Victory in Suffering - With David Goggins

What does the TOUGHEST MAN ALIVE have to say about suffering? You have been asking to see David and me together, and that day has finally arrived! This interview is intense and we dig very deep into a variety of topics. It’s even better than you probably can imagine! (Very strong and adult language warning!) David Goggins, author of best-selling book Can't Hurt Me - is the only member of the U. S. Armed forces to complete Seal Training (including 3 hell weeks), the U. S. Army Ranger School and Air Force Tactical Air Controller Training. He is the EPITOME of pushing the limits! There wasn’t just one breakthrough that course-corrected Goggins’s life forever, but in this episode, we take a deep dive into the accumulation of moments that ended up cultivating the mindset needed to become the toughest man alive! Accountability is everything. What are you telling yourself in the mirror every day? Are you living up to your full potential? Quitting is a choice. Taking the path of least resistance is a choice. But you can never lie to yourself, you always know when you aren’t being the person you know you can be and there’s only ONE thing that’s getting in between you and the YOU that you know you can be… MINDSET! This episode will teach you how to go down into the dungeon and fight the war with yourself. You’ll learn how to make it all the way to the finish line even when you feel as if you can’t go any further. It’s time to close the gap between just being “inspired” to actually ACCOMPLISHING your biggest dreams. Goggins reveals how you can use your suffering as a catalyst instead of an excuse to stop! What if all of your sufferings were a clear sign of you becoming stronger because you are forcing yourself to endure what you thought you never could? This interview will CHANGE the way you look at suffering, give it a listen. I know it’s going to pump you up, just like it pumped me up! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Ed Mylett?

  I hear so many small business owners say the exact same thing. They just never have enough time in the day. Well, I measure time differently. I've compressed, condensed, heck, I've bent time. My first day is 6:00 a.m. to noon. My second day starts at noon and goes till 6:00 p.m. And my third day, 6:00 p.m. to midnight. I now get 21 days a week. Stack that up over a month, over a year, over five years, and my life's completely different than it would have been otherwise. And if you want to win as an entrepreneur, you have to compress your time, too. And you definitely can't afford to waste it. Waiting weeks on a big bank for capital? Your best bet's to work with my friends at Cardiff. They know how to compress time for entrepreneurs. They get your business approved in minutes and funded the very same day. They're America's favorite small business lender, and for good reason.

• 0:45Ed Mylett?

  Over 20 years in business, over $12 billion deployed to small business across America. Stop letting bank delays slow down your momentum. Head to cardiff.co/ed. That's cardiff.co/ed. Cardiff.co. Real growth, fast funding. Cardiff. Borrow better.

• 1:01Speaker 01

  Mr. President, my company, for me, of the explosion on our rig. On October 2nd. Causing massive water displacement and triggering a tsunami. They all heap the blame on me. Tom Cruise is. Digger got us into this mess. And Digger's gonna dig us up. From the director of Birdman and The Revenant.

• 1:18David Goggins?

  What would happen if I stopped drilling? You stop, you freeze to death, that's what.

• 1:22Speaker 01

  With great power comes great deniability.

• 1:25David Goggins?

  I'm not the first nanny.

• 1:27Speaker 01

  Digger. See the trailer online. Only in theaters October 2nd. Rated R. Under 17. Not a minute without parent.

• 1:38Speaker 03

  This is The Ed Miliband Show.

• 1:45Ed Mylett?

  Hey, everybody. I'm excited to share today's conversation with David Goggins with you. But prior to doing that, I want to warn you. The language used in this interview is very strong, and there's profanity used throughout the conversation. David speaks in this interview like David speaks. And so if you have children that you don't want to hear very intense language, this would not be the interview for you to listen to or watch. And you can make sure that they're out of the room or anywhere around you when they're listening to it. Or if you yourself are offended by strong language like that, I just want to warn you as a friend that maybe this isn't the interview for you. If you can tolerate it, or it doesn't bother you at all, it's going to change your life, though. Welcome back to Max Out, everybody. I got him, right there. That's Goggins, everyone.

• 2:29Ed Mylett?

  Number one requested guest, you don't know this, for my show the last two years is you.

• 2:34David Goggins?

  Really?

• 2:35Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, yeah, really.

• 2:36David Goggins?

  Honored.

• 2:37Ed Mylett?

  Honored. And I gotta tell you, the best by far off-camera conversation I have ever had is what we've been having. I think you would agree, it's been good for you too.

• 2:44David Goggins?

  100%.

• 2:44Ed Mylett?

  It's been good for both of us.

• 2:46David Goggins?

  It's been real good.

• 2:46Ed Mylett?

  And hopefully that'll transition over to the show itself. But this is a gentleman who completed Navy SEAL training, Army Ranger training, Air Force Tac P training. I believe he's the only person in history to do that.

• 2:57David Goggins?

  Yes, sir.

• 2:57Ed Mylett?

  This is a guy who did three hell weeks, 60-plus ultra-marathons. Running with broken bones for 30 miles to get into one of the mega-ultra-marathons. And a lot of people calling him the toughest man alive. But I'm excited because I get to call him my friend now. I've enjoyed this conversation so much and I think you guys are gonna join the on-camera one. So, this is Goggins, everybody.

• 3:17David Goggins?

  I appreciate you having me, man. Thank you.

• 3:19Ed Mylett?

  Thank you. Okay, if I call you David Goggins?

• 3:21David Goggins?

  Yeah, it's fine, man. David Goggins, it's fine. Goggins, David, just don't call me Dave.

• 3:25Ed Mylett?

  Okay, well, you're Goggins now, but you grew up David Goggins.

• 3:29David Goggins?

  Right.

• 3:30Ed Mylett?

  And I, most people know this about your upbringing because I want to get into this stuff. But I was fascinated before I met you, like, what makes this? You know what I'm saying? Like, what are the circumstances, the conditions, the thinking that turned somebody into you? Right? And so, start a little bit with like how you grew up because I think that's part of the story.

• 3:51David Goggins?

  Well, my dad, so I grew up in Buffalo, New York. My dad really helped create this. I'm not giving him credit.

• 3:59Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 3:59David Goggins?

  Like, oh, he was a great dad, like, clap my hands for his ass. He helped create this because he was just that, he was a devil. You know, he was a guy that had to be very insecure, very beat down. Something had to happen to him when he was younger. Because the way he treated me, my brother, my mom was just horrible. So, he would beat us, my mom, my brother, my me. And I'm not talking about like, oh, you got in trouble, so I'm gonna give you a whipping. He was a drunk. So, whenever he woke up, man, he woke up drinking, went to bed drinking. And that's just how it was. And when he'd get drunk, he just got violent. So, my mom caught my dad cheating. We got home about 4 o'clock in the morning.

• 4:42David Goggins?

  So I'm about seven, eight years old and I hear some ruckus outside my room as I'm getting ready to bed down for the night and my mom and dad are outside my room because there's a staircase right there and my dad is smacking the hell out of my mom and knocks her almost unconscious where she's kind of out of it, you know, she's kind of loopy. She falls down, he grabs her by her hair and drags her down the stairs by her hair. And so at this age, I'm sitting thinking, man, you know, what the fuck should I do, man? Like, you know, I'm scared, but then something in me saying, you gotta go and do something.

• 5:17Ed Mylett?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 5:18David Goggins?

  But I'm scared to death of this guy because he's been beating the shit out of me since I can remember and I mean, like laying me out for nothing. And I'm sitting thinking, man, okay, man, like I, what am I gonna do? So my brother, he and I were very different. When my brother would see the fighting, he would go to this room and hide.

• 5:35Ed Mylett?

  Right, yeah.

• 5:35David Goggins?

  I didn't do that. I always stuck around. So this time I stuck around and I decided to help her out. So I go on the stairs and I jump on his back and literally he tells my mom, you're raising a gangster as she's like on the floor and he's almost smiling, almost like proud, but that smile went to a frown pretty quick and he beat the living hell out of me and he beat me literally from my neck down to my ankles, like black and blue. So next morning, um, I was gonna go to school half the day. My mom woke up and she pulled the covers back and what she saw was how bruised I was. And so when she pulled

• 6:16David Goggins?

  the covers back and saw bruised I was, I'll never forget looking at her face because she used to write letters for me, you know, for me and my brother to miss PE because we were so bruised up from getting beaten. So, you know, hey, he's sick or whatever. And so, you know, she was lying a lot to my dad. So this particular day, she didn't write a letter, but when I laid in the bed and looked at my mom as she pulled the covers back, I'll never forget looking at her face and her face is tattooed in my brain. And why I say that, um, this past year, I got the VFW award for Americanism Award. And if you Google David Goggins VFW Award, I'm in front of 5,000 veterans and I'm getting this amazing award. John McCain got it and I'm up here thinking, man, I'm up here getting

• 7:01David Goggins?

  this award. This is amazing. It's for giving back and also having a great military career. And I could give this six minute long speech. And I'm up there, man, I'm talking and I'm thanking, I'm thanking people who helped me out. I get to my mom, she's sitting back, you know, she's sitting right here on stage, but behind me. And I haven't cried in thirty years.

• 7:20Ed Mylett?

  I can't even picture it.

• 7:21David Goggins?

  Haven't cried in thirty years, I just don't do that. And I turn around and say, and I want to thank my mom for um not picking me up when I was knocked down, but teaching me how to get up, because she never picked me up, ever. And because her circumstances sucked. So anyway, I look back and I said that, and I got done, I didn't even get a chance to say it. I looked at her eyes and my head went right back to her face when she saw me bruised up. And that fucked me up. And for fifty-eight seconds, look at the video and you'll see me, my head's down and I'm sobbing.

• 8:00Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 8:01David Goggins?

  And I'm in front of five thousand vets and the guy who was, who was hosting the thing had to come up to me and like put his hand on my back. And I was just destroyed, overcome with emotion. And then fifty-eight seconds go by and I get up and I deliver this speech. And so I tell you that because life, my life tattooed me. And so when I came from Buffalo, I was eight years old. Several learned, I, I didn't have one learned disability, I had several, but I hid all this shit. I never talked about my dad being crazy, or I couldn't read, I couldn't write. I got held back in my, you know, second grade. So now we moved, my mom now finds the courage to move to this small town called Brazile, Indiana.

• 8:43Ed Mylett?

  Was that beating the catalyst that made you leave?

• 8:46David Goggins?

  That was a catalyst.

• 8:46Ed Mylett?

  And that's probably why you flashback to that second, okay, I got you.

• 8:49David Goggins?

  So basically that next morning, so this will happen, that, that beating happened and maybe two days later, my mom's in the living room while, while my dad's in the kitchen talking to one of his girls. My mom walks in the kitchen with me and my brother sitting in our, you know, standard locations at the table. My dad at the head of the table, me and my brother at the side of the table. And there's a phone behind my dad, he always talks on the phone, smoking a cigarette, drinking his scotch. And he's talking to one of his girls on the phone. And my mom walks in. And this is where she was at mentally. She walked in, looked at me and my brother, and she said, "You guys can come, or you guys can stay, but I'm getting the fuck out of here." And so, she was broke. Like, she was just broken.

