What Everyone Ought To Know About Redefining Toughness
“It was all for that 3 short minutes of Victory!”
I pressed rewind to listen to that again. And again.
After listening to the same few words on repeat for about 20 minutes, I HAD to pause.
While listening to David Goggins’ life story, “Can’t Hurt Me”, things are always pretty intense. This dude is a rock! The adversity and challenges he had to overcome, just to survive are enough to break the strongest of us. But David defined all the odds and to understand his journey to witness him reach where is today, is just incredible.
There is a part where he is going through one of the toughest training known to man of the Navy Seals and when every one of his mates is being broken in Hell Week, he keeps visualizing achieving the impossible and graduating through to become a Navy Seal.
“It was all for that 3 short minutes of Victory!” he says and goes on to explains how brutal the selection is.
However, in the end, he makes it and finally becomes a Navy Seal.
Mission accomplished, right. He just achieved his goal, for which he has been working without a break for more than a year.
What would you do when you finally achieve that milestone that you so badly wanted and risked everything to go after it?
What would you do when you reach that goal, which every damn statistic in the world pushed you saying that you wouldn’t be able to pull it off?
How would you react, when you get to know that finally, you were able to strip naked and face your fears to come out victorious on the other side?
How would you celebrate? How would you rejuvenate in order to treat yourself?
Do you know how Goggins celebrated?
He didn’t even care. He was just happy he accomplished his goal. While being happy, he would quickly start looking for his next challenge.
He is even frustrated a bit that his fellow Seals are throwing parties and celebrating the victory. He feels the game has just begun and celebrating or going soft, even for a little while would mean going complacent on the real pursuit.
While explaining one of his theories, he says,
“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.”
Just pause. Just pause for a second and read that once again. Can you just feel the intensity and immensity of that statement?
The depth and clarity on the thought you need to have, to arrive at that insight takes months, if not years of suffering.
Here is a man, who was abused, bullied and called names his whole life and had all the rights to complain. But he didn’t. He decided to fight and defy the odds.
Do you want to know what makes a real badass? Do you know what makes a person tough?
When you are desperate and hold on to the result, even the smallest ones, to push you through will help you make it. Only someone who would experience would understand the hope that gives.
And when you do achieve it, you just can’t control yourself. That is when most of the giants break down. It is the immensity of the moment. That is certainly not something you would want to miss it.
However, what makes a real badass is when you finally achieve it and have your moment of Victory with you, you do not get overwhelmed. You stay stoic about it and not let it get to your head. You are already looking for the next target and the person you would need to become in order to reach there.
That, to me, is what defines a real Badass. A real tough person. Someone who never lets the result he so dearly desires get to his head. Always fixated on championing the process and embracing the suffering to reach the next milestone.
That is what makes you a real badass.
Thanks
