The Resilient Mind - Science Just Proved Why Doing Hard Things Changes You - David Goggins

Episode Date: June 7, 2026

[Explicit]An accomplished endurance athlete, Goggins has completed over 60 ultra-marathons, triathlons, and ultra-triathlons, setting new course records and regularly placing in the top five. He once held the Guinness World Record for pull-ups completing 4,030 in 17 hours, and he’s a sought after public speaker.Take action and strengthen your mind with The Resilient Mind Journal. Get your free digital copy today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/Download_JournalExplore tools from past guests of the podcast. Some links below are affiliate links, meaning we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you:💓 HeartMath: https://www.heartmath.com/resilient🧠 Muse: https://choosemuse.com/resilientmind🌿 Brain Ritual: https://www.brainritual.com/THERESILIENTMIND🌍 The Resilient Mind Podcast is a proud member of 1% for the Planet — building resilient minds and a resilient planet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm going to share a little neuroscience tidbit, but I think it's one that you'll appreciate. Most people don't know this, but there's a brain structure called the anterior mid-singulate cortex. But what's interesting about this brain area is there now a lot of data in humans showing that when people do something they don't want to do, like add three hours of exercise per day or per week. or when people who are trying to die and lose weight, resist eating something. Right. When people do anything that they don't want to do. It's not about adding more work.

It's about adding more work that you don't want to do. This brain area gets bigger. Now, here's what's especially interesting about this brain area to me. And by the way, I'm only learning this recently because it's new data, but there's a lot of it. The anterior mid-singulate cortex is smaller and obese people. It gets bigger when they die it. It's larger in athletes.

It's especially large or grows larger in people that see themselves as challenged and overcome some challenge. And in people that live a very long time, this area keeps its size. In many ways, scientists are starting to think of the anterior mid-singulate cortex, not just as one of of the seats of willpower, but perhaps actually the seat of the will to live. And when I learned about the anterior mid-singulate cortex, I was like almost out of my seat. And I've been in the neuroscience game since I was 20. We're the same age. And I was so pumped because I've heard of the amygdala fear, prefrontal cortex, it's planning

in action. I could tell you every brain area and every, I teach neuroanatomy to magical students. But when I started seeing the data on the anterior mid-singulate cortex, I was like, whoa this is interesting and all the data point to the fact that we can build this area up but that as quickly as we build it up if we don't continue to invest in things that are hard for us that we don't want to do that's the part that feels so Goggin-esque

to me that we don't want to do like if you love the ice bath yeah I love the ice bath you go from one minute to 10 minutes guess what your anterior mid-singulate cortex did not grow None. But if you hate the cold water, if you're afraid of drowning and you get into water and put your head under and survive, then the anterior mid-singulate cortex gets bigger. But if you don't do it the next day, or if you do it the next day and you enjoy it, because hey, hey, I did it yesterday.

Woo-hoo. Happy me. Merry Christmas, as you would say. Christmas. Guess what? The anterior-mid-singulate cortex shrinks again. Yep. To me, this is one of the most important discoveries that neuroscience has ever made.

because it's that I don't want to do something but do it anyway that grows this area. And it's almost like I have a friend. He's been sober 30 years from alcohol. And he always says, you know, the amazing thing about addiction is there's a cure. The problem is it only works one day at a time. Yep. And so you have to renew it every day. That's right.

So the answer amidstingulate cortex to me when I learned about it, two things went off in my head. Whoa, this is super interesting. And two, I got to tell David Goggins about this. And I waited until now to tell you because I felt like, well, for obvious reasons, I wanted to tell you and I wanted to tell you here. Well, I love that because that's how I've lived my entire life. I don't know anything about that. But people go, man, you have such a strong will. It's something that you build.

Like, I never forgot. I was on a podcast one time. And this dude goes, you were blessed with a strong mind. Like, the hell are you talking about it's blessed with a strong mind? mind, that's something that you have to develop. You develop that over years, decades of suffering and going back into the suffer. That's why a lot of people who graduate Navy SEAL training

and they want to know, like, in my, I talk about very openly all the time. A lot of guys don't go, don't want to go back into that water. Don't want to go back into the hard stuff. Anything hard. Anything hard in life. Once you get through it, it's like you become a POW.

Like, how many POWs you know want to go back to POW can? None. When something sucks so bad in life, this is on this that we're talking about now, very few people want to go back. They're happy they graduated.

I realized I'm the same way. I don't want to go back. I have to go back. I must go back because that is exactly where all the knowledge of my life exists was back there and what you're exactly talking about. Well, I didn't know anything about this. But how I grew a will was constantly doing these things to now it's just life. I wake up while it still sucks, it's just life. You don't sit back and like, oh my God, like I have days I don't want to do it, but I know I'm going to do it.