• 9:33David Goggins?

  And I got my shit and I packed. I was gone quick. My brother was kinda like, "What should I do?" So, long story short, he ends up coming with us to Brazil and Indiana, but he didn't wanna come. We had car trouble. It's all in the book. He had car trouble. All kinda shit happened. But we finally get to Brazil and Indiana.

• 9:49Ed Mylett?

  Let me jump in real quick. First off, when he says the book, everybody, I've read a lot of books. My favorite thing about you, obviously, there's this, things we're gonna get into in a little bit here that are just remarkable about you, that you've achieved. Actually, I don't think are remarkable about you. I think you found remarkable spaces in your own mind that other people could also find.

• 10:07David Goggins?

  Right.

• 10:08Ed Mylett?

  Uh, but I think it's remarkable you found them, given these circumstances.

• 10:12David Goggins?

  Well said.

• 10:12Ed Mylett?

  But the book that he's referring to, guys, is Can't Hurt Me. And when you read this book, everybody, I'm telling you, these stories, like he's telling them now, they jump. Like, I read the whole book in one day.

• 10:24David Goggins?

  Wow.

• 10:25Ed Mylett?

  And the reason is, is because I was so fascinated with you in the first place. But it's, it's, I think it's almost like a documentary into what can build somebody like you. But it, like, for me, people that are listening to this, especially you young people that are listening to it, and I know some of the language is strong, but I just want y'all to understand something. No matter what you're going through right now, whether you're seven years old or seventy-seven years old, those things don't define you. This man, what you're about to hear is incredible, what he's turned himself into, from a dad who was in those conditions to, I think your mom was great, right? But you've sort of said, "Mom wasn't ever again completely herself after those situations," right? Then he goes into school, has a learning disability, he's behind because he wasn't going to school, kinda starts just lying and cheating to get his way through school.

• 11:07David Goggins?

  Stuttered.

• 11:07Ed Mylett?

  Stutter, stuttered.

• 11:09David Goggins?

  Stuttered bad. My, my elementary years, I stuttered so bad. I had these white splotches. Although my skin had patches of hair falling out of my head.

• 11:17Ed Mylett?

  Out of stress?

• 11:18David Goggins?

  Stressed. I was so stressed out from my childhood and then now I'm in this situation where I'm like, God, man, I, I, I'm dumb. I, I'm not smart and, and now I'm like this, this black kid amongst all these white people. It just made me feel just fucked up and my mom was working three jobs. We lived in a seven dollar a month place. She was never home and I was like, and I, so, but I didn't want to put my troubles on my mom. Before that, my soon to be stepdad got murdered. One incident that really shocked my mind was, it was Christmas. So picture everything I talked about. This is my seventh grade year. We're about to go out for, um, you know, so school, so, so, so Christmas break is about to happen.

• 12:01David Goggins?

  And so here we are, we had elementary to junior high that rode our bus. And we pull up in front of the junior high school and the bus lets out, but not yet. This kid who missed the bus, he missed the bus because he had some cookies for the bus driver. He goes over and I tell the story because this story, it fucked me up so bad. And this, this kid, mom brought him to school and I see them pull up. I'm in the back of the bus. And I'm in the very back, right by the back wheel, facing the parking lot. The parking lot is probably twenty feet wide and fifteen buses are lined up and we all open the bus doors at the same time we all get out.

• 12:41David Goggins?

  So the kid, I see him, the mom yells over, you forgot something. He obviously forgot the cookies. He goes back, gets the cookies. I look forward, the bus moves forward maybe this much. Next thing I know, I'm hearing this lady screaming, popping her lungs, pulling like at her hair, this, this yanking at her hair, this screaming bloody murder. And I'm looking over at the same lady that called her little boy and like, what the hell? And she's looking down under my tire.

• 13:08David Goggins?

  And so I see these things on my window and I don't know what they were, but they were like little spots. So you know how the old bus school, you know, the buses have little things you push and you pull the window down? I pushed me, I looked down, looking at her and her face, her eyes looking right down underneath my tire. And I'm like, what the hell is she looking at? So I looked down and this kid's head was this flat. And his eyes were bugged out of his head. And, and I tell you that story because a year, almost exactly a year later, the same exact timeframe, the day after Christmas, my mom's soon to be stepdad, uh, my, my soon to be stepdad got murdered.

• 13:46Ed Mylett?

  My god.

• 13:47David Goggins?

  So that, I tried to bury that, and now my eighth grade year, he gets murdered. And so what happens, I, I had to bring you back here to set the tone for what happened here.

• 13:57Ed Mylett?

  I want to understand what the hell you just said. You're telling me in the seventh grade, you watched a young man get run over by the bus?

• 14:04David Goggins?

  I didn't see it. I saw the after.

• 14:05Ed Mylett?

  You saw the after of his, oh my.

• 14:07David Goggins?

  And so what I did, so, so I got off the bus, and this is what curiosity does to you. This is the dumbest thing I've done in my life. Um, I'm walking now, so I had to go to the principal's office because I was like witness to this shit. So I'm in the principal's office sitting there, and the one thing I did was I looked under the bus.

• 14:26David Goggins?

  As I, so I see this, and I look under the bus as I'm walking to the principal's office, and I see these little kid's shoes. Now, I'm, I'm telling you this because this shit is, it's about PTSD, and, and you know, so I already had it from my childhood.

• 14:39Ed Mylett?

  Of course.

• 14:39David Goggins?

  Now I'm in the seventh grade, and I see this little kid's shoes, like this big. He was, he was elementary kid, just twisted in, and I'm just like, what the fuck? And then nearly a year later, the day after Christmas, a year later, my soon to be stepdad gets murdered. And I tell you that because I slept on my floor for probably, I don't know, four, four months to six, to, to, to six months.

• 15:05Ed Mylett?

  Why?

• 15:06David Goggins?

  I was afraid to sleep in my bed for some reason. Don't know why. Some psychological fucking, like, but I, I'm painting this picture for you, let you know

• 15:14Ed Mylett?

  Boy.

• 15:15David Goggins?

  where I was at.

• 15:16Ed Mylett?

  Like, yeah.

• 15:17David Goggins?

  So, um, one time in my, in my, uh, Spanish class, we had all of our notebooks that, that stayed in the class.

• 15:24Ed Mylett?

  Mm-hmm.

• 15:25David Goggins?

  So, and you know, obviously your name's on it.

• 15:27Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 15:28David Goggins?

  You go get your notebook for a class, and I always sat back in the back of every class, man. Because I just want to be, just don't look at me, don't call on me.

• 15:34Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 15:35David Goggins?

  I don't know shit. Opened my notebook up to the first page, and on it was a noose, like a little hangman noose, with me hanging from it with the same thing, nigga, we're gonna kill you. And um.

• 15:45Ed Mylett?

  This is in the nineties.

• 15:46David Goggins?

  This is the nineties. In nineteen ninety-five, the KKK marched in the Fourth of July Parade in Brazil, Indiana. Now, they weren't allowed to march, like, actually in the parade. They were allowed to march a hundred or two hundred feet behind it. My mom didn't know how bad my grades were. She never saw one report card. I hid, I hid everything from, and she didn't even ask. She was so bogged down with life. And so I got away with a lot of shit because her mind was occupied. So it made me, honestly, a weaker person. So I scammed life. My mom helped me scam life for a while. But this time I couldn't scam life. I went the second time, took the ASVAB test, failed it again. And a week later, she got a letter in the mail from my high school.

• 16:30David Goggins?

  And I'm a junior in high school, and she, and the letter says, pretty much, your son's gonna flunk out. He's missed twenty-five percent of school. Because she was always gone, so I didn't go to school. He's gonna miss school. And so, or he's gonna flunk out. So I was exposed, once again. My mom goes, well, she read the letter to me. She put my bed, and her best advice was, guess what? You're gonna flunk out of school. That was it. End of conversation. So this is when I developed my accountability mirror. And it.

• 16:57Ed Mylett?

  This is awesome.

• 16:58David Goggins?

  I, I look in the mirror, and at this time, I didn't want to be the black kid in school. There's like five or six of us in school, and like seventeen hundred kids, something like that. And I made up a character to kind of like draw attention from color. And so what I did was, I started to design haircuts. And one haircut I had was the old man. And I shaved my head up here, just like this.

• 17:27Ed Mylett?

  You did this?

• 17:28David Goggins?

  I did this. And I would keep the hair on the side, like an old man has. And one time I shaved my whole head and had a reverse part. So I had, I had hair up here, and it kind of zigzagged. So I did things to be this cool, crazy, kind of like, creative kid. You know, like Criss Cross came out this time, so I had my pants sagging backwards. So my, so my back pockets were here. I had toothbrush. I was crazy, man. But I was a crazy, cool kid in school. So I look in the fucking mirror, I see this letter, I'm, I'm, I'm fucked up. And I'm like, you know what, man? No one's coming to help me.

• 18:04Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 18:04David Goggins?

  I remember back to what my principal said, cause I went to the principal when they wrote that shit on my car and in my notebook. And the best advice he can give me, God help his soul, was this. They're ignorant. They spell nigger Niger.

• 18:18Ed Mylett?

  God.

• 18:19David Goggins?

  And so, that's, but honestly, I talked to the guy as I wrote my book. And I have nothing wrong with Principal Freeman. He, he actually, I actually interviewed him for the book and he was happy interviewing, he was, he's a good man. What the fuck you could tell some black, you're a white guy in white society, we could, we could tell me. You could shut down the fucking school and have a fucking dad. So I started talking to myself this way in this mirror. What the fuck is Principal Freeman? At, at that time, like, this is the best you can fucking do, Principal Freeman? That was my mind then, but in, in, in this mirror, it wasn't my mom, it wasn't Principal Freeman, it wasn't my dad, it was me. Cause when nobody coming back to fucking help David Goggins, that was my mindset now.

• 19:02David Goggins?

  And so, with, with my non-spelling ass, I started getting these sticky notes. And writing, you're fucked up. And my mom wakes up like, what, what is wrong with you? I go, man, I'm, I have to change, cause I, I can't stay here. I can't, I, I looked at myself in the mirror and I was defeated. I go, look, look at myself. I'm like, who am I? So I'm defeated in this mirror and I'm like, okay, I'm, I'm changing. I said, Mom, can we please get a tutor? So we can only afford fifteen dollars a week for a tutor. So I have four hours a month. Four hours a month. I had a fourth grade reading level, man. Four hours a month for six months. So I had. So, this tutor did one thing for me, very big. I wish I could remember her damn name.

• 19:47David Goggins?

  But basically, she saw that I was slow, very slow, couldn't retain shit. And I think she was joking. She goes, you're gonna have to write down everything a thousand times for you remember this. I took it as, as, okay.

• 20:01Ed Mylett?

  Literally.

• 20:01David Goggins?

  Roger that.

• 20:02Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 20:03David Goggins?

