When a book won’t stay on the shelf in my library, it gets my attention. Since we purchased Goggins book, at the request of one of our sailors, it has not sat on the shelf for more than a day, since July 2019. So I got curious— what about this book stirs such word of mouth attention? What I discovered first surprised me, then made sense.

As Goggins said in the first chapter, “I should have been a statistic.” He had a terrible childhood, with a father abusing him, his older brother, and his mother. And Goggins is probably right— with that beginning, and his subsequent choices, he would have been another obese black man, in an unfulfilling job that barely met the bills, living just above the poverty line, with no better prospects. So what led him to choosing a better way? What even gave him the audacity, the motivation, to think there could be a better way for him? Goggins credits an inner voice that would not let him off the hook, that insisted that while he was dealt bad cards in life, his choices going forward were all his own. He could not keep blaming his circumstances on that bad start—he had to take personal responsibility for everything from now on, no more blaming everything and everyone else. At the end of each chapter, Goggins describes a strategy that worked for him he calls challenges (to the reader), beginning with a journal listing all the lousy circumstances standing in your way to your life goals. The challenges are useful tools to have the reader reframe obstacles as opportunities, to fuel and sustain change, such as the accountability mirror; choosing to do the most uncomfortable, most avoided tasks first, the “path of most resistance”; “the cookie jar”, where you can remember previous successes when the going gets hard, to remind you of who you really are and can be—and many more strategies. Goggins shows that your mind is what has to change, the way you think. Once you handle where your mind goes, once you routinely refuse to take the path of comfort, safety, ease, and avoidance of the difficult, human potential is unlocked.

Goggins admits he isn’t a gifted genius. What he has is stubbornness, determination, drive. He didn’t always have that—he chose the comfortable path like all of us. When he saw where that path led, he decided he wanted more out of life. He had to build the mental habits that would get him there piece by piece, and he made plenty of mistakes. He humbly admits those, and uses those as further tools and fuel for course correction. Goggins was only the 36th black man to make it through Navy Seal training, known as BUD(s). He consistently chooses incredibly challenging goals for himself, such as Army Ranger School, Ultra marathons (exceeding 100 miles), and much more. He believes we are capable of so much more than we know, mainly because our minds get in our way, habitually stopping us when safety, comfort, and ease call— when we avoid pain, risk, and discomfort. How much more could we achieve? How much more could we be?

It makes sense that so many of my sailors choose this book. Many are from tough life circumstances, where enlisting was their way out. Now that they are committed, in submarine school, they are facing an academic challenge many are not mentally prepared for, and they need the mental tools to succeed. Goggins has something to teach all of us, to not listen to the call of the couch, fast food, or even quitting when it starts getting difficult. We are all capable of so much more. Highly recommend.