Why You Should PUSH Beyond Limits | David Goggins Lessons

Hey, Believe Nation, it's Evan Carmichael. My one word is believe, and I believe in you, and I want to see that thing you've got inside of you come out and have a big impact on the world. I started the Mentor Me series to hang out with people who've done more than us, and hopefully we can learn from them the way they think, their mindsets, their beliefs, to help us be the best version of ourselves. So today we're going to learn from David Goggins and some of his best motivational advice. Mentor me, David. And as always, guys, as you're watching, if you hear something that really resonates with you, please leave it down in the comments below. Put quotes around it so other people can be inspired as well. And when you write it down, it's much more likely to stick with yourself too.

Enjoy.

You once said that if you were growing up in this generation, that you would have a field day because you would take their souls. What did you mean by that?

The younger generation quits. Not everybody. So I gotta put that, people get their butt hurt. So not everybody. Most of this generation quits the second they get talked to. You did this wrong, you did this wrong, or they get yelled at. It's so easy to be great nowadays, 'Cause everybody else is, most people are weak. This is a softened generation. So if you have any mental toughness, any ability, if you have any fraction of self-discipline, the ability to not want to do it but still do it. People have a hard thing to understand. I hate to run. And what makes me so crazy, it doesn't anymore, is people go, "Well, why do you run if you hate it?" What are you talking about? I don't want to take showers and eat either. I hate that too. The whole— that's life, man. That— and, and it wasn't until I changed that mentality that I became somebody. I hated going to school, so guess what? I was dumb as shit. That's what— 1 1 is 2. But if you can get through to doing things that you hate to do On the other side is greatness. That's what people don't understand. By me running, I am callous in my mind. I'm not training for a race. I'm training for life. I'm training for the time when I get that 2 o'clock in the morning call that my mom is dead or something happens tragic in life. I don't fall apart. Mm-hmm. I'm training my mind and my body and my spirit so it's all one so I can handle what life is gonna throw at me because The life I've lived, it throws a whole bunch at you. And if you're not physically and mentally prepared for that, you're just gonna crumble, and you're good for nobody.

Talk to me about what it takes to be on one side of a door in Iraq or anywhere, knowing on the other side of the door are people who are not afraid of you. They're ready for you to come in, and you still have— and they have guns, and you still have to breach that door.

That's a great question. That's a very scary situation when you are on one side of the door and your mind is racing because on the other side of that door, it could be no one, it could be 4 guys with 4 AK-47s, that door you're about to open could be booby-trapped, so once you open it, boom, your legs are gone. So there's 1,000 things you think about when you're the first guy, second guy, third guy, getting ready to go in a room and flood it. And that's why I talk about the warrior mentality, and that's why so many people are lost when I start talking. You have the right— you're lucky that you don't have to think like warriors think. You're very privileged. I chose this world to be a warrior, and I would choose it again if I came back to this world. But the mentality of a warrior is very different than normal mentality. You must be that person on that door, getting ready to open it, thinking to yourself, "If I die, so be it." The only way you can go in that door is knowing there's a great chance you're gonna die. Like, being a SEAL, you train with live ammo. You jump out of airplanes. Everything you do, you could die. So to be a warrior, why people don't understand me. I'm glad you don't understand me. Merry Christmas, good on ya. Because being a warrior takes a whole different mindset. A whole different mindset to know that there's a great chance I may not be in the military. Like, I was in for 21 years. I'm lucky. I'm very lucky that I'm alive, able to talk to you, able to still run. But when you sign up on that dotted line to be a, like a SEAL, your mentality changes. I may not live. You gotta accept that. And that's the mentality you have. And that's what makes you a warrior. If you're scared to die, you're a bad warrior. I hated jumping outta airplanes. I hated shooting guns. I hated the job as a Navy SEAL, but I did it because I wanted to change myself. Mm-hmm. Everything I do, I'm not really comfortable doing. But if you choose to go that route, to go be a Navy SEAL, You might as well go be the hardest motherfucker in the world. 'Cause if you're choosing to do something, you have two routes. You can go there and be a little weak person and get through barely, and that's your reputation. Or you can go through the hardest guy you can possibly be, and that's your reputation. So my whole thing is, if you're gonna choose to open that fucking door in Iraq or Afghanistan, open the motherfucker and go in hard. Because they're gonna remember you by slowly opening it and peeking in. So if you're gonna open it and you made the mind to open it, don't crack it open.

Mm-hmm.

Open the fucking door, go in. That's what life, if you choosing to do, if you choosing to do something, attack it because they're gonna remember you as not attacking it. So I want to be remembered. You can hate me, but there's one thing you can't say about me. I didn't attack it. So that's the mentality you have. If you're gonna do something, you might as well attack it. 'Cause you could do it anyway.

Right. Do you use that in civilian life? Do you still employ the, "I'm gonna attack it, I'm gonna take their souls"? How does that play out in a non-combat zone?

It still works for me in life as far as attacking things, because no matter what avenue I choose, I wanna be the very best. And the very best may not be I'm number one, the very best is, did I leave everything inside of me out there? So attacking is not like, oh, I want to win this or win that or be the best. The best is I'm running against myself and everything I do, and that's what I attack. I attack myself. I'm always questioning myself. I'm always holding myself accountable.