  So, I literally went to the store and I bought these spiral notebooks. And I started literally writing down, let's say it's a math equation, the same fucking math equation. Over and over and over and over again, when it came to a paragraph comprehension, I couldn't read the fucking paragraph and then remember it.

• 20:21Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 20:21David Goggins?

  So, we had like, I think twenty-five or thirty paragraph comprehension things. I had to write down the whole fucking thing. Like, a whole paragraph, and you, you don't have much time to take the fucking test. But that's how I learned.

• 20:35Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 20:35David Goggins?

  So, how I learned the, uh, the, uh, Navy Dive Man, it was like a thousand pages, Navy Dive Man. I got it a year in advance.

• 20:42Ed Mylett?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 20:43David Goggins?

  And wrote the book out probably fourteen times. Like, the Boyle's Law, Child's Law, Gay Lusak's Law, Dalton's Law. All these laws, but over and over, the whole manual. So, it's not like, so now, I've done it so many times, I can go back in my mind and say, okay, page seventy-one was Boyle's Law, and I can go back in this.

• 21:05Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 21:06David Goggins?

  And I, and I'm looking at it right now, and I, and I remember writing it down so many times that it takes me to say, okay, I got it, and I can write it down almost verbatim.

• 21:15Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 21:16David Goggins?

  How I, so that's how I learn even to today.

• 21:18Ed Mylett?

  Hmm.

• 21:18David Goggins?

  But the work ethic, I had to, people think I became this guy from running.

• 21:22Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 21:23David Goggins?

  No, I became this guy from fucking studying.

• 21:25Ed Mylett?

  Hmm.

• 21:26David Goggins?

  I had to study for hours. What might, might take you an hour to learn?

• 21:30Ed Mylett?

  Hmm.

• 21:31David Goggins?

  It took me two days.

• 21:33Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 21:33David Goggins?

  So, that's where, in this, at the table, at the table, and my best friend Johnny remembers me, like, God, you're like, you just changed, something happened. I got obsessed.

• 21:43Ed Mylett?

  Hmm.

• 21:44David Goggins?

  So, I take the test, I score high, I get in the Air Force. And that's when, I'm like, man, I'm gonna be a parapet man. And this is when I realized, man, I teach myself how to swim, I taught myself how to swim, and this is when I realized, man, that I'm negative buoyant as hell.

• 22:01Ed Mylett?

  Hmm.

• 22:01David Goggins?

  And there's a lot of things, so what gets people in special operations is the water. Not swimming, but the water confidence, when they're like taking your air from you, and your underwater panic. I realized I was very uncomfortable. So, long story short, I was there for six weeks. I was moving on pretty well, second in my class. And I was getting through all the water confidence, but barely. But I wanted to quit every fucking night. I didn't go to sleep every night. Just paranoid the next day of getting back in that pool. So, six months go by, we had this medical examination and they draw my blood and they said, you have sickle cell. Sickle cell is a blood disease that some African Americans have.

• 22:40David Goggins?

  Basically, you know, if something happens in a stressful situations, stroke, heart attack, sudden death. Uh, this happened to a few African Americans in the military. So they pulled me from training saying, you can't do this job. And when you live a very stressed out life, like I was living, that's your norm. So not sleeping, being scared, that was my norm. I wasn't gonna quit. But when they pull you out of training, and now I'm fucking comfortable. I agree with you. So now I'm seeing my class of 24 guys, it was like 150, now it's 24 guys. And they're in the pool and I'm on the side of the pool, I'm not in the water now. I'm seeing what I was doing. I'm seeing these guys struggling, panicking in the water, like wanting to quit. I'm like, fuck that.

• 23:25David Goggins?

  I'm not going. So now I'm comfortable. And I'm able to see now, I'm not going back. So now, my big dream of being a pararescuerman, I'm now seeing that do this. I'm like, I wanna get out of the air force. I don't even wanna be in the fucking military. So this is what I'm saying. So I'm hoping now, that this sickle cell thing is gonna get me kicked out of the military. Cause I'm like, okay, I don't wanna go back in the fucking, I'm done. So I'm not getting happy, cause now I'm like, I won't quit. They're gonna medically drop me from the course. This is great. I can keep my head up. I'll learn how to read, I'll learn how to write, I passed the ASVAB test. But I'm fixing everything on the surface. I'm not going into the fucking dungeon.

• 24:06David Goggins?

  So, the doc calls up, I go back to the doctors, I'm like skipping down there thinking, I'm getting out of here, man. Medically discharged. He goes, man, you know what?

• 24:16David Goggins?

  You were doing good in your class and we don't really know, we don't know how you got this far with this, whatever. So guess what we're gonna do? We're gonna put you back in the training. I'm like, fuck. So, but I'm thinking now, I only have about a couple, you know, two and a half weeks left of training. Cause I missed a week, a week and some chains. I go, you know what, great, man. I have to suck this up, man. I can do this. So I'm trying to motivate myself all the way back to my CEO, my command officer, Sergeant Lumberg. I get to Sergeant Lumberg, Sergeant Lumberg looks at me and says, God, man, that's great. You're back in the training. You gotta start from day one. Cause I'm at critical parts of training. I can't miss that many days. And I'm like, but I was a great liar. And I wouldn't look at a hardcore man and tell him that I just fucking quit.

• 25:01David Goggins?

  So I looked at him and said, hey, you know what? Sorry, man, this, this sickle cell thing, man, the doc was talking about sudden death, stroke, heart attack. I didn't get fucked by sickle cell. But, God, I know the thing about it. I knew I was struggling, I knew I had some, some health issues, but I thought, cause I was killing myself at what I was doing. And he said, no, you're right, man. I wouldn't wanna do that either. So he gave me a medical out of pair rescue. And he said, when we figure this out more, we'll have you come back. I wouldn't ever go back. I'm like, I never, I'm never getting back in the fucking water again, but I was able to leave on a medical. But I quit. You quit. Why do you admit it? Why do you, why do you tell this? I have to.

• 25:44David Goggins?

  Because everybody thinks I'm the world's toughest motherfucker ever lived. And I might be somewhere about that now. But that's where I was. And I tell the story because if I just talk about, I broke the pull-up record. I, I, I did all these fucking races. I went through SEAL training, I went through, I was in three hell weeks, Ranger School. If I talk about all the badassery, like we like doing on social fucking media. And I don't tell you that I was a fucked up kid. And I was scared as shit and I was depressed and insecure and, and all this shit. What good am I for anybody?

• 26:20Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 26:21David Goggins?

  I'm a superhero.

• 26:22Ed Mylett?

  Mm-hmm.

• 26:22David Goggins?

  But I'm a liar.

• 26:23Ed Mylett?

  Mm-hmm.

• 26:24David Goggins?

  I'm that now, but I wasn't born that.

• 26:27Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 26:28David Goggins?

  I had to make myself into this shit.

• 26:30Ed Mylett?

  It's amazing to me that this, you know, you won't accept it this way, but like this military icon, but not really like a social icon too, like when people aspire to be tough and mentally tough. I mean, there are UFC fighters that when they win fights now, quote you in their post-conference interviews. You, I don't even know if you know that or not, but like, I'll watch it, they're like, "Goggins says," you know, seriously, you know, so that guy kind of bullshits his way out of the military.

• 26:56David Goggins?

  Right.

• 26:57Ed Mylett?

  Like, that's, that's staggering. And then that guy, if you don't mind me jumping ahead a little bit, then that guy ends up kind of living in an apartment, gains a ton of weight, gets up to almost 300 pounds, killing cockroaches as an exterminator. This is just crazy where we're gonna go right now. And then where we're gonna go after that's even more bananas, but go ahead, jump back.

• 27:18David Goggins?

  So it was funny though, so I, I get out of pararescue, so I go to a job called Tac P. Just real quick about that, it's a great fucking job, the best job in the military, but I'm all poopy past knock, I'm not a pararescuer. So I'm thinking Tac P's some weak ass motherfuckers.

• 27:31Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 27:31David Goggins?

  Tac P-

• 27:32Ed Mylett?

  Right, Del Toro.

• 27:33David Goggins?

  Is one of the best fucking jobs in the world.

• 27:35Ed Mylett?

  Mm-hmm.

• 27:36David Goggins?

  But my mind, once again, has me shackled. And I'm thinking, I'm not a pararescuer, so I'm like, you know, I'm, Tac P was a great job, I had great friends in it, and I did it pretty well.

• 27:47Ed Mylett?

  Mm-hmm.

• 27:47David Goggins?

  But I could have been so much better.

• 27:50Ed Mylett?

  Mm-hmm.

• 27:50David Goggins?

  My mind was once again hijacking me. So I get out, and it, but from, from the time from 1994 to 1999, or 1998, I go from 175 pounds to 297. Not much education.

• 28:07Ed Mylett?

  Mm-hmm.

• 28:08David Goggins?

  Four and a half years in the military, I started spraying for cockroaches. And uh making a thousand dollars a month. And I had an eight hundred and ten dollar apartment. So I'm scrounging dude. And so my life is hard. And uh but fuck it, I'm spraying for cockroach from eleven o'clock at night to seven o'clock in the morning. And that's my life. But, once again, man, you can't lie to yourself. I can lie to you, I can lie to everybody else, and I was great at it. But buddy, every fucking day, in that dirty mirror, that accountability mirror was no more. Fuck that accountability mirror, let's just fucking shave my head and go to work. But I saw my reflection every day, but I really didn't know how fat I was. I I I didn't really wanna look at myself. But I was haunted.

• 28:53David Goggins?

  These demons were in my head every day, man, you ain't shit, man, god, dog, man, you wear this fucking uniform, you get in your fucking Ecolab truck. You go spray for cockroaches. You fucking go in the kitchens, you eat your fucking brownies and shit in the back kitchen, you make shakes and shit while you're in there, man, I was like, fuck, man, so. I come home, and I never forget it, I used to spray down Steak and Shake, my last stop at about six thirty at night. Or six thirty in the morning, I sprayed on Steak and Shake, and they had this big large shake, they they gave me this special cup. And they just dumped the fucking chocolate milkshake in there, and I go across the street to the seven eleven. I had a forty-five minute commute home. And I would be, and I'd go over to seven eleven and get these chocolate donuts, like the mini Hostess donuts.

• 29:35David Goggins?

  And I was popping them like fucking Tic Tacs, dude, I you know, it was like, I eat it, I just fucking pop it, boom. Just fucking, just be driving, listening to the radio, popping them like Tic Tacs, drinking the shake. So there's, so by the time I got home, that box of donuts was gone. My mom lived about two miles down the road, cause she moved to Indianapolis, Indiana now. So, what would happen is this, so I would eat that, and my routine was this, shit you not, my breakfast was not that. My, that was my snack for my forty-five, so my, my mom, and this is no fucking shit. My breakfast, you know those fucking Pillsbury cinnamon rolls? You got the five, you got the eight. I had the eight.

• 30:16David Goggins?

  So you had the eight, she baked that shit, and then, it was seven to eight scrambled eggs hard.

• 30:24David Goggins?

