Columbia Students Once Rallied Against Nazis — Now They Cheer for Them
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5 life lessons from the retired Navy SEAL that motivate me and can change your life.
David Goggins grew up in a home with a father who brutally beat him on a constant basis and almost killed him and his mother. After they escaped, they lived in poverty and suffered one tragedy after another. By the time Goggins grew up, he was so traumatized that he became depressed, aimless, and morbidly obese.
Then, one day after seeing a commercial for the Navy SEALs, he decided he was done living that way. He was going to take back control, become a SEAL, and turn everything around. He wanted to fight for his life.
Goggins lost 106 pounds in two months to meet the requirements for enrolling in the SEALs. Once he did that, he became the top-performing SEAL in his cohort and eventually one of the toughest SEALs of all time. But he didn’t stop there.
Since then, he’s completed more than 60 ultra-marathons, did 4,030 pull-ups in 24 hours – breaking the previous Guinness World Record – and became a highly-sought after public speaker. His 2018 memoir, “Can’t Hurt Me,” became a smash hit.
The book gives you a peek inside what was going through Goggins’ mind at every stage of his life. It’s a raw and honest look at what it takes to push through the pain and come out the other side stronger than ever. It’s a book that will change your life and get you motivated to go after your goals, no matter where you are in life.
Here are five life lessons David Goggins that spoke to me. If you take them to heart, they can transform your life.
A classic Jewish teaching is that everything that happens to us is for the best, even if we don’t know what “the best” really means. Suffering and pain can present an opportunity for growth. While you can take some time for self-care, don’t let suffering turn you into a perpetual victim. You can use it to strengthen your souls, which is exactly what Goggins did.
When he was in Hell Week in the Navy SEALs and running ultra-marathons, Goggins was in tremendous physical pain. He shut off the part of his brain that told him to stop, and he kept on going until he reached a breakthrough. “Pain unlocks a secret doorway in the mind, one that leads to both peak performance, and beautiful silence,” he writes.
Goggins isn’t just talking about physical pain; he’s also talking about emotional and mental pain, which can be conquered with hard work.
“Everything in life is a mind game!” he writes. “Whenever we get swept under by life’s dramas, large and small, we are forgetting that no matter how bad the pain gets, no matter how harrowing the torture, all bad things end.”
Don’t be satisfied with where you are in life. When you are, you stop growing. You become complacent and lack purpose. Every person was put on this earth to accomplish a unique mission, and your work isn’t over until your life ends.
Staying where it’s cozy and comfortable impedes your growth. Goggins writes, “You are in danger of living a life so comfortable and soft, that you will die without ever realizing your true potential.”
“Our culture has become hooked on the quick-fix, the life hack, efficiency,” Goggins writes. “Everyone is on the hunt for that simple action algorithm that nets maximum profit with the least amount of effort.”
No wonder there are so many diet pills being advertised on TV. Instead of eating right, sleeping well, and exercising, people just want to pop a pill and see the pounds melt off their bodies.
Instead of putting in the work day after day to gain a following online, people hope they’ll somehow go viral and instantly change their lives overnight.
Even if something comes easily to you, it could end up having a negative impact on your life. Just think about all those lottery winners whose lives are ruined once they become rich.
Life is not meant to be so easy. There are no shortcuts to success. You are supposed to work hard to achieve your goals. Then, the success will be that much sweeter.
Every day review what you’ve accomplished and focus on the small things. Things won’t drastically change overnight. It takes a bunch of small steps to get to where you want and become the person you are meant to be.
“We all need small sparks, small accomplishments in our lives to fuel the big ones,” Goggins writes. “Think of your small accomplishments as kindling. When you want a bonfire, you don’t start by lighting a big log. You collect some witch’s hair—a small pile of hay or some dry, dead grass. You light that, and then add small sticks and bigger sticks before you feed your tree stump into the blaze. Because it’s the small sparks, which start small fires, that eventually build enough heat to burn the whole forest down.”
People are always going to try and bring you down, especially when you’re doing something right. Stick to your path and don’t let anyone get in the way.
“We live in a world with a lot of insecure, jealous people,” Goggins writes. “Some of them are our best friends. They are blood relatives. Failure terrifies them. So does our success. Because when we transcend what we once thought possible, push our limits, and become more, our light reflects off all the walls they’ve built up around them.”
He continues, “Your light enables them to see the contours of their own prison, their own self-limitations. But if they are truly the great people you always believed them to be, their jealousy will evolve, and soon their imagination might hop its fence, and it will be their turn to change for the better.”
