WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.399 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. We are doing something 00:00:02.399 --> 00:00:05.679 a little different today. Usually we take a topic, 00:00:05.799 --> 00:00:09.320 a historical event, a tech trend, a complex scientific 00:00:09.320 --> 00:00:11.779 concept, and we try to make sense of it. Right. 00:00:11.939 --> 00:00:14.779 But today we're trying to make sense of a person. 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:18.859 And honestly, I'm not sure if person is even 00:00:18.859 --> 00:00:22.000 the right word for what we are looking at today. 00:00:22.160 --> 00:00:25.320 No. We are looking at a phenomenon. We are talking 00:00:25.320 --> 00:00:28.420 about David Goggins. It is a case study in the 00:00:28.420 --> 00:00:30.940 extremes of human physiology and psychology. 00:00:31.179 --> 00:00:32.920 That's really the only way to frame it. That 00:00:32.920 --> 00:00:34.240 is putting it mildly. I mean, if you've been 00:00:34.240 --> 00:00:35.700 on the Internet in the last decade, you know 00:00:35.700 --> 00:00:37.460 the caricature. Oh, absolutely. You know the 00:00:37.460 --> 00:00:39.600 memes. You know the guy screaming at you to stay 00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:42.560 hard. The guy posting videos of himself sweating 00:00:42.560 --> 00:00:45.259 through a shirt at 3 a .m. while you're still 00:00:45.259 --> 00:00:47.719 hitting snooze. Right. It's easy to look at that 00:00:47.719 --> 00:00:50.820 and just dismiss it as performative or just insanity. 00:00:51.079 --> 00:00:54.350 Which, to be fair. is a natural reaction. When 00:00:54.350 --> 00:00:56.810 you see someone operating so far outside the 00:00:56.810 --> 00:00:59.030 standard deviation of normal human behavior, 00:00:59.350 --> 00:01:02.590 the brain tries to categorize it. It tries to 00:01:02.590 --> 00:01:05.230 label it as other. We think, oh, he's just built 00:01:05.230 --> 00:01:07.409 different, or he's a genetic freak. Right, it 00:01:07.409 --> 00:01:09.430 protects our own ego. Exactly, it protects our 00:01:09.430 --> 00:01:11.530 own ego to think that way. It lets us off the 00:01:11.530 --> 00:01:14.090 hook. Exactly. If he's a mutant, then I don't 00:01:14.090 --> 00:01:16.870 have to feel bad about skipping the gym. But 00:01:16.870 --> 00:01:19.700 that is why we're here. We have a massive stack 00:01:19.700 --> 00:01:22.120 of sources today. A really deep stack. We have 00:01:22.120 --> 00:01:25.060 the biographical data, the military service records, 00:01:25.280 --> 00:01:27.480 which are, I mean, they're thicker than a phone 00:01:27.480 --> 00:01:31.120 book, and race results ranging from the early 00:01:31.120 --> 00:01:35.140 2000s all the way up to August 2025. And the 00:01:35.140 --> 00:01:37.420 memoirs, of course. And we are also pulling heavily 00:01:37.420 --> 00:01:40.000 from his memoirs, Can't Hurt Me and Never Finished. 00:01:40.420 --> 00:01:42.719 And the mission for this deep dive is to strip 00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:45.409 away the meme and look at the mechanic. We want 00:01:45.409 --> 00:01:47.450 to understand the architecture of this transformation 00:01:47.450 --> 00:01:50.409 because on paper this story is statistically 00:01:50.409 --> 00:01:53.209 impossible. It really is. You have a man who 00:01:53.209 --> 00:01:55.870 describes his childhood home as hell on earth. 00:01:56.030 --> 00:01:58.170 He grew up with a severe learning disability 00:01:58.170 --> 00:02:02.069 a speech impediment massive social anxiety and 00:02:02.069 --> 00:02:05.859 he faced overt violent racism in a way that most 00:02:05.859 --> 00:02:08.379 people can't even conceptualize. And yet this 00:02:08.379 --> 00:02:10.960 same person ends up inducted into the International 00:02:10.960 --> 00:02:14.099 Sports Hall of Fame and becomes the only member 00:02:14.099 --> 00:02:16.599 of the U .S. Armed Forces to complete SEAL training, 00:02:16.879 --> 00:02:19.919 Army Ranger school, and Air Force tactical air 00:02:19.919 --> 00:02:22.400 controller training. It's the ultimate contradiction. 00:02:22.819 --> 00:02:25.819 How do you go from a terrified, abused kid in 00:02:25.819 --> 00:02:28.740 Buffalo, New York, to a man who runs 200 miles 00:02:28.740 --> 00:02:31.840 for fun? Yeah. We're going to unpack the 40 % 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:33.240 rule. We're going to look at the neuroscience 00:02:33.240 --> 00:02:35.099 of endurance. And we're going to look at his 00:02:35.099 --> 00:02:37.419 recent feats as a 50 -year -old man. But you 00:02:37.419 --> 00:02:40.120 have to start at the beginning. But to understand 00:02:40.120 --> 00:02:42.419 the end result, we have to understand the starting 00:02:42.419 --> 00:02:45.120 point. And the starting point is a place that 00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:47.740 sounds lovely. Paradise Road. It really is a 00:02:47.740 --> 00:02:50.319 master class in irony. Right. Paradise Road. 00:02:51.039 --> 00:02:54.169 Williamsville, New York. 1981. It sounds like 00:02:54.169 --> 00:02:55.930 the suburbs. It sounds like the American dream. 00:02:56.009 --> 00:02:58.750 White kicket fences, green lawns. And for the 00:02:58.750 --> 00:03:01.689 neighbors, it probably was. But inside the Goggins 00:03:01.689 --> 00:03:04.930 house, the reality was a nightmare. His father, 00:03:05.090 --> 00:03:07.330 Trennis Goggins, was a businessman. A successful 00:03:07.330 --> 00:03:09.949 one at that. He owned a roller skating rink called 00:03:09.949 --> 00:03:12.629 Skateland in East Buffalo. And this wasn't a 00:03:12.629 --> 00:03:15.689 passive investment. This was the center of their 00:03:15.689 --> 00:03:18.229 universe. The whole family's life revolved around 00:03:18.229 --> 00:03:20.030 this place. Now, when I think of a six -year 00:03:20.030 --> 00:03:22.669 -old, I think of Legos. I think of Saturday morning 00:03:22.669 --> 00:03:25.490 cartoons. Learning to ride a bike. Exactly. What 00:03:25.490 --> 00:03:28.310 was David Goggins doing at age six? He was working 00:03:28.310 --> 00:03:30.629 the night shift. And I don't mean he was helping 00:03:30.629 --> 00:03:32.689 out on weekends. I mean, he was effectively an 00:03:32.689 --> 00:03:35.370 employee. An employee. His father had him down 00:03:35.370 --> 00:03:38.889 at Skateland every night. His job was to organize 00:03:38.889 --> 00:03:41.969 the roller skates. Hundreds of sweaty, heavy 00:03:41.969 --> 00:03:44.689 skates. He was managing the concession stand. 