  And half a pound of bacon, well done, and I would chase that motherfucker down with fruity pebbles, two bowls, or fruit, something sugary. That was my breakfast after the fucking donuts and the shake. So, this day though, I get home, call my mom up on the phone, she goes, you want your staple? I'm like, hell yeah, I want my fucking staple, you know? And that's how I talk to my mom, you know, me and my mom come up with some fucked up shit.

• 30:49Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 30:50David Goggins?

  She go, man, why you cuss so much? Cause my life wasn't easy.

• 30:52Ed Mylett?

  Sure.

• 30:53David Goggins?

  So I'm like, it's shit recorded for me. So my mom cusses at me because, but we have a great relationship. Okay, Greg, come over. And so, at this time, my routine was to come home, turn the TV on, listen to the TV, like blare it, cause like, like literally, I have this big living room and my shower was like back down the hallway. So I turn the TV on, like blare the TV and kinda like listen to it a little bit as I showered. I'm hearing Navy SEAL. Heard about them, knew about them, but now I wanna come out and see what they're fucking talking about, cause I heard World's toughest. So I come out and watch this documentary. I come out, I basically, I have my towel and I have my shake down on the, on the counter. I have this little fucking TV in this huge, huge living room. So I'm looking at the TV, I'm leaning forward and I'm watching this shit.

• 31:37David Goggins?

  And it pretty much goes through first phase, second phase, and third phase, but they concentrate on Hell Week. But all I saw was the Pacific Ocean.

• 31:46Ed Mylett?

  Right, water again.

• 31:47David Goggins?

  Dude, I saw nothing but water, more water than pair of rescue. And these guys are like going from this big class to this, it shows them quitting. And I see nothing but this jackhammer, guys, snot bubbles and just roaring around, sugar cookies, in and out of the surf. And carrying these boats and logs, I'm like, fuck that, that shit looks evil. But guys, as they quit, I saw like their soul leaving their bodies almost on screen, cause th- this look came over them. And I imagined, I, I remember myself back in pair rescue training, I bet that's how I fucking looked in front of that fucking Sartre Lumberg. And I bet he could see in my eyes that I was basically quitting. He knew I was quitting. He just gave me a medical.

• 32:32David Goggins?

  That motherfucker knew it. As a man looking at another man, you know when the man's done. And I'm like, so I, I, I, I thought about something. I said, I said, motherfucker knew I was quitting, dude. He just didn't, he saved me and didn't want to tell me I was quitting. He knew it, because I can look at somebody now and say, okay, dude, you're good. But I know you're quitting. It ain't your fucking knee or your back or whatever. You're quitting. He saw that in me and I said, motherfucker, man. So now I'm watching these guys go through training and it goes down to 22 guys were left. And it was amazing how it ended. Because these words, I don't know them exactly, but it's in my book exactly.

• 33:11David Goggins?

  And this command officer is at graduation and these 22 guys graduate, buts, SEAL training. And his command officer is in his dress whites. He's up there, some old skinny fucking commander, fucking, but you could tell he's been through the shit. Salty looking motherfucker. And he's looking hard and his, and his speech was amazing. He goes, we live in a society where mediocrity is often rewarded. And he looked down at the 22 men and he says something about basically you all the test mediocrity. And he goes on to talk about this mediocrity and shit. And I just sat back and I said, God, man, I just want to be like these motherfuckers. I want to feel, because now I was projecting myself in those chairs. I wanted, how can, how do y'all feel?

• 33:56David Goggins?

  Like right now? And I go, I want to feel like you do. You, you 22 men, I want to feel like that, man. I said, I'm tired of feeling the way I feel every day. I'm tired of how I feel. I'm tired of lying to myself, lying to people and just being some piece of shit. And I always knew in the back of my mind, I could be something special. Yes. But I knew the work it was going to take was going to kill me. I was afraid of that. I was afraid of the brutality and the suffering I was going to have to endure. But I knew, I knew I could do something. But I'm like, I ain't trying to do that kind of work, man. I'm just not trying to do that. So I chose the path of the easy, of, of least resistance.

• 34:37David Goggins?

  So now my ideas, it, it became so haunting and daunting on me, my, myself. That's it, I'm done. I'm fucking done. And I thought I fixed myself in the accountability mirror where my mom put the letter down on the bed. Yeah. Nah.

• 34:54David Goggins?

  So now, at this point, I actually drive back to Buffalo, New York to see my dad. Haven't seen him in years.

• 35:01Ed Mylett?

  I've not heard this part.

• 35:02David Goggins?

  And no one knows about this. I didn't even put this in the book even. So before I start this journey to be Navy SEAL, I go back to see my dad because I realize now I gotta fix some shit. I'm blaming everything. I gotta go back. You know how a lot of times like if you're a runner, your, your, your, your right knee may hurt? But it's not your right knee that hurts, it's really your left hip.

• 35:21Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 35:22David Goggins?

  But we're concentrating on the right knee. I'm concentrating on all my shit. But I need to go back to the root of the problem, which is my dad. I gotta face the demon. I gotta go back and see what made him so fucked up to make me so fucked up. Why am I fucked up?

• 35:37Ed Mylett?

  Mm-hmm.

• 35:38David Goggins?

  So I go back and I, and I go back in as a, as an older man now. I'm in my twenties. I'm not a kid anymore. And I wanna see this man and face him as a, as a, as a grown man, but still as a kid in my head. I was still a kid, but I was a grown man as, as my age. And went back and I realized he was the same man that he was.

• 35:57Ed Mylett?

  Still the same.

• 35:58David Goggins?

  Still the same. And I talked to him. He was still nuts. And, um, but I, I, I had to go back and face that one more time. But to face it in a different way.

• 36:08Ed Mylett?

  How'd you do it different?

• 36:10David Goggins?

  I looked at him in a way, we never said sorry to one another, and he went off about my mom and my grandparents and all kinda shit. But I looked at him in a way that I realize now, why you fucked us up? I had to almost be him to realize, it's okay, brother. It's okay. Cause I realized that somewhere in your fucking life, something fucked you up. And you didn't deal with it. And so you put that shit on me, my mom, and everybody around you. I'm gonna deal with my shit. So even though you gave me all this shit, you, you gave me a satchel of shit that I didn't deserve. And now I'm all fucked up and people think I'm a fucking liar and I'm all fucked up. You gave me this.

• 36:53David Goggins?

  You created this fucking nightmare of Goggins. I'm gonna fix it though. So now I get it. I look at, and this is what I'm saying in my head.

• 37:01Ed Mylett?

  That's my favorite thing you've ever said right now. And I love all of it, but that's my favorite thing. I've never heard that.

• 37:06David Goggins?

  I'm gonna fix it now. So I almost take it. I take all this shit. It's mine. I'm gonna fix all this shit. But I know to fix shit, people wanna find peace immediately. And this is where people don't like me.

• 37:19David Goggins?

  I don't believe that shit.

• 37:20Ed Mylett?

  Mm-hmm.

• 37:22David Goggins?

  You ain't gonna find it through fucking yoga and all this other bullshit. I stretch out a lot and I believe in yoga, you know, all this shit's great, but you ain't gonna find it in some fucking room. You're gonna find peace from going to war with yourself, cause we all got shit. We all got shit. People look at me, every, the reason why my story resonates with people, because I don't hide. I'll tell you exactly who the fuck I am, I will admit to it. People are great at hiding. So they wanna just find peace. No, you gotta, you gotta take your shit, fix whatever's fucked up in you, don't just shove it under the rug, fix it, and then you'll find some peace later. After you fix some shit. So now, I'm realizing this, I go home, several months go by, and now I'm like, okay, here we go.

• 38:03David Goggins?

  It's time to be a Navy SEAL. I start calling these fucking recruiters, man. And when you're 297 pounds, and you had prior service, man recruiters laugh at your ass, dude.

• 38:14Ed Mylett?

  Right, and you're not, you're not 22 years old either.

• 38:16David Goggins?

  I'm 24.

• 38:16Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 38:17David Goggins?

  And so, I'm fat, I'm out of shape, and, and I know this. And, so, I finally, after two weeks of calling recruiters, I found this guy named Steven Saljo. And Steven Saljo says, "Come on in the office." I walk in the office, he looks at me, and he's the first recruiter that said, "You know what? Damn, you're a big fucking dude, man, you wanna be a SEAL?" I said, "Yeah," but he didn't give me the look of like, "You can't do it." He gave me a look of, "Let's go weigh ya." He weighed me, 297, he went through his little chart, started writing all this shit down, and he said, "Uh, you got a lofty, lofty task ahead of you." I go, "Why?" He goes, "Well, this program that I was trying to get into," cause I, I was in the reserves.

• 39:01David Goggins?

  And I was gonna go from the reserve program to an active duty SEAL, so this program was shutting down. And I was gonna be in the last class, like, one or two classes left before it shut down. So I had about three months to get the weight standard.

• 39:16Ed Mylett?

  A hundred pounds in three months.

• 39:17David Goggins?

  A hundred and six pounds. So, the standard for a six foot one person back then, six foot, six foot one, I forget what it was, it was 191. And I was 297. So, I pretty much said, "Fuck this, this pretty much can't work for me, man, this is impossible." So I go back to work spraying for cockroach and I hit the motherload. Like, I fucking, I, I, I hit...

• 39:40David Goggins?

  The motherload of cockroaches, rodents and everything. And I I go out to the to the dumpster and these animals, I was like, fuck, I go, I I'm done. So I quit my job right then. A- actually, the boss had to come to my, I quit. The boss had to come looking for me to get the truck back. I I I left work, so he had to come to my house. I didn't even go to work again. So all these restaurants, I had the keys to them all, the fucking alarm codes. All the keys were in the fucking truck. They're like, he had to come by and lock in my door and say, but but he brought some friends with him. Kyle tore it nice and proud.

• 40:19Ed Mylett?

  Right, big dude.

• 40:20David Goggins?

  I need some fucking backup.

• 40:21Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 40:21David Goggins?

  I'm like, dude, I'm out. And so I had now started my journey. And so now I'm like, I'm losing the fucking weight. But my first run was four miles.

• 40:33Ed Mylett?

  That's what you had to run that day on your plan.

• 40:34David Goggins?

  That's my plan. As I'm driving the truck back home from quitting my job, I'm literally, I drive home. I get my shoes on and I run a quarter mile, come home crying.

• 40:47Ed Mylett?

  You stopped after quarter mile?

• 40:48David Goggins?

  Yeah, walked back home because I was exhausted. Because I used to, I hadn't run in like years.

• 40:54Ed Mylett?

  You're sucking down.

• 40:54David Goggins?

  I remember, yeah, I I remember back when I was one seventy five. Running was easy. I was one of the fastest runners in class. But now it's just hard, man. I'm fat, I'm out of shape. And I was just defeated because now I was one seventy five, I was in good shape. And I got myself into a bigger hole now. And now I have to, now I gotta lose this weight and I gotta take the ASVAB again to get in the Navy. So I gotta take that, so I I took that fucker two more times. Because the first time I passed it, but I had to get a fifty on mechanical comprehensive, so there's like ten different sections. Had to get a fifty, I got a forty four. You can only get a waiver for five points.

