David Goggins – Never Finished

Having loved You Can’t Hurt Me, now available in French under the title Nothing can hurt me anymore, I rushed to read David Goggins's second book – Never Finished.

Ultramarathoner, triathlete and former US Navy SEAL David Goggins is considered the’man with the strongest mental toughness in the world. He took part in the US army's toughest training courses, as well as numerous races including an Ironman and the famous Badwater 135.

Less focused on personal development techniques, and more autobiographical“Never Finished”, dives into the brain of David Goggins. We discover his day-to-day mindset and how he overcomes each of the (many) difficulties he faces, by adapting and pushing his limits.

This is a truly inspiring book. It challenges us to look at our own psychological barriers and the attitude we could adopt with greater discipline and perseverance.

To introduce you to “Never Finished”I offer you this chapter-by-chapter summary, with numerous extracts (in italics).

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CHAPTER 1: OPTIMISING A MINIMUM POTENTIAL

At 24 years old, David Goggins, who has still done nothing with his life, goes back to see his father whom he has not seen for 12 years. A father who could be described as a narcissistic psychopath, and from whom Goggins would have liked to hear an apology. This would have allowed him to justify his failures since he could thus have blamed his father. But his father has not changed and he gets no apology. This ultimately triggers something in him, and he decides to take full responsibility for what happens to him.

“Once I had freed myself and started to grow, I learnt that few warriors are willing to accept being born into hell and, of their own free will, choose to add as much suffering as they can find to turn every day into a training ground for resilience.”

“When you spend your life regretting what happened or asking ‘Why me?’, you end up dying without having achieved anything at all.”

 

David Goggins – Never Finished – CHAPTER 2 – FUCKING MERRY CHRISTMAS 

Over Christmas, he gets together with his partner Jennifer Kish, his mother and his brother Trunnis Jr Goggins’s family in their home town of Buffalo.

His first book, *Can’t Hurt Me*, has just made it onto the *New York Times* bestseller list. Everything could be going perfectly, but life has a way of bringing him back down to earth, and Goggins is struck by atrial fibrillation, a heart rhythm disorder that can be fatal. Knowing his body and his condition inside out, he manages to get his episode under control.

Following this, he wonders if he has gone a bit middle-class with the success of his book, and the life of constant demands and lectures that he now leads. Is he still a “savage”?

“Life is the ultimate competitor. It doesn’t take days off and couldn’t care less whether you’ve made money or got a promotion at work.”

 

David Goggins – Never Finished – CCHAPTER 3 – THE MENTAL LABORATORY

Following his visit to his father, Goggins created a mental laboratory in which he developed an alter ego, the “savage” – the one who never gives up. Within him there are two personalities:
– David Goggins, the frightened boy, the creation of this domineering and manipulative father,
– Goggins, the savage, whose aim is to become the most relentless man in the world.

“In my gym, every physical training session has become a test of my mental strength. I’ve stopped worrying about how my body looks. You don’t need six-pack abs when you have a mind of steel. From then on, every run, every hour spent on the pull-up bar and all my late-night study sessions became experiments to see how long my mind could withstand ever-increasing pressure.”

“I was terrified that if I stopped improving, if I allowed myself a break, all my insecurities and my innate laziness would take over again. Every time I felt physically exhausted or mentally drained, I would picture my twenty-four-year-old former self, a lazy slob, staring back at me with a big grin.”

“It didn’t take me long to realise that, just like life itself, gruelling training sessions and long study sessions tended to highlight all my weaknesses. My desire to keep eating rubbish, my natural tendency to take it easy in almost everything I did, and my general lack of motivation revealed my tendency to settle for mediocrity.”

Just as he has recovered from his heart problem, he receives an invitation to take part in the Leadville Trail 100, a 160 km ultra-marathon. He then tells himself that he is no longer wild and that the time has come to become so again.

“If you stop “grabbing the hot iron with your bare hands”, your hands will lose their calluses. Your mind works in the same way. You have to fight to maintain that mindset of getting up every day to tackle the task at hand.”

“It’s all well and good succeeding and reaching a certain level, but I couldn’t give a toss about what you did yesterday. You might have completed an Ultraman or got a degree from Harvard. I don’t care. Respect is earned every day by getting up early, taking on new challenges or unearthing old nightmares, and embracing the shit as if you’ve got nothing and have never done anything in your life.”

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David Goggins – Never Finished – CHAPTER 4 – THE REBIRTH OF THE SAVAGE

Despite his lack of preparation, David Goggins took part in the race and completed it in under 24 hours. In this chapter, we discover his competitive mindset and the way he talks to himself whilst pushing himself to the limit.

“A prepared mind is a wonderful thing, and mine was almost ready. My nutrition plan was spot on, as were my personal speech and visualisation. And do you know what that guaranteed me? A bloody success!”

“We can make any obstacle as big or as small as we want. It all depends on how we look at it. As I made my way to Leadville, I was expecting a long, hard day. But how many unremarkable days had I lived through up to that point? Why not spend just one day doing something I’d be proud of for the rest of my life?”

