Daily Blog #320
I am currently reading the book Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins. Needless to say, it is another one of those books that I would highly encourage you to read. While I am only halfway through, the amount that I have learned from Groggins is endless. One of the biggest things that I am taking away from the book, is the fact that nothing is going to last forever.
Without getting into too much detail at this time, let’s just say that Goggins’s childhood was anything but memorable. After he and his mother escaped the abuse of Goggins’s father, he would leave that life only to live in the cornfields of Indiana where he would become the center of all racism. In a small rural town, I’m sure you can only imagine what he went through.
As he got older, his life did not get any easier. Even into his twenties and thirties, Goggins’s life was filled with constant pain. After joining the Navy Seals, he would have to endure Hell Week three separate times due to illness and injury. His first attempt to become a seal would result in severe pneumonia. His second attempt would result in a broken patella. On his third attempt and what he was told would be the final time that he could complete his training, he managed to find a way to do so… on two fractured shins.
That’s how much being a seal means to Goggins. That’s how badly he wanted to complete something meaningful in his life instead of letting a grueling and messy past control him. Goggins would learn to harness all of the pain that he had endured throughout his life, and he would use it to fuel the already blazing inferno that was inside of him. All because he knew that the pain was not going to last forever.
Each and every single one of us can learn a great deal about our true potential from Goggins. Our past may not be as challenged as Goggins’s past was, and we don’t need to put ourselves through the amount of pain that Goggins was willing to endure. But one important and critical piece of information that we can all take away is that nothing is going to last forever. Suffering or triumph, it is all going to come and go.
Controlling our emotions.
We simply forget about change. We forget about the fact that some days are going to be better than others, and that some days are going to present more challenges than others are going to. Do you know what this unpredictable nature is called? It is called life.
It’s almost as if we have this belief in our minds that whatever emotion we are experiencing today will be the same emotion that we live the rest of our lives with. This just isn’t the case. Happiness or sadness, your emotions are going to change.
Maybe you are feeling down on yourself right now. Unfortunately, there are going to be many days in your life where you are going to feel down just like you are right now. But there are also going to be many good days where you are feeling happy and uplifted as well. On the contrary, if you are experiencing happiness and positivity in your life, the good news is that there is more of this to come. But the bad news is that there are also many days where you are going to feel down. Give or take, no matter what you are feeling today, there are going to be days where you will feel the exact opposite.
Moving forward in life
All of this gives us two options. We can either give in to whatever emotion we are feeling knowing that it is not going to last, or we can keep trekking forward with the same understanding that life is going to be filled with not only endless amounts of challenges and difficulties but with endless amounts of triumphs and victories as well.
Everybody has different circumstances and experiences that shape our lives. Those who succeed, they do so because they develop a mindset similar to Goggins. They refuse to allow anything to stop them from achieving their goals and will fight until their dreams become their reality. Those who fail, they do so because they quit. They allow their emotions to stop them from accomplishing what truly matters, and they allow their emotions to override their true potential.
No matter what you choose to do in life, there is going to be some amount of pain that you are going to experience. But the pain that you are feeling is not going to last forever. What does last forever, though, is giving up on your dreams. So don’t allow yourself to give up. Believe in all that you are capable of achieving, and keep moving forward. That is the only option that is going to get you from where you currently are to where it is that you want to be in life.
Michael Bonnell
3/16/2019
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