fixes weren’t enough: the “windstorm” problem
- DGDavid Goggins
It happened when I could never get over the hump. I kept on feeling like I was getting over the hump, and then one little windstorm, small little windstorm, would come by and push me back to scratch. It's like, why? Why am I not ... You know, I'm, you know, I'm learning how to read now. You know, I was a junior in high school and couldn't read that well. A fourth-grade reading level. 'Cause I would, I would cheat on everything, and I learned how to read. I learned how to write. I taught myself all these things, all these disciplines. But whenever the first real big challenge would come, that little windstorm would push me back in the hole. And I realized, man, I'm not ... I'm fixing stuff on a surface level. I'm all surface, man. I'm not going deep into the cellar of my mind and fixing the foundation of my soul. My soul is broken.
- JSJay Shetty
Mm.
- DGDavid Goggins
And, but, you know, I knew I could fix it, but I was afraid to go back. I was afraid to face the demons of my life or f- you know, 'cause you start lying. You wouldn't anybody knowing this shit about you, so, so you start lying about who you're not and start creating a person about who you wanna be, but it's not who you are. So that's when I started realizing, man, I'm never gonna get over the hurdle. I'm always gonna live on a surface level until I go deep, deep into the sewer of my mind to figure out and face all of these different demons. That's hard. It's hard. We all like social media. We all like everybody to see us for who we wanna be. That's why we post beautiful things about us. That's not, that's not gonna fix you. So I realized that, and that's when I started going back. So I was about, um, I was about 24 years old, and I went from 175 to almost 300 pounds. And, um, that's when I sat down on my couch and realized [laughs] we gotta go back. And it started with me going back to my
- 11:22 – 12:57
After leaving home: isolation, racism, and unspoken experiences
- DGDavid Goggins
father. So we, we left when I was eight years old. We went to a small town in Brazil, Indiana. There was about 5 to 10 Black families in a town of 8,000 to 10,000 people. And, um, there was a big hub of Klansmen that lived in Center Point, Indiana. And I, and I talk about that in the book. So the Klan marched in the 4th of July parade in 1995 in Indiana. So when you come from a messed-up foundation like I did in Buffalo, New York, and where my dad beat me senseless, and now I have that messed-up foundation, and now I'm here being the only Black person. I call it the only in my book. Being the only Black person. My mom's working three jobs. We live in a $7 a month place. She's never at home. So it's not like I had some mentors coming in To help me. You know, they were trying to put me in these different group places for, like, having some shrink talk to me and these eight, nine kids, and one kid's setting his house on fire. Another kid's peeing in the trash can. Another kid had a helmet on, banging his head up against the wall. And I'm looking at this at eight years old. You know, and I, and I, and I'm gonna get back to your question that you asked me, but these are things I had to go back and relive. You know, I'm 24 years old now, and I have to go back to all these things that no one knew about me in this group place where I'm in this place where these people are crazy, and they think I'm crazy. And I'm looking at them thinking, "I'm not crazy. You just don't know where I come from." I came from a place that truly damaged my mind, damaged my soul, and now I have to go back on my own to face this shit.
- JSJay Shetty
Mm.
- 12:57 – 14:29
Symptoms vs root causes: the “Motrin” analogy and the fear of going back
- DGDavid Goggins
So, you know, a- a- at 24 years old, I sat there a lot of ti- it wasn't like one day I woke up and said, "I gotta face this." This haunting fucking voice in my head kept on saying, "Man, we gotta go back." The only way we can go forward is to go all the way back, and that's very scary to do for everybody.
- JSJay Shetty
Yeah.
- DGDavid Goggins
'Cause the only way you're gonna fix yourself is to go all the way back to the beginning, to your childhood, 'cause that's where everything starts.
- JSJay Shetty
And that's what's blocking most of us.
- DGDavid Goggins
All of us.
- JSJay Shetty
Yeah.
- DGDavid Goggins
All of us. Everybody thinks it's, "My God, like, my marriage is messed up. This is messed up." You have to go back to fix all your problems. It all starts from the root, man.
- JSJay Shetty
The root, yeah.
- DGDavid Goggins
The root.
- JSJay Shetty
Yeah, I was just about to say, we have to go back to the root because otherwise we're just dealing with the symptoms.
- DGDavid Goggins
That's it.
- JSJay Shetty
Yeah.
- DGDavid Goggins
Yeah, and, and, and, and you cannot fix anything by giving it Motrin. You got, y- you have a jacked-up knee, the swelling may go down, but it's still jacked up in there. You gotta get it fixed. You gotta fix the knee. All those pills do, so, you know, pretty much is just let the swelling go down, and you can live a little longer, but you're not fixing the problem.
