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Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins

"That's when I first realized that not all physical and mental limitations are real, and that I had a habit of giving up way too soon."

A worthwhile addition to your shelf of motivational books, with a free bonus: the very act of reading this book will have a psychological effect on you: I found myself getting up even earlier than I normally do during the two weeks I read it, I did more (and harder) workouts, I pushed myself more, I fasted more. I don't know why and I don't care why, it just happened, and it's a bonus gift from the author.

Also, a friendly warning: a subset of readers will be offended by Goggins' language. "Motherfucker" appears so often in Can't Hurt Me that the reader becomes blind to it. Also a confession: I laughed out loud as Goggins mockingly tells himself to "hem his vagina." If this kind of stuff bothers you, this book is not for you.

Readers who can get past this have a gem of a book on their hands that explores the human will, our desire to seek comfort and avoid suffering, and the nature of motivation--including how to find it wherever and whenever you can. Goggins frequently gets fuel from his failures, from being told something's impossible, and especially from being told you can't do this. 

What struck this reader was how Goggins' personal philosophy (which hinges--usually profanely--on phrases like "taking souls," "developing a calloused mind," "remove the governor from your brain" and most importantly his 40% Rule) reaches directly into profound philosophical concepts like managing our will, homeostasis, ego death, and the truths about ourselves we can often find behind suffering. Not to mention the lies we tell ourselves while seeking comfort. Reading Goggins is like reading Epictetus with extra swear words.

Finally, credit to Goggins (and ghostwriter Adam Skolnick) for structuring Can't Hurt Me in an intriguing way. The authors don't run a strict chronological telling of his life story: instead the book ties the narrative together thematically, which requires some temporal jumping around at points. But it takes the reader on a coherent psychological journey towards the mastery of the self. 

Notes: 

1) Group with Breaking Out of Homeostasis by Ludvig Sunström, The Flinch by Julien Smith and How to Be an Imperfectionist by Stephen Guise. 

2) "Don't die a fucking pussy" is a good five word distillation of Spartan/warrior thinking. 

3) Teaches himself (and by extension the reader) to run toward discomfort, not away from it. And also to embrace the path of most resistance, rather than least.

4) Some devil's advocatry: it's interesting to see a guy who wants to be a hero so badly choose his heroics from a set of constructed preferences, a set of pre-chewed or prefab hero roles: SEALs, firefighter, Army rangers, ultra distance running, etc. Why is this? Could it be that Goggins sees things to be heroic if other people see those things to be heroic too? Is that heroic?

5) Grueling physical trials are what uncover the true self, and make us look at the self unflinchingly when our weaknesses are bared for all to see. The bravery of admitting to yourself that you're afraid.

6) A guy who can say "Fuck that shortcut bullshit" in one breath, but who shows up for a "100 miles in 24 hours" race unprepared, who shows up at the Las Vegas Marathon and just decides to run it with no prep, who attempts a complicated and highly technical trail run in Hawaii without bringing gear or sufficient food and nutrition and without even researching the course. So: what is a "shortcut" exactly? Isn't this level of unpreparedness also a type of "that shortcut bullshit"? While this may teach readers about Goggins' (and our own) untapped reserves of potential, I couldn't help thinking about what Goggins' potential really could be if he added on a strategy layer and some preparedness. Later in the book, he ruminates openly about this issue too, as he begins to think more strategically about various endurance contests he enters. This made for a fun "meta" experience for me as a reader.

8) I am astounded by Goggins' ability to handle the psychological aspects of "bonking"--the endurance athlete's term for the psychological and physiological experience of running out of glycogen and electrolytes. When your body bonks it's incredibly hard to not get negative, it's nearly impossible (for me at least) keep control of your psychology. 

9) Even the photos used in the book carry a certain inspiring rhetorical force to them: for just one example, see the photo of Goggins with a physique like a goddamn Adonis running an ultramarathon alongside a tiny Japanese woman who we later learn torches him in the race! It conveys to the reader that it doesn't matter what your body looks like, how big you are, how muscular you are, you can still be "hard."

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