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The Moonshots Podcast goes behind the scenes of the world's greatest superstars, thinkers and entrepreneurs to discover the secrets to their success. We deconstruct their success from mindset to daily habits so that we can apply it to our lives. Join us as we 'learn out loud' from Elon Musk, Brene Brown to emerging talents like David Goggins.
ms 108 goggins final
[00:00:00] Welcome to the moonshots podcast. It's episode 108. I knew a co-host Mike Parsons, and as always I'm joined by the man. You just cannot hurt mr. Mark Pearson Freeland. Good morning. Good morning, Mike, the invincible man himself. Mr. Mike Parsons, how are you doing? We're still in the holiday season. How are you doing?
I'm doing very, very well. And my gosh, this rising star series is so much fun because we get to go to some of the most inspiring people of 2020, and challenge ourselves and ask ourselves, how do we go? Trying to do a little bit. Just a little bit of what they do and checking in with ourselves. So I am thoroughly enjoyed, uh, this series [00:01:00] so far.
So obviously the question is what's in front of us today. Today, Mike, it is probably one of the most popular individuals that we've ever covered and innovator and athlete and mad, uh, mindset. Uh, mr. David Goggins and his book can't hurt me. I mean, do you remember getting into David Goggins, Mike? Yeah, I do.
And my thing is this guy is amazing, right? He is totally amazing. And, you know, we celebrated the fact, he's the only person in history to have qualified as a Navy seal, army ranger and air force, tactical air controller. Essentially. He is. Ridiculous in terms of he is, he's a rare event, you know, he's obviously been named the fittest man in America, but that's not what really got us for me.
Mark [00:02:00] David Goggins is mind over matter and how we just can take far more attention to how we think. And I think this was the challenge when we investigated and decoded the world of David Goggins and his book can't hurt me. My gosh. I mean, it really revealed to us that not only the power of the mind, but the work to do, like we don't spend enough time on how we think.
And it w w what you got to remember, and what I keep on reminding myself is the mind. He's kind of like a muscle and it's only really as strong as the training that you give it. You're not going to be the world's strongest man, unless you lift the heaviest weights, you're not going to be the world's fastest individual, unless you're running against the timer against those who are equally as far.
[00:03:00] And what really goes into is this control. That you can have over your mind or your mindset and that the brain fundamentally when you're in a really hard challenge, whether it's something physical or emotional, or maybe from a career perspective, you're in the boardroom, whatever it might be, stress anxiety, or just the year 2020.
Cause let's be honest, my 20, 20 I'm like, yeah, we're close to putting that behind us. And I tell you what I mean. This book is of the moment, you know, go back to first principles here. You are what you think. And that's what David Goggins taught us. Didn't he? Yeah. To just keep on learning, pushing yourself to adapt.
That was one of the big things that came out for me, Mike, uh, in, in Carhartt me, it's the ability to embrace that discomfort as we were say, and adapt to it and use those moments of challenges and quite [00:04:00] unpleasant moments as moments to grow. To become stronger and to build that mindset to go out and be that best person of yourself as Goggins really is.
Yeah. Let's, let's talk a little bit about before we get into, uh, daily Goggins, let's talk a little bit about what we learned by studying his work. And I want to ask you Mark now, sometime on, from when we did our first David Goggins show, what. What's changed for you when you think about his master your mind and defy the odds, thinking it's, it's the idea to push a little bit further.
So for me, marathon runners always say it, what you get to a point. And then it becomes really, really hard. And I think they call it the wall. You get to a point and, and I I'd say that this is true. In your working year as well. Again, referencing 2020, we kind of are getting towards the end of it and feeling okay, just that [00:05:00] little bit further, a little bit further.
And that sort of mental exhaustion is something that Goggins encourages us to, um, take notice off, but move past, don't less. Don't let your mind be the reason that you feel uncomfortable. Instead if you have this. Trained brain trained mind that celebrates those difficulties. You can push that a little bit further.
And I want to build on that and saying that the specific thing I'd been working on, whether it's running faster or longer, or with work or anything, is that when I'm pushing my boundaries, I really. Work hard on saying to myself, this is good. You're uncomfortable. This is good. You're not, uh, denying that you're uncomfortable, but you are accepting of the discomfort.
[00:06:00] And growing your tolerance for discomfort, because on the other side of that is your potential. And this is what is so powerful about his thinking is that if you can find a way to get comfortable in discomfort, um, I think that the, the, the big gift of his work is that once you develop the capability of embracing challenge, um, then you can, on the other side of that wall that you spoke about, Mark, I think is your true self.
And I think if that, if we are. Too lazy and stay in our comfort zone. We never get on the other side of the wall because I'm the, on the other side of the wall is our full potential. And I think that was the gift of what I got from David Goggins. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. I totally agree. And just to build on, and you know, my experience after the David Goggins show was, as you just say, you put a name to that difficulty or that discomfort, you, you [00:07:00] don't press against it, but instead you say, ah, This is a bit of a challenge.
Maybe this is a good opportunity and you sort of reframe it. Or somebody said to me, once you defang the beast, and instead you see it as this opportunity to grow from, and really Goggins inspired me to think of any difficulties with work as just a chance to get that little bit better for next time.
Yeah. Yeah, very, very powerful, well might with all said and done. I think it's time for us to travel to the world of David Goggins, where nothing can hurt us. And we are the very best version of ourselves lays on the other side of the wall. A lot of people say and hard, they, your mind knows, man. It knows this guy's bull me, man.
This guy's lying. There's no truth behind it. When I was a Navy seal training people go, how were you there for 18 months? The program is only six months long. You were in three hell, [00:08:00] weeks in one year. No one's ever done that. How did you do that? I talk about the new norm when I live in the $7 a month place.
