You have to tap into suffering

every day of your life because we

have so much scarring that we
have to clean up you have to look
at suffering as almost like i look at
failure to succeed you must fail in
failure and in suffering all the
answers are in there all the
answers to all the test questions
the test is your life all the answers
are in there you have to live in
suffering and pain and failure all
the time you have to learn i need
to visit it like people hate working
out you're only going to visit
working out maybe an hour a day
23 other hours of the day you're
not in it but how you become in
shape is you must visit suffering
 visit working out one hour a day
visit suffering one hour a day visit
your past failures one hour a day
the relationship with it is the
answers are in there they they are
in there within the suffering go in
there and i call it the live autopsy
the live autopsy how you find out
someone died they crack you open
after you're dead how you can live
is do it while you're alive go back
in your brain crack it open while
you're alive don't wait until you're
[ __ ] dead to figure out why you
died do it while you are living go in
there go into the suffering go into
the pain of your life and say why
does this suck for me so bad why
am i afraid of all this stuff why
 have i shut down the whole world
i guarantee i'll tell you why you
shut down the whole world it's in
these nooks of the suffering within
your brain in the scarring are all
the answers to why you are on the
couch feeling sorry for yourself
they lie within the scars visit them
for at least an hour a day study
them and then you'll find out
more about yourself you will then
grow so don't look at us every day
i suffer go into it an hour a day
learn from yourself learn from life
learn from your failures learn from
your insecurities learn from your
self doubt don't just say i'm afraid
to jump off an airplane what
makes you afraid of it study it
that's why i studied my mind why i
became so powerful in the mind
because i realized i was weak so
instead of running away from the
mind i dove into and say what is
making me weak oh this makes
sense i came from hell i came from
a place that beat me down to
nothing which is why i'm afraid all
this makes sense so systematically
one by one i went back and met
every single person in my mind
every situation i went one-on-one
with them again in my mind it said
okay let's now revisit this and
that's how you do it that's how it
works absolutely man that is i love
that that's brilliant advice brilliant
advice because it's ultimately it's
 observing and self-study that's it
like observing and self-study
becoming an expert in observation
of one's self and the reason why
that that process can be so
challenging or that process is
because like you said and i love
that you literally went through and
re-met every person that caused
you pain everybody loved that and
guess what people say how'd you
do that you know every painful
moment yeah you remember you
remember it we try to put it under
a rug lift the rug up you'll find
them yeah the dust will come up
yeah it'll come up quick yeah so
yeah that's how that's how i was
able to write that book you don't
forget that [ __ ] you want to yeah
and that's where you fail by trying
to forget it that's what you feel
that's where there's no growth
let's just move forward from all
this yeah there's no growth there
there's no growth there no you
just wanna you just wanna forget
about it yeah you will continue
making the same [ __ ] up mistake
yeah you will continue doing the
same things wrong if you don't go
back yeah and the challenge we
have is when we do revisit it when
someone tries or starts they end
up revisiting it but then we end up
and we me too all of us like i'm not
saying when i'm whenever i'm
referring it's me too it's it's also we
 become complaining or criticizing
or preparing so we do start like i
know a lot of people and myself
too i sometimes start revisiting
something right but then i just use
it as a crutch or an excuse then i'm
still not getting there that's right
and the same thing yeah right i'll
do the same thing how have you
broke through that times when
that's happened sometimes so as
i'm talking and as i'm going back
i'm very aware that i'm going to do
that yes and i may do it for 45
minutes and then i'm like you
knew you're going to do this you
have to be very aware of the
conversation you're having while
you're doing it because your mind
 chooses the path of least
resistance your mind has the
ultimate tactical advantage over
you it knows what scars you it it it
knows your fears it knows your
insecurities and it protects you
which i talked about the 40 rule in
my book the 40 rules all about the
brain has the tactical advantage
over you it knows and it keeps you
away from all that that's why it
says don't jump out of an airplane
don't go in the ocean where
there's sharks it's a protective
mechanism don't go back to the
place where your dad beat the
[ __ ] out of you in your mind don't
go back the brain protects you but
protects you so much it doesn't
 allow growth so the brain is an
amazing thing but the brain
controls you you must control it
you must take power over your
own mind or your mind will guide
you into all the soft spikes soft
places that your brain wants to
live in your brain has enough
information it doesn't want to go
through that process of of mind
hardening he doesn't want to do
that i gotta remember what time i
gotta be here what time i gotta be
there this is where i wanna stay
i'm peaceful and wants to stay
very peaceful away from scarring
so that's that's what it is man yeah
that's what it is it's as simple as
that and we just never touch it like
 a like a box that you need to look
inside you just leave it there you
just mark it scar yeah put it up in
the attic never touch again let it
get dusty yeah i wanted to talk to
you about this because when i was
reading about it in the book it
