Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins Lessons
July 2025 (671 Words, 4 Minutes)
Can’t Hurt Me David Goggins (13 July - 19 July 2025)
Key Points
- Don’t stop when you are feeling tired. Stop when you are done.
- Most people use 40% of their true potential. Even if they think, they know their true potential. It’s still not complete truth.
- Write down all factors that are limiting your success and growth. Give your pain shape. This is the great way to tackle your toughest obstacles in life.
- Come eyeball to eyeball with yourself, and get raw and real. This is not a self-love tactic. Don’t massage your ego. This is about abolishing the ego and taking the first step toward becoming the real you!
- Be truthful with yourself about where you are right now to get your goals.
- Self-improvement takes dedication and self-discipline. The dirty mirror you see every day is going to reveal the truth. Stop ignoring it. Use it to your advantage.
- Break your goals into micro-steps, and do them regularly, even though they feel uncomfortable. Once you become comfortable doing them, increase your workload. Eg. when you’re comfortable running 5 miles, then take 6 miles as your target.
- Doing things—even small things—that make you uncomfortable will help make you strong. The more often you get uncomfortable the stronger you’ll become.
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Always try to surpass ideal outcome in any competitive situation. This is only way to dominate the field.
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Rather than visualizing bullshit you cannot change, imagine visualizing the things you can. Choose any obstacle in your way, or set a new goal, and visualize overcoming or achieving it.
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Apply this approach, before you engage in any challenging activity, start by painting a picture of what your success looks and feels like. You’ll think about it every day and that feeling propels you forward when you’re training, competing, or taking on any task.
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Visualization isn’t simply about daydreaming of some trophy ceremony—real or metaphorical. You must also visualize the challenges that are likely to arise and determine how you will attack those problems when they do. That way you can be as prepared as possible on the journey.
- Success doesn’t have to be physical, and victory doesn’t always mean you came in first place. It can mean you’ve finally overcome a lifelong fear or any other obstacle that made you surrender in the past.
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Before working for a new goals, write down your past victories and include life obstacles you’ve overcome as well, like quiting smoking or overcoming depression or 10k marathon.
- If you’re more focused on intellectual growth, train yourself to study harder and longer than ever before, or read a record number of books in a given month.
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Always push yourself. Whether you are running on a treadmill or doing a set of push-ups, get to the point where you are so tired and in pain that your mind is begging you to stop. Then push just 5 to 10 percent further.
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There is so much pain and suffering involved in physical challenges that it’s the best training to take command of your inner dialogue, and the newfound mental strength and confidence you gain by continuing to push yourself physically will carry over to other aspects in your life. You will realize that if you were underperforming in your physical challenges, there is a good chance you are underperforming at school and work too.
- Life is one big mind game. The only person you are playing against is yourself.
- Too many of us have become multitaskers, and that’s created a nation of half-asses. Work on one thing at a time, think about the task in front of you and pursue it relentlessly.
- When it’s time to rest, actually rest. No checking email or bullshitting on social media. If you are going to work hard you must also rest your brain.
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A lot of people think that once they reach a certain level of status, respect, or success, that they’ve made it in life. Greatness is not something that if you meet it once it stays with you forever. That shit evaporates like a flash of oil in a hot pan.
- Control your mindset. Dominate your thought process. This life is all a mind game. Realize that. Own it!
- If you fail again. Take the pain. Keep fighting. That’s what it’s all about.
END
One Paragraph Summary
Push beyond your limits daily by embracing discomfort—physically, mentally, and emotionally—and train your mind like a muscle. Face your truths honestly: write down your fears, failures, and past victories to build clarity and confidence. Break big goals into uncomfortable but doable micro-steps, and once they feel easy, push harder. Visualize success, not as fantasy, but including every challenge and how you’ll overcome it. Stop multitasking—go all-in on one task with full focus. When it’s time to work, work relentlessly; when it’s time to rest, rest fully. Victory is temporary—so keep sharpening your edge. Control your mindset, silence excuses, and remember: you’re in a lifelong battle with your weaker self—win it daily.