• 41:35David Goggins?

  So I had to take it again. And guess what happened? It's it's in the book really well. It's exactly what happened. I take the ASVAB test and I took it and now they have computers. Back when I took it the first time, it's like all like scan, tron shit. So now I see a computer, so now I'm freaking out. Oh, my God, it's on the computer. So I take it and the sergeant in charge of the ASVAB test isn't supposed to tell you what you got. So I take it for my second time in my last time. They're not gonna let me take it again. So I'm now down to 215 pounds. I'm losing the weight, but now I take the ASVAB test for the second time to get in the Navy. As I leave, I get out to my car. And I'm like, this is my life, man. I gotta find out what I got in this fucking test, because usually it takes two days to get the results back.

• 42:20David Goggins?

  But they get them immediately. Once, once you hit send, that, that guy gets it right there. So I'm like, fuck that, man. I go back in. I go, hey, man, can you please? He goes, man, this is fucking military protocol. I'm not breaking it for you. I'm like, people are still taking the fucking test. I'm like crying. I'm like, man, you don't understand what I've been through, man. Like, this is my life. Please, I'm begging this guy, please let me know what I got. So he scrolls through, he sees David guy, he goes, you got 65. I go, great. I don't care about that. That was my overall score. I go, what did I get on mechanical? He goes, you're asking a lot for me, man. I go, please, man, like, I, I have to get a 50 on mechanical.

• 43:02David Goggins?

  He scrolls over. I got exactly a 50. I, have, have you seen The Pursuit of Happiness?

• 43:09Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 43:10David Goggins?

  How that motherfucker, when he runs in the stairs, he gets a job, and like, like your hair stands up the back of your neck because he worked so hard to get this shit? When I left that ASVAB, and I, it's nighttime, I'm getting in my car. It felt like that.

• 43:25Ed Mylett?

  Did it?

• 43:26David Goggins?

  Something came over. It felt like I truly accomplished. You know, I passed it before, but now I know I'm all in.

• 43:32Ed Mylett?

  That's good for me to hear, for people to hear, because I have a hard time picturing you celebrating anything. And so that's good to hear that something, that, of all the things you've accomplished, you celebrated that.

• 43:44David Goggins?

  You know what's funny?

• 43:44Ed Mylett?

  Hmm.

• 43:45David Goggins?

  I haven't celebrated it since then.

• 43:50David Goggins?

  Because.

• 43:52David Goggins?

  I needed that to start the war.

• 43:55Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 43:56David Goggins?

  Without that, the celebration was, I can start the war now. It wasn't that I won the war. I can start my war. That's what made me, that's what I've been celebrating since, I'm always in that battle. I have peace, but I'm in this battle every fucking day. So I got to 50, I can start war now. I'm down to 215, I have about another month to go. Or whatever it is to fucking lose the weight. I dropped the weight, I'm in SEAL training now. The war now can begin.

• 44:25Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 44:26David Goggins?

  And it does.

• 44:27Ed Mylett?

  And the war begins, but I gotta tell you, it has to be a movie. Cause I'm listening to you, it has to be a movie. Like the book, by the way, the book, everybody, you have to get the book. Okay, I'm telling you, I read it in a day. And, but now hearing you live and hearing some of the things that weren't in there. Um, it's moving to me because now, and this is just the very beginning of the war too. So, so this man loses.

• 44:52David Goggins?

  I think we're in chapter three right now.

• 44:54Ed Mylett?

  This guy sucks down Steak Shack shakes and donuts and fruity pebbles or whatever the hell it was and all the stuff mom's making you. It's amazing too, I think a little lesson in there, David, is you had all these times where you thought, now I've changed. And that's important for people to hear too, cause I've had that too. It's like, hey, now I got it, now I'm on it, now. And even seeing your dad, even the dad thing, that was a breakthrough, but then even after that, it was like, it took the damn frigging cockroaches and rodents to flip you. And then even after that, you run the quarter mile, come home crying to yourself.

• 45:28David Goggins?

  Right.

• 45:29Ed Mylett?

  So it's all these things like, I think everyone thinks like, there's just gonna be this defining moment, period where everything changes.

• 45:35David Goggins?

  Cause that's the movie.

• 45:36Ed Mylett?

  That's, and.

• 45:37David Goggins?

  That's the movie.

• 45:37Ed Mylett?

  And it's not real, is it? I've never had, I've had moments, but it's never been like, that was it and I've never been the same again.

• 45:44David Goggins?

  This is life.

• 45:45Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 45:46David Goggins?

  And that's what I talk about, man. Like, like life is not a movie. It's not a movie where you have one breakthrough and like you're just taking off. No, man.

• 45:54Ed Mylett?

  Didn't you have to do Hell Week three times?

• 45:56David Goggins?

  Yeah, so.

• 45:57Ed Mylett?

  Why?

• 45:57David Goggins?

  How that happened was, once again, this is where the war really began.

• 46:02Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 46:03David Goggins?

  Um, so now, I'm, I'm in SEAL training and I'm like almost in awe. Cause I'm like, my God, I'm around the baddest men on the planet, from what I thought back then. But once you are able to get in the doors, you realize there's this fucking men. And that's when I realized, okay. This is good for me to see, man. They're fucking like me. I had to work a little harder to get here, but now that I'm on the same plane for the ZIM, let's fucking go to war, guys. So how it happened was, there was a guy there at, the, the command officer of BUDS was Captain Bowen. He was an old crusty Vietnam vet and um, he had a different way of doing shit.

• 46:45David Goggins?

  And basically, no matter where you're at in training, if you failed something, he was gonna roll you back to day one, week one. We had guys who were two weeks from graduation, six month program, that got rolled back to day one, week one. They didn't have to go through hell week again, but they got rolled back to phase one. Day one of phase one, but not, but, but they skipped hell week. For me, I got rolled back in first phase, three times. First phase where hell week is at. And how it happened was, since I was a reservist, that also fucked me. So I had a double fuck on my ass. So basically, hell week was, I think, the third or fourth week when I was going through.

• 47:24David Goggins?

  And it starts on Sunday, ends on Friday. I get there and I had fucked up shin splints, stress fractures, double pneumonia, so I get rolled back to day one, week one. And I got started hell week again. I didn't complete that hell week. So now, I get to my second class, day one, week one, I'm going through. I get through hell week, happy as shit. But when I was in hell week, I actually broke my kneecap. And I'm thinking, I'm not getting rolled again, dude. And I really talk about this really good in the book, but I was going through the highlights here. So, I'm toughing it out. Like, I'm not, I'm gonna go through BUDS with a fucking broken knee. And my stress fractures are on fucking fire. But I'm, I'm, I'm going through.

• 48:10David Goggins?

  So now, I have to do this, uh, we had this knot tying test after, after hell week. And you gotta tread water. And when you're treading with broken kneecap, and, and I'm negative buoyant, so I'm using everything to stay up. And you gotta go down and tie your knots. My kneecap is going in and out, and I'm like, fucking, so. I talk about this in the book. So now, I'm up on the pool deck and I, I talk about it good, whatever. But here we are now, I realize now, I can't get through this. Like, my knee now, from that pool session, is like fucking a basketball. So I realize, I go back, the x-ray, and say, look, man, your shit's done, your patella is done. So I now- Go into Captain Bowen and I'm gonna get rolled again.

• 48:56David Goggins?

  And Captain Bowen looks at me and says, basically, we're gonna let you come back. Captain Bowen and another guy, this other guy that I don't even mention, kind of like once we mentioned him. If it wasn't for this guy, um, I want to miss, I want to miss his name so bad, you know I'm talking about. But I want to miss his name so bad, he actually talked to him a couple minutes ago. This is the guy that made this happen. He broke rules, I believe, to make this happen. Okay. Cause I wasn't supposed to come back for a third time. Okay. Like, this is like inhumane. In one year, go through another hell week. So, I'm sitting there in front of Captain Bowen and Captain Bowen's like, look, man, we're gonna let you come back in class 235. This is class 231 with a broken kneecap. Look it up, man. Like, you don't, that's not a lot of time. That's what I'm thinking. So, this was in May. I classed up again in January.

• 49:43David Goggins?

  I have stress fractures. Stress fractures don't heal that quick, man. Especially when you beat them up. So, I had that much time to heal and that's it. My last time to go through Navy SEAL training. So, I come back and I'm now on my third hell week. We had a guy die on my third hell week from pulmonary edema. As you know, San Diego gets fucking cold, especially in February, March. That water temperature, the Pacific is never warm. He ended up dying. So, I get to, and so we, hell week ended on Thursday morning because he died. Okay. So, in about 30 hours early. But what happened with me was, as I said, hell week starts on Sunday. Usually you don't swell up until about Wednesday.

• 50:28David Goggins?

  My body said, oh shit, man, we're back. On Monday, 24 hours into it, man, I'm the Pillsbury Doughboy. My stress fractures, my, I'm blown up. So, I'm going through hell week like fucking done. But I'm like, I can't quit. It's my last time going through. I can't get rolled. So, I get through hell week and this is where the shit gets fucking evil, man. This is where I start to click into something. When you, when your mind, this is this, this whole 40% rule shit I talk about all the time. That I made up a long time ago. I started making it up through pain.

• 51:04Ed Mylett?

  Tell them what that is. Where'd you go?

• 51:05David Goggins?

  So basically, the forty percent rule is I am a strong believer that we quit. Cause why? How the fuck does a two hundred ninety-seven pound cockroach guy?

• 51:13Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 51:14David Goggins?

  Who quit on everything is now considered one of the best men on the planet?

• 51:17Ed Mylett?

  Mm-hmm.

• 51:18David Goggins?

  How is that possible?

• 51:19Ed Mylett?

  Mm-hmm.

• 51:19David Goggins?

  It means I had to change one thing, my mindset.

• 51:23Ed Mylett?

  Mm-hmm.

• 51:24David Goggins?

  So, there's no way in hell that that was in, but that was. That guy was in me.

• 51:28Ed Mylett?

  Mm-hmm.

• 51:29David Goggins?

  When that guy came down here and said, "Hey, guess what, man? You're a fat ass, but I'm gonna now make you a badass. I wanna miracle this shit to be a badass." No, it was in me. I had to believe and make that belief work.

• 51:44Ed Mylett?

  Mm.

• 51:45David Goggins?

  And through hard work, I did that.

• 51:46Ed Mylett?

  Mm.

• 51:47David Goggins?

  So the forty percent rule is like we have like a car. Some cars have a governor on it.

• 51:52Ed Mylett?

  Mm-hmm.

• 51:52David Goggins?

  And when you get to like ninety-two miles an hour, that car start doing this, cause it can't go any faster.

• 51:56Ed Mylett?

  Mm-hmm.

• 51:57David Goggins?

  Those cars that don't have governors on it, like a fast-ass whatever, Porsche, whatever, that motherfucker can bury it, gone.

