David Goggins: Modern-Day God or Arrogant Douche-Nozzle?
Fun dichotomy, right?
David Goggins is the dude in the pic at the top of my last post about the fickle nature of exercise motivation. If you don’t know who Goggins is, read this first. And if you have time, give this a watch.
If you DO know who Goggins is (or finished the above media), you know Goggins is a bit of a badass. That’s a title I don’t toss out liberally. So what’s up with the title? Is the dude really a douche nozzle?
One of my new favorite social media gathering places is a Facebook group called “Bad ultrarunning advice” (BUA.) When the group was started about a year ago, it was populated mostly by experienced, sarcastic ultrarunners with a penchant for dark humor. It was legitimately hilarious because everyone seemed to “get” the joke.
But then the ranks swelled to 5,000. Then 10,000. Now it’s up to about 25,000. Just like the “Trail and Ultrarunning” group, when you get a group above about 1,000 members, you get a critical mass of people who don’t get the jokes.
Enter Dave Goggins.
Early in the life of BUA, Goggins became a running inside joke, which spawned other running inside jokes, which spawned other inside jokes… you get the idea. Specifically, people rag on Goggins without mercy. And there are people who satirically defend him. This irreverent humor is basically how online American ultra communities operated B.D.*
Now, of course, the ultrarunning world is huge relative to those days. So huge, the humor doesn’t translate. Nowhere is this more apparent (or amusing) than the BUA group. For every clearly-satirical anti-Goggins post, there are two people getting legitimately ass-chafed people are ragging on the dude. They haven’t been in the sport long enough to understand how and why the “heroes” of the sport are relentlessly tased. And it’s glorious.
For quite some time, I thought the group jumped the shark because it grew too big, but the folks who don’t get the humor make the group even better.
Anyway… let’s talk about the real point of the post - Goggins. The reality is Goggins isn’t a god; he often makes the point that he’s a below-average human being who learned skills all of us can learn to do the kind of shit he’s done. And no, he’s not a douche-nozzle. Every person I know who has met him personally says he’s a super-humble, authentic dude who, despite not shying away from minimizing his accomplishments, genuinely wants to inspire people to surpass his accomplishments.
*Before Dean
My First Exposure to Goggins
Back when I was getting into ultras (still training for my first fitty), Goggins ran Badwater for the first time. There wasn’t much press about it, but there were first-hand accounts from the folks who were there. And they all said the same thing - there was this dumbass dude who ran Badwater without training… and finished in the top 10. If you’re not familiar, it’s a 135 mile road race through Death Valley in the summer, and at the time, went from like 125 feet below sea level to the peak of Mount Whitney (12,000 feet, I think.) Aside from Arrowhead (135 miler in Minnesota in February), Hardrock (100 miler in Colorado’s San Juans), and Barkley (100 miler run through Hell in Tennessee), it was considered the hardest ultra in the world.)
Finishing was simply unfathomable to me WITH training. But without? That seemed superhuman. At the time, about all that came out about his methods was his routine of trying really hard shit to get good at suffering. It was sort of a weird take on the “central regulator” hypothesis that was regularly discussed on the Ultralist and Runner’s World Trail and Ultra forum.
For me, it planted the seed of extending my occasional barefoot running training runs FOR ultras to actually running ultras barefoot. While I managed to run a 50 miler and 54 miles in a 12 hour barefoot (and a bunch of marathon and shorter races), I never accomplished the goal of a 100 miler barefoot (despite three tries.) Despite the failure, that Goggins-inspired goal immersed me enough in that world to write a few books that turned out to be popular in certain circles and eventually travel the country teaching people to run better. It was a hell of an adventure, and I wouldn’t have considered it had it not been for Goggins and that first Badwater finish.
The Real Take-Away from Goggins
Goggins’ book, “Can’t Hurt Me”, is worth the read just for his story alone. It really is pretty damn amazing and is a tremendous motivator for people who hate their current lives. But the real takeaway comes from Goggins’ take on what he calls “callousing your mind”, which is really just building resiliency.
Building physical resiliency is pretty obvious given his accomplishments, but the real value comes from applying the concept to building psychological and emotional resiliency, which is a necessary step to really changing your life. This is why I’m doing THIS project. I’ve gotten a bit soft, so I need to do something to get back to the kind of resiliency I’ve fostered in the past. Anyway…
Goggins basic method, paraphrased, is to do something a little bit painful, then overcome that little bit of pain. Keep repeating the process. Eventually, you get really good at dealing with and overcoming the pain. So much so, you start to enjoy the pain. It’s a different way to frame the idea of embracing struggle to learn and grow, which is the bedrock of this entire project and the reasons I’ve been able to accomplish way more in life than my genetics, biology, and intelligence should have allowed. Goggins is one of the very best motivators to embrace that kind of growth mindset in a way that will resonate with A LOT of people.
If You Don’t Want to Read the Book…
If you don’t want to read the book, you can start building resiliency, or callousing your mind, by doing stuff that’s hard. Or painful. Just push your comfort zone a little bit. Back when I used to do this as a matter of habit, I’d do things like run on surfaces barefoot that were kind of uncomfortable. I’d run up hills a little faster than I should have. I’d hold my breath underwater a little bit after the involuntary gasping started. I’d drink the coffee a little too soon before it had time to really cool off. I’d take showers that induced serious shrinkage. Those little things add up.
If you REALLY want to embrace Goggins’ mindset, watch the following clip, which Goggins often cites as THE thing that completely changed his mindset. Pay attention to Apollo Creed’s body language at about 1:20:
Goggins often says he wasn’t motivated so much by Rocky getting up, but by Creed’s reaction to him getting up. I’ve heard him say something along the lines of “That was the point where Rocky stole Apollo’s soul.”
And he’s right.
In any competitive environment, perseverance to overcome what appears to be severe beatings, literally and figuratively, can and does mentally break your competition. When there’s not much physical difference, the more calloused mind wins. When you practice facing and overcoming suffering, you develop the ability to be comfortable with the suffering. Maybe even enjoy it. And there’s nothing more intimidating than someone who, when confronted with pain and suffering, just gives a satisfied smile.
Later in The Project, I’ll talk about social dominance, what it is, and why it’s important. A quick preview - social dominance is usually dictated by signals of genuine confidence. And in most situations, that confidence is fueled by the sincere belief that the other person can’t mentally break you. That’s the superpower all of us can develop, which is what Goggins is teaching. For those of you who know me personally, ask me about some of my own experiences with using this skill for amusement.
Conclusion
David Goggins has a hell of a life story; it’s worthwhile to learn from him. If you’re reading this and intrigued with The Curvy Road Project, you’ll be exposed to Goggins-like ideas again and again as we cover all the topics we’ll cover over the next year. Check out his book. You won’t regret it.
~Jason
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