When I was growing up for a short period of time, I loved it. Yeah, I ain't know. I knew any different. That was my norm. Once we moved out of that place, we moved to a $236 a month place. I was like, I never want to go back to that little piece, but if you go back to a $7 a month place, you realize this is where I live.
So I got your mind says, brought to you that this is home. So when I was going through Navy seal training for 18 months and going through. Back to all the hard parts over and over again. I told myself after the first time I knew was gonna be a long journey there. My body was breaking down. There was, it was just how it was going on.
I said no way, this is my new norm. So my mind said it's like going to work. Like you go to work. You pretty soon tie on. [00:09:00] I go into suffering every day, every day, suffering being broken, duct tape, my feet up stress fracture, shes plus being broken. This is my new norm. In your mind says, if we're not broken, this ain't normal, we gotta be broken.
So then your mind starts to get tougher and tougher and more cows people. Ho how'd you want on broken fee, broken, broken shins. My mind knew this is how we operate. We're in, we're a Navy seal training. This is where we are. I became hell. And that became my new norm. I gave myself no way out. There was nothing outside these walls of hell.
Nothing. I became, I love God, but for a short period of time, I became the devil because that was hell I became, I became the boss, the owner, the CEO of Navy seal training. That was my mindset. And that's how you get through that. Well, I mean, I mean, that is some turbocharged talk [00:10:00] right there. Um, I just love the, uh, The tenacity, the vibrance of his mental attitude.
I mean, you can, you can hear it as he talks, you know, he, he is that, that mindset. And that's, for me, there's a power in that. And I think the first thing that struck me about that Mark was just how he just embraced discomfort when most of us kind of re. Just run away from it. I thought that was, it's very interesting pattern that we see, obviously Joe Rogan, uh, does, uh, does talk about that as well, but it's like, I don't know the difference between David and most of us is that he, when faced with that huge challenge and the discomfort of being in that.
He just kept going. And I think there's something really in that. Yeah. I think you're right. This [00:11:00] ability that David's calling out to control your mind and conquer any sort of fear or doubt that you have is what enabled him to, to get through those challenges. So we're about to hear in this second clip, Mike is David telling us again and another great little clip about why he thinks.
And what he would recommend to do when you and I hi, or any of our listeners are actually struggling to finish our goals. So here's David telling us a little bit about the cold, hard truth of why you can't sometimes stick to your goals. So I get out of the Christians over the holidays. The one major question of is how do I finish what I start?
I get two weeks into it. And then I saw, well, this is the thing that people forget. One thing about me. I use it to be you. I, it to be a fat guy. I gotta get it. Care of my son got to get D's and F's and school. I got to blame other [00:12:00] people, a guy that was on there under mediocre. I wouldn't even add her dish.
So this, the thing about, I wouldn't say, but people don't want to tell you why did you stop it? Because you're lazy because you don't mind getting bad grades in school. It doesn't bother you enough to be mediocre, to be average, to sit around. And watch people do gray pants. You don't mind it. Today's your answer.
Your answer is you don't care how much you sell, so you don't stay in file. Say hotter, the cold hard truth. It really is true. Um, when you think he's using, working out as an example at our fitness program, uh, how many times have we all started a new health workout or diet regime? And then. Within two to three weeks, we kind of stopped.
Absolutely. I mean, it's, it's very [00:13:00] in particularly in an uncertain world, like we're in now, you know, you kind of make, or let's use a new year's Eve, you make your new year's resolution and you start sticking to it and then suddenly you realize, Oh, well, Maybe I want something else. Maybe I want to do something else.
And that ability to stay on the, on the tracks kind of veers a little bit, doesn't it. And ultimately it's not down to those around us. It's not down to anything other than your mindset, your mind focusing on those tracks is what keeps you. Moving in that direction, maybe sticking to an exercise goal, maybe eating well, or maybe practicing, um, meditation or reading books or whatever it might be, then you want to stick to and create a new habit.
You know, going back to our habit series, Mike, it's just sticking to it. It's their mindset and discipline to, to apply yourself. And that all starts with your brain. W what do you [00:14:00] think it's like for, for most people, do you think most people just. Encounter what we're talking about. They're just like too much.
I'll just sleep in this morning or I'll cut a few corners here. Do you think it's just, most of us that have just got laziness inside of us? And it's the question of whether we want to open the Commodore night? Well, for me, while limits my ability to stick to. Goals or objectives or ambitions or whatever it might be.
Um, maybe it's getting up in the morning going for a run, whatever it is actually, it's, it's more about the present versus the long-term vision. So if I'm lying in bed and I'm thinking, Oh, I don't want to have to deal with this problem today. It's very, very tempting to just stay in your cocoon, your safety net, [00:15:00] your.
Area of feeling comfort and not having any challenges or issues around you, but actually when you step back or maybe you fast forward two weeks and you look back to it, you probably won't even remember that morning, a moment because in the long-term goal and the long-term vision, those small little moments actually.
They're not going to be something that you're going to look back at and remember as being pivotal in stead, when you overcome those challenges or overcome that particular problem that maybe you're facing, or maybe you're avoiding that's when it becomes a, a life maybe moment. I think what you know, Goggins is, is calling out here is, you know, the cold, hard truth.
You've got to be a little bit, um, strict here. You know, you've got to remember. No, no, I've got to get up. Because of that long-term vision because of achieving your goal is only going to happen. You go and do it yourself. That's right. That's right. [00:16:00] It's um, it's so interesting. Just to kind of reflect a little bit on how laziness is something that confronts us all and what is really exciting about the clips that we've got to come.
Is this going to really show us how. We can wrestle with the, the, the laziness gremlin, uh, this, this monster that gets in between us and our goals. And I think that's, what's so exciting about breaking down David Goggins and really thinking through how mindset can overcome some really amazing challenges, challenges that you may have thought you were totally incapable of overcoming, but with the power of the mind, And the use of your mindset.