- JSJay Shetty
Mm.
- DGDavid Goggins
You're not fixing the problem.
- JSJay Shetty
And I guess that most people don't go back, or all of us, like you said, we don't go back because we don't know how.
- DGDavid Goggins
Right.
- JSJay Shetty
That right?
- DGDavid Goggins
Right.
- JSJay Shetty
Like, most people don't know how. Like, how do you start? How do you go back? And like you s- and I love that example, that we start thinking the issue is our marriage or our relationship right now-
- DGDavid Goggins
Right
- JSJay Shetty
... or our job or our career, and I, I totally agree with you that we need to go back, but we don't know how.
- DGDavid Goggins
Right.
- JSJay Shetty
Now, you start talking about in the book some ways in which we can start. How?
- DGDavid Goggins
Right.
- JSJay Shetty
Can you tell us about some of those?
- 14:29 – 18:11
The accountability mirror and the “rucksack” of life
- DGDavid Goggins
So one big thing is the accountability mirror.
- JSJay Shetty
Mm. I like that.
- DGDavid Goggins
You have to start with yourself. So what happened in, in my life was we start to get, I call it, like, the rucksack. A rucksack is a pack that you carry in the military, and you put all your stuff in it, your radios, your food, your water, all that stuff you have to carry in the military. That's your rucksack. It's a backpack pretty much. As you're growing up, we all have a backpack. Most of ours, hopefully, is empty, you know, and what we put in it is all the crap we go through in life. That's what is in the backpack for the civilians, and we carry it around with us. So what you have to start doing is realizing that no matter where you're at in life, I got called nigger a lot. My dad abused me. You know, learning disability, stutters, immaturity, insecurities, self-doubt. So much crap on top of me. So much stuff. I lied a lot to create friends so people would ... So much stuff was in my backpack. No one's coming back to help me. So it starts with that person in that mirror. You have to realize you are on your own now. And whatever else you believe in, I don't care what you believe in, but on Earth, it's a very lonely journey. And it starts with the accountability mirror, of looking and saying, "Hey, my dad who beat the hell out of me, he's not coming back. All these things aren't coming back. I have to face myself." And you have to own all those things that people may have done to you. Now it's yours. You gotta own it. And it's yours now to fix the problems that people did to you. It makes no sense. It's not fair. I get it. But if you live in that woe is me mentality of, "Guess what? My dad did this to me. My mom just did it to me. People who bullied did this to me," you're gonna always live right there. You have to figure out ways to move forward 'cause you're not coming back. And it starts with the mirror, and I call it the accountability mirror in the book.
- JSJay Shetty
Yeah, no, I love that. I love that. I'm glad, I'm glad you brought it up. And anyone who's watching, listening to this right now, I really want you to take this seriously because this is like, what, what you're talking about, what David's talking about here is exactly why all of our suffering and pain that we're currently experiencing feels so tough and hard, because unknowingly or knowingly, we are choosing to be stuck here.
- DGDavid Goggins
Right.
- JSJay Shetty
Right?
- DGDavid Goggins
Exactly.
- JSJay Shetty
Unknowingly or knowingly, whatever situation you're in, you're choosing to stay stuck because we don't wanna go and unpeel and uncover.
- DGDavid Goggins
That's right. You don't wanna break open that, that callus, that, that scar on your mind. You don't wanna unbreak, you know, you have to break it open, let that blood flow. You have to let blood flow in your brain. You have to let all that stuff flow out. All that toxic stuff that you have trapped in there has to start flowing out now. So like you said, you, you are, you are doing this to yourself. Yes, people may have helped you get there, but that's now on you.
- JSJay Shetty
That's a painful truth, though.
- DGDavid Goggins
It's a painful truth. Painful truth. Like, all those people in high school and everything else, they don't know how you're gonna end up, so you gotta make sure that you constantly are rewriting your book. You have to constantly rewrite your book every day of your life.
- JSJay Shetty
Mm.
- DGDavid Goggins
You know? And that, these aren't just words that I say. This is how I have to live. Like, these are conversations I have with myself, and I say it everywhere I go. The most important conversation, the one you have with yourself.
- JSJay Shetty
Yes.
- DGDavid Goggins
You live with it every single day. But most of our conversations are not the right ones. They're not the ones that are gonna push us to the place we need to go. They're the ones that are gonna keep us sitting in that toxic environment that you've helped create, and everybody else helped create, and you just live in it. You live in that muck, in that conversation that just plays in your head, and that becomes you.