00:03:44.770 --> 00:03:47.509 He was cleaning toilets. Wow. And this would 00:03:47.509 --> 00:03:51.090 go on until midnight, 1 .0 a .m., sometimes later. 00:03:51.310 --> 00:03:54.750 A six -year -old. Until 1 .0 a .m. And then he 00:03:54.750 --> 00:03:56.449 was expected to go to school the next morning. 00:03:56.669 --> 00:03:59.409 So you have a first grader who is chronically 00:03:59.409 --> 00:04:01.389 sleep deprived. Chronically. But the fatigue 00:04:01.389 --> 00:04:04.090 was actually the least of his problems. The primary 00:04:04.090 --> 00:04:06.770 environment at Skateland and at home was fear. 00:04:07.490 --> 00:04:10.310 Trenas Goggins was extremely abusive. And the 00:04:10.310 --> 00:04:12.770 sources are very clear on this. Yes. The sources 00:04:12.770 --> 00:04:15.069 describe beatings that were not just discipline, 00:04:15.330 --> 00:04:18.329 but distinct violent assaults on David and his 00:04:18.329 --> 00:04:20.410 mother. There's a detail in the memoir where 00:04:20.410 --> 00:04:23.209 he talks about the sound of the garage door opening. 00:04:23.370 --> 00:04:25.589 Just that mechanical hum of the door going up 00:04:25.589 --> 00:04:28.170 was enough to trigger a panic attack because 00:04:28.170 --> 00:04:30.149 it meant his father was home. And this is where 00:04:30.149 --> 00:04:32.149 we need to stop and get technical because people 00:04:32.149 --> 00:04:35.310 hear abuse or rough childhood and they think 00:04:35.310 --> 00:04:37.949 of it. In emotional terms. Right. They think, 00:04:37.970 --> 00:04:40.930 oh, that's sad. That's sad. Exactly. But we need 00:04:40.930 --> 00:04:42.629 to look at the biology. We need to talk about 00:04:42.629 --> 00:04:45.949 the HPA axis. The HPA axis. Break that down for 00:04:45.949 --> 00:04:48.790 us. The hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis. 00:04:49.189 --> 00:04:52.329 It's the body's central stress response system. 00:04:52.550 --> 00:04:56.670 In a healthy scenario, say, a saber -toothed 00:04:56.670 --> 00:05:00.089 tiger jumps out at you. Your hypothalamus signals 00:05:00.089 --> 00:05:02.889 the pituitary, which signals the adrenals to 00:05:02.889 --> 00:05:05.370 dump cortisol and adrenaline. Fight or flight. 00:05:05.529 --> 00:05:07.949 Right. Your heart rate spikes, your focus narrows, 00:05:07.949 --> 00:05:10.509 you fight or you flee. The tiger leaves, the 00:05:10.509 --> 00:05:12.930 hormones drop, and you return to baseline. That's 00:05:12.930 --> 00:05:14.589 how it's supposed to work. Like a thermostat 00:05:14.589 --> 00:05:16.790 regulating itself. It gets hot, the AC kicks 00:05:16.790 --> 00:05:19.209 on, it cools down. Exactly. A perfect analogy. 00:05:19.569 --> 00:05:22.990 But for Goggins, the tiger never left. He was 00:05:22.990 --> 00:05:25.930 living in a state of what we call... Toxic stress. 00:05:26.189 --> 00:05:29.250 Toxic stress. When a developing brain, and you 00:05:29.250 --> 00:05:31.250 have to remember he is six, seven, eight years 00:05:31.250 --> 00:05:34.829 old, is bathed in cortisol for years on end, 00:05:34.870 --> 00:05:37.430 it physically changes the architecture of the 00:05:37.430 --> 00:05:40.509 brain. Oh, so? What does it do? The amygdala, 00:05:40.629 --> 00:05:43.649 which is the fear center, becomes enlarged and 00:05:43.649 --> 00:05:45.610 hypersensitive. It's like a smoke detector that 00:05:45.610 --> 00:05:47.769 goes off if you light a candle. Constantly on 00:05:47.769 --> 00:05:50.269 high alert. Constantly. And the prefrontal cortex. 00:05:50.509 --> 00:05:52.149 That's the logic center, right? That's the part 00:05:52.149 --> 00:05:54.189 responsible for executive function, learning, 00:05:54.430 --> 00:05:57.589 impulse control. That part actually shrinks or 00:05:57.589 --> 00:05:59.970 has impaired development under chronic stress. 00:06:00.310 --> 00:06:02.730 So when we read that Goggins had a severe stutter. 00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:05.040 Or that he was failing in school or that he had 00:06:05.040 --> 00:06:06.899 this, you know, nervous energy. That wasn't a 00:06:06.899 --> 00:06:09.360 character flaw. It wasn't that he was dumb. It 00:06:09.360 --> 00:06:11.699 was that his hardware had been rewired for survival, 00:06:11.860 --> 00:06:15.160 not for algebra. His body was prioritizing staying 00:06:15.160 --> 00:06:17.939 alive over learning multiplication tables. That 00:06:17.939 --> 00:06:20.079 reframes everything. He wasn't just a kid who 00:06:20.079 --> 00:06:21.839 wouldn't pay attention. He was a kid whose brain 00:06:21.839 --> 00:06:26.740 was screaming, danger, 247. Precisely. And eventually 00:06:26.740 --> 00:06:29.339 his mother found a way to escape. She took David 00:06:29.339 --> 00:06:31.339 and his brother and they fled to Brazil, Indiana. 00:06:31.959 --> 00:06:33.540 So they got away? They got away from the father. 00:06:34.019 --> 00:06:36.199 But the damage to the brain doesn't just undo 00:06:36.199 --> 00:06:39.079 itself because he moved zip codes. The stutter 00:06:39.079 --> 00:06:41.939 remained. The anxiety remained. And the education 00:06:41.939 --> 00:06:45.199 gap. A huge gap. Because he had missed so much 00:06:45.199 --> 00:06:47.699 school working at the rink, he was functionally 00:06:47.699 --> 00:06:50.019 illiterate. When he enrolled in third grade in 00:06:50.019 --> 00:06:52.279 Indiana, he was diagnosed with a learning disability. 00:06:52.720 --> 00:06:55.839 So you have a kid who's... traumatized, can't 00:06:55.839 --> 00:06:58.680 speak without stuttering, feel stupid because 00:06:58.680 --> 00:07:01.060 he's years behind. And on top of all of that. 00:07:01.199 --> 00:07:03.660 And then you drop him into Brazil, Indiana in 00:07:03.660 --> 00:07:06.459 the 1980s. Which brings us to the next layer 00:07:06.459 --> 00:07:09.600 of the crucible, racism. The sources are pretty 00:07:09.600 --> 00:07:11.839 graphic here. And again, I think we have a tendency 00:07:11.839 --> 00:07:14.740 to sanitize history. To think of the KKK as something 00:07:14.740 --> 00:07:17.439 from the 1920s or 1950s. Not at all. But we're 00:07:17.439 --> 00:07:19.699 talking about the 80s and early 90s here. Yes. 00:07:20.339 --> 00:07:23.680 There was a visible active Klan presence in the 00:07:23.680 --> 00:07:26.720 area. Goggins wasn't just dealing with microaggressions. 