The playing field of life is six inches wide

Published 4:00 pm Thursday, March 28, 2019

“Once you are sure you have reached the end of your physical ability to do more, you are at about 40 percent of your true capacity.”-David Goggins – Retired Navy Seal, Ultra-Endurance Athlete

I am working my way through David Goggins’ book, “Can’t Hurt Me – Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds.” Since I have a business, a wife and four kids my “reading” time is mostly limited to audiobooks on runs. There is nothing quite like listening to one of the greatest endurance athletes ever as I decide whether to take a “walk break” on my little four-mile runs.

Since I started listening to Goggins’ book, I’ve taken a lot less “walk breaks.” Even in the dark of early morning runs, it is a hit to my ego to walk while hearing Goggins’ stories of making it through Navy Seal hell week with pneumonia or running 100+ miles with fractured shins.

If you decide to check out the book, know that it is a tough go for the first few chapters. Goggins goes into explicit detail about his tough childhood and does not spare the expletives in his descriptions. The book does get much better when he starts to focus on his endurance career and building the mindset it takes to complete the crazy events he has completed.

The mindset stuff is why I bought the book. I am becoming more and more convinced that every outcome in our lives is determined by our mindset (that six-inch space from ear to ear). I keep finding way too many examples of people who have overcome insurmountable odds through their mindset to believe we are limited by our genetics or upbringing.

And, it lines up with what the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 10:5 about “taking every thought captive.” Goggins is a long way from quoting scripture, but I bought the book hoping that I could learn from his experiences on how to be better at “taking every thought captive.”

We all need to take thoughts captive in many areas of our lives. You might be an endurance athlete needing to push your body beyond the point when your mind says you are done. You may be at work fighting through a problem that your mind says is beyond your ability to solve. You could be facing relationship problems where your mind tells you the right thing to do is to return evil for evil rather than good for evil.

In all these situations, the right decision is the hardest. To keep pushing when you want to quit. To be kind when you want to retaliate. The best decision for you (and me), for our relationships, careers and the life we want is to make the difficult, but right choice when everything in our mind is screaming at us to do otherwise.

Learning how to make the right but difficult decision more often is why I bought Goggins’ book. And I’m getting what I was looking for out of it. Goggins calls it building a “calloused mind.” I don’t want a calloused mind, but I do want to make the right, hard decision more often. Below are the steps I’ve learned so far.

1. Greater Strength Comes Through Pain

Greater mental toughness/self- discipline/better decision making (whatever you want to call it) is on the other side of pain. Your pain might not be the kind of pain endurance athletes suffer, but it is pain. The pain of being kind in the face of unkindness. The pain of not eating that sugary treat (or diet soda) that your mind is yearning for. Or the pain of getting out of bed when your alarm goes off. It is all pain and we are all better when we make the painful choice.

Goggins has made the life choice of seeking out pain through endurance athletics to make himself stronger physically and mentally. What “pain” will you seek out to build your mental toughness?

2. Start Small, But Start

Goggins gives all sorts of crazy examples of pushing himself through injuries that should have crippled him. He does not suggest we follow that part of his path. But he does suggest we push ourselves beyond our current limits daily. That could be one more pushup, five more minutes before that next cigarette, or one more kind word when you’d love to be unkind. Pick your poison but pick something to get yourself out of your comfort zone.

3. Measure It

We cannot push ourselves beyond our limits if we don’t measure our limits today. If you are going after a physical challenge, know your baseline and track your progress. Every challenge needs a score board. Track it, post your progress and improve.

4. Be Better Daily

Mental discipline is a habit. It is built on making the hard choice over the easy one every single day. Make sure you are challenging yourself daily to be better. Record your challenge, analyze your defeats so you can win tomorrow, and celebrate your victories no matter how small they are.

It is incredibly difficult to do but remember to “count it joy” when you face trials (James 1:2). We only get better when we go through the tough stuff in life. I wish there was an easier way, but I haven’t found it yet!

If you’d like some great resources to help you on your journey you can find them on our resources page at www.valuesdrivenresults.com or call me at 229.244.1559.

Curt Fowler is President of Fowler & Company and Director at Fowler, Holley, Rambo & Stalvey. He is dedicated to helping leaders create and achieve a compelling vision for their organizations.