Big Idea Daily | Can’t Hurt Me
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Master Your Mind and Defy the Oddsby David Goggins |
“First, a quick reminder of how this process works. In 1999, when I weighed 297 pounds, my first run was a quarter mile. Fast forward to 2007, I ran 205 miles in thirty-nine hours, nonstop. I didn’t get there overnight, and I don’t expect you to either. Your job is to push past your normal stopping point.”DAVID GOGGINS |
BIG IDEA
The Accountability Mirror + Antifragile Jet Fuel
FROM THE BOOK“You are giving up instead of getting hard!
Tell the truth about the real reasons for your limitations and you will turn that negativity, which is real, into jet fuel. Those odds stacked against you will become a damn runway.
There is no more time to waste. Hours and days evaporate like creeks in the desert. That’s why it’s okay to be cruel to yourself as long as you realize you’re doing it to become better. We all need thicker skin to improve in life. Being soft when you look in the mirror isn’t going to inspire the wholesale changes we need to shift our present and open up our future.
The morning after that first session with the Accountability Mirror, I trashed the shag steering wheel and fuzzy dice. I tucked my shirt in and wore my pants with a belt, and, once school started up again, I stopped eating at my lunch table. For the first time, being liked and acting cool were a waste of my time, and instead of eating with all the popular kids, I found my own table and ate alone.
Mind you, the rest of my progress could not be described as a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it metamorphosis. Lady Luck did not suddenly show up, run me a hot soapy bath, and kiss me like she loved me. In fact, the only reason I didn’t become just another statistic is because, at the last possible moment, I got to work.”
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Brian's Notes
That’s from Chapter 2: “Truth Hurts.”
Did I mention the fact that Goggins is intense?
Well, he’s about ten times more intense than you might imagine.
Want to Optimize? As James Stockdale would say, as you hold an UNWAVERING belief that you will ultimately overcome whatever obstacles you are facing, be willing to embrace the harsh (!) realities of your life.
Of course, we do that with a radical self-acceptance a la Kristin Neff’s wisdom on Self-Compassion but we need to be willing to take a nice, long, hard look at the TRUTH of what’s not working for us.
Goggins’ approach? The Accountability Mirror. Look into it, he says, and tell yourself the truth.
→ “If you look into the mirror and you see a fat person, don’t tell yourself that you need to lose a couple of pounds. Tell the truth. You’re f****** fat!! It’s okay. Just say you’re fat if you’re fat. The dirty mirror that you see every day is going to tell you the truth every time, so why are you still lying to yourself? So you can feel better for a few minutes and stay the f****** same? If you’re fat you need to change the fact that you’re fat because it’s very f****** unhealthy. I know because I’ve been there.”
Well, there ya go.
The Accountability Mirror.
What do YOU see when you look into it?
Be honest. See the BEAUTY of what’s behind the blatant flaws you might be trying to ignore and know that the only way to get to work bringing that potential to life is to start chipping away at the stuff that’s in the way. And the only way to do THAT is to tell yourself the truth. So…
P.S. Reminds me of a couple other pieces of wisdom.
In Letters from a Stoic, Seneca tells us: “Be harsh with yourself at times.”
And, in Toward a Psychology of Being, Maslow tells that every single time we do something that violates our highest ideals it “registers” and that we (his words) DESPISE ourselves on some level. So, rather than lie to ourselves and pretend we aren’t noticing all the times we’re falling short of who we know we could be, we’d be wiser (and more self-loving) if we FACED THE TRUTH with a confidence that we can handle it and use all that negativity as antifragile jet fuel!
Big Ideas
01: THE ACCOUNTABILITY MIRROR
02: BRINGING YOUR BEST
03: HERO CALLOUSES
04: THE PROCESS
05: BURSTING AND BURNING
“Do you know who you really are? I’m sure you think so, but just because you believe something doesn’t make it true. Denial is the ultimate comfort zone. Don’t worry, you’re not alone.”DAVID GOGGINS |
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