You can do amazing things. And we've seen this everywhere. It's amazing. We saw it with Michael Jordan, Serena Williams, Simon Sinek, even Elon Musk. They all [00:17:00] subscribe to the power of mindset. And what David Goggins does total army style. He gives it to us in such a clear, digestible, highly, highly energized.
I reckon he had a few red balls, uh, for some of these clips, but that's, what's on offer today. So I can't wait to get into understanding the power of the mind, how to build resilience and what it takes really to be the best version of ourselves. But Mike, before we go there, uh, I want to propose to you.
We've been talking a lot about how David Goggins, uh, talks about themes that relate to some of the other innovators that we've studied. So where do all of our listeners go? If they want to dig up some of our back catalog, if they want to leave a rating or review, where should they go? Mark? You can find it.
All of our previous 93 shows covering many of the innovators that we've already mentioned, as well as lady Gaga, Steve [00:18:00] jobs, as aha had dared, you've got 93 individuals that, you know, I'd have to take an entire episode to call them all out. Then you can find all of those on. Www.moonshots.io, as well as your podcasting software of choice.
And if yes, check it out and you like what you hear, you enjoy the process of learning out loud with myself. And Mike, please do leave us a review. Please do leave us a rating because we love not only reading the thoughts and inputs from our listeners, but it's great when we can start seeing the show appearing in some of the other charts, Mike.
Yeah, it's, it's so cool to see us popping up in places like the Philippines or Moldova or Latvia or some of the classics on the Nordics, France, the UK. Um, we're really, really so excited to welcome all of our new listeners to the, to the family here at the moonshots [00:19:00] podcast. And, uh, I really just encourage you.
Uh, w we love making the show. We love learning out loud, but we do encourage you in return. If you could just jump into your podcast app, give us a rating or review, because that helps more people discover the show. And so we can help them learn out loud with us as we try to be the very best version of ourselves and talking about being the best version of yourself, it seems to me like David's onto something that.
This is all about mindset. This is all about how you use your brain and he has a little rule for us. So let's have a listen to this very powerful rule from David Goggins. I believe that most human beings are only living at about 40% of their capability. So the mind has a governor like a car. If you're driving a car and the car has a governor on [00:20:00] it, the car may say hundred and 30 miles an hour, but the governor.
For 91, once that governor sets and you get the 91, that car starts doing this, the car wants to go to CRA, wants to go. But death factory said, ah, we're not going pass 91. We have a factory, a nice governor in our brain, and it's a survival mechanism. It protects us. From pain and suffering. The second we feel that our mind says, Oh no, this is the fun we should back off.
We should sit down, find something more comfortable. And there's some about the mind. The mind has a tactical advantage over you at all times at all times of your life, the mind has a tactical advantage over you. Why is that? It knows what you're afraid of. It knows your insecurities. It knows your deep dark lies, and it starts to push you away from that.
Pushes you in a direction that is comfortable. The mind controls everything. What I realized was that when I was growing up and I was 300 pounds and I got all [00:21:00] fat and I got all insecure, I realized that my mind kept taking me in this direction. When things get uncomfortable for me, when I was facing my insecurities, I was facing my fears.
My mind said, Oh no, we have a tactical advantage. We just get you separate you from this feeling, this feeling over your life's all about feelings. You want the happy feeling? We don't want that feeling of this sucks. Why am I here? So you can't answer those questions. So you leave. I started realizing that if in that moment you can answer those questions and you are now in charge of your brain versus your brain ruling.
You that's where all that stuff comes from. So the 40% rule is all of that. You get the 40% your brain says we're done. Let's roll, man. This is starting to get painful. And this is uncomfortable. So you sit now it's a habit. So if you know that at 40%, I'm feeling pain at 40% Dillon pain. That's where the will kicks in.
Now it [00:22:00] starts, okay. I'm feeling pain. My mind saying, get out of here, run, flee the fight or flight kicks in. Okay. We're done. We're not good enough. It starts telling you all these things. You start to believe it because the mind controls all this Tom, where you have to get control back of your mind. It's okay.
Let me see if I can go. 45%. And then once you start giving yourself more and more hope and start realizing, okay, demise starts to be okay, what are you doing? We're supposed to be going right. And you're going left. You start then controlling your mind, start finding more in yourself. And then it goes from 40%.
It's a lot further than that, but that's the start of it though. Get to the spot where your mind is saying stop, wherever that is. Yeah, get there first. And then that's when that starts to work for you. You've got to control yourself in that moment.
That is such a big lesson. And it's something that for me, at least Mike, I do struggle with, [00:23:00] I often find myself, uh, blocked by my own confidence or anxieties that come up and stop me from. Being the best version of myself, um, in a minute or a day or a week, whatever it is. And now, you know, digging into two Goggins and I love the visualization of it being kind of like a limiter, um, or a governor as he calls it on your car, it sort of stops you being able to go that much faster.
Um, You know, the brain is trained to protect you from suffering. And I think when you do have uncomfortable moments at work or life, you know, that's what that is your brain sort of kicking in and saying, no, no, no, let's avoid this, but I love this incremental training that, that David Goggins is calling out to us a little bit.
Like when, when, when with the breathing and the cold water actually. But yeah, we can just train ourselves a little by little to, to get that. Further to [00:24:00] go harder to put up with more, more challenges. And, you know, as Gladwell was telling us, um, you know, think of difficulties as desirable to train your mind.
This for me, this is a great lesson. This is a big one. Yeah. Yeah. So I want to, I want to go into that and try and break it down with you a bit and see if we can get the DNA of the 40% role. I think. To build on what you just said. What Goggins is saying is when you approach the limit, it is natural for your mind to be triggered into a state of flight, a state of fear, because discomfort means, well, your natural instinct would be to avoid discomfort.
