stay medium
on balance
Stay hard.
Those two words represent David Goggins’ worldview more than the three words in the title of his first book, Can’t Hurt Me.1 The latter phrase meant only to motivate the self; the former doubling as both an internal mantra as well as a clarion call to others.
Those two four-letter words are powerful. They can act as a motivating force to get off the couch. They can push you past your perceived limit. Hims & Hers generates millions of dollars selling pills that help produce this priapismic outcome. They were of great use to me during my late 30s. The words, not the pills.
I picked up Goggins’ book at the suggestion of a friend. As a man approaching his forties, I was more susceptible to Goggins’ powerful story. An abusive father. Self-hate. No prospects. Trying to become a S.E.A.L., failing, and then succeeding. Competing in some of the toughest endurance challenges, including the Badwater 135 while shitting himself.
He’s completed 70+ ultra distance events with multiple top five finishes and a few where he crossed the line first. He previously held the Guinness World Record for the most pull-ups in 17 hours (4,030). You could say he’s one of the greatest endurance athletes. But that title belongs to Courtney Dauwalter, basketball shorts and all. She recently finished the Moab 240 - as in miles2 - 10 hours ahead of her closest competitor, a man, and five hours faster than Goggins’ best time. But I digress, for now.
I first encountered David Goggins in Jesse Itzler’s book, Living with a S.E.A.L. where Itzler describes with alacrity and clarity the benefits of paying a man to more or less kick his ass for a month. While never mentioned by name, I was aware that Goggins was now the man of the house. (The prior role was held by Itzler’s better half, Sara Blakely, of SPANX fortune and fame.)
Wanting - needing - more, I listened to Goggins on the Rich Roll Podcast out on a 16-mile trail run after getting up before the sunrise during a period of intermittent fasting before taking an ice-cold shower. I believe that sentence is just one “while drinking Athletic Greens” away from winning the holy-shit-this-man-must-have-been-at-peak-mid-life-crisis award.
While writing this week’s newsletter with an eeriness aligned with today’s date - Friday the 13th, in October no less - my friend Brandon, unaware of this week’s topic, reached out to ask: Would you do what Itzler did with Goggins? But nothing is random. The need to push ourselves has been something we’ve discussed over the years.
Goggins was the muse for three of us to start a group chat with monthly fitness challenges. One remains vivid still. We placed a bid to complete 100 burpees, 200 push-ups, and a 5-mile run, between the hours of 3 am and 4 am local time, in a t-shirt and shorts, in January - Goggins loved cold water and cold weather training. Once one person completed the challenge, the others had 7 days to complete their challenge. My friend Khaled in Sweden started things off. He sent us a video, clock visible, completing the task with a smile on his face. I completed mine two days later; Brandon later that week.
The fitness challenges became 10thousand1. This was when I ran at least a mile 699 days in-a-row before succumbing to shin splints. This was when I was part of the 5am club thanks to that same friend from Sweden. This was when I would go to Orange Theory everyday - sometimes twice on Saturdays if one wasn’t enough. This was when I was commuting into the city, being a husband to my wife, raising two girls, reading many books, and going to concerts.
I thought I had it all figured out; I think I might be wrong. Things can be two things.
I saw cracks in Goggins’ approach when I started to do the math. He talks about, and lives by, the 40% rule. When you think you can’t go any farther or push any harder, you’re actually only at 40% of your maximum effort. Your mind is limiting you to reach 100% of your potential. That’s bullshit. That’s like saying if you can bench 200 pounds as your one rep max, your real one rep max is 500 pounds. Again, bullshit.
I went through my own history. In high school, I was a pure black and white thinker. I was vehemently opposed to drugs. I held an unhealthy fixation on fairness. I was fully supportive of capitol punishment. Ahead of my 18th birthday, I even registered to vote as a Republican. I was doctrinaire without the religion.
Then I took Contemporary Issues with Mr. Bolan. I realized I could have my mind changed. I wrote papers on how why drugs should be legalized despite personal abstinence and opposition. While I still thought that it was justified morally, I wrote screeds against the death penalty. As my teacher stated at an end-of-year ceremony, I now saw things in shades of gray, no longer in black in white.
Twenty-five years later (!), the words still remind me of the importance - and the lost art - of nuance. It’s like in Hamilton: An American Musical, when Washington says “Winning was easy, young man, Governing’s harder.” Staying hard is easy; nuance is harder. You can’t have nuance if you’re always staying hard. You can’t know nuance unless you know soft.
The thing about Goggins is that in addition to staying hard, he stays soft too. He spends at least two hours stretching every night. But like a handful of oobleck, Goggins can’t resist turning the liquid softness of recovery work into a hardening exercise with the squeezing of his hands: Over a two year period he only missed two days.
Which brings us to moderation. Oscar Wilde is cited as the creator of the quote, “Everything in moderation, including moderation.” While likely goes back to antiquity (doesn’t everything?), I think it’s right.
Look at Itzler. He pushes himself. He’s completed 100-milers. He’s built businesses. He’s not only Everested, he created the concept. But he’s never too tired for his kids. All four of them.
Speaking of fours, Goggins created the 4x4x48 challenge: running 4 miles every 4 hours for 48 hours. I’ve talked about doing it. I’ve put dates on the calendar. I’ve talked some more about doing it. In that aforementioned text thread, Brandon asked if I’ve ever done it. But no, I’ve never done a 4x4x48.
To his earlier question, would I pay to have Goggins live with me? The answer is also no. I’d rather pay to have Dr. Peter Attia live with me for a week. I don’t need motivational tropes. Even Goggins said, “Motivation is crap. Motivation comes and goes. When you are driven, whatever is in front of you will get destroyed.” (Without irony, this is what he gets paid to say as a motivational speaker.) What I need is real-world guidance of the sort found in Dr. Attia’s book, Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity.
Speaking of books, at the bottom of my ever-growing-books-to-be-read pile(s) - in this area, I confess I’m still more Kull the Capitulator than Kull the Conqueror - is Goggins’ newest book, Never Finished: Unshackle Your Mind and Win the War Within which I bought the week it came out. That’s as good an indication as any - outside of this writing - that he’s lost his effect on me. Unlike him, perhaps I am finished.3
As men, we tend to look to our fellow man for advice. That’s not necessarily a good or bad thing. But sometimes, like with politics, we should look across the aisle. Look at Courtney Dauwalter’s approach. Unlike Goggins, she doesn’t follow a rigid - hard - training plan. She takes her training one day at a time. She relies on how her body feels. She focuses on the experience, not the result. She prioritizes playfulness over sleep metrics.
But, I’m not sure that works for me(n) either. It’s too laissez faire. Planning is important. Using objective data can be valuable. And I can’t get behind the use of running shorts whose inseams exceed 5 inches.
Perhaps, on balance, there’s a middle way.
I still plan to get up early. Most days. I still plan to get in my workouts. And enjoy them. I still plan to push the pace and increase the weights. When it feels right. Like Steve Magness says, I still plan to do hard things. In moderation.
Stay medium.
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Actual distance: 238 miles.
Just a few more paragraphs, I swear.