• 52:03Ed Mylett?

  Mm-hmm.

• 52:03David Goggins?

  We have that ability in us, but we have put this governor on our minds.

• 52:08Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 52:09David Goggins?

  And you have to, the factory that put the governor on that car, the factory is now you. That put that shit on your fucking mind. You gotta take that motherfucker off.

• 52:18Ed Mylett?

  Mm.

• 52:18David Goggins?

  Until you take it off, you're gonna constantly get to ninety-two miles an hour and do this.

• 52:23Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 52:24David Goggins?

  Cause you ain't gonna go faster.

• 52:25Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 52:26David Goggins?

  In my fact, you might even go slower.

• 52:27Ed Mylett?

  Mm.

• 52:28David Goggins?

  So basically, I started realizing this through my life, through going through all these times. So now I get through hell week, we ended like thirty hours early, and now we're in walk week. After you get through hell week, you have walk week. And walk week is when you're basically just walking around to heal up your body. And I walk week ended early because the instructors were pissed off. A guy dies.

• 52:50Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 52:51David Goggins?

  But the instructors are mad that we didn't finish a complete hell week, but I already had a complete hell week already.

• 52:55Ed Mylett?

  Of course.

• 52:56David Goggins?

  Cause I already gone through one already. So, now, I'm sitting here thinking, man, I went through fucking one and a half of these. Now I have like two and a half of these motherfuckers.

• 53:04Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 53:05David Goggins?

  And now I'm getting my ass kicked because now the instructors are mad that our class didn't complete a full hell week. And like, they were like getting a pass. So they said, "Roger that." They shut walk week down on like Tuesday. So everybody that was injured, because the hell week was very different than most of them, they had us on our feet the whole time, rucking, doing nothing but rucking, in and out of the water. It was brutal. So it was a much harder hell week than the other ones I was in. So anyway, my legs were broken. I'm saying, how the fuck now there's no walk week? I can't heal. So my idea was this, I'm gonna have to leave my house early, cause I lived off base. And um, I, I left early. I got to my dive cage where we had duct tape.

• 53:48David Goggins?

  So I put my black sock on about four o'clock in the morning, put a black sock on, and what I did was I got duct tape. So you know, whenever you move your ankle, it causes your shin to hurt if you have any issue up here. So what I did was I casted with duct tape. So I, I, I put the duct tape over the sock. And so that, so, so the sock kind of protected it to give it a little cushion. I duct taped it as tight as I could. And right here at the pivot point, it created a huge pressure ulcer because your ankle still wants to move. So that tape would just dig in there. So I did that every single day because my stress fractures were just killing me. So I ran pretty much for the first forty-five minutes, the most excruciating pain in my life.

• 54:32David Goggins?

  And so, but basically at the forty-five minutes, my legs would go numb. And when they go numb, you don't feel this shit anymore. So I went through buds like this. So now, the fucked up thing about it. My gosh, man. Is I get to the third phase.

• 54:50David Goggins?

  And for some reason, man, I healed my stress fractures.

• 54:55David Goggins?

  And I, to this day, I haven't had them ever since. But I literally, from running, and I'm not saying don't do this. But people go highs, you get through it. By the time I got to third phase, which is like maybe three and a half months later. When I went to third phase, my stress fractures were healed. That's crazy. And I ran on them. If people say, was it shin splints? No motherfucker. I had x-rays.

• 55:20Ed Mylett?

  Mm-hmm.

• 55:20David Goggins?

  They were breaks in my legs.

• 55:21Ed Mylett?

  Man.

• 55:22David Goggins?

  So, and I'm not saying do that.

• 55:24Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 55:25David Goggins?

  But, it, because it, it's very painful.

• 55:27Ed Mylett?

  Well, most people are willing to go to a point where they get their body to the point where it gets numb.

• 55:31David Goggins?

  Right.

• 55:31Ed Mylett?

  That you were, right?

• 55:32David Goggins?

  And people say, why did you do that?

• 55:34Ed Mylett?

  Hmm.

• 55:34David Goggins?

  Is either that or not becoming Navy SEAL.

• 55:36Ed Mylett?

  Do you think, can I ask you a question about Navy SEALs?

• 55:38David Goggins?

  Yeah.

• 55:39Ed Mylett?

  I'm just curious. You've been to three hell weeks, which is, is, as you hear this, it's just, it's bananas. Do you, do you know, do you have any insight what the difference is for someone who finishes and doesn't? Because I've heard you say, I respect guys who didn't finish it too, right? So, is there some separator? Does your ability just go away when the pain happens? What is it?

• 55:59David Goggins?

  There's only one separator, man. And, um, and anybody, not just Navy SEALs, but anybody that can accomplish anything that is hard. The only separator is, is that they really want to be there. There's some people that get inspired, and that inspiration moves them to try to do something. But the inspiration is very high right now in this nice environment. We're in a nice environment, the ocean's out there, I'm talking to you, if I want to go to the fucking refrigerator and get something to drink, eat, I can. I watch a movie about some badasses, you're inspired.

• 56:37Ed Mylett?

  Mm-hmm.

• 56:38David Goggins?

  But the second, you're not in this environment.

• 56:41Ed Mylett?

  Mm-hmm.

• 56:42David Goggins?

  And you're actually doing what inspired you, that suck factor is now real. You can't just get off your fucking couch and get a fucking shake, or get a fucking box of donuts, or, or turn the TV, or go take a shit, or piss, or go, go get your girlfriend a cup of, no.

• 56:58Ed Mylett?

  Mm-hmm.

• 56:58David Goggins?

  You're now there. And only those people who have been there a million times in their minds.

• 57:05Ed Mylett?

  Hmm.

• 57:06David Goggins?

  And have lived in that water, and have suffered a million times, and realize, my legs may break.

• 57:14David Goggins?

  My knee may break, my bones will hurt. I will be the coldest I've been in my life. I will be miserable and accept that. Because what happens is when you get in a horrible situation in life, your mind, I call it my one second decision. When you get in a horrible situation in life, your mind immediately says, get the fuck out of here. Everybody does, even if you want to be there. But it starts to have all these different questions in your mind in that one second. It says, okay, why are you here? Why are you doing this? Why this? Why that? And then you start to say to yourself, if you don't want to be there that bad, I have a beautiful wife at home, man. Why the fuck am I doing this, man? Like, this is stupid. This is gonna get these guys injured. Like, they're gonna pay for this for the rest of their lives. I'm not gonna break my body up to do this.

• 58:00David Goggins?

  Your mind starts to say, yeah, this is stupid. But if you have, if you are already knowing that this is gonna happen to you, you have all the answers to these questions that your mind starts to give you when you're in suffer mode. And that's what I realized.

• 58:16Ed Mylett?

  You true that's your visualization of those moments over and over?

• 58:19David Goggins?

  Over and over again. You have to be there over, but not there at the graduation.

• 58:25Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 58:26David Goggins?

  You gotta be there in the worst parts that you know over and over again. You gotta live that in your mind.

• 58:32Ed Mylett?

  Do you like suffering or do you just deal with suffering? Real answer.

• 58:37David Goggins?

  Real answer?

• 58:37Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 58:39David Goggins?

  I like to see, real answer, I like to get a bunch of men together.

• 58:45Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 58:45David Goggins?

  Men that are the hardest of the hard. And I want to be with these men. And I want to see them suffer.

• 58:56David Goggins?

  Cause I'm suffering right along with you, but I want to see me get through it. I want to see what you're made of. I want to see like, almost like the Colosseum in Rome. Let's fucking go to the fucking Colosseum.

• 59:12David Goggins?

  And the only way to see who the baddest motherfucker is, is to suffer. You can't do it by writing a paper. So let's go. Because why? What I found out through my life was I thought of myself as some weak little bitch kid. And what I found out, and the only message I want to get across to people is, once you change one thing, your mindset.

• 59:35David Goggins?

  You can attack everything. And I find it fascinating. I'm fascinated. Cause I'll be in these moments. I put these guys on some fucking pedestal.

• 59:45Ed Mylett?

  Yeah. What people do with you?

• 59:47David Goggins?

  They do with me and they shouldn't. And I was this guy who was a piece of shit looking at these, oh my God, how are you guys just amazing? But once I worked my way up there. I said, my God, man, we can all compete, motherfucker. Let's go. So do I like suffering? I like suffering in the way that is competitive.

• 1:00:08Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 1:00:09David Goggins?

  That brings out the absolute best in me and in everybody else. So like I wanna see a man be defeated. I wanna see a man get broken and say, fuck you. I love these men. These men I love, but there's very few of them. There's very few of them. And there's very few that are willing to go there more than once. A lot of people, even people who've gone through special ops. It kicks the shit out of them to a point where in their mind, what got me bad in pair rescue? Was when I was going through it. I said, I'm only gonna do this one time.

• 1:00:50David Goggins?

  And so many people in special ops where they believe it or not, in anything, fuck special ops in anything, that's hard. I'm only doing this one time. Once you say that, you fuck yourself.

• 1:01:02Ed Mylett?

  The truth, I gotta tell you. Off camera, you and I were talking about something. Now we're gonna go to something cool.

• 1:01:06David Goggins?

  Okay.

• 1:01:08Ed Mylett?

  Well, we've been in something cool, but like I work with a lot of athletes when they get out of their career. They made this massive sacrifice all their life to get to the NFL. They make that thing happen. They're only willing to do it once.

• 1:01:20David Goggins?

  Right.

• 1:01:20Ed Mylett?

  And when that's over. Their identity's set on that thing forever. And they just repeat the stories from that time over and over.

• 1:01:27David Goggins?

  That's right.

• 1:01:28Ed Mylett?

  And I watch them have such a difficult second half of their life. I try to help them with that. I've watched it with my business people. And you and I were talking off camera, so I've, I've started to uncover with me. The last couple of years that I've been on social media and teaching these things. And if you gave me that mirror test the last couple of years.

• 1:01:46David Goggins?

  Right.

• 1:01:46Ed Mylett?

  That accountability mirror, when I look in it. I'm starting to look at a dude who used to do some crazy shit that was cool in his life. Really accomplished some things. And all these accolades, people follow you, they listen to you, they they think you're something special. You have that, I have that. Clearly, the differences in our lives are too vast to even mention what you've achieved. The things you've overcome are completely different than mine. But I'm starting to realize something about myself that I want to give the audience a gift of, and I want you to talk about it. You know what? I've just accepted, I'm only gonna be happy when I'm grinding for something.

• 1:02:19David Goggins?

  That's right.

• 1:02:19Ed Mylett?

  I'm only gonna be happy when I'm growing. I don't want to talk about stuff I used to do. I uh, I wanna do something great with my life. I don't know that I can get to the mental level you have, but I think everybody here needs to know something. If you just think you're gonna do something temporarily once, man, you're gonna be unhappy when it's over.

• 1:02:37David Goggins?

  That's right.

• 1:02:38Ed Mylett?

  How about you right now? When you look in the mirror right now, so Goggins looks in the accounting mirror today. What does he see and what are your thoughts about that?