So let's say it's, uh, studying hard. Let's say it's working out, uh, whatever it is, uh, your, your it's [00:25:00] it's natural and very normal to experience this, this flight, this aversion to distance comfort. And I think what, as I tried to embrace the Goggins, like thinking, he's saying. That's totally natural. But what you need to do is to really confront the fact and accept the fact that it's a normal response that you don't have to listen to.
He's saying that there's a different path and that path is to say, great. Uh, it's starting to be uncomfortable. I'm starting to feel really tired. And although I'm getting signals to stop because it's uncomfortable. Remember why I'm doing this and remember that it's natural to have the temptation to stop.
Um, but remember that it's natural to have that and just almost develop a habit of, let's say let's use his 40% [00:26:00] limiter, just say, okay, well today I'll just go to 41 and I'll push through that discomfort. And if you do those increments over time before you know, it. You'll be at 50% and so on and so forth.
So I think what he's saying is when we get to these moments, use the power of the mind to say, Hey, it's uncomfortable, it's hurting, I'm tired. I want to stop studying. I'm going to stop working. I want to stop writing. And he's saying no, that, that is a moment where you can choose to push through. And to accept that, you know, when we feel discomfort, Mark, I think we naturally, we don't actually consciously process it.
We subconsciously just stop because it's uncomfortable, right? Yeah. Yeah. I think what he's, what he's calling out here is, is exactly combating that isn't it, Mike? So notice it, recognize it and choose, make your own [00:27:00] choice to push through it. That's all right. That's right. I think really when we decode him, he is like, uh, giving us the permission to acknowledge that flight or the avoidance of discomfort is totally normal.
But he's saying, you know, you don't have to listen to that, which, which is, uh, a challenge that, um, you know, even recently, Mike, within the last six months of. The strange scenarios that, you know, we were all living in as well as, you know, having lots of work on the plate. That's something that I think, um, our listeners, but that I'll call out myself particularly have, you know, been challenged with.
And I think this incremental, um, challenge to ourselves and this recognition and awareness, um, Is [00:28:00] something that that actually is, is, is quite practical. It's a little bit of, uh, a little bit of a mindset shift. Um, but actually it's something that I feel like I could practice day to day. Um, yeah, we'll dig into Goggins is techniques a little bit in the show as well, but for me that I want to come back to this, I feel like is this something that I could try and challenge myself and pushing and being exposed to more day to day?
Yes. And I think if, if you can accept and be comfortable that your responding to discomfort and hardship and wanting to stop it, but you can almost use the, the power of the mind to reverse the decision and say, no, it's cool. I choose to push through and I think this is at the heart of it. So what's great.
Now is we're going to start moving towards some of the habits and the [00:29:00] techniques and the behaviors to do this, but it all starts with the mind. So let's have a listen to David Goggins, putting us in control. Your brain is the most powerful weapon in the world. Once you put away your phones and your computers and all that we have nowadays.
Yes. Great. We're up to date. We know you, but your brain is the only thing you have when you're going through depression. When you, when you're going through hard time, you're going through death real life. You can't Google that man. You're alone. You're low. You may have a shrink. You're going to, you may have a best friend.
Gone too, but there's 24 hours in a day where you're alone in this brain and your brain is talking to you in all kinds of ways. And it wants to control you and pull you in these different pockets. If you can't control your own brain and your brain controls you you're, you got to tell your brain where you want to go and how you want to go and how you [00:30:00] want to get there.
You got to control it. If not, it's over. The one thing you have in adversity is your brain. So you might as well train it like a muscle. You want to run faster, you go for a run and train your legs. If you want to lift heavier weights, you go to the gym bench, some bench, press some, some, some iron, right. I think we're going in this, going with this is okay.
Well, when you be prepared for those difficult times, by focusing your mind and training it, right, totally. And I think that. You know, you might not control things happening around you, but you can control how you respond. And I think the, the, the classic thing right now is we will know people. We might even be able to see this in ourselves that throughout, uh, this sort of 20, 20, uh, craziness, some people have maybe given up a little bit, right.
Uh, [00:31:00] their response to conditions that they don't control. Maybe they, uh, You know, got a bit loose on the diet. Maybe they just got into cruise control, whatever. Um, others on the other hand may have said, well, okay, what can I kickstart? What I am going to choose to respond to the environment? Although I don't control those factors, I control my response.
And that starts with how you think it's almost to me like. What's so amazing is mindset is the one thing we have total control of, but just like the body, the mind needs exercise, it needs practice. It needs, um, it needs a good workout in order to be strong. Uh, yet what the irony is, Mike is I think how little.
We actually spend that time on our mind getting our mindset. Right. I think it's, I think it's amazing if you think about a [00:32:00] comparison between our, our normal lives and that of elite athletes, it is so obvious what elite athletes are doing both physically, mentally, and emotionally to win at the highest levels yet.
When we look at ourselves, how much time do we allocate for mindset training? How much time do we, um, go to the mindset gym and get ourselves ready for whatever thing we're trying to do. Whatever goal, vision, or mission, where on how much time do we really spend on it? And I think the thing that Goggins taps into and a lot of self-improvement.
Uh, gurus are really doing is in all of their unique way of saying spend some time on the mind because the dividend is the greatest because you have complete control. It's the one thing is Goldman's is telling us that you can control, you [00:33:00] know, in that situation of seeing all the stress or whatever it is, you're alone.
You won't have your phone and you can, you can't always Google a particular problem that you've got. Right. I think this is such a valuable. Practical, um, tip and, and again, I just feel like it's bang on the money from where we've visited with some of our other innovators, you know, being disciplined, seeing the wood through the trees, as they say, um, in order to be that best self in order to, to achieve your goals and objectives so big.
