Last year, I was recommended this book to read by a few people.
To be honest, it wasn't until after I started seeing Goggins on Youtube and other socials that I really knew I needed to get my hands on a copy. In my opinion, there is no greater story than that of an underdog who overcomes the worst of the worst and in turn changes the lives of countless others. That's exactly what this is.
I will preface this by saying that it's not for younger audiences - there are parts that are graphic and he swear a ton.
Goggins' voice comes through loud and clear from page one. There is no beating around the bush on any topic - you know he's gonna tell it to you straight. The book follows him through his life, the atrocities that he experienced growing up, the point he was at his worst and had given up and his long and continuous triumph over it all. Once you get to the end of this book, all of your excuses will be wiped clean.
This is not a motivational book. It's a book you read to develop your determination. Motivation can get you going, but determination is what will keep you going. It is, in my opinion, a quintessential self-help and self-development book.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
"Passion and obsession, even talent, are only useful tools if you have the work ethic to back them up."
“It won’t always go your way, so you can’t get trapped in this idea that just because you’ve imagined a possibility for yourself that you somehow deserve it. Your entitled mind is dead weight. Cut it loose. Don’t focus on what you think you deserve. Take aim on what you are willing to earn!”
We never rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training
“No one is going to come help you. No one's coming to save you.”
“It's a lot more than mind over matter. It takes relentless self discipline to schedule suffering into your day, every day.”
Life doesn't get easier, if anything it gets depressingly harder as you get older - that's why it's important to make yourself as strong as possible
“We live in a world with a lot of insecure, jealous people. 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. 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.”
Getting better and getting worse are both choices, so what are you going to choose?
“The most important conversations you’ll ever have are the ones you’ll have with yourself.”
“Denial is the ultimate comfort zone.”
Living a complacent life is not being honest with yourself, your dreams and what you are truly capable of achieving
“Everything in life is a mind game! 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.”
“Pain unlocks a secret doorway in the mind, one that leads to both peak performance, and beautiful silence.”
Don't stop when you're tired, stop when you're done.
“The reason it’s important to push hardest when you want to quit the most is because it helps you callous your mind. It’s the same reason why you have to do your best work when you are the least motivated."
“When you think that you are done, you're only 40% in to what your body's capable of doing. That's just the limits that we put on ourselves.”
“Always be willing to embrace ignorance and become the dumb fuck in the classroom again, because that is the only way to expand your body of knowledge and body of work. It’s the only way to expand your mind.”
“If you want to be one of the few to defy those trends in our ever-softening society, you will have to be willing to go to war with yourself and create a whole new identity, which requires an open mind.”
You are in danger of living a life so comfortable and soft, that you will die without ever realizing your true potential.
Goggins doesn't try to get you to like him. He writes what's on his mind, no filter. He's not afraid to go into detail in describing all of the cruddy cards that life has dealt him and all of the terrible mistakes that he's made because he knows that's all a part of what lead him to where he is today.
One of my favorite things about this book was how there was absolutely zero sugar coating anything. Goggins spoke straight from his heart and his voice came through so clearly that there were times it actually felt like he was yelling at me (LOL). It is such a powerful book about perseverance and taking action in your life now to leave a larger impact later.
This was another book that has made a drastic impact on my life. Enjoy and let me know what you think below!
Sending love always,
J.S.
(Stay Hard!)