David Goggins: Beyond Pain | Mental Toughness #Goggins #DavidGoggins #DavidGogginsMotivation

the consequences of stopping. Yep. Is about as powerful of a motivation strategy as I can think of. You know, because what you're doing is you're trying to optimize right now to stop the discomfort. That's right. But what you're going to pay for that in is shame and guilt and regret long term. That's right. So, what you need to be able to do is bundle all of that up that is as yet unfelt, but will last for way, way longer. You know, the future is much longer than now. That's right. The future is going to extend out up until the day that you die. And the now is just for now. And even 130 hours is just 130 hours. That's right. And you get to look back and do you look back with pride and glory or shame and guilt? That's it. That's the one second. You just summarized it right there. And most people fail those one seconds. And then that one second leads to 20 years, 30 years, 40 years of [ __ ] I have people who have been through training with me, Ranger school, SEAL training, Air Force training, and I get calls from them today and they have great lives and all they talk about is how they failed in that one moment. And they can't even great they can't even enjoy their life now because they're now warm. There's no more suffering. There's no more suffering for me either. And we're in the same boat now. But you're suffering. And so we're not suffering, but you're thinking about what you could have been. I am exactly what I should have been. And that's where people start to lose it. Cuz now I realize that in that one second. I go through all that. I know how it's going to feel cuz I failed so many times before. Failure is the ultimate thing, man. I failed so many times before. That's why I don't look at failure anymore as failure. I look as my first, second, and third attempt. So that's what that's all about, man. Well, I mean, you went back to go and do Moab again a second time, right? Which is your second attempt? That's right. Had you banged your knee up? It was pretty bad in between the first and the second one. It was pretty bad way before either one of them. Uh-huh. Yeah. It was It's been jacked up now for about 20 years. I've seen some gnarly photos of it recently. It looks Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. So, all those miles I've run on this thing, it's uh it's been a lot of gut checks. So, you go back, you do mow a second time. Yep. And then you turn your ass into like a hamburger or something as well. So, it's not just the knee, it's the ass as well now. Yeah. So, at mile 2011, we have a good video of it. Matter of fact, Jennifer is like, there's some people up there. So at So 2011 is a spot where I was really finished in the first Moab. So that was a um way mark, a checkpoint for you the second time. So Jennifer is extremely happy right now cuz I'm there. Yes. And she knows I'm doing well now. I'm doing good. We're going to get through this. And so she's videoing me as I'm coming up this climb on this road. And she goes, "There's some people up here who want to meet you. You're doing so amazing. " I said, "My ass is [ __ ] up. You need to get the [ __ ] Desitin cream. " And it's literally for like 20 [ __ ] miles that like people don't get it, man. When you get raw like that, bro, and you're walking cuz you the chafing of my ass. It was hamburger meat. I'm like, "So, she's all [ __ ] happy and [ __ ] She's And I just look at her and I'm going to put the video up on social media cuz it's But she's a [ __ ] trooper, bro. Hang on. So, could she Was the leakage? Oh, yeah. That was on the video from behind. So, my shorts were absolutely raw dogged. Yeah. So, when you pull them down, it's just blood. And so, she goes in the bathroom cuz she didn't know what she was going to see. She has a desetin cream. She walks in there and I pull them down and spread them open. I go, "Put that [ __ ] all up in there. " So, she goes in for the kill and she's putting this destitin cream all over the [ __ ] place, man. And you know what? This the funny thing about it. That's when you know you got a good [ __ ] with you, man. When you're that raw, you're that [ __ ] up and she's just like nothing. It was like saying, "Hey, can you like put some lotion on my back before I go lay out? " That's how she was in there, man. Getting in it. And that's it, man. Have you considered that might be the most traumatic event of all of the things that you've done in your life? What you asked Jennifer to do that day? No, not at all. She did worse. So that Leadville chapter when I talk about after I finished and then the ultra raveling or unraveling had begun when I lay down. So, oh, that was on the duvet. And you didn't know the word duvet. Yeah, I know what the [ __ ] duvet was. Know the word duvet. Blanket, man.

