In a segment of the JRE, Goggins and Joe were discussing Khabib Nurmagomedov. Goggins said something along the lines of "I love these guys who you can look into their eyes and you can tell something ain't right." Aliens that read this fucking book are like... What the fuck is wrong this guy?
If you don't know who David Goggins is he's a former Navy Seal, ultra-marathon runner, pull-up psychopath complete sadomasochist. He's a success now so some may put him up on a pedestal thinking he's a different breed, that he was somehow fated to become something that could upset the devil. But after reading his book, you see that he is no god. The devil shouldn't fear him because he's a god, the devil should fear him because he is just a man. A man who got dealt one of the worst hands imaginable but keeps on playing.
Can't Hurt Me is a book that details his life's journey along with his lessons that he learnt. There's no self help gaslighting that's supposed to make you feel good about your situation. He gives it to you raw, unfiltered. Life is a tragedy. The world does fucking care about you. But we are all capable of so much more than we lead ourselves to believe. Once upon a time, a sub 4 minute mile was considered impossible. It wasn't until 1954 when Roger Bannister ran the first sub 4 minute mile when the floodgates opened. As soon as someone did the impossible others followed in his trail nowadays over 10,000 people have ran sub 4 mile. Humans are still genetically the same as they were thousands of years ago. The only thing holding us back is our mind. The only limitations you have are the ones you tell yourself. As Goggins explains:
"A lot of people go what's your biggest fear in life and my biggest fear honestly was let's say this. I don't care if you believe in God or but let's play a game with me. Let's say you're God and we have a big fucking long line of people... and I made to heaven 75 years old of 300 pounds. I worked for EcoLab my entire life spraying for cockroaches that's what I did. So when you call my name David Goggins. I see my name and I see all this shit and God goes hey you say read this man. Now I'm reading this list 182 pounds Navy SEAL Ranger School, motivational speaker changing lives, man pull-up record all this shit... I'm like that's not me man. And God looks at me and says that's who you were supposed to be. [...] I want to drain my soul of every fucking bit of person that I am."
Can't Hurt Me embodies a lot of stoic principles along with a particular belief, in my opinion, that people inherently do not want happiness. Happiness can only be a byproduct of something else it cannot be the goal. In other words, people are not necessarily in the pursuit of happiness but rather in the pursuit of the pursuit of happiness (does that make sense?).
Everything was setup perfectly for Goggins to be nothing at all. He was whipped by his father, held at gunpoint as a result of pure prejudice, depressed because all the world said to him was "fuck you". But still he slowly changed and started to realise that being a victim was not an option. In his world, choosing to keep living was an act of immense courage. As Seneca once said:
"Can you no longer see a road to freedom? It's right in front of you. You need only to turn over your wrists."
He decided that he wasn't done with the world quite yet. A warrior needs a world to conquer.
Can't Hurt Me is a remarkably brutal, vivid description of his journey and his relentless pursuit of his definition of freedom - the ability to tap into his inner power regardless of his feelings, motivation, or external circumstances. Not everyone will live like this. Fuck me not everyone should even live like this. But if you want to be that one warrior that Heraclitus described you'll have to plunge yourself into the abyss knowing full well that few if any will follow you until you make it out alive.
