4 Lessons I learned from David Goggins

David Goggins is a beast.

If you don’t know who he is you’re missing out.

Goggins is generally clumped into the motivational speaker side of the internet. But don’t let that deter you. If there is anyone on the planet who deserves that title it's him.

He’s been through hell and back and continues to push himself every day.

His intention isn’t to sell but to better himself and help you do the same.

If you ever wonder if his methods have stable ground to stand on…his methods are the ground.

His 60-second videos on Instagram will motivate you to run a hundred miles and write a new book all at the same time.

He’s no bullshit.

Recently he went on the JRE podcast #1906. Like many other JRE episodes, it’s a mammoth, pushing close to 3 hours in length.

With that said here are 4 lessons from the first hour of the show:

1. When writing, answer the questions your past self had

He says the mistake people make when writing to people behind them is they write from the place they're at.

But that’s not going to help someone stuck in the mud. When Goggin writes he travels back to the person that started the journey and writes through him.

Next time you are writing a piece of content that’s purpose is to provide value, ask yourself, “What advice do I wish I got”

When your writing answers that question your reach will flourish.

2. You don’t learn anything where you are now

Condensed into one sentence:

Have a beginner's mindset, go outside your comfort zone, and don't skip the basics.

3. The Talent Problem

“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard”

We've all seen this before in sports.

The young talented fighter climbs the ranks. It’s easy, he's sparking everybody and has to work a fraction of the time in the gym.

He tastes success and his commitment waivers. Success was always easy, why should he work as hard?

Then, he goes up against a person slower than him, with less flashy moves…and loses.

His opponent survived his early attacks, that put everyone else to sleep

He’s force to go where he's never been, he has to going deeper and deeper. Until he’s tired, beat up and the only thing he can think about is quitting.

He’s never been here before, he never pushed his mental limits.

Talent is dangerous.

People with talent only go as far as their talent takes them… then they give up.

They don’t know what to do when they're tired and the world is closing in. Train your mental strength for when talent runs out:

• Do the things you don’t want to do

• Run

• Face your fears

• Push through the pain

There are thousands of ways to do it.

Here’s a question to start you off:

“What is something you could do, that you know you should do, that you have been avoiding?”

4. Have hard conversations with yourself

People don’t like to have hard conversations with themselves or with others for that matter.

It’s hard, it’s uncomfortable, it’s embarrassing.

If you’re confused here’s the way he explained it:

Imagine you are going out to lunch with your significant other to see your cousin John.

You haven’t seen John in a month.

He's gained 20+ pounds of fat.

After lunch, you get in the car and you guys mention his weight.

Instead of bringing it up to him, you gossip.

You avoided the hard conversation that will help John. Even if he hates you now at least he gets better.

Well, the same goes for you.

You avoid the hard conversations…the truths that will make you better.

Have hard conversations with yourself every day.

If you’re not following me on Twitter check me out @TheBabblingMind

-The Babbling Mind