- 18:11 – 21:34
Brutal honesty in self-talk: stop softening reality
- JSJay Shetty
Mm. Decode some of that conversation that you started with yourself. Like, how do, how does someone listening start that conversation with themself, and, and what are the general transitions that you need to start seeing?
- DGDavid Goggins
So my first conversation when I was absolutely nobody- And that's one thing you have to say. We live in a world now that's so kind. We, we find the kind way around everything. Like, if you don't look good, I have to find a kind way of saying, "I don't like your shirt."
- JSJay Shetty
Right.
- DGDavid Goggins
That's not the approach. If that's the approach you're looking for, that book is not for you.
- JSJay Shetty
Mm.
- DGDavid Goggins
Can't Hurt Me is not for you. The approach you have to take, at least I took, you take whatever approach you want, the conversation had to be a real honest conversation in the accountability mirror of, guess what? I was fat. Don't find a kind word to say that, "You know what? I've gained some weight." No, you're fat. When I couldn't read, not like, "Hey, you know, even learning disability." No, I cannot read. I have a fourth-grade reading level. I'm struggling, and sometimes I call myself stupid. Not in a way to put myself down. So don't take it like, "My God, those are so hurtful." Yeah, they're hurtful. It's honest. The conversation has to become a honest conversation of where you're at mentally. Where am I at mentally? I look like shit. I feel like shit. I'm not this... I'm, I'm falling behind in school. I'm lazy. My house is a mess. You have to look at what it is and call it what it is. Don't find words to make yourself feel better, 'cause that's what... So we hang around people that make us feel better, that tell us what we want to hear, not what we need to hear. And so we stay away from those people, and we stay away from those people, like, our internal dialogue becomes that kind, "It's okay." It's not okay. So that's where it starts. It starts with that accountability of it's not okay anymore. This can no longer be okay, and calling yourself out for exactly what you are and exactly how you need to fix it. That's where it starts.
- JSJay Shetty
I love that. I love that. I, I think that's awesome. I, I, I think you're so right that so many of our conversations with others are politically correct.
- DGDavid Goggins
Exactly.
- JSJay Shetty
Even though our conversations with ourselves are politically correct, and then we continue to feed the illusion.
- DGDavid Goggins
That's right.
- JSJay Shetty
Right? We continue to feed it.
- DGDavid Goggins
Nothing gets solved by that, man. Nothing.
- JSJay Shetty
Mm-hmm.
- DGDavid Goggins
And if you look at America right now, and I won't get off on this, nothing is getting solved because we have... There's so much racism. There's so many, there's so many things, and that's just one of them. We can't talk about anything. We are skirting all these conversations because if I say this, I'm gonna offend the Black person or white person or Jewish person or, or a gay or lesbian person. We skirt around the daggone problem, so we can't fix shit. Everything is like, "Well, if I say this on TV, I'm gonna lose my damn job." We have to say it. We have to break the barriers within our minds, within the world, and it starts with yourself.
- JSJay Shetty
Mm.
- DGDavid Goggins
It starts with yourself. You gotta break the barriers down within yourself and, and it's go there. You gotta go to yourself.
- JSJay Shetty
Absolutely. That was the honest conversation you had then. What's an honest conversation you've been having with yourself this year? And what's... W- because like you said, and I completely agree with you, it's a constant cycle-
- DGDavid Goggins
Right
- JSJay Shetty
... of repetition. We have to keep doing it.
- 21:34 – 28:32
Staying grounded amid success: roots, quietness, and “seeds vs weeds”
- DGDavid Goggins
So I talk about the repetition in my book a lot.
- JSJay Shetty
Yeah.
- DGDavid Goggins
Gotta get the reps in. So now my conversation is this. I never set out to write a book. When I was in the dungeon and no one was coming back to help me, I just wanted that reflection in that accountability mirror that I hated so badly to be something that gave me pride, to be something that made me feel. It wasn't about... It's not about money. It's not about success. It's not about people, "Oh, my God, that's David Goggins. Sign my book." No. When I started this journey out years ago, it was about I just want to learn to read. So now I'm at a place now-
- JSJay Shetty
Wow
- DGDavid Goggins
... where I see the possibilities of the human pot- of human potential. What are we capable of is the conversation now. The conversation now is how can I now talk to people in a way they can understand the message that I have for so many people, for so many people? So that's the, that's the new conversation now is that I... You are constantly evolving. You never stay. Either you're getting better, or you're getting worse, not staying the same.
- JSJay Shetty
Mm.