00:07:26.759 --> 00:07:29.560 No, this is explicit. He was dealing with explicit 00:07:29.560 --> 00:07:33.220 threats. He recalls finding a note on his Spanish 00:07:33.220 --> 00:07:36.399 notebook, a notebook he needed for class, that 00:07:36.399 --> 00:07:38.759 had a drawing of a person hanging from a tree 00:07:38.759 --> 00:07:41.220 and said, Nigel Sick, we're going to kill you. 00:07:41.379 --> 00:07:44.000 Imagine being a teenager walking into a classroom 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:46.120 and seeing that on your desk. The psychological 00:07:46.120 --> 00:07:50.180 weight of that is immense. And at age 16, he 00:07:50.180 --> 00:07:52.620 walked out to his car and found a racial slur 00:07:52.620 --> 00:07:55.259 spray painted across the door. So it's just an 00:07:55.259 --> 00:07:57.220 accumulation of obstacles. A mountain of them. 00:07:57.579 --> 00:08:00.139 Poverty, illiteracy, the trauma of the abuse. 00:08:00.279 --> 00:08:03.069 And now... The constant threat of violence just 00:08:03.069 --> 00:08:05.269 for existing in his own skin. Most people in 00:08:05.269 --> 00:08:07.329 that scenario is essentially collapse. They fall 00:08:07.329 --> 00:08:09.470 into substance abuse or they drop out of society. 00:08:10.029 --> 00:08:13.449 It's a survival mechanism to just go numb. So 00:08:13.449 --> 00:08:15.889 what is the lifeline? Where does the shift happen? 00:08:16.009 --> 00:08:17.670 Because he didn't just drift. He didn't end up 00:08:17.670 --> 00:08:19.850 a statistic. The sources mentioned his grandfather. 00:08:20.170 --> 00:08:22.290 Right. His grandfather had served in the Air 00:08:22.290 --> 00:08:24.389 Force. He was a cook, but he carried himself 00:08:24.389 --> 00:08:26.670 with this immense dignity. What was it about 00:08:26.670 --> 00:08:29.639 him? He kept his house spotless. He had discipline. 00:08:29.879 --> 00:08:32.879 And I think for a young David Goggins who was 00:08:32.879 --> 00:08:35.779 drowning in chaos, that military order looked 00:08:35.779 --> 00:08:38.440 like a life raft. It was structure. It was structure. 00:08:38.539 --> 00:08:41.320 It was respect. And before his freshman year 00:08:41.320 --> 00:08:43.360 of high school, Goggins attended a pararescue 00:08:43.360 --> 00:08:45.639 jump orientation course. And that feels like 00:08:45.639 --> 00:08:48.519 the first glimpse of the future. The first little 00:08:48.519 --> 00:08:50.860 spark. A tiny spark. But it wasn't a straight 00:08:50.860 --> 00:08:52.929 line, was it? I think that's the movie version. 00:08:53.090 --> 00:08:55.629 He sees the military. He joins up. Credits roll. 00:08:55.909 --> 00:09:00.009 But the reality was way, way messier. Oh, it 00:09:00.009 --> 00:09:02.470 was a disaster. A complete false start. Let's 00:09:02.470 --> 00:09:04.830 move into part two then, the military transformation. 00:09:05.549 --> 00:09:08.950 Because the story we usually hear is David Goggins, 00:09:08.990 --> 00:09:12.210 Navy SEAL. But he didn't start in the Navy. No, 00:09:12.309 --> 00:09:15.250 not even close. He originally applied to the 00:09:15.250 --> 00:09:18.090 Air Force Pararescue PJ training. PJs, yeah. 00:09:18.429 --> 00:09:20.309 These are the elite of the elite in the Air Force. 00:09:20.370 --> 00:09:22.549 Absolutely. Their job is to drop into combat 00:09:22.549 --> 00:09:25.350 zones and rescue downed pilots. Incredibly demanding. 00:09:25.529 --> 00:09:27.450 He got accepted into training. He was pushing 00:09:27.450 --> 00:09:30.629 through. But then he hit a medical wall. What 00:09:30.629 --> 00:09:32.629 happened? He was diagnosed with sickle cell trait. 00:09:32.870 --> 00:09:35.669 Now, I want to pause here. Because I've heard 00:09:35.669 --> 00:09:38.149 this story before. And people often gloss over 00:09:38.149 --> 00:09:40.649 sickle cell trait like it's just a minor allergy. 00:09:40.929 --> 00:09:43.009 It's not. In a high -intensity training environment, 00:09:43.230 --> 00:09:46.509 this is serious business. It is potentially lethal. 00:09:46.850 --> 00:09:49.129 Sickle cell trait means that while you don't 00:09:49.129 --> 00:09:51.850 have the full -blown disease, you carry one gene 00:09:51.850 --> 00:09:55.309 for it. Under extreme conditions, dehydration, 00:09:55.490 --> 00:09:58.889 high altitude, intense physical exertion, your 00:09:58.889 --> 00:10:01.570 red blood cells can deform. They turn into a 00:10:01.570 --> 00:10:04.289 sickle shape instead of a round disc. And round 00:10:04.289 --> 00:10:06.450 discs flow through blood vessels. Sickles get 00:10:06.450 --> 00:10:09.529 stuck. Exactly. They clog the capillaries. This 00:10:09.529 --> 00:10:12.750 can lead to ischemia, lack of oxygen to the muscles, 00:10:12.929 --> 00:10:15.129 and eventually rhabdomyolysis. which is where 00:10:15.129 --> 00:10:17.029 the muscle tissue breaks down and poisons the 00:10:17.029 --> 00:10:19.190 kidneys. So when the doctors flagged him, it 00:10:19.190 --> 00:10:21.750 wasn't a suggestion. It was a safety stop. It 00:10:21.750 --> 00:10:23.950 was a full stop. For his own safety, they pulled 00:10:23.950 --> 00:10:26.590 him. So he's pulled from pararescue. But this 00:10:26.590 --> 00:10:28.490 is interesting. He didn't leave the service. 00:10:28.730 --> 00:10:31.570 He didn't quit. He pivoted. He went into the 00:10:31.570 --> 00:10:34.929 TACP, the tactical air control party. He served 00:10:34.929 --> 00:10:39.210 there from 1994 to 1999. Can we define TACP for 00:10:39.210 --> 00:10:41.690 the listener? Because the military loves its 00:10:41.690 --> 00:10:46.240 acronyms. Is this a desk job? Not at all. A TACP 00:10:46.240 --> 00:10:48.919 is essentially the guy on the ground who is embedded 00:10:48.919 --> 00:10:52.519 with army or marine units. And his job is to 00:10:52.519 --> 00:10:54.639 coordinate air power. He's the guy on the radio. 00:10:54.820 --> 00:10:57.360 He is on the radio calling in airstrikes. I have 00:10:57.360 --> 00:10:59.320 enemies at these coordinates. Drop the bomb here. 00:10:59.620 --> 00:11:02.860 It's a serious combat role. But for Goggins, 00:11:02.919 --> 00:11:04.960 it wasn't the elite role he had envisioned. He 00:11:04.960 --> 00:11:07.200 felt like he had settled. Deeply. He felt like 00:11:07.200 --> 00:11:10.259 a failure. Okay, so he serves his time. He gets 00:11:10.259 --> 00:11:12.379 out. And this is the part of the story that I 00:11:12.379 --> 00:11:14.279 find most relatable, honestly. It's the most 00:11:14.279 --> 00:11:16.320 human part, for sure. He leaves the Air Force. 