David Goggins Quotes

David Goggins

David Goggins, also known as The Toughest Man Alive, is a retired United States Navy SEAL, American ultramarathon runner, ultra-distance cyclist, Former Guinness World Record holder. (David Goggins Quotes)

“A lot of people think that once they reach a certain level of status, respect, or success, that they’ve made it in life. I’m here to tell you that you always have to find more. Greatness is not something that if you meet it once it stays with you forever. That shit evaporates like a flash of oil in a hot pan.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“A lot of us surround ourselves with people who speak to our desire for comfort. Who would rather treat the pain of our wounds and prevent further injury than help us callous over them and try again. We need to surround ourselves with people who will tell us what we need to hear, not what we want to hear, but at the same time not make us feel we’re up against the impossible.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“A prepared mind craves the worst conditions because it knows that pressure brings out its best and exposes almost everyone else.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“A true leader stays exhausted, abhors arrogance, and never looks down on the weakest link. He fights for his men and leads by example. That’s what it meant to be uncommon among uncommon. It meant being one of the best and helping your men find their best too.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“Allow discipline to seep into your cells until work becomes a reflex as automatic as breathing. With discipline as your medium, your life will become a work of art.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“Always be willing to embrace ignorance and become the dumb in the classroom again, because that is the only way to expand your body of knowledge and body of work. It’s the only way to expand your mind.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“Analyze your schedule, kill your empty habits, burn out the bullshit, and see what’s left.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“And if you fail again, so be it. Take the pain. Repeat these steps and keep fighting.” (David Goggins Quotes)
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“Be more than motivated, be more than driven, become literally obsessed to the point where people think you’re nuts.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“By the time I graduated, I knew that the confidence I’d managed to develop didn’t come from a perfect family or God-given talent. It came from personal accountability which brought me self respect, and self respect will always light a way forward.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“Continued growth only comes when you are willing to be humble.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“Don’t be afraid of your weakness or doubt. Don’t be embarrassed and pretend it doesn’t exist. It surfaced for a reason, so use it to flip the dynamic of your life.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“Every minute you spend feeling sorry for yourself is another minute not getting better, another morning you miss at the gym, another evening wasted without studying. Another day burned when you didn’t make any progress toward your dreams, ambitions, and deepest desires. The ones you’ve had in your head and heart your entire life.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“Every minute you spend feeling sorry for yourself is another minute spent in the dungeon thinking about what you lost or the opportunities that have been snatched away or squandered, which inevitably leads to the Great Depression.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“Everyone fails sometimes and life isn’t supposed to be fair, much less bend to your every whim.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“Everything in life is a mind game! Whenever we get swept under by life’s dramas, large and small, we are forgetting that no matter how bad the pain gets, no matter how harrowing the torture, all bad things end.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“From then on, whenever I had a purpose or a task in front of me, I didn’t consider it done until I’d completed it to the best of my ability. When that’s the way you live your life, you no longer need a task list or an Accountability Mirror because when you see the grass is high, you cut the grass right then. If you’re lagging behind in school or work, you study off or stay late and take care of business. When it came time to lose one hundred pounds to become a SEAL, I knew exactly what I had to do. I had to tap back into being a disciple of discipline, but I didn’t need a task list. Writing it down would have only cut into my workout time, and I didn’t have a single minute to spare.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“Heraclitus, a philosopher born in the Persian Empire back in the fifth century BC, had it right when he wrote about men on the battlefield. “Out of every one hundred men,” he wrote, “ten shouldn’t even be there, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior…”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“I am David Goggins. I exist; therefore, I complete what I start. I take pride in my effort and in my performance in all phases of life. Just because I am here! If I’m lost, I will find myself. As long as I’m on planet Earth, I will not halfass it. Anywhere I lack, I will improve because I exist and I am willing.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“I brainwashed myself into craving discomfort. If it was raining, I would go run. Whenever it started snowing, my mind would say, Get your running shoes on. Sometimes I wussed out and had to deal with it at the Accountability Mirror. But facing that mirror, facing myself, motivated me to fight through uncomfortable experiences, and, as a result, I became tougher. And being tough and resilient helped me meet my goals.” (David Goggins Quotes)
