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1-Page Summary of Can’t Hurt Me

Overview

Most people don’t realize their true potential because they’re too busy looking for comfort. It’s easy to settle and make excuses for your unhappiness, but that means you’re choosing the ease of complacency over the joy of fulfilling your dreams.

Most people are comfortable and complacent with their lives. They don’t push themselves to be the best they can be, so they use only a fraction of their potential power. To break this cycle, you need mental toughness and discipline that allows you to develop yourself further.

Confront Your Limitations

From an outsider’s perspective, David Goggins had a perfect childhood. He grew up in Williamsville, New York, which is filled with affluent doctors and lawyers. The streets are safe and every home has two-car garages.

The Goggins family lived in Williamsville, New York. They had a large house and perfect lawns with nice cars. David’s parents were well-dressed and his mother looked like the perfect suburban wife.

The Goggins family lived in a nice house on the outside, but they were plagued by violence and abuse. David’s father ran a roller disco called Skateland. He had his two sons and Jackie working there every night to make money off of the roller disco craze. By age 6, David was managing the counter where people rented skates, while everyone else worked on cleaning up after closing time at 10 p.m., including mopping down the rink and cleaning bathrooms. When they got home at 6 a.m., they tried to sleep in an office at Skateland until school started again for David around 8:30 or 9 a.m..

Trunnis was also violent. He beat Jackie as well as the boys. She had no money of her own, and she wasn’t married to Trunnis, so she didn’t have any claim on his assets when they separated.

David Goggins had a challenging childhood. He could have made excuses for his situation, but instead, he overcame all of these obstacles and became successful. The first step in this process was to acknowledge the challenges that were holding him back. What are some of your own challenges? Are you being held back by a difficult childhood or failed marriage? Do you feel insecure about yourself because of low self-esteem or other past mistakes? Take out your journal and write down all the things that hold you back from happiness. Once you recognize what’s holding you back, then it will be easier to overcome those obstacles.

Face the Facts

Jackie Goggins moved to Brazil, Indiana, to start a new life. She had very little money and attended school while working full time and caring for her children. Although David was happy that he didn’t have to live with his father anymore, his childhood continued to be difficult because he hadn’t paid attention in school when he was younger. He failed the academic basics even in high school because of this. To succeed later on in life, David became a master at cheating without getting caught as well as studying hard enough so that it wouldn’t affect him too much if people found out about the cheating.

Goggins’ strategy helped him get into the Air Force, but he still needed to pass a difficult exam. He failed it twice and realized that he needed to study more. He created an accountability mirror with Post-it Notes so that he could see what was holding him back from his goals and what actions were necessary to achieve them.

To improve yourself, be accountable for your actions. You may have been treated unfairly in the past and that’s not okay, but you can’t blame others for your shortcomings. Think about what you can do to fix those problems. You are ultimately responsible for your own success and happiness so take control of your life. Understand where you’ve failed in the past and make a plan to improve yourself by changing those things.