Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins (Summary)

Summary video in less than 30 minutes

Summary:
– This is a book, podcast and radio talk show all in one. His book is read and then the reader asks him to talk about each part of the chapters. Explaining things like the accountability mirror, the governor, 40% rule, cookie jar and taking souls.
– Goggins was born and raised in an unfortunate situation filled with violence and dramas.
– He disciplined himself to go past the pain. He said he found true happiness past failure.
– He put post-it notes on his mirror from the way he wanted to look to challenges he wanted to face and called it his accountability mirror.
– The governor is in our heads selling us BS and deciding on where the bar is set or the how high our ceiling is. We need to ignore the governor.
– Master your mind and making lists of what you don’t like so you can go and do it.
– Everything in life to him is the game of the mind.
– From being overweight and depressed to being the fittest man on the planet.
– When superiours are watching, show them how you have achieved way more than they could imagine. TAKE THEIR SOULS.
– You don’t want to run first thing in the morning but after 20 minutes you get energised and the sympathetic nervous system helps you in this.
– Visualise it.
– In your notes also add your successes, the one’s you achieved after a few failures. Remember these as that is your cookie jar.
– He says we give up after 40% of our efforts. Catalogue your weakness so you can get to 100%. Do your workout until you can do any more and in pain, then do 5-10% more.
– He dedicates every hour to a specific task he set and gives it 100%.
– Timestamp everything from how long you talk on your phone to driving and then build your optimal schedule. Only work on one thing at a time.
– Keep putting obstacles in your way. Keep trying to do that little bit more.
– Write out the good things that happened and be generous.
– Instead of watching stuff that confirms our beliefs and having hobbies that we love, we need to spend time on what we hate, otherwise, we become soft.

The 10 Challenges:
1 – Inventory of excuses. What limitations do you have and what excuses are you making for them?
2 – Accountability mirror. Put up post-its of your insecurities, goals and wishes. Say one post-it has ‘lose 2 kgs’. Once you lose 2, remove it and replace it with losing more.
3 – Step outside of your comfort zone. Make notes of what you don’t like to do and do one thing. Condition yourself to be more productive and able to handle anything.
4 – Taking souls. Work harder than your superiors and smash their standards to new highs. How them how awesome you are and judo their negativity.
5 – Visualise your goals.
6 – The cookie jar. Make notes of all your failures that turned into success. Remind yourself how you overcame them. Success was just past that last mile.
7 – Remove the governor. Use progressive overload to break past what you though you could do.
8 – Scheduling.
Week 1 – Make notes of everything you do and how long you do it for.
Week 2 – Fit it all in 15-30 minute blocks. Focus only on that task 100%.
Week 3 – Keep optimising the schedule.
Waste less time and maximise effort without losing sleep.
9 – Be uncommon among the uncommon. If you are already among the top, what can you do to be above them all?
10 – After Action Reports (AAR). Your AAR should have what you achieved, what you failed in, how you can better the fails and what you can keep doing in your successes. Then schedule in another attempt at your falures.

Contents
1. I should have been a statistic
2. Truth hurts
3. The impossible task
4. Taking souls
5. Armoured mind
6. It’s not about a trophy
7. The most powerful weapon
8. Talent not required
9. Uncommon amongst uncommon
10. The empowerment of failure
11. What if?
Acknowledgement
About the author