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“I don’t stop when I’m tired. I stop when I’m done.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“I looked at each day as an opportunity to mine the negativity that had colonized my brain and became fascinated by the power of the mind and how it can work for us and against us.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“I thought I deserved much better, oblivious to the fact that almost everybody starts at the bottom and, from there, it’s attitude and action that determine the future.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“I thought I’d solved a problem when really I was creating new ones by taking the path of least resistance.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“I was always destined to be that one warrior. Content to be who sharpens his sword alone.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“I was still full-time in the military, so I had to wake up extra early to fit in my fifty- to one hundred-mile rides before work.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“I’d learned long ago that no matter what type of event or challenge I engage in, the only competition that ever matters is me against me.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“I’m haunted by my future goals, not my past failures. I’m haunted by what I may still become. I’m haunted by my own continued thirst for evolution.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“I’m still haunted, but I’ve traded in my demons for evilass angels, and now, it’s a good haunting. I’m haunted by my future goals, not my past failures. I’m haunted by what I may still become. I’m haunted by my own continued thirst for evolution.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“If you are on the hunt for your 100 percent you should catalog your weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Don’t ignore them. Be prepared for them, because in any endurance event, in any high-stress environment, your weaknesses will surface like bad karma, build in volume, and overwhelm you. Unless you get ahead of them first.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“If you don’t feel like you’re good enough, if your life lacks meaning and time feels like it’s slipping through your fingers, there is only one option. Recreate yourself in your own Mental Lab. Somewhere you can be alone with your thoughts and wrestle with the substance of what and who you want to be in your one short life on earth. If it feels right, create an alter ego to access some of that dark matter in your mind. That’s what I did. In my mind, David Goggins wasn’t the savage who accomplished all the hard shit. It was Goggins who did that.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“If you feel wronged by somebody else, you may be waiting on a confession or an apology in order to move forward, but I’m sorry to say the apology—that tearful confession you’ve been dreaming of—will never come. The good news is you don’t need anybody else to free you from your trauma. You can do it on your own.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“If you truly want to become uncommon amongst the uncommon, it will require sustaining greatness for a long period of time. It requires staying in constant pursuit and putting out unending effort. This may sound appealing but will require everything you have to give and then some.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“If you want to be one of the few to defy those trends in our ever-softening society, you will have to be willing to go to war with yourself and create a whole new identity, which requires an open mind.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“If you were bullied, abused, or assaulted and are willing to speak the unfiltered truth into the microphone and listen to it over and over, after a period of time, it will become just another story. A powerful story, for sure, but the poison will be neutralized, and the power will be yours.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“In a toxic situation, you cannot keep moving blindly forward hoping it will end. It won’t, but you might.” (David Goggins Quotes)
David Goggins
Never Finished

“In a world where mediocrity is often the standard, my life’s mission is to become uncommon amongst the uncommon.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“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.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“In life, there is no gift as overlooked or inevitable as failure. I’ve had quite a few and have learned to relish them, because if you do the forensics you’ll find clues about where to make adjustments and how to eventually accomplish your task.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“In the military we always say we don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“Incremental progress is still progress, I said to myself. One step is all that is required to take the next one.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“It is a lifelong quest for more knowledge, more courage, more humility, and more belief. Because when you summon the strength and discipline to live like that, the only thing limiting your horizons is you.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“It won’t always go your way, so you can’t get trapped in this idea that just because you’ve imagined a possibility for yourself that you somehow deserve it. Your entitled mind is dead weight. Cut it loose. Don’t focus on what you think you deserve. Take aim on what you are willing to earn!”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“It’s a lot more than mind over matter. It takes relentless self discipline to schedule suffering into your day, every day.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“It’s about constant effort, learning, and adaptation, which demands unwavering discipline and belief. The kind that looks a lot like desperation.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“It’s easy to stand out amongst everyday people and be a big fish in a small pond. It is a much more difficult task when you are a wolf surrounded by wolves.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“It’s not the external voice that will break you down. It’s what you tell yourself that matters. The most important conversations you’ll ever have are the ones you’ll have with yourself. You wake up with them, you walk around with them, you go to bed with them, and eventually you act on them. Whether they be good or bad.