Before I start a race, I actually imagine myself going through all my little checkpoints. I'm imagining all these different emotions and things I'm gonna go through. So when happens, it just flows. All this imagery is so important in life. If you can see yourself doing something, you can do it. If you can't see yourself doing it, usually you can't achieve it. Every race I get into, I hit a wall. In a race that's so long, you hit several walls. And every time you hit a wall, it's a big deciding factor in that race, or in your life if you're not running. And you have a decision to make. Either you can stop at that wall, or you can go parallel left or parallel right.

You're looking for that door.

And when you get to door, you have another decision to make. Should I open it or should I keep it closed? If you keep it closed, you made the decision to quit. If you open that door, you made a decision to carry on and continue on with your journey or your mission, whatever you're on. And I always open that door because once you open the door and you go through it, your mind resets and it gets you a few more miles. I can't even describe it to you how, how you feel when you know you're gonna complete the hardest thing you've ever done in your life. The second you realize you're not gonna give up, your body gets back in tune again, and you're ready to go. I have those mental blocks all through the race, but that's when I smile too. I signed up for that race to see what kind of decision I'm gonna make, and that's why I do it. And usually it's the decision to keep on going forward. I have to experience life, and that's how I experience life.

David, tell them about the cookie jar. The cookie jar is something I invented. As you all know, your mom has a cookie jar, And sometimes you might have an Oreo, sometimes you might have a Chips Ahoy, sometimes you might have an oatmeal raisin cookie. You never know. It's just in there. My cookie jar has every single failure and success of my life, something I overcame. So, what happens in time of life when you're stressed out and things get bad, even the hardest guy in the world, me, everybody thinks— and I think I'm the hardest guy in the world. You gotta believe that. You gotta believe you are something. I will, in my mind, reach into my cookie jar, and sometimes you forget how hard you are in times of need, 'cause you're stressed, but you forget. I'm a fucking Navy SEAL, I'm a Ranger, I'm this and that, but you forget all that 'cause your life sucks. I calm down, take that one second, get control of my life. Reach in the cookie jar. Why you got called nigger your whole life and you're now the only person in history to do this, this, and this. Put it back in the cookie jar. Reset my mind. You have to remind yourself of how badass you really are in times of need. That's the fucking cookie jar. My biggest advice to give everybody in the world is like I say, we live in an external world. Everything is, you gotta see it, touch it. It's external. If you can for the rest of your life live inside of yourself, stop listening to people who are calling you fat, gay, transsexual, nigger, everything that makes no sense. All these insecure people putting their insecurities on you, you gotta flush it out. You gotta just be whoever the hell God or whoever the hell you believe in. If you believe in nothing but yourself, I don't care what it is. You gotta take everything and throw it away. You have to believe in one thing, and that is yourself. And I'm not saying don't believe in God or what you believe in, but right now, for you to find greatness in yourself, you're not gonna find it by looking in a book or by even hearing me. I may give you the spark, but you've got to go inside yourself to find it. And that means you gotta be quiet. Shut the fuck up, go in a room, stop talking, search your soul, search your mind, search your ability.

And you'll find it.

But if you're not looking for it, you won't find it. So you got to go start your journey, and the journey starts with you finding, why the hell am I here on this planet Earth? Why am I here? If you don't know that, you will live the rest of your life searching, always asking the question, why? Everybody's journey is different. Everybody's journey is different. I was on a journey to see who David Goggins was. And that journey took me in some of the hardest areas a human being can even imagine. And right now at 41, I'm the happiest person on the planet because, you know, I had to climb Mount Everest several times just to look down on my life to see what hell I came from. And that's what kept me going through all this stuff. Like I, I envisioned myself going through, like when I was a young kid and they called me nigger all the time. I got, my dad beat the hell outta me and I was, had no self-esteem. I had this vision of if I can make it to where I want to go, imagine when I look back on my damn life, how proud I will be. And now I'm here and I'm able to look back on this life I lived that many people will never understand because why? When you're passionate, they think you're crazy and you can't even explain to people why you're doing it, why you did what you did, because You found your purpose, and once you found your purpose, you can't really explain it to normal people because they don't understand passion because they live everyday life just going, not really finding their purpose. So I become a foreign language to people. They think— so they put me in a category of, you're just crazy.

No, no, no, no, no.

I'm passionate. I found my purpose in this life.

When you think that you are done, you're only 40% into what your body is capable of doing. And that's just the limits that we put on ourselves.

Got our leader of the 150-mile coming in.

Mr. David Goggins.

He's just won the 2008 150-mile run.

You're never gonna really know how I feel. I never really tell you the truth. I'm always gonna feel good.

He's a crazy fella.

I wanna feel and show you no weakness. Congratulations, buddy. Thanks a lot, man.

150-mile champion, first place, new course record.

Way to go. Congratulations. I'm never happy and satisfied with one thing I do. It's always a continuous journey. And in all my races, they never end. They just kind of fall in together. It's like one big journey that won't end until I die.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed. I'd love to know what did you take from this video? What was the single most important message that you are going to immediately apply somehow to your life or to your business? Leave it down in the comments below. I look forward to hearing what you have to say. I also wanna give a quick shout out to Serge Wisdom. Thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word, and doing the review on your YouTube channel. I really, really, really appreciate it, and I'm so glad you enjoyed the book. Thank you guys so much for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love. I'll see you soon.

So let me give you the one word secret to happiness. One word. This is all you need to be happy.

The most important word ever. If you had to think of one word that's most important to you or that sums you up or that would be kind of like a little beacon, Hey, Believe Nation!

If you want to know what the most important one word is for Tony Robbins, Gary Vaynerchuk, Oprah Winfrey, will.i.am, and Howard Schultz, I have a very special secret video for you. Check the description for details.