- DGDavid Goggins
So for me, I have to constantly be getting better. I have to constantly be evolving my message. So I'm constantly thinking in the quietness of my mind. That's, that's a key point, too. The world is so fast-paced. The world is so noisy. So my conversation now a lot of times is, my God, slow down.
- JSJay Shetty
Mm-hmm.
- DGDavid Goggins
The world can take you here, here, be here, be there, be everywhere, and I lose myself sometimes. So I catch myself in the airport. I catch myself in the plane when I'm writing stuff down, "Okay, remember this. Remember that." And I'll go, "Hey, hey, hold on a second, Goggins. What, what got you here? This isn't what got you here. Slow the fuck down. Go back to the quiet place of that dirty mirror in that $7 a month place you used to live in. That's where you grew." You... So I... So that's what I'm, I'm constantly reminding myself. Well, go back to your roots. Now, I'm not saying go back to hell. But I'm saying don't forget where you come from as you start to explode out of the gate when you become someone. My conversation is do not forget your roots. Do not forget your roots. Don't let this become so big that you lose yourself amongst the noise. Go back to the quietness of what made you successful. That's the conversation now. It's a constant reminder of that.
- JSJay Shetty
I love that, man. That's the mantra. Do not forget your roots. Repeat that. Repeat that again and again. And I have a meditation that I developed for myself to, to do that for me that I want to share with everyone because it, it aligns so closely in, in what you're sharing. So every morning, I sit, and I look at my intentions to do anything. So whether there's a new deal on the table, or there's a speaking gig that I've been invited to do, or whatever it may be. And in your life it can be anything. Whether you're starting a new business, you're writing a book. It may even just be an Instagram post for whatever it is, and I look at whatever my options are. And I ask myself which ones of these is a seed and which ones of these is a weed.
- DGDavid Goggins
Right.
- JSJay Shetty
Because the incredible thing in our garden is that weeds end up looking like seeds and can confuse you.
- DGDavid Goggins
100%.
- JSJay Shetty
So, so often that thing that's giving you ego and pride and fame and control and power looks like it's amazing-
- DGDavid Goggins
Right
- JSJay Shetty
... but actually it's just strangling you.
- DGDavid Goggins
100%.
- JSJay Shetty
So, so every day what I'll do is I'll look at the garden of my life and I will try and un-weed my garden. So I'll look at everything and be like, "Why am I doing that?" And ask me, "Why am I doing that?" If the answer is not love, compassion, empathy, growth-
- DGDavid Goggins
Right
- JSJay Shetty
... personal push, sacrifice, service. If the answer is the opposite, greed, money, power, fame, if those are my reasons-
- DGDavid Goggins
Right
- JSJay Shetty
... then I have to take that weed out.
- DGDavid Goggins
100%.
- JSJay Shetty
I have to pull it out because if I don't pull it out, that weed's gonna keep growing.
- DGDavid Goggins
Right.
- JSJay Shetty
And one day it's gonna be so big-
- DGDavid Goggins
Right
- JSJay Shetty
... that I wouldn't have even seen it.
- DGDavid Goggins
Exactly.
- JSJay Shetty
And so I'm with you, man.
- 28:32 – 31:27
Let people evolve: judgment, envy, and resisting others’ growth
- DGDavid Goggins
I didn't know that about you. See, you know, I, uh, I, I make sure I... And that's something that, that's, that's very powerful. A lot of times we hear about someone else through the grapevine.
- JSJay Shetty
Mm.
- DGDavid Goggins
And they all... And then I won't like you because I heard from somebody else that they don't like you. Always do your own judging. Always meet the person. Look at the person in the eyes before you say you don't like that person. Listen to their story. Listen to who they are. Listen to where they come from, how they lived. Get your own opinion about people. It's very huge. A lot of people didn't like me coming up 'cause they, they, they see this hardness, this crust. Break away at the crust and see what's inside that person.
- JSJay Shetty
Absolutely, man. Don't judge a tweet.
- DGDavid Goggins
No.
- JSJay Shetty
Don't judge one post.
- DGDavid Goggins
No.
- JSJay Shetty
Don't judge one message.
- DGDavid Goggins
And don't judge somebody from 30 freaking years ago-
- JSJay Shetty
Mm
- DGDavid Goggins
... or I say 30 fucking years ago.
- JSJay Shetty
Mm.
- DGDavid Goggins
You know? There's so much stuff going on right now in the world. People are trying to evolve. Let them evolve.
- JSJay Shetty
Yes.
