Summary
Can’t Hurt Me is the story of David Goggins, who went from being overweight and depressed to becoming a record-breaking athlete, inspiring military leader, and world-class personal trainer.

David Goggins stopped making excuses and started giving life 100%. If you’ve heard his name, it’s probably because this former Air Force serviceman and Navy SEAL is also an ultra-endurance athlete and once held a world record for the most pull-ups in 24 hours. He is one of the toughest people alive.

His success wasn’t handed to him, though. Goggins had a terribly hard life. After surviving an abusive and traumatic childhood he faced poverty and became overweight in his twenties. As a result of the trauma from his childhood, he was nearly illiterate as a teen. None of this stopped him, though.

Now he’s here to help you stop backing away from challenges, too. In his book Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds, he teaches it’s the difficult things in life that make you the strongest.

These are the 3 most impactful lessons I’ve learned:

It doesn’t matter where you’ve been or how much trauma you’ve experienced, you can always come out stronger.
Instead of believing in overnight success, work hard and push yourself to be your best self.
Take advantage of the 40% rule to become the master of your mind and achieve more than you thought possible.

Lesson 1: Regardless of the obstacle you face, you can overcome and grow from it.
Have you ever heard the phrase, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger?” According to Goggins, this rings true.

He had escaped his abusive father as a child, but the trauma he had endured continued to negatively affect him into his twenties. He experienced “toxic stress” that made him do very poorly in school to the point that he was barely literate. In his twenties, he had a dead-end job and began to cope with his feelings through food. Soon, he was almost 300 pounds.

After seeing a documentary about the Navy SEALs, he became determined he would become a SEAL himself. He was well over the weight limit of 191 pounds, but he didn’t let this stop him. Remarkably, he lost 109 pounds in just 3 months.

How could he achieve all of this? He made the decision to stop seeing himself as a victim of circumstance, and instead began seeing life as “the ultimate training ground.” He says remembering the things you have been able to overcome is the best way to convince yourself to keep going when you want to quit.

Lesson 2: If you want to get to the next level, work hard and persevere through your limits.

Goggins also teaches us that part of our mind that holds us back in life is the “governor” in our mind. It knows our limits, tells us not to take risks, and feeds on insecurities. To remove the governor, we need to push past our comfort zone.

Lesson 3: Stop using 40% of your effort and give life 100%.
You know that feeling at the end of a long workout where you feel like you gave it your all and you can’t do anymore?

According to Goggins, you still have 60% to give! It may sound crazy, but as humans, we tend to give up after giving only 40% of our maximum power. It’s only once you give up the false notion that you have given your maximum effort that you can really grow.

This is the 40% rule. When you start pushing your way past the 40% that most of the rest of the world seems to be content with, you will unlock a higher performance level. With this, you will find extraordinary results.

Can’t Hurt Me Review
Can’t Hurt Me is truly inspiring. We learn what it takes to master our mind from someone who has overcome huge obstacles and become one of the toughest people on earth. He helps us break our mental roadblocks and take control of our success. By the time you’re done reading this, you’ll be ready to dump your excuses and do and become better than ever before.