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“Life is not pass/fail. It’s about impact and effort.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“Life is one long imaginary game that has no scoreboard, no referee, and isn’t over until we’re dead and buried.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“Life will always be the most grueling endurance sport, and when you train hard, get uncomfortable, and callous your mind, you will become a more versatile competitor, trained to find a way forward no matter what. Because there will be times when the shit life throws at you isn’t minor at all. Sometimes life hits you dead in the heart.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“Life, like Hell Week, is built on seconds that you must win, repeatedly.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“Long before the body goes soft, the mind will have softened. Fortunately, I wasn’t that far gone, but my mind had softened a bit because I hadn’t been challenged to the edge of my capabilities in years.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“Luck is a capricious bitch. It won’t always go your way, so you can’t get trapped in this idea that just because you’ve imagined a possibility for yourself that you somehow deserve it. Your entitled mind is dead weight. Cut it loose. Don’t focus on what you think you deserve. Take aim on what you are willing to earn!”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“Mental toughness and resilience fade if they aren’t used consistently. I say it all the time: you are either getting better, or you’re getting worse. You’re not staying the same.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“Mine your core principles, and come up with your own oath to self. Make sure it is aspirational and that it challenges you to strive and achieve, and live by it every day.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“Most of his work was hidden, but it is within that unseen work that self-leaders are made. I suspect the reason he was capable of exceeding any and all standards consistently was because he was dedicated at a level most people cannot fathom in order to stay ready for any and all opportunities.” (David Goggins Quotes)
David Goggins
Never Finished

“Most people who attempt to recover from an acute injury see their physical therapist a few times a week for an hour at most, yet they make that therapist their leader and convince themselves that it is the therapist’s job to fix them. We can’t rely on others to get us to where we need to be.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“Most wars are won or lost in our own heads, and when we’re in a foxhole we usually aren’t alone, and we need to be confident in the quality of the heart, mind, and dialogue of the person hunkered down with us. Because at some point we will need some empowering words to keep us focused and deadly.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“My oath to self: I live with Day One, Week One mentality. This mentality is rooted in self-discipline, personal accountability, and humility. While most people stop when they’re tired, I stop when I am done. In a world where mediocrity is often the standard, my life’s mission is to become uncommon amongst the uncommon.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“Never forget that all emotional and physical anguish is finite! It all ends eventually. Smile at pain and watch it fade for at least a second or two. If you can do that, you can string those seconds together and last longer than your opponent thinks you can.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“No matter what I’m doing or which arena I’m engaging in, I will always aim for greatness I know that we are all mere mortals and greatness is possible for anyone and everyone if they are willing to seek it out in their own soul.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“No matter what life serves me, I say, “Roger that.” Most people think “Roger that,” simply means, “Order received.” However, in the military, some people infuse ROGER with a bit more intention and define it as, “Received, order given, expect results.” When used that way, it is so much more than an acknowledgment. It’s an accelerant. It bypasses the over-analytical brain and stimulates action because, in some situations, thinking is the enemy.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“No matter what you or I achieve, in sports, business, or life, we can’t be satisfied. Life is too dynamic a game. We’re either getting better or we’re getting worse.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“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.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“No one is going to come help you. No one’s coming to save you.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“Old friends are great and shared history is to be respected, but not every person who has been in your life a long time is looking out for your best interests. Some of them are threatened by your growth because of how it impacts them. Some are looking for a friend to keep them company in their half lives.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“Once you find out who you are, the world will start delivering you care packages filled with opportunities that will fuel your quest.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“Only you can master your mind, which is what it takes to live a bold life filled with accomplishments most people consider beyond their capability.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“Or I could leave all that behind for a world of possibility, much more pain, unfathomably hard work, and zero guarantees of success. I could choose resilience.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“Our culture has become hooked on the quick-fix, the life hack, efficiency. Everyone is on the hunt for that simple action algorithm that nets maximum profit with the least amount of effort. There’s no denying this attitude may get you some of the trappings of success, if you’re lucky, but it will not lead to a calloused mind or self-mastery. If you want to master the mind and remove your governor, you’ll have to become addicted to hard work. Because passion and obsession, even talent, are only useful tools if you have the work ethic to back them up.