00:11:16.899 --> 00:11:19.279 And where does he end up? He isn't running marathons. 00:11:19.299 --> 00:11:21.940 He isn't fighting bad guys. He is working as 00:11:21.940 --> 00:11:24.080 an exterminator. It's the definition of rock 00:11:24.080 --> 00:11:26.240 bottom for someone with his ambition. He's driving 00:11:26.240 --> 00:11:28.259 around spraying for cockroaches in restaurants 00:11:28.259 --> 00:11:30.629 at night. And physically. What did he look like? 00:11:30.769 --> 00:11:33.470 He had let himself go completely. He was powerlifting 00:11:33.470 --> 00:11:36.549 a bit, but mostly he was eating. The source says 00:11:36.549 --> 00:11:39.730 he was around 300 pounds at his heaviest. 300 00:11:39.730 --> 00:11:41.789 pounds? He was drinking chocolate shakes. He 00:11:41.789 --> 00:11:44.110 was eating boxes of donuts. He was living a very 00:11:44.110 --> 00:11:46.049 comfortable, very standard life of consumption. 00:11:46.409 --> 00:11:49.070 And then the moment happens. He sees a documentary 00:11:49.070 --> 00:11:52.529 about Navy SEALs on the Discovery Channel. He 00:11:52.529 --> 00:11:55.330 sees guys suffering in the mud, carrying boats 00:11:55.330 --> 00:11:58.460 on their heads. And something clicks. He decides, 00:11:58.580 --> 00:12:00.620 I want to do that. Which is an insane thought 00:12:00.620 --> 00:12:03.299 for a 300 -pound exterminator to have. Right. 00:12:03.419 --> 00:12:06.000 I mean, he goes to the recruiter. And then a 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:07.539 recruiter probably takes one look at him and 00:12:07.539 --> 00:12:09.679 thinks he's joking. Most of them did. They laughed 00:12:09.679 --> 00:12:11.440 him out of the office. He went to several. But 00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:13.740 he found one. He found one who checked the regulations. 00:12:14.120 --> 00:12:17.159 The recruiter said, look, you are way over the 00:12:17.159 --> 00:12:20.139 weight limit. The cutoff for your height is 191 00:12:20.139 --> 00:12:24.970 pounds. Goggins was 297. So he has to lose 106 00:12:24.970 --> 00:12:27.809 pounds. That's 38 kilograms. And here's the kicker. 00:12:28.409 --> 00:12:31.309 Due to age restrictions and training class start 00:12:31.309 --> 00:12:33.710 dates, he had three months to do it. Okay, wait. 00:12:33.889 --> 00:12:36.850 I have to call time out here. 106 pounds in three 00:12:36.850 --> 00:12:39.850 months. 90 days. That's over a pound a day every 00:12:39.850 --> 00:12:43.690 single day. For 90 days straight, that sounds 00:12:43.690 --> 00:12:46.500 fatal. Sounds impossible. Or fatal. How is that 00:12:46.500 --> 00:12:49.679 physically possible? It borders on fatal. Honestly, 00:12:49.940 --> 00:12:51.940 if a doctor looked at his regimen, they would 00:12:51.940 --> 00:12:54.480 have hospitalized him. We actually have his daily 00:12:54.480 --> 00:12:57.100 routine from the logs. Let's hear it. He was 00:12:57.100 --> 00:13:00.720 waking up at 4 .30 a .m. He would eat a banana. 00:13:01.019 --> 00:13:03.820 That was breakfast. A banana. That's it. Then 00:13:03.820 --> 00:13:06.019 he would get on a stationary bike for two hours. 00:13:06.200 --> 00:13:08.879 Just off a banana. Just a banana. Yeah. Then 00:13:08.879 --> 00:13:11.799 he would study for the ASVAB test because remember, 00:13:11.879 --> 00:13:14.600 he had to retake the academic test to qualify. 00:13:14.860 --> 00:13:16.679 Right. He was still dealing with the learning 00:13:16.679 --> 00:13:19.620 disability. Exactly. Then he would drive to the 00:13:19.620 --> 00:13:22.259 local pool and swim for two miles. Then he would 00:13:22.259 --> 00:13:24.940 go to the gym for a high rep, low weight session. 00:13:25.340 --> 00:13:28.700 We're talking sets of 100 reps on the bench press 00:13:28.700 --> 00:13:31.139 just to burn glycogen. Just burning calories. 00:13:31.440 --> 00:13:34.279 Purely burning. Then another run in the evening. 00:13:34.419 --> 00:13:36.200 His calorie intake must have been practically 00:13:36.200 --> 00:13:39.120 zero compared to his output. It was a massive 00:13:39.120 --> 00:13:42.019 deficit. He was metabolizing his own body. He 00:13:42.019 --> 00:13:44.379 wasn't building the Goggins body we see on Instagram 00:13:44.379 --> 00:13:48.220 today, the ripped muscular physique. He was deteriorating. 00:13:48.220 --> 00:13:50.879 He describes it as being physically broken. He 00:13:50.879 --> 00:13:54.820 was depressed. He was crying daily. But he viewed 00:13:54.820 --> 00:13:57.529 the suffering as the tuition fee. What do you 00:13:57.529 --> 00:13:59.529 mean by that? He believed that he had to kill 00:13:59.529 --> 00:14:02.450 the old David Goggins, the soft, undisciplined 00:14:02.450 --> 00:14:04.970 one, to build the new one. The suffering was 00:14:04.970 --> 00:14:07.870 the price of admission. And miraculously, he 00:14:07.870 --> 00:14:11.070 makes the wait. He gets into Buddy's basic underwater 00:14:11.070 --> 00:14:14.009 demolition SEAL training. And he graduates with 00:14:14.009 --> 00:14:16.990 Class 235 in 2001. He gets through Hell Week. 00:14:17.090 --> 00:14:19.149 He gets his trident. He's assigned to SEAL Team 00:14:19.149 --> 00:14:24.149 5 and serves in Iraq. Now, for 99 .9 % of people... 00:14:24.240 --> 00:14:26.559 That is the end of the story. That's the mountaintop. 00:14:26.700 --> 00:14:28.940 You became a SEAL. You reached the pinnacle. 00:14:29.039 --> 00:14:30.879 You write a book about being a SEAL and you retire. 00:14:31.679 --> 00:14:33.919 But Goggins keeps looking for other walls to 00:14:33.919 --> 00:14:36.179 run through. This is a detail that often gets 00:14:36.179 --> 00:14:38.519 overlooked in the Running Man narrative. In 2004, 00:14:38.740 --> 00:14:41.259 after already being a combat -tested SEAL, you 00:14:41.259 --> 00:14:43.720 went to Army Ranger School. Why? I mean, why 00:14:43.720 --> 00:14:45.879 would a SEAL go to Ranger School? It's a leadership 00:14:45.879 --> 00:14:47.779 school. It's considered one of the toughest in 00:14:47.779 --> 00:14:50.409 the world. But culturally, you have to understand 00:14:50.409 --> 00:14:53.490 the rivalry. Navy SEALs and Army Rangers. They 00:14:53.490 --> 00:14:55.289 respect each other, but they are competitors. 