Are you struggling with hardships at the moment? Do you need support and motivation to navigate through this challenging phase in your life? In this episode, we delve into a straightforward viewpoint of David Goggins and turn those hardships into something magnificent in your life.
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Transcript
Well, Hey everybody, Jonathan Doyle with you.
Speaker:Once again, welcome back.
Speaker:My friends to the daily podcast.
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Speaker:There's a whole bunch of stuff there.
Speaker:So go check that out today.
Speaker:My friends, we are going to talk.
Speaker:About a quote from one of my, uh, Someone that's influenced me a great deal.
Speaker:I got to say.
Speaker:Uh, in this space because I produce a lot of content.
Speaker:And I don't know if people think maybe.
Speaker:That I'm some kind of source for this stuff.
Speaker:And, you know, I think it was a.
Speaker:I think it was Isaac Newton.
Speaker:Who said, who said, if I have seen further, it is because I have
Speaker:stood upon the shoulders of giants.
Speaker:So, so much of what I get to share with you guys has been through years
Speaker:of listening and reading some of the great men and women that have
Speaker:forged a path of growth, personal development, mental toughness,
Speaker:resilience, stoicism, all the kinds of things that get me up in the morning.
Speaker:I want to share with you today, a great quote from David Goggins.
Speaker:I'm a massive fan.
Speaker:If you're not familiar with David Goggins, he's a former us Navy seal.
Speaker:Uh, African-American guy, who's just got this incredible history of, you know,
Speaker:coming from trauma and difficulty and abandonment and just operating at the
Speaker:very highest levels of his capacity.
Speaker:Both as in the military and then afterwards as an ultra
Speaker:marathon runner, author, speaker.
Speaker:And all around.
Speaker:Amazing.
Speaker:Human.
Speaker:Like, you know, if you know much of your stuff, you've read his books or.
Speaker:Is it kind of guy that when he dies, there will be not being much left in the tank.
Speaker:So I want to give you a quote from yesterday that really jumped out
Speaker:at me because I think what I like about him is, is he walks the talk.
Speaker:He really does.
Speaker:He's somebody who lives, the messages that he shares.
Speaker:So let me give you this quote today.
Speaker:Let's unpack it together a little bit.
Speaker:He says this.
Speaker:Most of us are not defeated in one decisive battle.
Speaker:We are defeated one tiny insignificant surrender at a time that chips
Speaker:away at who we should really be.
Speaker:Most of us are not defeated in one decisive battle.
Speaker:We are defeated one tiny insignificant surrender at a time.
Speaker:That chips away at who we really should be.
Speaker:There's a lot to this.
Speaker:I want to start at the end, actually, this concept of who we really
Speaker:should be, this human potentiality.
Speaker:All of us are born with remarkable human potential.
Speaker:We are human.
Speaker:Becomings not human beings as such.
Speaker:We can always become an actualized more of this remarkable potential for
Speaker:years, I've been saying to people in conversation and speaking on stage.
Speaker:You know, a lot of my postgraduate formation was in Aristotelian sort of,
Speaker:um, I guess, philosophical anthropology.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:So it's kind of how Aristotle and, and classical Greek thought.
Speaker:Discussed and articulated what it meant to be human.
Speaker:You know, why would they bother?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Well, before that time, before the Greeks, really most of human
Speaker:civilization up to that point,
Speaker:Was about nothing more than survival.
Speaker:It was really about nothing more than food and not getting killed
Speaker:by other people and reproduction.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So there's basic human things, food survival reproduction.
Speaker:And it's really in classical Greece that we begin to see the first societies
Speaker:as such the had enough stability.
Speaker:And safety that a certain group of people had time to actually think to really think
Speaker:about the nature of existence itself.
Speaker:Because before that it was just like, You know, you can imagine the tribe,
Speaker:but when guys like, Hey, I don't, I don't, I don't want to fight.
Speaker:I just want to think about the nature of existence and they're like,
Speaker:sorry, that's not going to happen.
Speaker:I pick up this spear.
Speaker:Hurry up.
Speaker:So Aristotle of course in the Greeks had this first.
Speaker:There was.
Speaker:Philosophy before them, but they're really around.
Speaker:I guess around 500 BC.
Speaker:A bit earlier.
Speaker:We get the first philosophical schools and the Greeks had this
Speaker:idea of what they called eudemonia.
Speaker:They believed that each of us carried inside of ourselves,
Speaker:something called a Damon.
Speaker:Oh, I said, peoples on a demon and Damon and a Damon was kind of like source
Speaker:code was like software code inside us.
Speaker:That was kind of like the blueprint of what we could achieve now.
Speaker:It'd be different for all of us.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So all of us had different.
Speaker:Abilities and capacities and goddess credit all this differently,
Speaker:but this code was kind of like.
Speaker:That if we fully lived, if we really lived up to our potential, then
Speaker:that code would be fully actualized and made manifest in the world.
Speaker:So they began to realize that the way we do that is through our
Speaker:conscious choices and our actions.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So the classic of course, for Aristotle was when they asked him.
Speaker:Be, you know, was the courageous person born courageous or how
Speaker:did they become courageous?
Speaker:Because the Greeks were interested in where the people just born
Speaker:with an innate abilities.
Speaker:Whether they sort of changed over time and in a strange
Speaker:way, it's kind of both, right?
Speaker:Because Aristotle will say, well, the capacity is always there,
Speaker:but the way that it comes out,
Speaker:Is by doing particular things by acting in congruence with
Speaker:those capacities inside us.