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“Pain unlocks a secret doorway in the mind, one that leads to both peak performance, and beautiful silence.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“Passion and obsession, even talent, are only useful tools if you have the work ethic to back them up.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“People who feel sorry for themselves are obsessed with their own problems and their own fate. Is that really much different than the greedy and egotistical people who want to feel better than everybody else?”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“Reality can be brutal when all of your excuses are stripped away and you are exposed for exactly who and what you have become, but the truth can also be liberating.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“Respect is earned every day by waking up early, challenging yourself with new dreams or digging up old nightmares, and embracing like you have nothing and have never done a damn thing in your life.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“Self-leaders rarely rest. In the heat of battle, they become dolphins who sleep with one side of their brain on alert and one eye always open so they are ready to outsmart, outswim, or battle their predators and they are awake enough to float back to the surface and take another breath.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“Setting an example through action rather than words will always be the most potent form of leadership, and it’s available to all of us. You don’t have to be a great public speaker or have an advanced degree. Those things are fine and have their place, but the best way to lead a group is to simply live the example and show your team or classmates, through dedication, effort, performance, and results, what is truly possible.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“That’s what getting up at the ass crack of dawn and putting out will do for you. It makes you better in all facets of your life.” (David Goggins Quotes)
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“The bottom line is that life is one big mind game. The only person you are playing against is yourself.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“The Buddha famously said that life is suffering. I’m not a Buddhist, but I know what he meant and so do you. To exist in this world, we must contend with humiliation, broken dreams, sadness, and loss. That’s just nature. Each specific life comes with its own personalized portion of pain. It’s coming for you. You can’t stop it. And you know it.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“The engine in a rocket ship does not fire without a small spark first. We all need small sparks, small accomplishments in our lives to fuel the big ones.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“The most important conversations you’ll ever have are the ones you’ll have with yourself.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“The point is not to allow a setback to shatter our focus, or our detours to dictate our mindset. Always be ready to adjust, recalibrate, and stay after it to become better, somehow.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“The question is, when is the right time to start living instead of merely existing?”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“The reason I embrace my own obsessions and demand and desire more of myself is because I’ve learned that it’s only when I push beyond pain and suffering, past my perceived limitations, that I’m capable of accomplishing more, physically and mentally – in endurance races but also in life as a whole.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“The vast majority of us are slaves to our minds. Most don’t even make the first effort when it comes to mastering their thought process because it’s a never-ending chore and impossible to get right every time.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“The way we speak to ourselves in moments of doubt is crucial, whether or not the stakes are high. Because our words become actions, and our actions build habits that can coat our minds and bodies with the plaque of ambivalence, hesitancy, and passivity and separate us from our own lives. If any of this sounds familiar, grab your phone and record your inner dialogue as soon as you wake up. Don’t hold back. Spill all your dread, laziness, and stress into the mic. Now listen to it. Nine times out of ten, you won’t like what you hear. It will make you cringe. You wouldn’t want your girlfriend or boyfriend, your boss, or your kids to hear your unfiltered weakness. But you should.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“Then there’s the belief born in resilience. It comes from working your way through layers of pain, fatigue, and reason, and ignoring the ever-present temptation to quit until you strike a source of fuel you didn’t even know existed.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“There are 86,400 seconds in a day. Losing just one of those seconds can change the outcome of your day and, potentially, your life.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“There is no shame in getting knocked out. The shame comes when you throw in the towel.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“Think about how much information is out there on the internet. Any place you want to build your skills, from boot camp to Harvard Business School, from EMT certification to an engineering degree, is described online in granular detail. You can study the prerequisites and start on the coursework before you are even admitted. You can prepare as if you are already there so when the time comes and you do land that opportunity, you are ready to smash it. That’s what a self-leader does, no matter how busy their lives are. Not because they are obsessed with being the best, but because they are striving to become their best.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“This life is all a mind game. Realize that. Own it! And if you fail again, so the be it. Take the pain. Repeat these steps and keep fighting. That’s what it’s all about.