fascinated me because it reminded
me of my my three-month boot
camp as a monk the first the first
three months i'm sharing with you
earlier the first three months of of
monk training is super intense like
really really tough because the
whole point of it is to figure out
who's in and who's not right like
they don't want people to just be
passengers on this side it's not a
it's not a place you come to just
 have quiet and and don't do
anything so that three-month boot
camp something that taught me so
much i'd love to hear about hell
week and specific programs you
built in your life that you went on
and what did you learn from what
did you take away but tell us first a
bit about the program and then
tell us about what you learned so
what i liked about your three-
month hell week yeah you know
was the fact that that's where you
find yourself you find yourself
when you were the at when you're
not comfortable you're not
comfortable on a daily basis and
that's how i started to grow like i
said about the mind it wants to
 put you in that nice 72 degree
temperature with with everything
right there it wants to be in that
nice with a little massage therapist
that's where your mind wants to
be doesn't want to be and we're
going to talk about hell week so it
doesn't want to be in hell week in
hell week i i was in three of them i
finished two of them in one year
only person never do that in still
history there's been people who
who have gone through a couple
of hell weeks but in like five years
six years seven years eight years i
did i was in three in one year they
say it takes off three to five years
of your life so hell week is 130
hours of continuous training you
 might get two hours of sleep and
what it does is it's designed to
break a man to break a man down
to the parts where like i talk about
the surface how it's fixing the
surface if you only fix the surface
you will never get through hell
week because what it does it
starts to bring out these demons
because even though there's a lot
of yelling and stuff like that there's
times where it's very peaceful in a
very eerie way so the first hour of
the 130 is breakout they're
shooting guns it's loud it's noisy
your mind is in chaos when your
mind's in chaos you can't think so
you're having fun yeah this is great
yeah we're in hell we're navy or
 trying to be navy seals or bad
asses then what they do and i
don't even think that they
understand what they're doing but
i studied the mind it's perfect it's
psychological warfare they go
from an hour the first hour when
you're going crazy the second hour
of the 130 they put you in the cold
water it's called surf torture now
they don't call it surf torture
because it's a kind of gentler word
it's called surf acclimation or
something like that whatever
everybody's getting soft so they
call surf torture for a good reason
they put you out there no one's
quit yeah it's only been an hour
maybe a couple of guys have and
you're in the pacific ocean which is
never warm you're all linked arms
you're sitting there and the waves
are crashing over you i went
through winter hell weeks which is
cold the pacific ocean is like 50
degrees it was 49 this particular
night in my third hell week and
what it does is it makes your mind
flip out we've been doing this now
for three weeks being in this water
but for some reason now the
water is colder than it's ever been
it's not our minds are fragile we
can process a day it's hard to
process 130 hours there's no end
there's no end so the mind starts
to ramp up so you're sitting there
it's quiet no one's yelling at you
hear the ocean [Music] and you're
freezing and your mind goes [ __ ]
starts to think of another 129
hours you're not going home
you're getting yelled at you can be
frozen so you panic you freak out
and you want to quit what i realize
about the mind is those people
who can be in that time and
embrace that time and be in that
moment and not allow the mind to
go to 129 hours on hour one it's
the control that we don't have in
our minds it's a control that you
had to have for three months
when you're miserable when
you're suffering when you're
laying on the floor when you're
doing all the disciplines it takes to
 be a monk you cannot think about
the whole process it will make you
it will it will make you so insanely
crazy it's impossible it's inhumane
what i'm about to do to myself you
have to be able to break all these
big humongous painful things in
life down to the smallest molecule
because that's all the brain can
handle the brain can't handle
hours and hours and hours of
suffering but it can handle right
now i'm in the pacific ocean and
it's very cold and this is what i'm
doing don't think about the rest of
it so that's what i learned from hell
week that's what i learned from
being in three hell weeks that's
what i learned from all the military
 i went to ranger school i went to
all these different schools to learn
all of that to learn how the mind
process so i talk about theorists i
talk about practitioners a theorist
is a person who reads a book
doesn't do it reads a book learns
about something and then talks
about it a practitioner is myself a
practitioner is a person like me i
wanted to be an expert in the
mind a mental toughness guy
beyond mental toughness the only
way to do that in my eyes is to put
yourself in hell put in hell
repeatedly repeatedly put yourself
in hell and study how you process
it and that's how i was able to
come up with all these different
ways all these different tools to to
slow the mind down in hell
because the mind just speeds up
the mind wants to get out of the
painful situation the suffering it
can't it can't process it so that's
what i realized by going through all
these different processes of being
in hell weeks you know it's just
that i love that how the mind
process is in hell were you ever
scared that you would lose the
processing ability to be able to
coach yourself through it were you