00:14:56.090 --> 00:14:58.909 For a SEAL to walk into Ranger school, he has 00:14:58.909 --> 00:15:01.230 a target on his back. Well, for sure. The Ranger 00:15:01.230 --> 00:15:03.830 instructors, the RIs, are going to ride him harder 00:15:03.830 --> 00:15:06.149 than anyone else. They want to see if the SEAL 00:15:06.149 --> 00:15:08.110 guy breaks. They probably wanted to see him quit 00:15:08.110 --> 00:15:10.049 so they could brag about it for the next 10 years. 00:15:10.190 --> 00:15:13.539 Exactly. But he didn't just pass. He won the 00:15:13.539 --> 00:15:16.539 Enlisted Honor Man Award. Whoa. And even more 00:15:16.539 --> 00:15:20.259 impressive, he received a 100 % peer evaluation. 00:15:20.399 --> 00:15:23.700 That is huge. Explain how peer evils work in 00:15:23.700 --> 00:15:25.460 that environment, because it's not like a corporate 00:15:25.460 --> 00:15:28.460 performance review. Not at all. In elite military 00:15:28.460 --> 00:15:31.889 schools, peer evils are everything. At the end 00:15:31.889 --> 00:15:34.490 of a phase, everyone in your squad ranks everyone 00:15:34.490 --> 00:15:37.049 else. Okay. If you're a gray man, someone who 00:15:37.049 --> 00:15:40.009 just blends in, or if you're selfish, or if you're 00:15:40.009 --> 00:15:42.269 physically fit but you don't help your buddy 00:15:42.269 --> 00:15:44.370 carry his rucksack when he's struggling... Your 00:15:44.370 --> 00:15:46.429 peers will torch you. They will torch you. They 00:15:46.429 --> 00:15:49.830 will rank you low. To get 100 % means that every 00:15:49.830 --> 00:15:52.429 single person in his squad ranked him as the 00:15:52.429 --> 00:15:54.610 number one guy they would want to go to war with. 00:15:54.789 --> 00:15:58.029 That destroys the idea that he's just... A selfish 00:15:58.029 --> 00:16:00.629 individualist who's only in it for himself. Completely. 00:16:00.649 --> 00:16:03.090 You don't get 100 % pure evils if you aren't 00:16:03.090 --> 00:16:05.350 carrying the heavy end of the log for the team. 00:16:05.750 --> 00:16:08.210 Precisely. It shows that his transformation wasn't 00:16:08.210 --> 00:16:09.909 just physical. It was a character transformation. 00:16:10.009 --> 00:16:13.029 He had become a leader. So he's a SEAL. Yeah. 00:16:13.070 --> 00:16:15.049 He's an Army Ranger Honor Man. He has served 00:16:15.049 --> 00:16:18.309 in Iraq. By 2005, he has built this incredible 00:16:18.309 --> 00:16:21.409 resume. Unbelievable. But then tragedy strikes. 00:16:22.269 --> 00:16:24.769 And this seems to be the catalyst for the second 00:16:24.769 --> 00:16:27.240 life of David Goggins, The Runner. Yes. This 00:16:27.240 --> 00:16:30.580 is Operation Red Wings. June 2005. Most people 00:16:30.580 --> 00:16:33.600 know this from the movie Lone Survivor. A SEAL 00:16:33.600 --> 00:16:36.220 reconnaissance team was ambushed in Afghanistan. 00:16:36.419 --> 00:16:39.519 A rescue helicopter, a Chinook, was shot down 00:16:39.519 --> 00:16:41.679 trying to save him. 19 Americans were killed. 00:16:41.840 --> 00:16:43.759 And many of those men were Goggins' friends. 00:16:43.919 --> 00:16:45.980 He had gone through training with them. He knew 00:16:45.980 --> 00:16:48.159 their families. He knew their kids. So that news 00:16:48.159 --> 00:16:50.820 hits? When that news hit, grief can manifest 00:16:50.820 --> 00:16:53.500 in many ways. For some, it's paralysis. You shut 00:16:53.500 --> 00:16:55.779 down. Right. For Goggins, it was mobilization. 00:16:56.320 --> 00:16:58.059 He wanted to do something for the families of 00:16:58.059 --> 00:17:00.220 the fallen. He focused on the Special Operations 00:17:00.220 --> 00:17:03.080 Warrior Foundation. Right. It's a charity that 00:17:03.080 --> 00:17:05.500 provides college scholarships and grants to the 00:17:05.500 --> 00:17:08.140 children of special ops soldiers who die in the 00:17:08.140 --> 00:17:10.380 line of duty. And Goggins wanted to raise money. 00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:13.259 Significant money. And he figured the best way 00:17:13.259 --> 00:17:15.519 to get people to open their wallets was to do 00:17:15.519 --> 00:17:18.859 something so extreme, so impossible, that they 00:17:18.859 --> 00:17:22.420 couldn't look away. So his brain went to, I should 00:17:22.420 --> 00:17:25.500 run an ultramarathon. Had he run a marathon before? 00:17:25.619 --> 00:17:28.940 No, he had never run a marathon. He hated running. 00:17:29.240 --> 00:17:31.920 Hated it. Loathed it. He was a power lifter at 00:17:31.920 --> 00:17:33.980 this point. He weighed over 200 pounds again, 00:17:34.059 --> 00:17:36.500 but this time it was pure muscle. He was built 00:17:36.500 --> 00:17:39.480 for kicking down doors, not running for 24 hours. 00:17:39.700 --> 00:17:43.559 But he finds a race to San Diego one day. A 24 00:17:43.559 --> 00:17:46.059 -hour race on a one -mile looped course. And 00:17:46.059 --> 00:17:48.400 he enters. With what training? He enters with 00:17:48.400 --> 00:17:51.599 no training, no run strategy. He basically just 00:17:51.599 --> 00:17:53.960 burned a lawn chair, some water, and a box of 00:17:53.960 --> 00:17:56.319 crackers. You're kidding me. No, that was his 00:17:56.319 --> 00:17:58.259 nutrition plan. And this is where the physiology 00:17:58.259 --> 00:18:01.660 of just toughing it out hits a wall. You can't 00:18:01.660 --> 00:18:04.140 just willpower your way through 100 miles without 00:18:04.140 --> 00:18:08.259 consequences. No. The source material is brutal 00:18:08.259 --> 00:18:12.740 on this race. By mile 70, he was destroyed. But 00:18:12.740 --> 00:18:15.579 we need to be specific about the damage. He wasn't 00:18:15.579 --> 00:18:17.920 just tired. What was happening to his body? He 00:18:17.920 --> 00:18:20.480 had broken all the small metatarsal bones in 00:18:20.480 --> 00:18:23.400 his feet due to the stress of carrying 200 pounds 00:18:23.400 --> 00:18:25.980 of body weight that far. Wow. His kidneys were 00:18:25.980 --> 00:18:28.579 failing. He was peeing brown, the color of Coca 00:18:28.579 --> 00:18:31.539 -Cola. That's rhabdomyolysis again. Yes. His 00:18:31.539 --> 00:18:34.279 muscles were breaking down and myoglobin was 00:18:34.279 --> 00:18:37.380 clogging his kidneys. He was in full organ distress. 00:18:38.849 --> 00:18:40.990 And this is the part that defies medical logic. 00:18:41.190 --> 00:18:43.289 He didn't stop. He sat in his chair for a bit 00:18:43.289 --> 00:18:45.650 and then he got up. He walked. He shuffled. He 00:18:45.650 --> 00:18:48.609 finished 101 miles in 19 hours and 6 minutes. 