Can’t Hurt Me : Book Review

 

When was  the last time :

~You ran a race/marathon/sprint and after covering certain distance you gave up and convinced yourself that you can’t run anymore?
~ You tried to fix a code and after slogging for few hours, and eventually gave up.
~ Your patience level ran out and you started yelling on your friends, children, spouse, and colleagues?
~ You faced humiliation in public for your failure and you came back strongly to achieve the feat you couldn’t do for the first time?
~ You pushed yourselves beyond limits or boundaries you had drawn for yourselves?

~ You were bullied or abused for color of your skin, your race, your religion etc. and wanted to give befitting reply?

 

I am sure most of you must have faced major challenges which might have broken or shaken you to the core but how many times did you bounce back so strongly that you were surprised by your own power of grit, determination and hard work ?. And realized, behind such achievement was your mind which never agreed to give up.

On recommendation of a friend, I recently got hold of a book about a person’s life which is something I had never read or heard before. It  is an almanac of a person who suffered the worst possible things in life, had a troubled childhood, abusive father, lived in acute poverty , faced racism, was never good  in studies, screwed his life in worst possible ways, had so many fears  and had no aim in life.

Yet one day when pushed to the wall, he decided to break all the records of human endurance, by challenging himself again and again, not to prove anything to the world but to himself, to make a better version of himself. And in the process discovered immense potential of human mind, how mind drives our bodies to achieve otherwise impossible feats.

This a firsthand story of a US Navy Seal – David Goggin’s, who started from absolute nothing and became one of the most decorated officer who broke numerous records in his career one can think of. Not only did he pass one  of the toughest training in military history which tests physical & mental endurance to limits in world but after every such victory he kept on raising his bar higher and higher and went ahead to achieve it.  He is the only member of the U.S. Armed Forces ever to complete SEAL training, U.S. Army Ranger School and Air force Tactical Air Controller training. He competed in more than 60 ultra-marathons, triathlons and ultra-triathlons, setting new course records and regularly placing in the top five. He also hold Guinness World record for completing 4030 pull-up in 17 hours.

While doing so he did all the mistakes which a common person like you and me does. But what sets him apart from the crowd was his mental toughness. Mind it, he did not get this toughness overnight or through genes. He defied all odds to hone this skill, proving all his naysayers wrong.

While reading this book I was so engrossed that lost track of time. A highly recommended book to everyone who want to achieve in life but their comfort zone is stopping them to venture out to give their 200%.

Must read for everyone to know how legends are built. It’s an inspiring story of a common man who overcame lifetime of struggle & hardship to accomplish many unbelievable feats. Mastering the mind to defy the odds has been very well explained in this book.

My favorite quotes from the book :

“You are in danger of living a life so comfortable and soft, that you will die without ever realizing your true potential.”

“No one is going to come help you. No one’s coming to save you.”

“It’s a lot more than mind over matter. It takes relentless self discipline to schedule suffering into your day, every day.”

“The most important conversations you’ll ever have are the ones you’ll have with yourself.”

“In the military we always say we don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training”

“We all need small sparks, small accomplishments in our lives to fuel the big ones. Think of your small accomplishments as kindling. When you want a bonfire, you don’t start by lighting a big log. You collect some witch’s hair—a small pile of hay or some dry, dead grass. You light that, and then add small sticks and bigger sticks before you feed your tree stump into the blaze. Because it’s the small sparks, which start small fires, that eventually build enough heat to burn the whole fucking forest down.”