I know from years of just doing it. So that's beautiful. And this is why I came on here with you today. And I'm glad you're talking about this because human beings need to hear this. Then he stop hearing these hacks on this and that. There's no fucking hack, bro. There's no fucking hack.

Yeah, you made this and that and sonnas and all this. Yeah, it's great. there is no life hack. To grow that thing, how do you grow it? Do it and do it and do it and do it.

That's the hack. The hack is going to fucking suck. And that's what I realized. That's what I realized. That's why I want to come on here today. I didn't want to come on here on top of no fucking passion and purpose and how to get the fuck out of bed

and how to hit a fucking alarm clock and all this catchphrase bullshit. because that wasn't how I lived. I wasn't how I lived. I woke up like every human being does and goes, man, I'm a fucking piece of shit today. How the hell is this going to work out for me? And you fight that.

And you fight that. You don't override it. There's no override button. It's the conversation in your head. So how do you do that? We don't have enough of these conversations about the real conversation that every human being is having. And they have no idea how to get out of it, but they do.

It's that shit right there, man. Yeah, build your will. How do you build your will? Exactly what you said, man. Exactly what you said. Pretty soon you win. Pretty soon you'll win. You have the courage and the heart and the dedication and the mind says,

everybody can go f*** themselves. You put so much practice into you that you can ignore every one of them that are telling you you're not going to make it. and still be able to make it. Because you have put the practice in that you know this is the process. These people go to the gym, they get big, they get jacked, they can run fast, all that shit. But the only thing they're doing is you're coding over the mind.

All you're doing is building a bigger, stronger quitter. Your mind hasn't gotten any stronger because you haven't gone back in there and dealt with shit. So the second adversity comes, like, my God. I'm so in fit. What's wrong? Your mind is still soft. So I work on the mind. Then you've been working out, but your mind's not prepared.

Story for you. When I was 19 years old, I was going through the Air Force trying to be a pair of rescuement. I was doing push-ups, sit-ups, swimming. I was doing all this shit, knocking out of the park. One of the best in the class. But the second the obstacle got my fucking way, I wasn't prepared for it mentally. I was a beast. All I was doing was I was training a bigger.

Stronger, faster, quitter. You got to train your fucking mind for all obstacles that might get in your way. Or if you can't run, give a fuck. It was never about running. Why do you think I run? It's the one thing I hate the most to do, and I do it like I love it. I don't just run a mile, two miles. 250, 60, 7, 300-mile runs.

At one time, no sleep. I get to the start line, cussing at Jennifer. Why the fucking am I here, I hate this shit. After 70 some hours of running, every fucking question I ever had is answered. Every question I had is answered. Two heart surgeries, multiple knee surgeries, and after every knee surgery, they say, you're not going to run again. And I'm fine with that. There's no running up here, bro.

None. This was what it was all about. perhaps they have that victim mentality, right? They're just the world's against me. I can't catch a break. Every time I try to do this, this happens, some narrative that they're spinning about their life. Right.

Like what's the first step out of that? Well, like I've said a million times before, the most important conversation is the one you have with yourself. You wake up with it, you walk around with it, you go to bed with it. Eventually, you act on it. Sometimes you act on it good, sometimes bad. You've got to change the internal dialogue.

that person in your head that's talking that to you, until you change the internal dialogue in your head, until you callous over the victim's mentality that the world is out to get you because of you are the only, you got to change that shit, man. Yeah, but you don't understand my life, David. Yeah, I do.

That's the thing about it. I get that mentality. I once had that mentality that no one understands what the fucking going through. And if you keep that mentality, you're going to stay in the same, exact spot that you're in that no one understands me. There's a whole, there's millions of people.

You're never alone. Everybody's going through shit. So where people get this mentality of like, you don't understand me, you can throw a rock to someone that can understand you if they're willing to break themselves down and stop hiding. A lot of people understand you, but you got to stop hiding. That's why I tell people, a lot of people are going through shit. They just hide better than you did.

I know I'm going to do it. That's the haunting part is that it's going to happen. It has to happen. And that's the fact. Like, there's no get out of your free car, bro. None.

Like, that is a life that I don't know. I don't have that ability. I have the ability. I don't have the, I'm not good enough. smart enough. I'm not talented enough to do that.

Some people are. Some people can start at one. Somebody they don't have to start at all. If you lack talent, you can't sit back and say, I start in half an hour. I can't do that. I got to start now.

And after I get back from starting, I got to start again. And then when I get done with that run or that study session, if it wasn't good enough, I got to go back again. because repetition is what taught me everything. I wanted to feel something besides defeat. I wanted to just go to distance. And that going to distance pushed me to a point of where now I go way past the distance.