But, but how, how do we get there, Mick? Well, one of my favorite practices that I've adopted one of my, uh, favorite go tos for clearing the mind and having, I always think about trying to be as crispy as I can about my objectives, not only for the day, but where am I? Where am I [00:34:00] going? What do I need to improve upon?
Um, and making sure that this package of. I'm thinking an effort ladders up to my, to my goal is to my real vision, the legacy that I want to live. And so if we want to be something great in life and we want to realize our true potential, the beauty of this mindset that we get from David Goggins is it can start with something every morning.
And let's have a listen to David Goggins talking about one of my personal favorites, journaling. Well, I want to, I want to pivot a little bit and talk about the takeaways here for, for the reader. I mean, we talked about. Um, the accountability mirror a little bit, uh, we talked about visualization and taking souls.
Uh, but let's talk a little bit about how, uh, journaling has been instrumental in this journey that you've been on. Yeah, so basically I've been journaling now for several years. And I, I should've [00:35:00] brought my journal with me, man. I mean, I have several of them. I had these little green military notebooks that I've kept actually put a couple in the, in the book they're coming right out.
But I write down my day. And what I do is I go back and study that day. Like sometimes I might, I might get sick. I might be over-trained. I might, um, gain a couple pounds here. I might feel it, whatever that is like my accountability journal of what I'm doing with my life, physical, mental, um, I had an eating journal, all this shit, and it helps me go back to once again, study I'm a lab rat.
And I studied myself. Like not feeling fucked up. I go, okay, what did I do last week? And usually I can find out where I messed up last week. You know, how much I'm traveling when I'm sleeping, how much I'm doing all this stuff. And, and through journaling, man, you can really figure out so much about where you're messing up in life.
What do you need to fix about yourself? Taking constant inventory, costing honest about [00:36:00] that. And that's, you cannot put bullshit in there. There's gotta be a real, a real journal about, Hey, today I messed up here today. I should have been a better person here and not just saying it. But actually trying to fix it tomorrow.
Do you extend that accountability to including like bringing in like a close circle of friends and mentors so they know what's going on or are you just accountable to yourself? Like if somebody is looking at this and saying, well, I can do that, but how do you feel about. Letting others in on your goals and, and, and having like external pressure to hold you accountable.
Yeah. No, there's no external pressure. There's no, you know what I mean? But I think other people, yeah, no, it's important to have circles. It's important to have. I, like, I talk about math like that big rabbit hole of bad people that you want to get away from. Like, if you're a drunk and you want to stop drinking, you got to get away from those people.
You want to build this nucleus around you, of people who are saying it's not okay to [00:37:00] sleep in the day we got to get after it. Hey, let me see your journal. You're supposed to be running five miles a day. You only ran three. You got to have those people. Some people need those people and it's important, but you want to get to the point in your life.
It's real important that you hold yourself accountable and those people start to fade away because you now got it. You want to be that person, because they're not always going to be there to hold your hand. So I'm someone who's always been a fan of, you know, somebody who keeps a journal, but I can't say I have I've, I've always desired it.
And I've always seen, and I love hearing clips of our innovators when they do talk about it. And as our listeners know, Mike, we've spoken about it a few times as well, but I really see the value of journaling coming through. With, with Goggins his message of staying accountable and learning from yourself, this constant inventory of yourself, [00:38:00] like how do you, how do you, how do you best use your journaling time?
What's your, what's your, um, process? Yeah, so, so look, I think, um, if let's say I'm talking to you as, uh, someone who would like to journal. Um, and how would I, what would I say to you to convince you, um, to journal? I would say that the, the overall benefit of journaling is it is a forum to get the voice in your head to get it out.
It's a detox. It's a cleanse man. And the, we all have these conversations in our head are, this was good. That was bad. I wish I want perhaps, maybe why, what, who, what, when all of those sorts of things, just get it out. [00:39:00] This is a purging now. What's really interesting. Once you've done. You've got to this first step of just getting it out of your system.
What we all know is when you get it out of your system, often as you're forced to write something down, it forces you to ask the question, what am I really thinking? Because. You can be vague and abstract in your mind, but you can't be. It's very BA writing is very binary. It's black and white. You have to write down the thought.
And what I often find is sometimes my thought is not that clear. So I'm like, Oh, hang on. What am I actually what's really begging me here? Or what am I really pushing for here? Or what am I really, what I do I do. That was so good. What am I trying to capture as a learning? So there's two parts to generally, it's just a detox at the mind.
Um, and secondly, the thoughts that are in your mind get better because you're forced to write it. So the following [00:40:00] day, your thinking will be crisper because you went through a process of writing it down. It's just the same as when you have to present something, you often get a lot clear in it because you're like, I want to do a great presentation.
I want to communicate, I want to share this idea. So you Polish up the thinking a little bit now here's the next thing. When you journal often and consistently, it just compounds in a beautiful way. And I actually noticed that when I haven't journaled on a day, I actually feel some. Uh, something's missing and I'll tell you why.
I think, uh, well, first of all, have I made a good case for generally Mark, as you listen to this, are you like, Oh geez. You know, I really, I mean, are there questions that still remain? Wow. Just as an, as an observation. I do have a question on practicality actually, but I want to hear Mike, I want to learn how I can begin doing it today.
[00:41:00] I mean, for me, it sounds really, really valuable. And this idea of cleansing, it kind of reminds me when I talk about an idea or a problem with you or any of my colleagues, it helps because the whole act of just explaining it. Out loud. Sometimes I can, I can see the consistent thread. I can see the answer will turn into a B by saying it out loud and making it real.
It gets it out of your head. So I see I'm really, really seeing the value of, of doing it privately, staying accountable and, um, You know, channeling any of those, those thoughts and so on. So Mike, do you, do you use your computer? Do you do it by hand? Sounds like David Goggins has his little green, green army books.
