Goggins believes in waking up properly every morning. One way to do so is to get started immediately.
“There’s a lot of things you can control” — David Goggins
Those include:
- Making your bed
- Making sure your surroundings/environment is clean
- What you eat for breakfast
- Shower
All to say that “you control whether or not you hit the snooze button”. If you hit the snooze button you’re choosing to set the wrong intentions for that day.
Goggins then refers to the mindset one has before a job interview. All the prep work that goes into it weeks, or even months before the actual interview.
“you brought your best self” — Goggins
But in most cases, it’s easy to get comfortable once you get the job and you may not be showing up as your best self anymore.
“the interview you is gone.” — Goggins
the “interview you” as in the person who was proactive and made the decision to wake up properly and to do things in the morning. Compared to the “comfortable you” which is slowly falling behind. The one who doesn’t always wake up on time, do the things they want to do in the morning, and shows up late occasionally.
According to Goggins, the worst thing one can do in the morning is checking their phone. I completely agree with this. It’s not shocking to see that phones can be toxic. When one wakes up and checks their phone and sees bad news of some sort, it can ruin their mood and they might not go to the gym, or eat breakfast or shower or put in the effort they originally could have put in.
“You are caught up now on that phone, that’s how your day starts, you lost control.” — David Goggins
David Goggins spends his nights stretching. He does it for around two or three hours. He uses that time to plan his upcoming day.
A lot of us aren’t prepared for life, we get up, willy-nilly, and hope life is going to happen. It is going to happen, but it’s going to happen with the prepared mind or the unprepared mind.”
For Goggins to achieve that prepared mindset, he reflects on all the might-happens, could happens, and even the unknowns.
He prepares for anything. He mentions everything from his morning workout to receiving a call about someone who died.
“Look man, be ready for life, don’t let life attack you.” — David Goggins
He does so to build a “mental armor” that can then help with any other issues.
Goggins believes that one should be afraid of failure, but that one should challenge themselves every day to fail.
“Because if you don’t fail, that means you’ve set your goals to pass & succeed, which means your goals weren’t set high enough.” — David Goggins
He gives an example of his failure with pull-ups. When he set out to break the record, it wasn’t an easy win. It took him two times before he could achieve it. Likewise, it took him three times to finally make the navy seals.
A great example to show how one feels after such an accomplishment would be by analysing how you feel while watching an inspirational movie. How does it make you feel when the person who has repeatedly put in effort but just can’t get it right and “fails” then at the end becomes a great success and it’s a huge miracle. I always love movies like that because it gives off a great sense of achievement and motivation to pursue big dreams and goals no matter how hard it may be and no matter how many times one fails. Goggins sees it like, “God man, how does it feel now that you finally got there” because that’s what failure is like for Goggins.
Honestly, spend the morning the way you want to, this is just Goggins way of waking up and that works for him. Do what works for you. Try out routines and then find one that you can stick with. I do recommend self-reflecting though, whether that be by just thinking through some questions, spending time in meditation, journal, or just being outside in nature. There are so many other ways to spend time with yourself and I hope you can find one that works for you.
Wishing you luck ❤
