David Goggins Sparknotes

David Goggins is a former US Navy SEAL who is now a famous motivational speaker, author, podcast guest, and long-distance runner. Goggins wrote this book, which is an autobiography of his life experiences, to give the reader a sense of power and control over their mind. Goggins pushes this idea of “Mind over Matter” throughout the book and highlights his life experience as a guide to the readers who may be in tough or almost impossible situations to ignore what feels good in the moment and do what will be better for their future. I chose this book because I have heard from multiple people who have read it before that it is a great read and will really change your perspective on life. Goggins provides a fair point of view from an experienced

At age six, young David would often find himself working the night shift at Skateland, his father’s roller skating business. Goggins describes this experience as “Hell on Earth” when he had to work long hours at such a young age and still go to the school the next morning and try to stay awake. Eventually, Goggins' mother would leave his father because of abuse and take the children with her to live in Indiana with David’s grandparents. Goggins would go to Catholic school starting in second grade and would have a hard time concentrating and performing poorly. Goggins developed a stutter and had severe social anxiety, partly due to his father’s abuse. His hardship wouldn’t end there, as in junior high and high school the KKK had a large presence in the area. He was the victim of racial violence and received multiple threats based on the color of his skin. At 16 he had his car vandalized with the N word spray painted on the side of

In 2001, David realized he needed to wake up and make a change, he went to the recruiter’s office and told them he wanted to become a Navy Seal. The recruiter laughed in his face and said “Your fat and your black” this only encouraged David to lose 106 pounds in 3 months before he would enlist in the Navy and begin BUD/S training to become a Navy Seal. Goggins found himself one of the few that actually passed BUD/S training and was placed on SEAL Team 5 where he would serve tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Goggins also graduated from Army Ranger School where he received the Enlisted Honor Man award for 100% peer evaluation. In 2005 David began long distance running during his time back at home to raise money for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation where he would end up raising over $2 million over his long distance running career. The writing style of the book is sort of simplistic in language as Goggins is not a career writer, but this does not take away from any meaningful messages behind the wording. Overall, the structure of the book was easy to follow as it was sorted chronologically beginning with David’s early childhood days in