- DGDavid Goggins
Let them evolve. Don't bring them back into the... Don't bring them back where they came from.
- JSJay Shetty
Yes.
- DGDavid Goggins
Don't, don't bring... If someone wants to get better, don't bring them back to where you knew them when they were a piece of shit.
- JSJay Shetty
Mm.
- DGDavid Goggins
Let them fly. And if you feel like hell because they went away and they escaped the hell that you all once lived in, fix yourself. Fix yourself. Don't hold them accountable 'cause they got away. Don't, don't constantly remind them that they were once here. Fix yourself. 'Cause a lot of people feel like crap once people start to leave their little nest. Like, like if you're an alcoholic, and this guy said, "I'm, I'm gonna stop drinking," you wanna bring him right back in. No. Look at yourself in the mirror and say, "Wow, this guy's doing better." Take that feeling of feeling like shit and do something about it. Change your own life.
- JSJay Shetty
Absolutely. Well said, man. Well said. Do you think we, do you think we do that subconsciously? We don't wanna see other people grow and fly because we're not growing and flying?
- DGDavid Goggins
That's 100%. It makes us feel like shit. It's a constant reminder of where, where we're at in life. When you see people start to ... Even this one person. Let's say you have a group of 10 friends, best friends, you guys- Party, smoke weed, drink. You guys are just nine to fivers making minimum wage. We're just getting by. Like Good Will Hunting.
- JSJay Shetty
Mm-hmm.
- DGDavid Goggins
You watch that movie?
- JSJay Shetty
Yeah, absolutely love it.
- DGDavid Goggins
That guy wanted to stay there. Matt Damon wanted to stay there. You know? Ben Af- Ben Affleck's like, "No, man. Get the fuck out of here, man." That's the kind of people you wanna be around. And those people, th- very few people like that exist in those crowds 'cause you're a constant reminder of who they are now. This guy got out. Now every day I wake up thinking, "God, I'm a piece of shit."
- JSJay Shetty
Mm-hmm.
- DGDavid Goggins
I'm a piece of shit. But I don't have the courage and the strength and the self-discipline to do what he did. So it's a constant reminder, I don't have the courage, but you do.
- JSJay Shetty
Mm.
- DGDavid Goggins
You do have the courage. You just gotta find it.
- JSJay Shetty
Absolutely, man.
- 31:27 – 36:50
Redefining suffering: “visit it,” perform a “live autopsy,” and study fear
- JSJay Shetty
Yeah. And where, where do, yeah, so where... Let's talk about suffering a bit.
- DGDavid Goggins
Mm-hmm.
- JSJay Shetty
Because I think what we're talking a lot about right now is that journey for it to begin for anyone-
- DGDavid Goggins
Right
- JSJay Shetty
... it start, it's painful.
- DGDavid Goggins
Yes.
- JSJay Shetty
It's an inconvenient truth. It starts with suffering. It starts with pain. There's no other way. You were saying-
- DGDavid Goggins
No other way
- JSJay Shetty
... you gotta go back to your demons, gotta go back to those stories. It's suffering. How have you changed your relationship with suffering? Because I think everything's a relationship-
- DGDavid Goggins
Right
- JSJay Shetty
... and your relationship with suffering fascinates me.
- DGDavid Goggins
Right.
- JSJay Shetty
So I wanna know, how have you evolved in your relationship with suffering and discomfort?
- DGDavid Goggins
So the thing about it, when I say suffering, people cringe. People, that's the, that's the one word, whenever I post about it, people cringe. It's not about suffering how people may look at suffering, like you have to just go to a place that just every day of your life is suffering. You have to tap into suffering every day of your life because we have so much scarring that we have to clean up. You have to look at suffering as almost like I look at failure. To succeed, you must fail. In failure and in suffering, all the answers are in there. All the answers to all the test questions. The test is your life. All the answers are in there. You don't have to live in suffering and pain and failure all the time. You have to learn, I need to visit it. Like people hate working out. You're only gonna visit working out maybe an hour a day. 23 other hours of the day, you're not in it.
- JSJay Shetty
Mm.
- DGDavid Goggins
But how you become in shape is you must visit suffering, visit working out one hour a day. Visit suffering one hour a day. Visit your past failures one hour a day. The relationship with it is the answers are in there. They, they are in there within the suffering. Go in there, and I call it the live autopsy. The live autopsy. How you find out someone died, they crack you open after you're dead. How you can live is do it while you're alive.
- JSJay Shetty
Mm.