What, what, what's your method? Well, so, so now you're onto the hap. Okay. So w w we, we [00:42:00] successfully have given you we've closed the deal on, on why you should do it. It's a detox, it's a cleanse and you're thinking it's better to, how do you do it for me? It's it's classic habit design, make it insanely easy.
If you want to write it in a small book that you can carry around, I'm with you do that. I have, uh, an app called drafts. Um, I also have another app code IAA writer, both of these two apps have, uh, OSX and iOS versions for iPad, iPhone. So no matter where I am in which device I have, if I want to write my diary, my journal, it sinked on the cloud and it's there everywhere.
This for me is essential. If you have none of those things, You still can get enormous value by she just sitting down with pen and paper and writing out your thoughts. I like to make it easy. The next thing is I like to [00:43:00] do it every morning and I do it critically before I look at any email, because this is may time.
And I asked myself two questions. How do I feel about yesterday? And what am I going to do today? Now, the important thing for me is how do I feel frustrated, proud, delighted, grateful, and why. And I really take some time to capture good, old, bad. What's at the heart of that. And then by naturally to saying, well, what am I going to do today?
If there's just one thing I get done today, what does that thing look like? It's a really good jump off for the morning. And I will do this before email. That'd be generally before sunrise and this will be my time making a promise to myself about trying to be that little bit better today. [00:44:00] You've convinced me, Mike.
You've got to get running. Mark, get writing, hanging on, finished, finished the show first. Then you can get general. Exactly, exactly. I mean, look fundamentally the only thing that would block me doing it, it's me. It's myself. You know, I can't blame anybody else. So there you go. Okay. So I'll give you another cheat.
You feel really new to this just right. One word, one emotion that describes how you feel about yesterday. If you do that every morning, or if you prefer journal at night, just write a word, describing how you feel about the day. Oh, nice. That's a good tip. I mean, we can all write one word, right? I mean, nothing easier, nothing easier than writing down that word.
Okay. That's how it'll start. I'll start. Okay, good. Just the word, just the word. All right. So we've got an [00:45:00] amazingly powerful practice journaling, which is all about taking control of your mind and pushing through that 40% rule. This is the architecture of David Goggins thinking. It is so powerful and the great news for all of our listeners is we've still got clips to go.
We are going to bring to that mental side of the game. We're going to bring. Some resilience, some strength. And this, let me tell you if you are not excited yet. Wait for these clips. Cause we got some real goodies coming. I think Mark, it would only be appropriate that we'd blend the power of the mind with resilience.
Think you've got a couple of clips there, where should we kick off our resilience? Uh, the, the, the last lap home here, how are we going to build resilience? How are we going to bring home the power of the mind? Well, in the previous couple of clips, we've heard about David Goggins talking about the tactical advanced.
You have your mind. If you can train it, [00:46:00] you can use it. If you can. Listen to it and overcome those fears. Anxieties. You can use it for positiveness, for affirmations, for going out there and being incredible today. So this first clip that we've gotten in our resilience areas of David Goggins is don't avoid using your mind.
Don't avoid the tactical advantage of it. And actually remember that suffering sometimes makes you grow up. I got choked out 10 years ago that I think about sometimes when I'm lifting, I'll be tired. And I'll think about a guy who caught me 10 years. I'm all like, fuck. Yeah. That's, what's big about life, man, because I think about not being choked out, but think about a lot of shit like that.
Yeah. Failures, keep you pushing. They grind on me like a motherfucker, man. And that's what you were talking about earlier too. It's like that the mind has these reserves. You can trick it and pull them out. Inspirational reserves like you did with. When, when you, when you guys were going through buds, we just [00:47:00] found that trigger.
And then all of a sudden you throw in that boat in the air, the mind always has the tactical advantage over you. Why is that? It knows your fears and insecurities. It knows where they're hiding. You can't hide. You can't hide from that motherfucker, man, that motherfucker got the tactical vans on your son.
That's going to get you, man. It's a beast that might be your best lesson, right? That your mind, your mind knows everything. You cannot hide from it. So don't ever try. Don't try. You might as well go ahead and beat that motherfucker up. Yeah. Keep going at it. So what you did in this book, you didn't try to like paint yourself in a glamorous or flattering way.
At any point in time, you were honest at every step of the way, which I think is just gigantic for people too, because. You can tell when someone's stroking themselves or bullshitting themselves and the messages won't come through. Right. But you're you come through in this book, you know, like who you are and what you became and how you became who you are and who you used to be and why you [00:48:00] were the way you used to be.
All that comes through is like, there's no filter. This is just your, your thoughts. Like you, what you remember about your life and what you think about right now, just all comes out onto the pages are if they have done my entire life. Would imagine I have fucking down the high through her by this book.
Didn't I walk up to PLP Walker to me. I'm like, what are you thinking about motherfucker? I think you probably pee in the bed. You fucking
hilarious. I know, right? Like you like thinking about me and opening it up all, you know, all about me. Hey, how about you motherfucker? Tell me something about you. That's what people love right? When they know some shit about you. I don't know nothing about nobody. That's anonymous, trolls. That's it, man. They get at me to come.
Oh, there's a lot of those. But that they're all doing that to themselves. They don't even understand when you do that, you're doing it to yourself, right? If you are attacking [00:49:00] someone because you know that they have a weakness, but you're pretending you don't have one, you are attacking yourself. You are chipping away.
Hey, your own personal sovereignty. You're chipping away your own respect. So true, man. You can't respect yourself. Oh, you're a pussy. You're tackling Joe to me. I started looking at people, realizing. I know something about you because they don't want to talk about it. I already know it. Yeah. If you're talking shit about me.
Yeah. I know you're fucked up. Yeah. That's where all these cats that come out right now, who don't like me, whatever. I'm like, really, man, that should happen 30 fucking years ago. 15 years ago. You still, you're still fucked up about that. Oh man. I know something about your brother. Is that get over everything.