ever scared when you're there i
was there there's some times
where the mind gets overwhelmed
and you cannot slow it down but
by these these certain tools i
 developed by not allowing your
mind to get away from the
moment you cannot you have to
think about the exact moment
that you're in but i saw when i was
younger the moment became too
big it became too big i spazzed out
and i would quit but now i don't
think about even like an hour from
now i'll be eating i don't even go
there because then your mind no
we must embrace this because
now there's you have to be a
leader in this moment it's not
about you just getting through it i
had six guys i had five guys and six
including me in my boat crew now
as the boat crew leader so now
another trick is this if you don't
 think about yourself there's no
pain which can also lead to pain
later on in your life but in these
moments when you're struggling if
you are a true leader and you're
worried about your men or
women beside you your mind
doesn't care how cold you are
anymore your mind's only worried
about taking care of the men and
women besides you so i started
realizing man if i take care of these
cats to my left and my right in the
worst moments my mind is no
longer thinking about you're
miserable david goggins get the
hell out of here think about how is
john how is andy how was sam
how was pete hey how are you
 guys doing you're not thinking
about me so there's so many
things you can do to get outside
your own head to then allow your
body to be like hey we're just a
machine but you have to let your
mind be able to process all these
different tactics to do that take a
different vantage point in life
when you are in the hell you can't
see the beauty of being in it when
you're in it get on top of that
mountain top in your mind guess
what mountaintop and look down
in what you're doing you can see a
whole different world that world is
beautiful but you got to get a
different vantage point in this in
the suck don't be in it spiritually
 get out of it get that soul look
down on what you're doing be
amazed by the process of where
you're at now and where you
came from wow i've got i've got so
many questions from that i've got
so many questions for that okay
let's let's start with you and i love
that so you said one of the tricks is
when you stop thinking about
yourself because when there's no
self there's no pain no pain and
you start living for your team the
people the other people suffering i
love that totally understand that
servant leadership wanting to go
beyond oneself but you pointed
out something really fascinating
you said it can lead to pain later
that's right explain that because i i
get that so i've had this mentality
for years it got me through a lot of
hard times you cannot use it every
day of your life that's it yeah that's
what i think you cannot use it i use
it as like my god this is the perfect
i found it this is the trick you just
totally you don't even matter
you're just a machine you are a
machine like just just like a lever
that's all you are man you're not
you're not and in my book i talk
about what that lever starts to get
rusty starts to get crusty it starts
to like i can't even think about
anybody but myself so through the
process what i started to learn was
that helps a lot and you can tap
into that all the time but you have
to be able to heal yourself you
have to be able to recover yourself
it can't be something that you
continue to do and do and do
there has to be a recovery process
for your mind your body your soul
your spirit encompasses your
whole body so those are tactics
but those tactics must be oiled up
that lever has to be oiled again to
go back in it absolutely yeah it's
it's not it's not an emergency use
but it's used in specific moments
exactly knowing you can go back
and it's so true that for so many
people who want to serve it
becomes the default and i made
that mistake myself when i
 became a monk it was because i
wanted to wake up every day and
serve that was my goal i was like i
want to wake up every day i want
to use everything i've been given
to serve humanity i just want to
serve people i just want to give
and i was just being that and so i
would go through sleepless nights
i would push myself for weeks on
end to go further for other people
and it was amazing because it felt
fulfilling and it and it helped them
too but after a while i was broken i
i lost my voice for six months i was
eating out of tubes for six months i
was writing on a whiteboard you
know it was just my whole life kind
of crumbled i was sleeping 14
 hours a day then because my life
kind of went to the other side
because i'd worked so hard to just
give give give and i loved it but in
the process i broke myself because
i wasn't refueling i wasn't
renewing that's right even though i
was still taking i was still
meditating i'm still doing
everything yup i talked about that
big time in my last chapter how it
just takes me to nothing how i'm
where you were at you know it's
taken me five years of doing my
meditation my stretching my
eating right my sleeping right and
you have to be on a constant
reminder almost like how you put
a reminder on your phone 15
minutes you got this it has to be in
your brain you've done too much
stop and what happens in life is
that we start to see our lives
becoming so successful we're
making money we're doing this
we're doing that i want more i
want more i push harder i'm all
about pushing hard don't get me
wrong obviously i'm all about it
but to push as hard as you can you
have to be mindful of the machine
that's pushing it is going to end up
dying and then it takes years to
get it back so you lose that time
that time is gone you know i lost
five years of i could be crushing it
where now i'm just now back to
crushing it realizing god man i
 learned the hard way that's really
sometimes one way to learn yeah
sometimes yeah sometimes one
way to learn that's how i've