- DGDavid Goggins
Go back in your brain, crack it open while you're alive. Don't wait until you're fucking dead to figure out why you died. Do it while you are living. Go in there, go into the suffering. Go into the pain of your life and say, "Why did this suck for me so bad? Why am I afraid of all this stuff? Why have I shut down the whole world?" I guarantee I'll tell you why you shut down the whole world. It's in these nooks of the suffering within your brain, in the scarring, are all the answers to why you are on the couch feeling sorry for yourself. They lie within the scars. Visit them for at least an hour a day. Study them, and then you'll find out more about yourself. You will then grow. So don't look at it as every day I suffer. Go into it an hour a day. Learn from yourself. Learn from life. Learn from your failures. Learn from your insecurities. Learn from your self-doubt. Don't just say, "I'm afraid to jump off a airplane."
- JSJay Shetty
Mm.
- DGDavid Goggins
What makes you afraid of it? Study it. That's why I studied my mind. Why I became so powerful in the mind is because I realized I was weak. So instead of running away from the mind, I dove into it and said, "What is making me weak? Oh, this makes sense. I came from hell. I came from a place that beat me down to nothing, which is why I'm afraid." All this makes sense. So systematically one by one, I went back and met every single person in my mind, every situation. I went one-on-one with them again in my mind and said, "Okay, let's now revisit this." And that's how you do it.
- JSJay Shetty
Mm.
- DGDavid Goggins
That's how it works.
- JSJay Shetty
Absolutely, man. That is, I love that. That is brilliant advice. Brilliant advice. Because it's, ultimately it's observing and self-study.
- DGDavid Goggins
That's it.
- JSJay Shetty
Like observing and self-study, becoming an expert in observation-
- DGDavid Goggins
That's right
- JSJay Shetty
... of one's self. And the reason why that that process can be so challenging or that process is because, like you said, and I love that, you literally went through and re-met every person that caused you pain.
- DGDavid Goggins
Every person.
- JSJay Shetty
I love that.
- DGDavid Goggins
And guess what? People say, "How'd you do that?" You know every painful moment.
- 36:50 – 47:33
The mind’s tactical advantage, the 40% rule, and Hell Week lessons
- DGDavid Goggins
So as I'm talking and as I'm going back, I'm very aware that I'm gonna do that.
- JSJay Shetty
Yes.
- DGDavid Goggins
And I may do it for 45 minutes and then I'm like, "You knew you were gonna do this." You have to be very aware of the conversation you're having while you're doing it, 'cause your mind chooses the path of least resistance. Your mind has the ultimate tactical advantage over you. It knows what scars you, it, it, it knows your fears, it knows your insecurities, and it protects you, which is why I talk about the 40% rule in my book. The 40% rule is all about the brain has the tactical advantage over you. It knows and it, it keeps you away from all that. That's why it says don't jump out of an airplane. Don't go in the ocean where there's sharks. It's a protective mechanism. Don't go back to the place where your dad beat the shit out of you in your mind. Don't go back. The brain protects you, but protects you so much it doesn't allow growth. So the brain is an amazing thing, but the brain controls you. You must control it. You must take power over your own mind, or your mind will guide you into all the soft spots, soft places that your brain wants to live in.
- JSJay Shetty
Mm.
- DGDavid Goggins
Your brain has enough information. It doesn't wanna go through that process of, of mind hardening. Doesn't wanna do that. I gotta remember what time I gotta be here, what time I gotta be there. This is where I wanna stay. I'm peaceful. It wants to stay very peaceful and away from scarring. So that's, that's, that's what it is, man.
- JSJay Shetty
Yeah. That's what it is. It's as simple as that, and we just never touch it, like a, like a box that you-
- DGDavid Goggins
That's it
- JSJay Shetty
... never look inside. You just leave it there.
- DGDavid Goggins
You just mark it scar.
- JSJay Shetty
Yeah. [laughs]
- DGDavid Goggins
Put it up in the attic.
- JSJay Shetty
Yeah.
- DGDavid Goggins
Never touch again. Let it get dusty.
- JSJay Shetty
Yeah. Now, I wanted to talk to you about this because when I was reading about it in the book, it fascinated me because it reminded me of my, my three-month boot camp as a monk.
- DGDavid Goggins
I love that, man.
- JSJay Shetty
So the first, the first three months, I was sharing with you earlier.
- DGDavid Goggins
Yes.
- JSJay Shetty
The first three months of, of monk training is super intense. Like really, really tough because the whole point of it is to figure out who's in and who's not.
- DGDavid Goggins
Right.
