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COPYRIGHT © 2018 GOGGINS BUILT NOT BORN, LLC All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-5445-1226-6
To the unrelenting voice in my head that will never allow me to stop.
CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1. I SHOULD HAVE BEEN A STATISTIC 2. TRUTH HURTS 3. THE IMPOSSIBLE TASK 4. TAKING SOULS 5. ARMORED 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? ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR
WARNING ORDER TIME ZONE: 24/7 TASK ORGANIZATION: SOLO MISSION 1. SITUATION: You are in danger of living a life so comfortable and soft that you will die without ever realizing your true potential. 2. MISSION: To unshackle your mind. Ditch the victim’s mentality forever. Own all aspects of your life completely. Build an unbreakable foundation. 3. EXECUTION: 1. Read this cover to cover. Study the techniques within, accept all ten challenges. Repeat. Repetition will callous your mind. 2. If you do your job to the best of your ability, this will hurt. This mission is not about making yourself feel better. This mission is about being better and having a greater impact on the world. 3. Don’t stop when you are tired. Stop when you are done. 4. CLASSIFIED: This is the origin story of a hero. The hero is you. BY COMMAND OF: DAVID GOGGINS SIGNED:
RANK AND SERVICE: CHIEF, U.S. NAVY SEALS, RETIRED
INTRODUCTION Do you know who you really are and what you’re capable of? I’m sure you think so, but just because you believe something doesn’t make it true. Denial is the ultimate comfort zone. Don’t worry, you aren’t alone. In every town, in every country, all over the world, millions roam the streets, dead-eyed as zombies, addicted to comfort, embracing a victim’s mentality and unaware of their true potential. I know this because I meet and hear from them all the time, and because just like you, I used to be one of them. I had a damn good excuse too. Life dealt me a bad hand. I was born broken, grew up with beat downs, was tormented in school, and called nigger more times than I could count. We were once poor, surviving on welfare, living in government-subsidized housing, and my depression was smothering. I lived life at the bottom of the barrel, and my future forecast was bleak as fuck. Very few people know how the bottom feels, but I do. It’s like quicksand. It grabs you, sucks you under, and won’t let go. When life is like that it’s easy to drift and continue to make the same comfortable choices that are killing you, over and over again. But the truth is we all make habitual, self-limiting choices. It’s as natural as a sunset and as fundamental as gravity. It’s how our brains are wired, which is why motivation is crap. Even the best pep talk or self-help hack is nothing but a temporary fix. It won’t rewire your brain. It won’t amplify your voice or uplift your life. Motivation changes exactly nobody. The bad hand that was my life was mine, and mine alone to fix. So I sought out pain, fell in love with suffering, and eventually transformed myself from the weakest piece of shit on the planet into the hardest man God
ever created, or so I tell myself. Odds are you have had a much better childhood than I did, and even now might have a damn decent life, but no matter who you are, who your parents are or were, where you live, what you do for a living, or how much money you have, you’re probably living at about 40 percent of your true capability. Damn shame. We all have the potential to be so much more. Years ago, I was invited to be on a panel at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I’d never set foot in a university lecture hall as a student. I’d barely graduated high school, yet I was at one of the most prestigious institutions in the country to discuss mental toughness with a handful of others. At some point in the discussion an esteemed MIT professor