• 1:02:48David Goggins?

  So, same with you. What happened with me was like, so who I was, I was this nobody guy. And I created this Goggins. And that Goggins, there's David Goggins and there's Goggins. David Goggins is a calm, cool guy that sits back. Used to be a, you know, weak kid. Now he's just a normal guy. Goggins is a guy that is willing to tape up his legs to go after it. In that book, you read about David Goggins and also Goggins. What I realized in my life is that Goggins is who I love. Goggins is who I created. My dad created David Goggins.

• 1:03:33David Goggins?

  I created Goggins. So what's happening with me and since Can't Hurt Me came out, and since I got on social media, which is why I fucking don't like social media, which is why I'm not on there very much, which is why I give people one time. I have to do me. I have to do me. So people get it fucking twisted, man. I am who I am. What's in that book is me. So now what they see is this guy who's trying to get people to get off their fucking ass. That just happened to happen, man. I didn't set out. When I set out to be a fucking SEAL and set out to go to Ranger School and all this other shit I did and break records. I didn't set out to fucking please motherfuckers.

• 1:04:17Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 1:04:18David Goggins?

  I didn't set out to say, "Hey, pay me now. I got a great fucking story." Fuck that. And I realize now that my life has kind of gotten to a point where people know me. I have followers and whatnot. The biggest depression of my life is you get caught up into helping so many people out. And it's great, and I love that, but you lose yourself in all of that shit. It literally, and people go, "Man, but my God, like you're changing." I get all that shit, man. But what the fuck is motivating you in that book? What's motivating you is the fucking stories I'm telling you about what I did in my life. Once I stop living that, I'm no more.

• 1:05:01Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 1:05:02David Goggins?

  I am not the fucker that you are now being motivated from. So right now in the mirror, I now got back to Goggins. I'm now back to running a hundred miles a week. I'm now back to getting the fuck. I saw and I talk to my girl about all the time. You, you, you travel, you speak, you, you know, you, you, all this shit. It's all fucking great and dandy for some, for most people. I'm Goggins. What, what makes me me is the dungeon. And yeah, and people go, "Well, oh my God, like they're gonna hear this. My God, dude, you don't have any peace." And you're like, "Don't get it fucking twisted." Weak people who hear me get all fucking poopy pants about how I talk. So be it.

• 1:05:46David Goggins?

  What changed me was I had to be hard on myself.

• 1:05:50Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 1:05:51David Goggins?

  And I have to continue to grind myself into a fine dust.

• 1:05:57Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:57David Goggins?

  Period. That's where I feel good. I feel like I accomplished something. If things come easy, it's not fun. I must fail at something repeatedly. It has to haunt me. And then, once I complete it, I feel like I accomplished something. I don't want to sit out and say, oh, there's an A. We're good. It's fucking stupid. No. I want to turn it in a million times and say, you failed. You failed. And I say, okay, Roger that. And sit there and analyze what I'm doing wrong. Go to these places that people don't go to anymore because all this fucking social media shit and everything's computerized. I want to go to that dark place in my mind and say, okay, how are we going to get this done?

• 1:06:39Ed Mylett?

  I think people, the right people are happy when they're challenged by something. Like when they're pursuing something, when they're challenged, like when there's, when they're not where they could be.

• 1:06:50David Goggins?

  Right.

• 1:06:50Ed Mylett?

  Where they're, when they're not who they could be.

• 1:06:53David Goggins?

  Right.

• 1:06:53Ed Mylett?

  And you and I were talking about this off camera. It's like, I just want everybody to understand this. This is from two people who are sort of in this space. We love helping people. We love making a difference. But what makes us make a difference is the, is the pursuit of who we've been becoming, these challenges. You and, and all the different ways. You have it in my way and, and millions of people in their way too. Like, I don't want people to think, I just want to get to a place and cool it. Because we, you, you get to that place and cool it, I think you're going to be miserable. You've got to still find somewhere. And I want to kind of go in your head a little bit because I've not lived this and very few people have lived this. It, it, I want to take you back there for a minute. And then at the end, I'm going to ask you what that thing looks like next for you. But, so this whole thing that you did, you get out, we, where I can't cover the whole military thing because I want them to read the book. Right?

• 1:07:37Ed Mylett?

  But then you're like, hey, you've really never done any of this before, but this is sort of the formula of what we're talking about. Then the, then the military thing ends. And then you're like, yeah, I'm gonna go like run, uh, I'm gonna do the Badwater 135.

• 1:07:48David Goggins?

  My cardio was 20 minutes every Sunday on the elliptical trainer.

• 1:07:53Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 1:07:53David Goggins?

  That was it. So I'm looking at all these different races and one comes up, number one, the hardest race in the world. Badwater 135. 135 mile race through Death Valley.

• 1:08:05David Goggins?

  I'm like, that sounds fucking nuts. But I didn't, but it didn't describe that it was like a couple day race. I'm thinking, okay, that has to be like a fucking seven day race. Cause I don't know people who run like that. So I end up calling Chris Cosman up. Chris Cosman is the race director of Badwater. And he lives out here in California. He's like, hey, man. I'm like, hey, Chris. I call him up in the first conversation. I actually have all the emails in my book.

• 1:08:33Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:33David Goggins?

  For me even going back. He's, he's a fucking stickler, man. I'll tell you that. So I call him up. I said, hey, man, I'm gonna do this race. He's like, have you ever run a hundred miles before? I'm like, no. He goes, well, to get my race, you have to do a hundred mile race. And you gotta do a hundred miles in 24 hours or less. There was only two more races I could do before the deadline dropped. And so I'm like, he goes, you live in San Diego, right? I'm like, yeah. This was Wednesday. I call him up on a Wednesday morning. He goes, well, there's a race on Saturday. And it's, it's, it's called the San Diego one day. At Hospitality Point in San Diego. Where you run around a one mile track for 24 hours, it's how many miles you can get. So I'm like, fuck it, man. This guy's kinda calling me out.

• 1:09:18David Goggins?

  I'm, I'm gonna get this shit done. I'm a SEAL. I'm a badass. Been through Ranger School and shit. I got this. Hardest thing I did in my entire life, dude, was this one race. So I go.

• 1:09:30Ed Mylett?

  Harder than, than getting through?

• 1:09:32David Goggins?

  Hell, yeah. I was not prepared. At all. So I go, I sign up for the race. I show up. I'm this big bodybuilder looking guy. Shirt off, black hat on. You know, and I'm, I set out. So every mile, I'm gonna see this blue lawn chair. I had Rich Crackers and Myoplex. That was my fucking nutrition, man. No water, no nut. Just.

• 1:09:56Ed Mylett?

  No water?

• 1:09:57David Goggins?

  No. Rich Crackers and Myoplex, dude.

• 1:09:59Ed Mylett?

  Come on.

• 1:10:00David Goggins?

  I fuck, you know, I never drank water on runs and shit. I fucking didn't know about all this shit. So I go out there and I'm running. I get through 50 miles. I'm gonna cut to the chase, cause I detail it really well in the book. Um, I get going. I sit down at mile 70. And buddy. I hadn't sat down yet. I sit down and everything falls the fuck apart. Literally, man, I'm like peeing blood down my leg. I have some crap coming out of me. And I got thirty fucking miles to go. And I'm in the worst shape in my entire life. And so I won't get too deep into it, man, but I end up going back through my cookie jar and

• 1:10:42David Goggins?

  I talk about, you know, my, my, my cookie jar is basically something I invented about. We forget how badass we are when we're suffering. Cause our mind just stays right there and suffering. The cookie jar is a reminder. You know how your mom used to have the cookie jar, you like, you know, you don't know what kind of cookie you're gonna get. But it may be oatmeal raisin, maybe choc- chocolate chip meat, cause you know, she's dumping in that motherfucker, she's grab one and go. So my cookie jars, the things I've accomplished, failed at, didn't fail at, just, just kept on grinding through. So I take this one second, I calm down, so I realize, okay, man. I gotta be able to just stand up first, come all dizzy and lightheaded. And I go through this process. And I said, I might quit, but not yet. I go, this is the worst shit in my life. So I said I might quit.

• 1:11:25David Goggins?

  Because when you're not gonna quit something, you got thirty miles to go, your mind's spazzing. Like, I'm fucked up. Like, I, like thirty miles is a long way to go, just fresh. I've already gone seventy, I'm the worst shit in my life. I'm like, okay, so I, I'm giving my mind some space. Cause if you don't give it space, it's just gonna freak out. So I'm saying, you know what, I'm gonna quit, but let me just sit here for a second and drink some water. Now, now I'm drinking water. I, I have my crew going over to get some fucking, you know, nutrition, some, some food for me, I'm getting better. So now I stand up. Like, wow, I'm able to stand up now. Cause I wasn't able to, I was all lightheaded. And I'm going on this track and I get to mile eighty-one and I wasn't gonna make the time, cause I was moving slow.

• 1:12:07Ed Mylett?

  You're behind time.

• 1:12:08David Goggins?

  Way behind. And this is the, this is the craziest thing in the world. And I fucking shit you not.

• 1:12:16David Goggins?

  I'm in the worst shape of my entire life ever. I've never even been close to this. Again, never. Mile eighty-one, I'm not gonna make the time, as slow as I was moving. And when your body and mind connect, and I think this is the only time I've ever done this.

• 1:12:34Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 1:12:36David Goggins?

  You become a cyborg.

• 1:12:40David Goggins?

  I end up running twenty miles at about a ten fifteen mile. And get done with that race, I did a hundred and one miles in nineteen hours and six minutes.

• 1:12:52David Goggins?

  And to this day, and I don't detail it well with you, but in the book I do. I learned more from that nineteen hours and six minutes than I did in all three hell weeks. Ranger School, and this is months. Ranger School was sixty something days. Hell Week and all the BUDs is six months. I was in BUDs for like eighteen months. You know, I went through Delta Force Selection twice, you know, pull-up records. I learned more in that one race that I wasn't prepared for. That nineteen hours brought me from utter misery, happiness, failure, success, depression. I went through every fucking emotion in the world in nineteen hours.

• 1:13:37David Goggins?

  And you should hear how the race ended. Then I really took a shit on myself. Like, I got in that blue chair when the race ended. And I literally, it just was over. I was in the worst shape of my life. I got in the tub and they put the shower, or she put the shower on me. The showers hit me as I'm laying in the tub in the fetal position. And what came out of me looked like dirt as I'm peeing. It's not even blood. This is dark brown dirt. And I'm sitting there and she calls my mom. And my mom has a doctor friend over her house. And this guy's one of the best doctors in the country. And he's like, you need to get him to the doctor now. So what I'm about to tell you is gonna fuck you up.

• 1:14:22David Goggins?

  So I'm sitting there and I think I'm gonna die. And worst day of my life. And I'm in this tub and I'm jackhammering and this, and I had this hot water hitting me. And I'm literally in the worst pain, my, my shins, my feet, I'm broken. And I'm just sitting, I'm cramping up. And she said, we gotta get you to the doctor. You know, your mom's worried, I'm worried about like, I, we've never seen this before in my life. And I go, I'm not going anywhere. I wanna sit here and enjoy this pain. And, and I, and I know the listeners hearing this are gonna say, man, you're a fucking nut. No, I'm not.