“When you’re climbing a mountain or tackling a difficult task, the only way to free yourself from the struggle is to see it through to the end.”

“The dog was hungry again, and on that final stretch, I realised how much I missed the feeling of obsession, the thrill I get when I empty the tank. I had deprived myself of it for too long.”

“As Colonel Trautman said about Rambo, «What you call hell, he calls home.» And that is exactly how I felt when I crossed the line. I felt like I was finally home.”

 

CHAPTER 5 – DAVID GOGGINS: A DISCIPLE OF DISCIPLINE

For me, this chapter is one of the most memorable in the book, as we get to know his maternal grandfather, Sergeant Jack, a figure who played a major part in shaping David Goggins into the man he has become.

When her mother fled from her father, she took refuge at her parents' home, and her father, Sergeant Jack, a former air force cook who continued to dress in military uniform every day, instilled his principles of strictness and discipline in his grandson.

Every day, winter and summer, he would wake him at the crack of dawn with a list of chores to do to maintain the house and garden. David Googins admits to having suffered from this educational method, thinking that his grandfather hated him.

But his grandfather wasn’t like his father. He was hard on him to enable him to face life.

Gradually, his view of his grandfather begins to change, and this is confirmed when his grandfather stands up for him during an argument with some racist neighbours.

“Sergent Jack's method doesn't involve whining, scheming or feeling sorry for oneself. It was about gritting your teeth, being proud of everything you did and facing whatever came your way.”

As a teenager, having moved out of his grandfather’s house, he had become lazy and was failing at school. He therefore decided to go back to live with Sergeant Jack so that the latter could once again instil in him the discipline he so desperately needed.

“That is the beauty of discipline. It surpasses everything. I am the proof that rebirth is possible thanks to discipline, which is the only thing capable of modifying your DNA.”

“First of all, you must recognise that you have failed or are constantly failing. Next, accept that you are alone. No one is coming to save you. People can show you the example, as Sergeant Jack did with me and as I am doing for you right now, but it will be up to you to do the work. Then, you must become a disciple of discipline.”

“Every minute you spend feeling sorry for yourself is a minute you aren't spending improving yourself, another morning you miss out on gym, another ruined evening spent without studying. Another ruined day where you haven’t made any progress towards your dreams, your ambitions and your deepest desires.”

“Let discipline seep into your cells until work becomes a reflex as automatic as breathing. With discipline as your medium of expression, your life will become a work of art.”

“Those are the facts, and they are indisputable. Your problems and your past are not on anyone else’s agenda. A few people around you might care about what you are going through, but for the most part, nobody gives a damn because they are dealing with their own problems and focusing on their own lives.”

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CHAPTER 6: THE ART OF TAKING A PUNCH IN THE MOUTH

After taking a break from the world of ultra-running for a few years, David discovered that the latest trend was towards even longer races, such as the Moab 240 – a 383 km ultra-marathon – which he decided to take part in.

After a good start, he feels a pain in his lungs and his fingers start to freeze around the 80th kilometre. He continues nevertheless, but following a mistake by his pacer, he strays 24 km off the course, while he was in second place in the race. Because of this loss of time, he cannot take his thyroid medication within the scheduled timeframe and his state of health continues to deteriorate.

He nevertheless managed to recover after a break of several hours; he set off again in 75th position and gradually worked his way up to 9th place in the rankings. But his lungs were becoming increasingly painful, and he was struggling to breathe. At the next refreshment stop, he consulted a doctor, whose verdict was unequivocal: he was suffering from pulmonary oedema. He realised that if he stubbornly insisted on finishing, he risked dying.

Taken to hospital and knocked out of the race, the savage hasn't said his final word yet.

“That night, I’d never felt so ill, and I knew that any further strain on my body could be the point of no return for me.”

From his hospital bed, he contacted his team to pick up the race where he had left off, and he managed to finish it unofficially.

“I didn’t raise my arms or my fist, and nobody seemed to notice that a man was finishing what he’d started, but I felt a deep sense of satisfaction. There was no fanfare, but there was glory, and it was all within me.”

“All I know is this: I am David Fucking Goggins. I exist; therefore, I see what I start through to the end. I’m proud of my efforts and achievements in every phase of my life. Quite simply because I’m here! If I’m lost, I’ll find my way again. As long as I’m on planet Earth, I won’t do things by halves.”

Of course, the result wasn’t what he’d hoped for, but he knew that 12 months later he’d be able to triumph over the MOAB by avoiding the two mistakes he’d identified:
– a lack of preparation,
– having switched to autopilot by placing complete trust in their pacer.

“There is never a time in your life when you should give in to the temptation to let things run on autopilot.”

“Whenever I slip into automatic thinking, I always fail.”

“I knew from experience that life’s best lessons don’t come when everything is going well. It’s when all your goals and grand plans go pear-shaped that you can see your flaws and learn more about yourself.”

“When life kicks you in the teeth, you’ll need that determination.”