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“To put it into plain text: when your self-worth goes away and you don’t deal with or accept your demons, they will continue to own you, and you will become a bottom feeder.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“We all have the ability to be extraordinary, but most of us— and especially the haunted ones—tap out of the crucible and never experience what it’s like to get to the other side of hell.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“We all owe it ourselves to stand for something. Principles give us a foundation — solid ground we can trust and build on as we continue to redefine what’s possible in our own lives. Sure, some will be put off by your dedication and level of effort. Others will call you obsessed or think that you’ve gone crazy. When they do, smile and say, “I’m not crazy. I’m just not you.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“We are all leaving a lot of money on the table without realizing it. We habitually settle for less than our best; at work, in school, in our relationships, and on the playing field or race course.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“We can make any obstacle as big or small as we like. It’s all in the way we frame it.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“We can’t rely on others to get us to where we need to be.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“We have to learn to stop looking for a sign that the hard time will end.” (David Goggins Quotes)
David Goggins
Never Finished

“What you won’t see, at least not at first, is the fact that your own personal evolution has begun to bear fruit. You won’t see it because you’ll be too busy taking action.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“Whatever it takes for you to believe that you’re better than good enough to achieve your dreams is what you must do. And remember, your greatness is not tied to any outcome. It is found in the valiance of the attempt.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“When a halfassed job doesn’t bother you, it speaks volumes about the kind of person you are. And until you start feeling a sense of pride and self-respect in the work you do, no matter how small or overlooked those jobs might be, you will continue to halfass your life.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“When there is no one around you who believes in or understands your quest, you must turn your fox- hole into a one-man fighting position. That’s okay. It is always better to fight alone until you can find people strong enough to fight the good fight with you. There is no time to waste trying to pull dead- weight up a hill.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“When you complain and your mind starts groping for the eject button, you are not bringing your best self to the task, which means you are actually prolonging the pain.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“When you evolve, your inner circle must evolve with you. Otherwise, you may subconsciously halt your own growth to avoid outpacing and losing contact with the people who mean a lot to you but may not be able to hang with you.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“When you have a shitty day, it’s tempting to call it an early night and try to forget about it, but if you go to bed in the red, chances are you’ll wake up that way, and all too often, that type of negativity snowballs.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“When you think that you are done, you’re only 40% in to what your body’s capable of doing. That’s just the limits that we put on ourselves.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“When you’re driven, whatever is in front of you, whether it’s racism, sexism, injuries, divorce, depression, obesity, tragedy, or poverty, becomes fuel for your metamorphosis.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“Whether it is a seven-mile run or a 240-mile run, we all know what it’s like to bargain with ourselves to avoid having to do the very thing we said we would. We say we’re overworked, overwhelmed, or just over it entirely. I never give in to that because I know there are a lot of people out there who do not have that choice to make. They cannot run at all and wish like hell they could.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“With discipline as your medium, your life will become a work of art.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“You are giving up instead of getting hard! Tell the truth about the real reasons for your limitations and you will turn that negativity, which is real, into jet fuel. Those odds stacked against you will become a damn runway!”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“You are in danger of living a life so comfortable and soft, that you will die without ever realizing your true potential.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“You cannot be afraid to disappoint people. You have to live the life you want to live. Sometimes, that means being who can put a middle finger up to everyone in the room and be totally comfortable with that.”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“You don’t have to let your doubt into the cockpit! You can tolerate doubt as a backseat driver, but if you put doubt in the pilot’s seat, defeat is guaranteed.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“You have been preoccupied by bullshit for way too long. It’s time to switch your focus to the things that will slingshot you forward. #DistractingInjuries #NeverFinished”
David Goggins
Never Finished

“You know that my refrigerator is never full, and it never will be because I live a mission-driven life, always on the hunt for the next challenge. That mindset is the reason I broke that record, finished Badwater, became a SEAL, rocked Ranger School, and on down the list. In my mind I’m that racehorse always chasing a carrot I’ll never catch, forever trying to prove myself to myself. And when you live that way and attain a goal, success feels anti-climactic.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me

“You must do your own homework. Know the terrain you’re operating in, when and where you can push boundaries, and when you should fall in line.”
David Goggins
Can’t Hurt Me