Speaker:So what you get, and that's why I started the end of this quote, where Goggins David
Speaker:Goggins says it's about, you know, Chip chipping away who we really should be.
Speaker:So let's start from there.
Speaker:Let's start from this truth that.
Speaker:Within you is this remarkable capacity of all that you can be of
Speaker:all of who you are and it's there.
Speaker:And then he goes, he starts by saying the most of us are not
Speaker:defeated in one decisive battle.
Speaker:That's true.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Like we all have setbacks.
Speaker:We all have difficult times.
Speaker:We all have.
Speaker:Seasons where things are just hard and bleak and it's like, you
Speaker:know, This is a really hard time.
Speaker:But nobody in life tends to be.
Speaker:It's pretty rare that people are truly utterly, completely crushed.
Speaker:Bye.
Speaker:One single event.
Speaker:You know, I've known people that have been through the most awful
Speaker:tragic events, the loss of children.
Speaker:You know, and their life is forever changed.
Speaker:But, you know, I definitely know people who've been through things as severe
Speaker:as that and have still found a way.
Speaker:To come back in life to still find joy, to still have relationships,
Speaker:to still find meaning.
Speaker:Now it doesn't mean that their life isn't changed because it is.
Speaker:But do you see what I mean?
Speaker:That even with those terrible losses, no one is it's rare that people
Speaker:are utterly wiped out for life.
Speaker:So what Goggins is saying here is that what actually happens is that
Speaker:our defeat in life comes from.
Speaker:A whole bunch of almost incremental, insignificant surrenders.
Speaker:And, and then he says these insignificant syringes chip
Speaker:away at who we really should be.
Speaker:So, I guess this comes down.
Speaker:Uh, questions around character and virtue and decision-making right.
Speaker:That we are actually shaping our futures, shaping our destiny,
Speaker:shaping our outcomes, not.
Speaker:It really in one great moment.
Speaker:But in a whole bunch of smaller ones.
Speaker:So for better or worse, we're either growing or going backwards
Speaker:based on these tiny little moments.
Speaker:I mean, I can remember the first time I did.
Speaker:A live event with 10,000 people.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:It's really cool.
Speaker:And it was just a mega event.
Speaker:But that step moment yeah.
Speaker:Changed me and it was memorable, but my entire life wasn't
Speaker:shaped by that one experience.
Speaker:There's been so many other experiences and daily experiences
Speaker:that are no doubt shaping me more.
Speaker:So, what I want you to start thinking about is.
Speaker:Where are the surrender points in your life at the moment?
Speaker:Where are the seemingly insignificant surrender points?
Speaker:That may be really shaping your long-term future and who you could become.
Speaker:And the obvious examples could be something like how we eat, right?
Speaker:Like,
Speaker:It's not one single cookie.
Speaker:That destroys your health and wellbeing.
Speaker:It's not.
Speaker:It's the daily or hourly cookies, right?
Speaker:It's.
Speaker:It's the, it's the insignificant surrender.
Speaker:It's like, I just have this one, one little cookie.
Speaker:It's a, it's a little surrender, but it's not a big one.
Speaker:And Jonathan won't even know.
Speaker:Some of you are probably sitting there.
Speaker:Driving somewhere eating a cookie right now.
Speaker:I go, oh gosh, why did he have to bring that up?
Speaker:But you see what I mean?
Speaker:It's like, Getting great physical health is about.
Speaker:Doing these little things, when we don't feel like doing them, not
Speaker:giving into the surrender points.
Speaker:I feel that a lot because.
Speaker:You know, most days at the moment I get up at 4:00 AM.
Speaker:And I worked for a couple of hours and I trained for a couple of hours and
Speaker:then I've got school runs and into the office in the studio and working all day.
Speaker:And there are many invitations to what Goggins would call here.
Speaker:Insignificant surrenders.
Speaker:Like the number of times my brain is like, ah, I don't train today
Speaker:or you don't need to do this.
Speaker:Or why do you keep doing this?
Speaker:It's too cold.
Speaker:It's too hot.
Speaker:It's too loud.
Speaker:It's too quiet.
Speaker:Just, just.
Speaker:It's this weird thing because our brain is always trying to keep us safe.
Speaker:It is always trying to keep us safe or what it thinks is safe.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Always trying to take us backwards.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:I want you to get sensitized to these insignificant surrenders.
Speaker:I want you to get clear that it's never one moment positive or negative
Speaker:that changes your life per se.
Speaker:It's the decision points the small ones that are going to shape who you really
Speaker:could be so as you go through this next day i want you to start looking for them
Speaker:And i want you to start thinking about your potential I need to keep being
Speaker:reminded of myself i'm turning 50 this year And as i said in the recent episode
Speaker:for the first time i'm like man 55.
Speaker:what is that how did that happen So i'm aware that my time to pursue
Speaker:my potential is not indefinite it's the first time i love i've
Speaker:really gone out hang on You're not.
Speaker:It's not in kansas anymore Dorothy, you know 20.
Speaker:It's like better straighten up You.
Speaker:You better get on with what it is you're trying to do here So Let us not waste
Speaker:time huh let's not waste time Let's be switched onto these decision points
Speaker:Please make sure you've subscribed It does subscribe button my friends share this
Speaker:with people go check out those links book me to speak book me for coaching It is
Speaker:all there my name's jonathan doyle this has been the daily podcast And Cast and