- JSJay Shetty
Like, they don't want people to just be, be passengers on the-
- DGDavid Goggins
Right
- JSJay Shetty
... side. It's not a, it's not a place you come to just to have quiet and, and don't do anything. So that three-month boot camp's something that taught me so much. I'd love to hear about Hell Week and specific programs you built in your life that you went on, and what did you learn from them? What did you take away? But tell us first a bit about the program, and then tell us about what you learned.
- DGDavid Goggins
So what I liked about your three-month Hell Week-
- JSJay Shetty
Yeah
- DGDavid Goggins
... you know, was the fact that that's where you find yourself. You find yourself when you are the, at, when you're not comfortable, when you're not comfortable on a daily basis, and that's how I started to grow. Like I said about the mind, it wants to put you in that nice 72-degree temperature with, with everything right there. It wants to be in that nice with the little massage therapist. That's where your mind wants to be. Doesn't wanna be, and we're gonna talk about Hell Week. So it doesn't wanna be in Hell Week. In Hell Week, I, I was in three of them. I finished two of them in one year. Only person to ever do that in SEAL history. There's been people who, who, you know, who, who have gone through a couple Hell Weeks but in like five years, six years, seven years, eight years. I did, I was in three in one year. They say it takes off three to five years of your life. So Hell Week is 130 hours of continuous training. You might get two hours of sleep, and what it does is it's designed to break a man, to break a man down to the parts where, like I talk about the surface, how I was fixing the surface. If you only fix the surface, you will never get through Hell Week. 'Cause what it does, it starts to bring out these demons. 'Cause even though there's a lot of yelling and stuff like that, there's times where it's very peaceful in a very eerie way. So the first hour of the 130 is breakout. They're shooting guns. It's loud. It's noisy. Your mind is in chaos. When your mind is in chaos, you can't think. So you're having fun. "Yeah, this is great. Yeah, we're in Hell Week. We're Navy SEAL, or we're trying to be Navy SEALs. We're badasses." Then what they do, and I don't even think that they understand what they're doing, but I studied the mind. It's perfect. It's psychological warfare. They go from a hour, the first hour when you're going crazy. The second hour of the 130, they put you in the cold water. It's called surf torture. Now they don't call it surf torture 'cause it's a kinder, gentler word. It's called surf acclimation or something like that.
- JSJay Shetty
[laughs]
- DGDavid Goggins
Whatever. Everybody's getting soft.
- JSJay Shetty
[laughs]
- DGDavid Goggins
So they, it's called surf torture for a good reason. They put you out there. No one's quit yet. It's only been an hour. Maybe a couple guys have. And you're in the Pacific Ocean, which is never warm. You're all linked arms. You're sitting there, and the waves are crashing over you. I went through winter Hell Weeks, which is cold. The Pacific Ocean is, like, 50 degrees. It was 49 this particular night in my third Hell Week. And what it does is it makes your mind flip out. We've been doing this now for three weeks, being in this water, but for some reason now the water's colder than it's ever been. It's not. Our minds are fragile. We can process a day. It's hard to process 130 hours.
- JSJay Shetty
Mm.
- 47:33 – 1:01:39
Sustainable intensity: serving others, recovery, and recognizing overload
- JSJay Shetty
Wanting to go beyond oneself. But you pointed out something really fascinating. You said it can lead to pain later.
- DGDavid Goggins
That's right.
- JSJay Shetty
Explain that because I, I, I get that, and I-
- DGDavid Goggins
So I've had this mentality for years. It got me through a lot of hard times. You cannot use it every day of your life.
- JSJay Shetty
That's, yeah, that's what I was thinking. Yeah.
- DGDavid Goggins
You cannot use it. I used it as like, my God, this is the perfect ... I found it. This is the trick. You just totally, you don't even matter. You're just a machine. You are a machine that just, just, just like a lever. That's all you are, man. You're not. You're not. And in my book I talk about what that lever starts to get rusty, starts to get crusty. It starts to like, I can't even think about anybody but myself. So through the process, what I started to learn was that helps a lot, and you can tap into that all the time, but you have to be able to heal yourself. You have to be able to recover yourself. It can't be something that you continue to do and do and do. There has to be a recovery process for your mind, your body, your soul, your spirit. Encompasses your whole body.
- JSJay Shetty
Mm.
- DGDavid Goggins
So those are tactics, but those tactics must be oiled up. That lever has to be oiled again to go back in it.
- JSJay Shetty
Absolutely. Yeah, it's, it's- It's not j- it's not emergency use, but it's used in specific moments-
- DGDavid Goggins
Exactly
- JSJay Shetty
... knowing you can go back. And it's so true that for so many people who want to serve, it becomes the default. And I made that mistake myself. When I became a monk, it was because I wanted to wake up every day and serve.
