Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds

“The only” is a phrase frequently employed to cast Goggins’s singularity in stark relief. It announces the way in which he contrasts himself with those around him. Sometimes this othering is enforced by the social group, like when the people of Brazil, Indiana treat him as racially inferior. Other times Goggins adopts the mindset of being “the only” to boost his confidence and reinforce his identity as the “one warrior” out of a hundred. Goggins writes that he is, and is writing for, only the 1% who are willing to go further than all others and defy all odds. In this sense, to be “the only” is to be truly exceptional.

The calloused mind is a mentally tough and well-fortified mind that knows how to accept and embrace suffering for the good of something higher, whether that be self-transcendence, the safety of the crew, or something else. Just as hands callus from significant physical work, the mind callouses from strong resolute action in the face of overwhelming odds and adversities. Goggins believes that in his line of work a calloused mind is necessary. Life is brutal, the world is brutal. One must accept this fact and develop the mental toolkit necessary to deal with it.

According to the 40 percent rule, the average person only ever realizes about 40 percent of who they truly are. This is often all that is needed to get by in life, according to Goggins, and the remaining 60 percent is forever outside the domain of their experience. That is, unless they seek it out. Seeking out that remaining 60 percent is part of Goggins’s life goal.

Exercising more than merely 40 percent of one’s mental and physical capabilities requires overriding the governor. The governor is like a default mental operating system that tries to enforce limits on our capabilities. Goggins explains, “Even when we feel like we’ve reached our absolute limit, we still have 60 percent more to give! That’s the governor in action! Once you know that to be true, it’s simply a matter of stretching your pain tolerance, letting go of your identity and all your self-limiting stories, so you can get to 60 percent, then 80 percent and beyond without giving up” (173).

Goggins discovered this method for developing mental resolve during Hell Week of BUD/S. It involves the practice of defiant, oppositional action for the purpose of self-empowerment. The nature of the method is variable with the situation. In general, it requires self-knowledge and the ability to rise above one’s insecurities. Sometimes the best way to “take a soul” is to help the bully who is trying to take yours. Sometimes it is to internalize the negative energy the bullies and naysayers are spewing to use it as fuel to prove them wrong. Taking a soul may be a solitary mental game, but in that solitary game, one creates an adversary that one defeats. Goggins, for example, takes Psycho Pete’s soul multiple times during BUD/S.