 

David Goggins – Never Finished – CHAPTER 7: TAKING STOCK

Following this setback, David immediately resumed training, but his left knee soon gave way, and the orthopaedic surgeon recommended an operation and the fitting of a prosthesis.

“The only thing more contagious than a positive attitude is a negative one. The more you dwell on the negative, the weaker you feel, and the more that weakness spreads to those around you. I knew that if I could control my attitude and refocus my attention, I would take control of the whole situation. I was disappointed, but I wasn’t surprised that my knee had given way. It was now up to me to learn from this setback, adapt and move forward.”

He therefore decided to stop running, but to carry on training, to give his knees a rest, and after several months of rest and rehabilitation, he lined up at the start of the MOAB once again.

“In certain situations, thought is the enemy.”

Despite persistent and excruciating pain in his left ankle, he finished the race in 62 hours and 21 minutes, taking second place in the standings.

“Up until then, I’d regarded 2007 as the peak of my athletic career. I was thirty-three at the time and was devouring 100-mile races like Kit Kats, but I wasn’t yet the mental beast I’d become by the time I was forty-five. My 2007 self was a pure, unbridled wild man in his prime. That bastard could run through concrete blocks, but he was less flexible, less self-aware and less strategic. I’m not sure my younger self would even have considered running 240 miles five days after having my knee drained.”

“The final section of MOAB was the best I’ve ever experienced, whether on road or trail, and the fastest I’ve ever managed in a race; and when the first lights of the town began to twinkle below us, I knew that redemption was finally mine. I crossed the line in a state of euphoria.”

Almost immediately after the MOAB, he completed the 321 km Across Florida 200 (AF200), an ultra-trail race that no one had managed to finish before.

Following this, he decided to have knee surgery, but the operation went badly, and he is not sure whether he will ever be able to run again.

“After being knocked down, it is important to take the time to understand what has happened and to work out a strategy for moving forward, but you must also take action.”

“Whilst most people stop when they are tired, I stop when I have finished. In a world where mediocrity is often the norm, my life’s mission is to become extraordinary amongst the extraordinary.”

 

CHAPTER 8: PLAYING UNTIL THE FINAL WHISTLE

Alongside his return to the top level of ultra-marathon running, David had set himself the goal of becoming a “smokejumper”. Smokejumpers are elite firefighters who parachute into hard-to-reach areas to bring forest fires under control before they spread and become uncontrollable.

But following the operation, and after 90 days of rest, the condition of his knees had not improved and his dream of becoming a smokejumper was slipping further away.

His salvation was to come from Dr Gomoll, the leading knee specialist in the United States. He suggested a ”Valgus tibial osteotomy”, an operation which, if successful, would allow him to run again but not to jump out of a plane. David agreed, saying that Dr Gomoll did not know him very well.

13 weeks after the operation, he finished in 2nd place in the Natchez Trace 444, a 714 km ultra cycling race completed in 26 hours and 8 minutes.

“Who runs 444 miles thirteen weeks after an operation? I do, you bastard! I got myself into a trance.”

Following this course, he was awarded the Advanced Emergency Medical Technician (AEMT) qualification, having topped his year.

At the time, he was working as an A&E doctor in a hospital and resumed his training, replacing running with high-intensity physical workouts.

“It’s time to step it up a gear and seek out the blue-and-black line. The line that separates the good from the great. It lies within each and every one of us.”

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David Goggins – Never Finished – CHAPTER 9: TWISTING THE SOUL

After regaining the use of his knees, David heads to the smokejumpers’ training camp, feeling completely exhausted.

“Each morning, I asked myself the same question. Why do I put myself through all this? I wasn't lacking in self-confidence, I wasn't searching for meaning, and I didn't need a salary.”

At 47 he was practically the veteran in the middle of twenty-somethings, but after a moment of doubt he is reigniting his competitive spirit.

Generally the duration of the training sessions was not announced to the trainees. For Goggins, who is never more at ease than when suffering and pushing through long-duration effort, this was an opportunity to show that he was still the strongest. Not to assert his superiority, but to encourage the youngsters to give their absolute best. He behaved like a leader and managed to create a true spirit of camaraderie.

After passing the exam, the day of the first jump arrived, but he didn't know if his knees were going to hold up. Everything went well and 10 months after his operation he had become a smokejumper.

«If you hire me,» I said, «every pupil in my class will get their diploma. That's my best quality.» It wasn't an empty promise. It was an oath.

He could also be proud of his group, as all members of the graduating class, with one exception, obtained their diploma.

“I never needed to be the toughest bastard in the world. It became a goal because I knew it would enable me to give the best of myself. This messed-up world needs that from every single one of us: to evolve into the best versions of ourselves. (…) It is a lifelong quest for more knowledge, more courage, more humility and more belief. Because when we find the strength and discipline required to live this way, the only thing that limits our horizons is ourselves.”

The book is not available in a French version, but the Kindle version of David Goggins – Never Finished available on Amazon offers translation tools and the language used is accessible to non-bilingual people.

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4. The secrets of David Goggins' training

Overview of the books written by David Goggins

• Nothing can hurt me anymore in French