I'm good. It's it's water under the fucking bridge grind. The grind does that. He uses that. I said you're not grinding harder if you're worried about something that someone did to you years ago. You're being a pussy to yourself, may not getting out there in squeezing that fucking soul out [00:50:00] every day. If you grind hard, I got to worry about your monkey ass.
I get to worry about you, man. Cause tomorrow I got to go back to the grind. And tomorrow I go back to the grind again and again, and again, and again, I'll have Tom to put you into the Haight bank. There's no, Hey, it's all filtered out, man. Through the grind. If you don't get it, there's, there's great joy in the grind.
The great join. The suffer is totally cleanses your body out, man. If any kind of hate makes you grow, it makes you grow up joy in the suffering man. That is. Well, like getting to this place that he is talking about, where you can be brutally Frank and you are prepared to grind it out. Uh don't don't fall for what others have to say.
Grind it out because the more resilient you are, you are literally turbocharging your personal resilience and job growth. [00:51:00] And to me, I think we just got a very deep look inside of how David Goggins has achieved the most remarkable things. So think about this, the only man in history to complete Navy seal army ranger, air force, tactical air controller training.
Fittest man on the planet also has a New York times bestseller that he wrote, right? This is pretty remarkable stuff. And funny thing is he said writing the book was the hardest thing to me. This is a one huge, uh, spotlight on stick to the plans. Stay the course don't give up. It's very, very powerful. I totally agree.
And to build on that, this there's joy in the grind. Again, this is something that Gladwell in the Gladwell series was, was telling us if you can change your mindset and think about difficulties being [00:52:00] desirable and an opportunity to learn and evolve and become a better, maybe stronger version, then that's fantastic.
And this next clip is David Goggins. Again, coming back to us and. Going into this daily grind, the value of maybe sticking to writing his book, which I it's amazing to hear. That was the most difficult thing he's ever done. This is David Goggins, again, telling us about the grind and how we've got to adapt and overcome to survive.
What existed for me was okay, man, how am I going to get, make this work? And all I knew back then was hard work. The only way anything gets accomplished. That's all I heard back in those days, you got to work hard. You got to work hard. I'm not getting how to, I can't get this paragraph. I can't remember what the F this paragraph to pass this test to get the military read again.
Do not get it read again. We've not getting it. Write it [00:53:00] out. That's how I started learning. Okay. Well, I can't, I gotta write out everything I do. And then write it out again and write again and guess what happened? I got it. I got it. I can't swim. I'm negative buoyant, go back again. I can't swim. Go back again.
Go back again. Go back again. I got it. I realize if I keep going back and going back and going back until the shit just becomes your mind. Well safe. Okay. We're going to figure it out because he is not going to stop. It's not like I'm gonna try it one more time. No, it's just like long gone goes off. Boom.
Going back. I can't read. Right. We're going back. I gave myself no way out. Then my mind realized that they said, okay, we're going to adapt and overcome now adapt and overcome like this. I think if you. If you're [00:54:00] being resilient and you're sticking to it, the next thing that comes on top of that, you've got the right mindset.
You're sticking to it. Continual adoption. Uh, I always think about tweaking and, and trying and experimenting. I, for example, my every time I'm going for a really big run. I'm thinking about, uh, different, uh, hydration techniques, different food to have more stamina and endurance. Like I'm constantly playing with it.
When I, I try and take that spirit to everything I do, like just to adapt and find ways, ways around it. How do you, how do you embody that? Adaptive mindset, um, by, by learning, um, taking a lesson from each of our innovators each week, actually. Um, my, my, my adaption, I think, is trying to absorb as much as I can from each of our focuses each of our episodes.
So for example, that clip just then [00:55:00] reminds me of Nicholas tarlob and antifragile, you know, You got to be excited about being uncomfortable, because it's a chance to learn this resilience comes from being uncertain. And when you, when you sort of read change or rewire your mind towards the hardship and thinking about it as a great opportunity, that for me, is this test and learn that for me is the way that I'm trying to adapt by, you know, rewiring my natural responses, I guess.
To, to certain challenges and hardships and so on. Yeah, totally, totally. And I love the. I love the, um, the competitive nature in me is I love trying different techniques, uh, running in different shoes, different, like whatever it takes to beat the time, uh, to learn more things, uh, in how to build great products, uh, [00:56:00] whatever I'm working on.
I love that. And I just try and. Turn it into a game, you know, um, to adapt, to use different techniques. That's why this show is such a delight to do, because I feel like together, you and I are just getting more inputs on how to, you know, do things a little bit better and that's kind of fun, right? It's fun.
It's, it's learning from our listeners. It's learning from our innovators that we cover is authors. These sports individuals. These. Uh, big psycho, uh, analytical thinkers, you know, it's, it's great fun. It's a perfect opportunity to, to then take the lessons from our shows and try and apply them to work. Mike, you know, like you say, as you were running, you're thinking about different ways of hydration, maybe different shoes in order to push yourself a bit further.
I like to think that, and hopefully our listeners are listening to us, learning out loud together. And getting inspired themselves. Maybe they're [00:57:00] taking some of the lessons and the tips that they're hearing from our listeners, our focuses such as David Goggins and beginning to put them into their own working lifestyle.
Yeah, I totally agree. And I, I think that, uh, it is only appropriate that we have one more clip that really speaks to the essence of David Goggins. Um, there's this enormous courage and resilience to bribe books to be a Navy seal and so much more. And I think this last, this final clip. Kind of is David in a nutshell.
So let's have a listen for the last time. To David Goggins people hear my story and think it's guys to distant. I realize how the, how the brain works. I figured out how the brain works. I'm a scared kid and that's what gives [00:58:00] me so much power. I had no foundation and I built this off of just researching the mind.