00:18:48.690 --> 00:18:50.869 He destroyed himself. He did. But he qualified 00:18:50.869 --> 00:18:52.690 for the Boston Marathon. And more importantly, 00:18:52.769 --> 00:18:55.029 he put himself on the radar for the Badwater 00:18:55.029 --> 00:18:57.990 135. The Badwater 135. We need to explain this 00:18:57.990 --> 00:19:00.450 race because 135 sounds like a nice, crisp number. 00:19:00.769 --> 00:19:03.829 But the context is insane. It is widely considered 00:19:03.829 --> 00:19:05.589 the toughest foot race on the planet. Where is 00:19:05.589 --> 00:19:08.220 it? It starts in Badwater Basin in Death Valley, 00:19:08.400 --> 00:19:10.920 the lowest point in North America, and ends at 00:19:10.920 --> 00:19:14.299 the trailhead of Mount Whitney. It's 135 miles 00:19:14.299 --> 00:19:18.160 nonstop. In July. In Death Valley. What are the 00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:20.259 temperatures? It can hit 130 degrees Fahrenheit. 00:19:20.400 --> 00:19:24.460 That's 54 Celsius. The heat is so intense that 00:19:24.460 --> 00:19:27.480 the asphalt reaches 170 degrees. You could cook 00:19:27.480 --> 00:19:30.220 on it. If you stand still. Your shoes will literally 00:19:30.220 --> 00:19:33.099 melt and stick to the road. Runners have to run 00:19:33.099 --> 00:19:35.039 on the white line of the highway because the 00:19:35.039 --> 00:19:37.900 blacktop is too hot. And Goggins decides, I'm 00:19:37.900 --> 00:19:40.700 going to do that. In 2006, he gets invited. He 00:19:40.700 --> 00:19:43.079 finishes fifth overall. Which is absurd for a 00:19:43.079 --> 00:19:45.980 rookie in a race like that. It is unheard of. 00:19:46.039 --> 00:19:48.359 These are professional ultra runners he's competing 00:19:48.359 --> 00:19:51.039 against. Skinny, efficient running machines who 00:19:51.039 --> 00:19:53.059 have trained for years for this one race. And 00:19:53.059 --> 00:19:55.720 he's this hulking seal. Right. Then he comes 00:19:55.720 --> 00:19:58.920 back in 2007 and finishes third. He took a long 00:19:58.920 --> 00:20:02.559 break, came back in 2013 and finished 18th. And 00:20:02.559 --> 00:20:04.839 through all of this, through these events, he 00:20:04.839 --> 00:20:07.059 raised over $2 million for the Warrior Foundation. 00:20:07.559 --> 00:20:10.240 But he didn't stop at running. He did the Ultraman 00:20:10.240 --> 00:20:14.660 in 2006, a 320 -mile triathlon in Hawaii, and 00:20:14.660 --> 00:20:17.319 placed second. But the one that always gets me, 00:20:17.339 --> 00:20:18.980 the one that makes my hands hurt just thinking 00:20:18.980 --> 00:20:22.299 about it, is the pull -up record. Ah, yes. The 00:20:22.299 --> 00:20:24.140 Guinness World Record for the most pull -ups 00:20:24.140 --> 00:20:28.819 in 24 hours. I can do maybe 10 on a good day 00:20:28.819 --> 00:20:31.910 if the wind is at my back. Goggins wanted to 00:20:31.910 --> 00:20:34.309 break the record, which was 4 ,020 at the time. 00:20:34.369 --> 00:20:36.089 Now, this wasn't a one and done. He actually 00:20:36.089 --> 00:20:38.089 failed his first two attempts. Really? I didn't 00:20:38.089 --> 00:20:41.390 know that. Yes. The first time, he tore his hands 00:20:41.390 --> 00:20:43.089 apart so badly he couldn't grip the bar. The 00:20:43.089 --> 00:20:45.690 skin just ripped off. The second time, he got 00:20:45.690 --> 00:20:47.990 ribdomyolysis again and had to stop. His body 00:20:47.990 --> 00:20:49.970 just shut down. But on the third attempt? On 00:20:49.970 --> 00:20:52.990 the third attempt in 2013, he did it. He completed 00:20:52.990 --> 00:20:57.109 4 ,030 pull -ups in 17 hours. 4 ,030. Just imagine 00:20:57.109 --> 00:21:00.019 the friction, the sheer repetition. Up. Down, 00:21:00.059 --> 00:21:02.819 up, down, a thousand times. The skin on his hands 00:21:02.819 --> 00:21:05.259 was gone. He had to have his hands taped and 00:21:05.259 --> 00:21:08.140 re -taped constantly. It's a level of monotony 00:21:08.140 --> 00:21:10.039 that would break most people's minds before their 00:21:10.039 --> 00:21:12.299 bodies gave out. And that brings us to the why. 00:21:12.799 --> 00:21:15.660 We've covered the biographical what. He ran this. 00:21:15.779 --> 00:21:18.200 He lifted that. Right. But the reason Goggins 00:21:18.200 --> 00:21:21.099 resonates with millions of people, the reason 00:21:21.099 --> 00:21:23.240 we're talking about him today, isn't just because 00:21:23.240 --> 00:21:25.940 he's fit. It's because of his philosophy. Exactly. 00:21:26.319 --> 00:21:29.569 Let's dive into part four. the philosophy he 00:21:29.569 --> 00:21:32.190 has distilled his life experience into a few 00:21:32.190 --> 00:21:35.349 core concepts primarily in his books can't hurt 00:21:35.349 --> 00:21:37.650 me and never finished and the centerpiece is 00:21:37.650 --> 00:21:41.920 the 40 rule The 40 % rule. I love this concept, 00:21:41.980 --> 00:21:43.480 but I want to make sure we aren't just reciting 00:21:43.480 --> 00:21:45.880 a motivational poster. Break down what this actually 00:21:45.880 --> 00:21:48.920 means. Okay. The 41 % rule states that when your 00:21:48.920 --> 00:21:50.859 mind tells you that you are done, that you are 00:21:50.859 --> 00:21:52.839 completely exhausted, that you cannot take another 00:21:52.839 --> 00:21:56.119 step, you are actually only at 40 % of your total 00:21:56.119 --> 00:21:59.480 capacity. Only 40%. So that feeling of, I'm dying, 00:21:59.539 --> 00:22:02.480 I have to stop. That's a lie. It's a protective 00:22:02.480 --> 00:22:04.660 mechanism. It's not a lie in that you feel it, 00:22:04.680 --> 00:22:07.000 but it's not an accurate reflection of your physical 00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:08.819 reserves. So what's happening scientifically? 00:22:09.140 --> 00:22:10.759 In sports science, this aligns with something 00:22:10.759 --> 00:22:13.079 called the central governor theory, which was 00:22:13.079 --> 00:22:15.640 pioneered by Dr. Tim Noakes. Central governor 00:22:15.640 --> 00:22:18.299 theory. Is that different from your muscles just 00:22:18.299 --> 00:22:20.960 running out of fuel, like glycogen depletion? 00:22:21.059 --> 00:22:24.559 Completely. There is peripheral fatigue, where 00:22:24.559 --> 00:22:26.660 your muscles literally have no glycogen left. 00:22:26.740 --> 00:22:30.160 You bonk. You collapse. But central fatigue is 00:22:30.160 --> 00:22:32.640 your brain telling you to stop to preserve a 00:22:32.640 --> 00:22:35.779 safety margin. It's a preemptive shutdown. Precisely. 