The key ideas

Can't Hurt Me

David Goggins, 2018

A twenty-four-year-old pest exterminator weighing almost 135 kilograms goes on, within a few years, to pass Navy SEAL selection, run ultramarathons, and set a pull-up record. David Goggins tells how he did it and shares his rules: the accountability mirror, the cookie jar, and the 40% Rule. One man’s tough memoir, and an honest discussion of what to take from it and what to leave behind.

Who it is for

For anyone who often abandons things halfway through and wants to understand how to challenge their own excuses, and is prepared to read a tough personal story with a clear head.

You risk living such a comfortable, soft life that you die without ever discovering your true potential.

What the book is about

A twenty-four-year-old man weighs almost 135 kilograms and spends his nights exterminating cockroaches in restaurants. A few years later, he will pass selection for the Navy SEALs, the US Navy’s elite special forces, then become an ultramarathon runner and set a pull-up record. What happened between those two points?

David Goggins tells that story in Can’t Hurt Me, written with journalist Adam Skolnick. This is a memoir: one person’s story and personal rules rather than research or a training program.

The limits need to be clear from the start. Goggins’s path is extreme, and some of his victories came at the cost of injuries. What is worth taking from the book is a way to think about your excuses. This retelling does not urge you to ignore pain.

Idea 1. A bad hand

Goggins grew up in Buffalo. His father ran a roller-skating rink and was cruel to the family. When his mother found the resolve to leave and took the children to the small town of Brazil, Indiana, things became calmer, but life was still hard. There the boy encountered racism, fell behind in school, and, by his own admission, cheated for years while barely able to read.

Goggins does not use this as an excuse. His first request to readers is to describe their own “bad hand” honestly: everything that holds them back and hurts them.

In his view, the list is not for self-pity. Until you name a problem, it is hard to do anything about it.

Someone tells themselves for years, “I just have no talent for languages,” without noticing that behind this lies a fear of being mocked again, as they were at school.

In Goggins’s reasoning, a difficult past can become material to work with as well as a burden. This is his personal view, and it does not mean that every trauma can or should be “worked through” alone.

Read in Livria

About the author

David Goggins is a former US Navy SEAL, ultramarathon runner, and former world record holder for pull-ups in twenty-four hours. Can't Hurt Me is his first book, written with journalist Adam Skolnick; the follow-up, Never Finished, appeared in 2022.

All books by this author: David Goggins

Terms from the book

  • Hell Week
  • Accountability mirror: The author’s technique: write goals and steps on sticky notes and put them on a mirror so you can honestly check each day whether you kept your promises to yourself. A tool from the book rather than a scientific method.
  • Cookie jar: An image from the book: a mental store of your own past victories that the author draws on in difficult moments. A metaphor rather than a psychological technique.
  • 40% Rule: The author’s belief that when you feel you have nothing left, you have used around 40% of your capacity. A figurative number that nobody has measured; it does not apply to pain, injuries, or symptoms of illness.
  • Callusing the mind: The author’s image: regular, voluntary discomfort may make a person less sensitive to difficulties. A metaphor rather than a description of how the brain works.
  • After-action review: A military practice the author applies to his failures: examine in writing what worked, what did not, and what to change next time.

All terms

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