Okay, fair enough. Fair Come from the streets. We call them blankets. Anything that you wrap up in is a [ __ ] blanket. Cool. So, I'm laying on the duvet and she's all [ __ ] like about her damn ratings at [ __ ] the Airbnb [ __ ] And I'm like, "Hey, I'm about to shit. " [ __ ] Because it's not your place. Okay. No. Right. Yes. I can see why that scene is uh is was bad. But once again, season like a crime scene. It's Yes, it was a crime scene. So, you've done all of this stuff, right? You've done the seal selection week three times, strapping the legs up so that you can run a Bad Water ultra race, the Asberers, everything. Yes. Of all of the physical pursuits that you've endured, which has been the most painful? By far. my first 100 mile race by far. This 2019 Moab, the one that I dnfed but still finished, that's up there. But when you are um so I guess you're you're not prepared to run 100 miles and you take it for granted and you didn't do any training at all and you didn't have the right nutrition and off a whim like literally you're like you know what I want to raise money for a foundation. That's how that happened. So, I don't know if you know the story or not, but basically I'm sitting there and the lone survivor incident happened where a bunch of, you know, some seals died. I want to raise money for them. I went to training with most of these guys. So, I had the bright idea to uh raise money. You know, I wasn't going to do a hot dog or hamburger sale. I was going to do something that people would be attracted to. So, I Googled the world's toughest events and what comes up is this race called the Bad Water 135. And it's a 135 mile race through Death Valley in the summertime. Now, I had no idea about ultra running. I didn't know what the [ __ ] ultra running was, but when I heard So, when I saw 135 miles, I automatically assumed it was a stage race where you ran like maybe 10, 15 miles, bed down, and you got up the next morning, did it? So, when I called the race director up, Chris Cosman, I'm like, "Hey, I would like to do this race to raise money for a foundation. " And he goes, "Have you ever run 100 miles? " And I was like, "Like like in a week or like what are you talking about? " He goes, "No, like in 24 hours cuz that's what you got to do to qualify. " And I was like, "Is that even is that even possible? " Like I didn't know. So anyway, he goes, "No, you can't get in my race unless you qualify. " And I call him up on a Wednesday and that Saturday, and I was a bodybuilder at the time. I did cardio 20 minutes a week on the elliptical trainer every Sunday. He goes, "Yeah, Saturday, you're in San Diego. Saturday is a 24-hour race where you run around a onem track for 24 hours, and if you can get 100 miles, I'll consider you in my race. So, I'll go sign up for this race. " And the first 70 miles, I'm doing pretty good. And then I hadn't sat down. I was uh hadn't gone to the bathroom. I was eating I was drinking Milelex and Rich crackers. I was, you know, eating rich crackers. So, elite nutrition. Yeah. Elite high quality nutrition. So, what happens when you're that ignorant and you go out to do this race and you sit down in the chair, your body's done. So, I'm sitting there and when you sit down for the first time in over 12 hours, your body's now going through some metamorphosis, like go [ __ ] home, go to a doctor, get some help. But I'm sitting there and I have this urge to go to the bathroom and there's a porta potty for me that [ __ ] wall, but I can't get up cuz my blood pressure is all messed up from my great nutrition that I was on. And so, I can't stand up. So, I look at my ex-wife and I literally say, "I'm going to [ __ ] on myself right now. " So, I sit there and I'm [ __ ] up my back and I'm peeing blood down my leg and I have 30 miles to go. And I end up finding a way to get through that 30 miles. And when I got done with that race, it's the worst pain I can ever even I can't even describe the pain of that last 30 miles to anybody. No one. It's very hard. Whole body. I'm So when it ended, I I'm literally dizzy going up my stairs to get to my house. I'm literally I have my arms wrapped around her going up the stairs. And every flight of stairs, I got I have to lay down because I can't stay upright for too long or I'm going to pass out. So I finally get in the house. And when I get in the house, I'm once again on the floor. I'm in the kitchen on the

floor just laying there. I finally make it to the bathroom into the tub. I get rolled in the tub and she puts the water on me. I'm just laying there with the water coming on me. And what I pee out looks like Coca-Cola. And I'm laying there in the worst pain of my entire life. I'm shaking. I'm jacked up. And all I could think about was, I can't believe what I just done. Because when you get to 70 mi of a race and you felt the way I did, it's to me it was humanly impossible to even think about going 30 more miles in that shape. And once you do it, what came over me when that shower hit me and the reality hit that I just went 101 miles. And that last 31 miles was something that I can't even describe to people. And she's like, "We got to get you to the hospital. " So, at the time, my mom was seeing this doctor and he was like, you know, so she's describing to my mom what I'm going through. He's like, you got to get in the hospital now. And I just said, just shut up and let me enjoy this pain. I don't want anything to numb it. right now. Because what I had done was I just in my mind, and people will take this wrong and take it as wrong as you want to. I don't really care. I had just climbed a mental wall that was amazing and I didn't want anybody to take that pain away from me at that point because I was that was all confirmation. It seems like I've heard you tell that story a number of times. Amazing. Did that set the tone or the rhythm for what you wanted to try and achieve and feel again? Each time there's you're pushing further, there's more difficulty. I never want to feel it again. But what it did was it showed me what is possible and that's what set the new stage for me. That's when I realized, oh man, I've really been underachieving my entire life. I'm not saying that you have to go to that place. That place is a dangerous place that borderline rabdo heart everything. It was all that. but you don't want to go there. But it taught me when it's possible. So from that 19-hour lesson, one of the biggest lessons I had in my life, it taught me like, okay, I got it. Check. David, you're a spectacular individual. I really appreciate your time. Uh the book is fantastic. Your message is fantastic. Uh I can't wait to see what you do next, even if it takes 5 years. I appreciate it, my friend. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Thank you very much for tuning in. I really hope that you enjoyed that episode with Gogggins. It has been 6 months in the making and it was a ton of fun. If you did enjoy it, then don't forget to subscribe. It really does make a difference. And press here to watch a selection of the best clips from the podcast over the last few months.