00:22:35.779 --> 00:22:38.839 Think of it like a car. A sports car might have 00:22:38.839 --> 00:22:41.539 an engine capable of doing 180 miles per hour, 00:22:41.660 --> 00:22:44.079 but the manufacturer puts an electronic governor 00:22:44.079 --> 00:22:47.559 on it to limit it to 120. Why? To save the engine 00:22:47.559 --> 00:22:49.960 from stress and keep the driver safe. So the 00:22:49.960 --> 00:22:52.059 car can go faster, but the software won't let 00:22:52.059 --> 00:22:54.440 it. Exactly. Our brains are the software. They 00:22:54.440 --> 00:22:56.599 want to preserve energy for survival. They want 00:22:56.599 --> 00:22:59.099 to prevent injury. So they send pain signals, 00:22:59.200 --> 00:23:02.220 doubt and fatigue signals way before we are actually 00:23:02.220 --> 00:23:05.259 empty. Goggins is arguing that the governor's 00:23:05.259 --> 00:23:07.559 calibrated way too conservatively for most of 00:23:07.559 --> 00:23:10.000 us. So the low fuel light comes on when you still 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:12.279 have half a tank. Right. But most of us pull 00:23:12.279 --> 00:23:14.700 over the second the light blinks, Noggins is 00:23:14.700 --> 00:23:16.980 saying. Ignore the light. Find out what's really 00:23:16.980 --> 00:23:19.769 in the tank. Keep driving. OK, but. Playing devil's 00:23:19.769 --> 00:23:23.170 advocate here. Pain exists for a reason. Of course. 00:23:23.349 --> 00:23:25.589 If I touch a hot stove, the pain tells me to 00:23:25.589 --> 00:23:28.970 move my hand so I don't burn off my skin. If 00:23:28.970 --> 00:23:30.930 I'm running and my knee feels like it's going 00:23:30.930 --> 00:23:33.849 to explode, isn't that a valid warning? How do 00:23:33.849 --> 00:23:36.849 you distinguish between the governor and actual 00:23:36.849 --> 00:23:39.849 injury? That is the controversy and that is the 00:23:39.849 --> 00:23:43.109 danger. And it's a critical distinction. Goggins 00:23:43.109 --> 00:23:45.869 argues you have to callous the mind. Callous 00:23:45.869 --> 00:23:48.650 the mind? You have to expose yourself to small, 00:23:48.650 --> 00:23:51.430 controlled doses of suffering, taking a cold 00:23:51.430 --> 00:23:53.789 shower, running an extra mile when you want to 00:23:53.789 --> 00:23:56.549 stop, doing the dishes when you're tired, so 00:23:56.549 --> 00:23:58.509 that you learn the difference. You learn to recognize 00:23:58.509 --> 00:24:01.309 the voice of discomfort versus the signal of 00:24:01.309 --> 00:24:03.630 real structural damage. But he's crossed that 00:24:03.630 --> 00:24:06.410 line. But he admits he has broken his body many 00:24:06.410 --> 00:24:08.369 times finding that line. He doesn't recommend 00:24:08.369 --> 00:24:10.349 that for everyone. The point is to push the boundary, 00:24:10.509 --> 00:24:13.140 not obliterate it. There is a fascinating outside 00:24:13.140 --> 00:24:15.380 perspective on this, too. We have the source 00:24:15.380 --> 00:24:18.759 Living with a Seal by Jesse Itzler. This is a 00:24:18.759 --> 00:24:20.660 great sanity check on the Goggins mythology. 00:24:21.079 --> 00:24:23.720 Right. Who is Jesse Itzler? Jesse Itzler is a 00:24:23.720 --> 00:24:26.380 billionaire entrepreneur. He co -founded Marquis 00:24:26.380 --> 00:24:29.119 Jet. He's married to Sarah Blakely, who founded 00:24:29.119 --> 00:24:31.420 Spanx. He's a very successful guy. And he saw 00:24:31.420 --> 00:24:34.279 Goggins at a race. He saw Goggins at that San 00:24:34.279 --> 00:24:37.819 Diego 24 -hour race. He saw this guy with broken 00:24:37.819 --> 00:24:41.910 feet. duct taped up, peeing blood, eating crackers, 00:24:42.069 --> 00:24:44.369 and just keeping on moving. And his reaction 00:24:44.369 --> 00:24:46.829 was? Itzler thought, I need some of that energy. 00:24:46.910 --> 00:24:49.230 I'm too comfortable. So he hired Goggins to live 00:24:49.230 --> 00:24:51.250 in his house for a month. And it wasn't a vacation. 00:24:51.920 --> 00:24:55.000 No. The condition was that Itzler had to do whatever 00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:57.500 Goggins said whenever he said it. Run in the 00:24:57.500 --> 00:24:59.779 middle of the night, do burpees until he puked, 00:24:59.799 --> 00:25:02.500 jump into frozen lakes in winter. So what does 00:25:02.500 --> 00:25:04.740 that book tell us? It verifies the authenticity. 00:25:05.059 --> 00:25:07.119 Goggins isn't just turning it on for the Instagram 00:25:07.119 --> 00:25:10.059 camera. He lives this lifestyle of constant discomfort 00:25:10.059 --> 00:25:12.720 24 -7. The book says he would sometimes just 00:25:12.720 --> 00:25:14.319 sleep on the floor of the guest room instead 00:25:14.319 --> 00:25:17.240 of the bed just to not get soft. Which brings 00:25:17.240 --> 00:25:20.049 us to the question of... Sustainability. You 00:25:20.049 --> 00:25:22.069 hear all this and you think, OK, the guy's going 00:25:22.069 --> 00:25:23.750 to burn out. He's going to have a heart attack 00:25:23.750 --> 00:25:25.910 at 45. You can't keep that up. The adrenaline 00:25:25.910 --> 00:25:28.150 will wear off. The body will break. But if we 00:25:28.150 --> 00:25:31.230 look at part five of our deep dive recent feats 00:25:31.230 --> 00:25:33.910 in legacy, the data implies he's actually getting 00:25:33.910 --> 00:25:35.990 better at managing it. It really does. He didn't 00:25:35.990 --> 00:25:38.809 peak in his 30s during his SEAL career. No. In 00:25:38.809 --> 00:25:42.269 2016. Post -military career, he won the Infinitis 00:25:42.269 --> 00:25:46.150 88K. He won the Music City Ultra 50K. He won 00:25:46.150 --> 00:25:48.910 the Strolling Jim 40 miler. And then in 2020, 00:25:49.170 --> 00:25:53.809 he ran the Moab 240. 240 miles. That is almost 00:25:53.809 --> 00:25:56.869 400 kilometers through the desert and mountains 00:25:56.869 --> 00:26:00.109 of Utah. He placed second. His time was 63 hours 00:26:00.109 --> 00:26:03.789 and 21 minutes. Wait, 63 hours? He ran for two 00:26:03.789 --> 00:26:05.910 and a half days straight with almost no sleep, 00:26:05.990 --> 00:26:08.450 maybe an hour or two total. And now looking at 00:26:08.450 --> 00:26:10.450 the most recent data. we have from August 2025. 00:26:11.089 --> 00:26:14.970 David Goggins was born in 1975, so he is 50 years 00:26:14.970 --> 00:26:17.730 old. 50 years old, half a century. And he completed 00:26:17.730 --> 00:26:20.130 the Bigfoot 200 mountain run in Washington State. 