learned the best yeah how do you
know those indicators so what are
those indicators to know i'm
pushing too hard or i'm i'm
suffering too much because it's
hard to know right everyone gets
in the gym even once a week or
whatever and it's like if you don't
go off then you can feel like you're
falling apart after 10 minutes do
me a favor go to the first go to the
first page of the of not no no go to
like the first three pages of that
book you see one one sentence
okay to the unrelenting voice in
 my head that will never allow me
to stop okay the unrelenting voice
that we all have what happens to
that voice i'm going to answer
your question we all have a voice
in our head some of us are very
spiritual some of us are not but we
all have this voice and you're doing
[ __ ] up [ __ ] this is wrong don't
do that the more you don't listen
to that voice the further that voice
gets away from your head some
people call it the holy spirit some
people call it gossip monks
whatever whatever you call it it's
there we all have it it's the right or
wrong voice but the more we
don't listen to it the more that
voice goes away the only voice you
 hear is yourself with all it when
the only voice hears yourself
you're wrong there's a voice that
guides you through life but
sometimes this guy in your
direction that you don't want to go
that's usually the right place to go
it's that uncomfortable place so
that voice is always talking to me
but we don't listen to it i listen to
it and when i start getting anxious
nervous like i've done we all know
we've done too much because it's
telling us i'm getting tired i'm
wearing down but we we go we go
we go i started talking to my fiance
hey i'm doing too much you start
now like like i did in hell week like i
do all the time the one second
 decision it's that decision when
your mind starts to get so amped
up whenever you can't hear
yourself think you gotta slow
down whenever you're living off a
schedule every day is a schedule
every day's a schedule you have
no time for yourself when you
start and we all know it i don't
have time for this anymore i have
time for that anymore that's when
your mind and your body are
saying think about that i'm
neglecting my fiance i'm
neglecting my disciplines of life i'm
neglecting my reading my learning
my my workouts my my my diet
you start neglecting all of that you
neglect one of them you can you
can neglect all of them a long time
it's going to haunt you when you
start seeing that my god i haven't
eaten right in a long time i haven't
been sleeping a long time it's
going to be one of those things to
take you off so i'm i'm very aware
of my eating my sleeping my my
my disciplines of life and i started
to get too far away from them it's
a hard stop because what made
me me are the self not just
disciplines the self disciplines of
life and those are always in front
of you if you have any they're
always in front of you so that's so
that's my hard stop yeah i love
that man that's great advice and i
guess a simple example is is of like
sleep like when you wake up in the
morning that's right there's a party
that's going i just go back to sleep
exactly right when we used to
wake up at 4am as monks
sometimes three it's like there's
the part and then that's what
you're saying and then all you hear
is yourself saying ah it's all right
just go sleep it's okay that's right
but then that voice has got quieter
that says no you need to get up
that's right you need to get up and
you've just pushed away just
pushed it away that's the
discomfort that you need to that's
right embrace exactly so those
voices are very important they
they can guide you let's think
 about like i said the mind's the
most powerful weapon in the
world yeah it can guide you to
being very comfortable also yeah
so you give you you got to be
careful the the mind will trick you
yeah and they're saying this sleep
in the day you deserve it yeah
sometimes you don't deserve it so
there's that there's that fine line of
of the mind getting the tactical
advantage over you to really like
i've worked too hard yeah you
really haven't worked hard enough
so yeah absolutely yeah in in when
we were trained as monks in the
vedic philosophy he talks about
the difference between the mind
and the intelligence the mind is
 compared to a child and the
intelligence is compared to a
parent and so when the child goes
loose when the mind goes loose
when it's not trained controlled
disciplined self-disciplined etc it
can have tantrums you can throw
things out the pram right it
demands more like a child always
wants to sleep in right all right
always even if the child knows that
it's better to wake up to go to
school right a child doesn't want to
a child doesn't want to study for
exams right because it's hard it's
painful and the adult role it's the
intelligence which is often we
forget that it exists the intelligence
is that voice coaching the mind
 that's right but what often
happens is the intelligence just
tries to shout at the mind like a
bad parent exactly the parent just
shouts that's a hundred percent
no teaching no education no no
knowledge just shout that is a 100
the way you explain that about the
child's mind is 100 the truth i just
want to sleep in always throwing
tantrums never getting what they
want whenever they don't get
what they want they throw
attention but what happens is we
never grow we we are 40 50 60
still throwing that tantrum we
once did at seven and eight years
old so people think with age is
growth no it's not you have to go
 back into the scarring to get the
growth absolutely because if if
with age you just repeated what
you did when you were younger
exactly stronger that's it right
you've just strengthened a bad
muscle i'm throwing a bigger
tantrum at 43. yeah that did it
eight yeah so true yeah you just
strengthen a bad muscle stronger
stronger stronger stronger and
then that can break you if you
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