• 1:15:07David Goggins?

  What I got a chance to experience in that 19 hours and six minutes of my life, was something, I didn't want any painkillers, I, I, this was proof positive. What I was feeling is what I just did. I, I did something without training, without coaching, without a cheering staff, without any knowledge. I took a raw human being with no training whatsoever, put him out in a condition, and just through this alone, got through it.

• 1:15:46David Goggins?

  And I sat there and I was like, this is, it was the best feeling I've ever had and will ever have in my entire. I was in the worst pain in my life and it was the best feeling I ever had in my life. Not because of the pain I was in. By the pain was confirmation of my God, did I just do that? And I had completed hell weeks, but that right there was like, don't take this from me. And, and it was confirmation, proof positive, that this young kid that came from shit, that wasn't shit, that lied and cheated for, I was now.

• 1:16:30David Goggins?

  The truth.

• 1:16:30Ed Mylett?

  God.

• 1:16:32David Goggins?

  I was now the truth. I was a Navy SEAL. I went through Army Ranger School as Honor Man. I went through all this shit. I, I was truth. I became truth. There was no more lie. And what's funny about all that is the people in my life, who were in my life when I was bad. And I call it bad when bad. I had a fucked up way to go, man. They wanna, they're still out there, and it was a fuck I'm saying, I, I ain't gonna drop names on them. They wanna take me back there. They're mad that I'm here.

• 1:17:08Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 1:17:09David Goggins?

  They wanna still make me out to be what I was.

• 1:17:13Ed Mylett?

  Right, right.

• 1:17:14David Goggins?

  They don't like the fact that they're still where the fuck they're at.

• 1:17:17Ed Mylett?

  That's right.

• 1:17:18David Goggins?

  They hate that. So on this journey in life, there's a lot of people who are fucked up right now. On the journey, there's always be that motherfucker in the sewer you came from? That's grabbing at your fucking ankle as you're leaving that sewer? That's wanna drag you right the fuck back down because you figured it out. They're not willing to figure it out. It's not much to figure out. Only thing to figure out is this. And everybody has a different equation. My equation is different than yours. My equation was very different than most people's. And it's not about being sadistic. It was just about that that right there was kinda like the moment of my life where I realized

• 1:18:03David Goggins?

  I don't like to say that I've arrived. Because you never wanna have that I've arrived mentality, cause you stop. But that was the moment that I realized that I was the truth.

• 1:18:12Ed Mylett?

  I've done a lot of shows. Um, but I don't go back and watch them that much. You know, I'll watch them a couple of times when we do them. I'll go back and watch and listen to this last ten or fifteen minutes of we talked about several hundred times. That's the most incredible thing I've heard. I'll just tell you straight up. That's the most incredible, beautiful, magnificent thing I've heard since I've been doing the show. Thank you from me for that.

• 1:18:34David Goggins?

  I appreciate that.

• 1:18:35Ed Mylett?

  I wanna, um, that's just silly, crazy, awesome. I wanna finish on a light note.

• 1:18:41David Goggins?

  Okay.

• 1:18:43Ed Mylett?

  I was saving this for the end because

• 1:18:47Ed Mylett?

  It's just ironic. So, I'm a Rocky fan.

• 1:18:51David Goggins?

  Oh.

• 1:18:52Ed Mylett?

  But this is gonna trip you out. I actually got chills. I was reading about you and prepping, because I've known about you for a long time. And like, I gotta have something in common with this dude, right? I gotta have something in common with him. And so Sly's a friend of mine too now, which is really weird, but um, I'm a Rocky fan, but I'm really a Rocky I fan. But not only am I a Rocky I fan, I've watched the 14th round. See?

• 1:19:18David Goggins?

  Now my chills are coming.

• 1:19:19Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, I've watched the 14th round of the Rocky I movie. I'll venture to say, I can't count them, but it's gotta be more than a thousand times in my life.

• 1:19:28David Goggins?

  Easy.

• 1:19:28Ed Mylett?

  And so, when I was a little boy and all the turmoil in my life and the dysfunction in my family and the things I wanted to achieve, I learned to visualize in my life by watching Rocky. That was my visualization. The fitness part, the training, the overcoming stuff. There's just this little part of me that's like a little mini Rocky in there. It's why I love working out. And for me, it was the way he would take punishment. It's at the end of the 14th when he goes, "Cut me, Mick," and Mick cuts him, right? So, they're gonna think we're both just crazy. But what, have you watched that a couple times? And what did it do for you? I just wanna finish on this, because like, this taught me to visualize and dream. There were no,

• 1:20:08Ed Mylett?

  my family's not like yours, but there's no dreaming or visualizations or motivation or go do something special. There was nothing like that in my house. I had Rocky, and mainly Rocky I. I'll have them all. But like, the Rocky III, running on the beach scene, all that. But Rocky I, 14th round, at least a thousand times. What about you?

• 1:20:29David Goggins?

  No shit? At least 20,000. Why is that?

• 1:20:35Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 1:20:36David Goggins?

  Um, I've dissected that, two minutes and some seconds, two minutes and 13, 14, 15 seconds, at least 20,000 times. When I did the pull-up record, and I finally broke it.

• 1:20:51Ed Mylett?

  Took you three times.

• 1:20:51David Goggins?

  Yep, did 4,030 in 17 hours. I listened to one song. For seventeen hours and it was going the distance. Two minutes and thirteen something fourteen seconds.

• 1:21:05Ed Mylett?

  On a loop?

• 1:21:06David Goggins?

  On a loop, but first, the guy, this guy named Nandor, he kept playing it out loud for everybody. And I brought my own little iPad, I don't really listen to music, but I was failing so many times at this record, I had to go to that place. So I said, you know what, I don't want to bore you all anymore with this same song, because I had, I had a crew of people there filming it, you know, because it had to be documented. So I didn't want them to be there for seventeen hours, listening to the same song, kind of, it bore them. So I put it in my ears, listened the whole time. But I'm gonna go a step further. In that round, where Rocky gets knocked down, and Mickey's saying, stay down, stay down, and he's getting up. Apollo Creed thinks that he knocked him out. So I have this thing called taking souls, okay?

• 1:21:51David Goggins?

  And when you see Apollo Creed turns around, arms in the air, I fucking got him. Do you see when he turns around? And he sees, because he, Apollo Creed knows, I was fucking this dude up. He kept coming after me, and I finally knocked him down. When he turns around and looks at Rocky and, and he says, and watches him get up, and Rocky gets his gloves and forces him to come to him. Apollo puts his head down and just goes like this. It's not so much Rocky getting up, that's big for me.

• 1:22:30David Goggins?

  Apollo Creed's face

• 1:22:33David Goggins?

  became every motherfucker that verbally and non-verbally looked at me, because you know that look they give you when you think that, you know, they may not tell you you're a piece of shit and you're nobody, but they look at you almost like, you poor thing.

• 1:22:49David Goggins?

  I got them all. I got them all, and that, you know, that, that, that little wheel you have with everybody's name on it and phone numbers and shit? I got them all in that motherfucker in my head, and I spin that bitch every motherfucking day. And I know right now, whether you hate me, love me, I'm a fucking dick, I'm a this, I'm a that, whatever you want to think, I made it.

• 1:23:12David Goggins?

  And I know all of you motherfuckers are looking just like Apollo Creed did. Cause I just kept getting the fuck up and all I wanted people to do in my life. I don't care about the fucking money. I don't care about the fucking fame. I don't care if, I don't care if all my followers go away tomorrow. I wanted a lot of people that doubted me to look like Apollo Creed did in that fourteenth round. Cause I got back up repeatedly. And when you keep on getting back up like that, no matter how strong the person is that's beating the shit out of you, they eventually look at you and say, you know what? I'm tired. And I just want people to be tired.

• 1:23:54David Goggins?

  Just be tired. I wanna make you tired because I just continue. So that's what that movie did to me. That, that movie changed how I looked at life.

• 1:24:04Ed Mylett?

  Me too.

• 1:24:04David Goggins?

  It did.

• 1:24:05Ed Mylett?

  Me too. I'm blown away because the part of the scene, thank you. The part of the scene, anybody that knows me real well, all my life I wanted people to give me that. He gives them that like, what the, what are you? What the hell? And I wanted, whether it was a coach or dudes I grew up with or whatever it was at one point, just go, what are you?

• 1:24:26David Goggins?

  That's it.

• 1:24:27Ed Mylett?

  And, um, and I, I gotta tell you, I don't do that with a lot of people. I, I do that with you. Like, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for you.

• 1:24:35David Goggins?

  Thank you.

• 1:24:35Ed Mylett?

  And, uh, I'm proud to know you now.

• 1:24:38David Goggins?

  Well, I, I really appreciate that. And I didn't wanna win. I still don't wanna win for some reason. I don't care about winning. For some, I just want to go the distance. And that's a true story, man. I, I, and so it's a, it's a powerful movie, man. But, but thank you for your kind words when you said this. I'm very humbled by that.

• 1:24:56Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, I'm, uh, I'm looking forward to seeing what the next thing is for you. And, uh, I, I really am because, um, this is nowhere near the distance.

• 1:25:04David Goggins?

  Right.

• 1:25:05Ed Mylett?

  You're nowhere near, right? And so, um, I'm really excited. If I can ever help with any of it, I'm certainly here for you as a friend.

• 1:25:11David Goggins?

  I appreciate it, man. I'm a big faith believer, man. Even though people look at my mouth and say, how can you believe in God? I'm sorry, man. We live on earth and sometimes life is fucking hard. You know, me don't believe in shit, but I know for a fact, as fucked up as my life has been, to be where I'm at today.

• 1:25:31David Goggins?

  There's obviously more. I'm obviously a fucking messenger of some sort because I don't fit the mold, man. I'm obviously a messenger, so.

• 1:25:39Ed Mylett?

  All your life's been preparing you for this moment. I'm excited for the next one.

• 1:25:42David Goggins?

  I believe that.

• 1:25:43Ed Mylett?

  Thank you for today.

• 1:25:44David Goggins?

  Thank you, man. I appreciate it.

• 1:25:45Ed Mylett?

  Pleasure meeting you.

• 1:25:45David Goggins?

  Thank you.

• 1:25:46Ed Mylett?

  Everybody, I don't have any words. You heard it or saw it, and so I know your life was moved. You know, all I ask you to do is share this show with somebody that you care about, somebody you believe in, somebody that you want to see win. Reminder every day, on Instagram, we run the max out two-minute drill. You get a chance to engage with me. There's three ways to win. You make a comment on a post, you make a comment on a comment, or you post it. You make a comment at any time of day, you win coaching calls with me, my guests, ride on the jet, gear, tickets to see me speak, whatever you want. I want to engage with you closer. Please do that. God bless you and continue to max out your life.