00:26:20.309 --> 00:26:22.890 This is a brutal course, 46 ,000 feet of elevation 00:26:22.890 --> 00:26:24.730 game. That's like climbing Mount Everest one 00:26:24.730 --> 00:26:27.049 and a half times from sea level. The stats are 00:26:27.049 --> 00:26:28.789 incredible for his age group. He finished in 00:26:28.789 --> 00:26:31.789 66 hours, four minutes. He placed 23rd overall. 00:26:32.009 --> 00:26:35.269 At 50 years old. At 50 years old. Competing against 00:26:35.269 --> 00:26:38.049 20 -somethings and 30 -somethings who do this 00:26:38.049 --> 00:26:40.759 professionally. It proves that his mindset isn't 00:26:40.759 --> 00:26:43.339 just a short -term burst of adrenaline. It's 00:26:43.339 --> 00:26:46.799 a sustainable operating system. He calls it the 00:26:46.799 --> 00:26:49.700 old man game now. What does he mean by that? 00:26:49.920 --> 00:26:52.200 He has found a way to manage the wear and tear. 00:26:52.400 --> 00:26:55.160 He spends hours every day stretching. He's meticulous 00:26:55.160 --> 00:26:57.359 about recovery. He takes care of the machine 00:26:57.359 --> 00:26:59.940 so he can continue to torture it. And the recognition 00:26:59.940 --> 00:27:02.480 has followed. He was inducted into the International 00:27:02.480 --> 00:27:06.119 Sports Hall of Fame in 2019. Runner's World named 00:27:06.119 --> 00:27:09.109 him a hero of running. Which is ironic because 00:27:09.109 --> 00:27:11.109 he often says he hates running. That is the best 00:27:11.109 --> 00:27:13.349 part. He doesn't do it because he enjoys the 00:27:13.349 --> 00:27:15.769 runner's high. He doesn't do it for the endorphins. 00:27:15.869 --> 00:27:18.650 No, he does it because he hates it. And doing 00:27:18.650 --> 00:27:20.950 what you hate builds the callus on your mind. 00:27:21.069 --> 00:27:23.390 Explain that. He believes that if you only do 00:27:23.390 --> 00:27:26.109 what you enjoy, you are weak. You are unprepared 00:27:26.109 --> 00:27:28.710 for life because life will inevitably force you 00:27:28.710 --> 00:27:31.619 to do things you hate. Pay taxes, go to a funeral, 00:27:31.839 --> 00:27:34.599 deal with a difficult boss. So by choosing his 00:27:34.599 --> 00:27:36.799 suffering, he's training for the suffering he 00:27:36.799 --> 00:27:39.680 can't choose. And that connects back to the beginning. 00:27:39.859 --> 00:27:42.980 The scared kid in Buffalo. The kid who was abused. 00:27:43.319 --> 00:27:46.539 The kid who was told he was stupid. He built 00:27:46.539 --> 00:27:49.440 this armor, this David Goggins persona, piece 00:27:49.440 --> 00:27:52.200 by piece, rep by rep, by doing things he was 00:27:52.200 --> 00:27:55.420 afraid to do. He took the toxic stress that... 00:27:55.720 --> 00:27:58.319 broke him as a child and transmuted it into fuel. 00:27:58.500 --> 00:28:01.099 Yeah. He took the fight or flight response that 00:28:01.099 --> 00:28:03.599 was haywired in his brain and just decided to 00:28:03.599 --> 00:28:06.420 fight every single time. So what does this all 00:28:06.420 --> 00:28:08.440 mean for us, for the person listening who isn't 00:28:08.440 --> 00:28:10.759 going to run 200 miles through the mountains 00:28:10.759 --> 00:28:12.759 of Washington? Right. Who isn't going to tape 00:28:12.759 --> 00:28:14.900 their hands and do 4 ,000 pull -ups? I think 00:28:14.900 --> 00:28:17.180 the takeaway is about the governor. We all have 00:28:17.180 --> 00:28:19.589 one. It may not be screaming at us during an 00:28:19.589 --> 00:28:21.609 ultramarathon, but it's there. It's the voice 00:28:21.609 --> 00:28:23.750 in our head. It's the voice that says, this is 00:28:23.750 --> 00:28:26.670 too hard, or I'm not smart enough, or I've done 00:28:26.670 --> 00:28:28.609 enough for today. The voice that says, I'll do 00:28:28.609 --> 00:28:31.650 it tomorrow. Right. Goggins is living proof that 00:28:31.650 --> 00:28:34.549 the voice is a liar. It is a safety mechanism, 00:28:34.710 --> 00:28:37.069 sure, but it is holding you back from your actual 00:28:37.069 --> 00:28:39.809 potential. So it's not about being a SEAL. No. 00:28:40.250 --> 00:28:43.150 The 40 % rule applies to a boring spreadsheet 00:28:43.150 --> 00:28:46.089 you have to finish for work. It applies to having 00:28:46.089 --> 00:28:48.190 a difficult conversation with your spouse that 00:28:48.190 --> 00:28:50.170 you've been putting off. It applies to staying 00:28:50.170 --> 00:28:51.970 patient with your toddler when they're having 00:28:51.970 --> 00:28:53.970 a meltdown. When you think, I have nothing left. 00:28:54.210 --> 00:28:56.490 When you think, I am absolutely done, I cannot 00:28:56.490 --> 00:28:59.170 give another ounce. Goggins is arguing you actually 00:28:59.170 --> 00:29:02.650 have 60 % left in the tank. It's about recalibrating 00:29:02.650 --> 00:29:05.369 your baseline. What you think is your max is 00:29:05.369 --> 00:29:07.849 probably just your comfortable. Exactly. And 00:29:07.849 --> 00:29:11.230 once you realize that, the world opens up. Because 00:29:11.230 --> 00:29:14.009 the barriers are mostly in your head. That brings 00:29:14.009 --> 00:29:16.750 us to our final thought. We always like to leave 00:29:16.750 --> 00:29:19.710 you with something to chew on. Right. If we accept 00:29:19.710 --> 00:29:22.329 the premise of the 40 % rule, that we leave massive 00:29:22.329 --> 00:29:23.950 amounts of potential on the table every single 00:29:23.950 --> 00:29:26.769 day, then the question isn't about running. It's 00:29:26.769 --> 00:29:29.710 about capacity. So here is the question for you 00:29:29.710 --> 00:29:32.069 listening. What is the one thing you gave up 00:29:32.069 --> 00:29:35.420 on this week? A task, a conversation, a workout, 00:29:35.519 --> 00:29:38.059 because you told yourself you were done because 00:29:38.059 --> 00:29:41.519 you hit a wall. And if you knew for a fact that 00:29:41.519 --> 00:29:43.880 you were only 40 % of the way to your actual 00:29:43.880 --> 00:29:47.319 limit, would you have stopped or would you have 00:29:47.319 --> 00:29:49.880 found that other gear? That is the question to 00:29:49.880 --> 00:29:51.920 ask yourself the next time you feel like quitting. 00:29:52.140 --> 00:29:55.119 As always, all the sources, the race results, 00:29:55.400 --> 00:29:58.000 the medical breakdowns of Rabdo, and the book 00:29:58.000 --> 00:29:59.599 details are in the show notes. Go check them 00:29:59.599 --> 00:30:01.480 out. And stay uncomfortable. We'll see you in 00:30:01.480 --> 00:30:02.220 the next Deep Dive.