- DGDavid Goggins
That's right.
- JSJay Shetty
That was my goal. I was like, "I wanna wake up every day. I wanna use everything I've been given to serve humanity, or I just wanna serve people. I just wanna give." And I was just being that.
- DGDavid Goggins
Right.
- JSJay Shetty
And so I would go through sleepless nights. I would push myself for weeks on end to go further for other people. And it was amazing because it felt fulfilling and it, and it helped them too. But after a while, I was broken. I, I r- I lost my voice for six months. I was eating out of tubes for six months.
- DGDavid Goggins
That's right.
- JSJay Shetty
I was writing on a whiteboard. You know, it was just my whole life kind of crumbled. I was sleeping 14 hours a day then because my life kind of went to the other side.
- DGDavid Goggins
Yep.
- JSJay Shetty
Because I'd worked so hard to just give, give, give, give, give. And I loved it.
- DGDavid Goggins
Mm-hmm.
- JSJay Shetty
But in the process-
- DGDavid Goggins
It kills you
- JSJay Shetty
... I broke myself because I wasn't refueling. I wasn't-
- DGDavid Goggins
That's right
- JSJay Shetty
... renewing.
- DGDavid Goggins
That's right.
- JSJay Shetty
Even though I was still taking, I was still meditating, I was still doing everything.
- DGDavid Goggins
Yep. I talk about that big time in my last chapter-
- JSJay Shetty
Yes
- DGDavid Goggins
... how it just takes me to nothing, how I'm where you were at. You know, it's taken me five years of doing my meditation, my stretching, my eating right, my sleeping right. And you had to be on a constant reminder, almost like how you put a reminder on your phone, 15 minutes you got this. That has to be in your brain. You've done too much. Stop.
- 1:01:39 – 1:07:37
Final five: self-sourced guidance, fear of self-deception, and a purpose-driven finish
- JSJay Shetty
So it's been meaningful. I'm gonna listen back for myself. So I, I always end each podcast with five questions. It's called my final five.
- DGDavid Goggins
Okay.
- JSJay Shetty
Final five minutes. This is easy for you because you're used to drills.
- DGDavid Goggins
Right.
- JSJay Shetty
Uh, it's, it's the rapid fire. I like doing this because, I mean, I don't know if anyone can catch you off guard because-
- DGDavid Goggins
[laughs]
- JSJay Shetty
... you know, you're you. But, uh, but these are questions that we just want instant, quick answers to, the first thing that comes to your mind.
- DGDavid Goggins
Right.
- JSJay Shetty
So the first question I have for you is, what's the best advice you've ever received?
- DGDavid Goggins
I didn't receive any advice. And, and that's the thing about it. When I grew up, I just didn't receive any advice. My, my family was in such turmoil that the best advice I received was from myself. And, and that has to be to study yourself, all the bad, 'cause the good's already there. You don't need to study that. Stu- study the bad stuff about yourself and learn from that and grow.
- JSJay Shetty
I love that, man. That's, that's such a beautiful way of looking at it. And that's true because I think we live in a culture where we're waiting for someone else to come solve our problems.
- DGDavid Goggins
Yeah.
- JSJay Shetty
Right? We're living in that culture.
- DGDavid Goggins
I was very blessed to not have that.
- JSJay Shetty
Mm.
- DGDavid Goggins
And you know, and that's how I looked at my life, too. Not to get off the five questions, but-
- JSJay Shetty
Mm
- DGDavid Goggins
... I looked at my life in the way that I was able to find so much strength in negativity. I was able to flip it upside down versus me thinking my, "Woe is me. My life sucks." I was able to say, "My God, God put me in the most, in the perfect training ground to study myself-
- JSJay Shetty
Mm
- DGDavid Goggins
... to become a straight up, you know, scientist of my mind."
- JSJay Shetty
Yeah.
- DGDavid Goggins
So.
- JSJay Shetty
Absolutely. Yeah. Don't worry about going away from the five questions. I did it, too.
- DGDavid Goggins
[laughs]
- JSJay Shetty
I was, I was getting into your answers.
- DGDavid Goggins
Yeah, my fault.
- JSJay Shetty
So I was... Yeah. Uh, uh, second question. Can't hurt me.
- DGDavid Goggins
Mm-hmm.
- JSJay Shetty
If there's anything that can hurt you, what is it?
- DGDavid Goggins
Oh, there's tons of things.
Episode duration: 1:07:37
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