The feeling you give is basically invincibility. You realize that. Yeah, you can't do it all the time when you need to do it. I know I can go to a place that I can live in. And when you know that you can run on broken legs and you can do certain things that a lot of people can do, but they're not willing to do this power, the sympathetic nervous system of fight or flight, and you're fighting.
It gives you this charge of energy of when you're sitting. In there at three 30, four o'clock in the morning and your duct tape on your feet up because you're broken and you're doing it by yourself. And you're going through arguably, one of the hardest training in the world. And these guys, most of them are healthy and [00:59:00] you're going through a broken and you're already at a disadvantage, but you're still there.
You can feed into that and tap into that for a lot of power. But if you look at it while I'm broken, man, Like, I'm not going to make it, but if you look at it as man I'm broken and I'm still here and I'm fighting and I'm gonna find a way to get through this. Cause I have no other place to go. It gives you a lot of power.
When things start to suck really, really bad, my brain and a lot of people's brain don't they, they don't go to your dad, beating you up. Your brain says we ate out here. This is miserable. So anger goes away. Wait a lot of times when you're suffering, because your brain has says, we gotta run. Right. We got to go.
So that anger is not popping up saying, Oh, I'm going to show them. I'm going to show you. As people know, there has to be a much deeper. You might say [01:00:00] deeper. It has to be down to mineral, mineral soil. It has to be down to that nice mineral soil where nothing can burn you. Can't burn dirt. So has to be down.
Of that low, that literally is sub menu. That's at the core of your soul. And, but you, but you don't find it unless you spend a lot of time with what you want to be in life. I can't give that to you. Right? You can't give it to somebody when you find your true passion in life. In my passion for me, when like all I want to be now give a Navy seals, army roundish.
I want to serve my country. I cared about, I want to be so. One that I'm proud of use the energy that comes through discomfort, challenge, disadvantage, and use that energy to make it your advantage. It's in your power to go out and [01:01:00] harness it and use it in a different way that instead of it being a negative impact on you.
It's something that benefits your growth as well as your ability to deliver work. I think this is a clip to end on from, from David Goggins. Yeah. And what a gift like just use at the essence of his thinking is if you're still here, that's a positive rather than it hurts. And I want to give up, no, it hurts.
And I'm still here. That is power. That's the turning point that everything in his thinking. It's hurting. I it's uncomfortable, but I'm still here. How powerful is that? Mark? That's so good. I'm new here. And what a confidence boost. What next time I'm in a problem or a challenge and I think, okay. But remember I'm here.
I can still keep my feet on the ground and keep moving forward. That's [01:02:00] ownership. That's yeah, that's what it's all about. Totally. So what was, what's been the most surprising thing about David Govins for Uma? We've gone very deep in a very big turn from Malcolm GABA. What, what has really stuck out, uh, for you as we've gone into this journey of someone who has, uh, you know, the fittest man in America.
The, the practicality that David Goggins is calling out. Obviously we, we didn't delve into how he achieved 4,000. You know, we that's the next show because we don't necessarily need to, by digging into his mindset and digging into the discipline, as well as the awareness that he has of his own mind. I think that's.
It's given us the answer. It's given us the answers to how he was able to be in the us armed forces, the seals, as well as the air traffic controller, he was [01:03:00] able to go for 24 hours of pull-ups because he had conquered his mindset for me, the big lesson, the big takeaway is that if he can do it, I can do it.
Our listeners can do it. We've all, we're all in control of our own minds and our brains and our approach to things. And I think what David Goggins is calling out here is go and harness it today and you'll start to see improvement straight away. So that's, that's the big lesson for me. The brain is in my command.
Exactly. Well said, well said, well, Mark, listen, thank you for sharing this, you know, turbocharged high adrenaline. Uh, you can hurt me mindset. Uh, it's been pretty, pretty intense, right? Yeah, that's been a good show. It's been a nice, um, little bit of a sidestep from a lot of the, um, recent shows. You know, we were digging into infamous Tarla.
We dug into [01:04:00] Malcolm Gladwell, the author series. It was very interesting too. Um, Break that up a little bit in and hear from an old Harrison runner. What fun? I know what a, what an incredible guy David Goggins is. And, uh, the next series we're coming, we have coming up is a huge one. Uh, we, again, to go into the world of Tim Ferris, and I can tell you that when I first read.
A four hour workweek by Tim Ferriss. I, I changed a lot for me in my life and I cannot wait to get into Tim Ferris. How are you feeling about going to one of the Kings of self-improvement? Um, what do you think about Tim Ferris? Yeah, I'm, I'm excited. I know him from, um, uh, you know, listening to in the past.
I'm excited to. To really hear from you, Mike, actually, I'm excited to explore him with you. I know you're a huge advocate of his work, so I can't [01:05:00] wait to kind of scratch the surface and really dig into Tim Ferriss has an entire series of episodes. I can't wait to really delve into, into the man into the Ferris wheel.
Uh, too good, too good to Shay. And that'll get us ever so close to our 100th episode, which is going to be huge, but there's plenty, plenty more left in the moonshots podcasts. So, Mark, I want to say a big, thank you to you. I want to say thank you. To all of our listeners, wherever so grateful for people from all over well, joining in to our adventures, learning out loud and really challenging ourselves to be the best versions of ourselves.
And today we learned that it's all about staying in the fight because the truth really is we often give into our lazy gene and give up on our trends, but we don't have to because we're. So much better [01:06:00] than we could ever imagine. So if we just control our mind, if we use some of the greatest practices like journaling, we can unleash some of that potential on the world and have some positive impact.
And those missions are not easy, not easy at all. So we're going to encounter challenges and suffering. But if we have the right mindset, if we're resilient, you can adapt and overcome and every step of the way keep going, because you know, That there is power from still being in the game from not giving up.
And that's the gift that we had today with David Govins here on the moonshots podcast. That's a wrap.