When you have a real fear of dying and being just another person that I live to pay the bills, I mean $1,000 a month, this is my life. I spray for cockroaches, man. if that makes you feel good, that's great. It didn't make me feel good. I put everything, ruin relationships, ruin this, ruin that, put everything on. In fact, I have to become someone in this world. Or I'm no good for anybody.

I wanted to the first time of my life, after 26 years, there's 24, 25, wherever I was, I wanted to feel good about myself. I was like, Mother, what are you doing out here, Gagans? Like, this is crazy. Like, you're literally trying to reinvent the wheel, but I was trying to reinvent my mind. I was trying to reinvent my mind, and I used every single tactic possible to do that. I didn't want to live in this world where I was a fake human being anymore. And I was tired of blaming everybody for where I was at.

I wanted to be that. I wanted to be the guy that people looked at. I don't care if you've liked me or didn't like, I don't care. But I said, this motherfucker is going to keep coming after whatever the fuck is in front of him. I wanted that. I wanted that. I wanted that worse than anything in the world. It comes from a disgusting place of not being fulfilled in your life,

of afraid of dying, having never accomplished anything. I have all these epiphanies, man. I have all these moments of like, of, it's crazy, man, of just thought. I'm always by myself, I'm always deep, thought about how to be better. And I look out there, I'm like, man, I wonder how many you mothers in there just are so upset with how you lived your life. and just regret how you lived it. And I'm running at 300-pound man thinking, man,

don't die like this, bro. And so people wonder where this comes from from me. It comes from such deep thought of trying to see what this is all about. What is this life all about? What am I all about? Why am I here? You know, I had to find purpose. And my suffering, it had a purpose.

My dad beat me this happening. I mean, my dad ran prostitutes, man. My dad literally snatched the soul out of my mom. My mom is still battling. So I saw my dad through an eight-year-old's eyes. So we left when I was eight. And then at 22, I went back to see him through a grown man's eyes. And he was the same person I remembered.

But I had to. You can't live with hate. You cannot move forward. As much as that guy tried to ruin all of our lives, that's where I came from. I had to figure out the origin of where I started from. So when I was going back through my life, trying to fix who I am, the person I was, like if your knee hurts, it's usually not your knee that's hurting.

There's something else, man. It could be a tight quad. It could be the right leg, if it's the left leg. You got to find out the origin of where all this shit began. And it was him. Everything I've ever done in my life I didn't want to do. Everything, every day. I'm a lazy piece of shit.

And I'm one of the hardest working people. that ever stepped foot on the planet Earth. And I'm saying that very proudly, because I know what I do. Not cocky. I lived, I woke up, like every human being does and goes, like, man, I'm a f***ing piece of shit today. How the hell is this going to work out for me? And you fight that.

And you fight that. You don't override it. There's no override button. It's the conversation in your head. People have talent. People have a lot of talent. And this is going beyond your talent. So when talent, when there's no more talent, what happens to you?

Most people quit. People only go to their talent level. And once your talent level is gone, it becomes a mental game. The whole mental game sets him in. And most people can only perform to their talent. And they realize, man, why am I always messing up right here? It's because you're performing to your talent. And then after that, your mind has nothing for you.

nothing for you because you're now at the point now what your talent ain't could do for you my friend now it's the mental game and that's where people get lost in life get lost in that next level and that next level is found for me and the things that i do when i started this journey years ago and i realized that i'm going to be somebody and i'm searching for a feeling a feeling of true victory for myself and only myself. The second I shut out the whole world and realized that one thing that I am in this world alone, I'm fighting this race by myself. No one knows the real truth about me, how hard I really go. I don't care if anybody knows. I don't want anybody to know. I'm an introvert. I live an introverted life, and I love that about me. That right there is my fuel.

is I know that there's really no one out there grinding like me. And if they are, so be it. If I know about you, I'll make sure that help my gang. You've got to have the mentality to show up every day of your life. You matter what life throws at you. It's our responsibility to show up to the calisthium of life, prepared for battle. I don't care what you're going through?

What life's throwing at you? It's your responsibility to find your new husband. 100% oh I ran today I went to the gym the day I did this and this today I studied today I have about eight hours off and those eight hours are glorious to me and every day you go back out and you start earning that and every day you wake up it sucks and when it's over you feel better it sucks you feel better and as you get going that's every step you take in that journey as you're like for me run I run every day hate it but every step I take I'm like all right mother you're beating the demon again.

What am I going to do today to change what I see in this mirror? What am I going to do today? And a lot of it was I stopped sit with the cool guys. I actually took my shirt in with the school looking like, hey man, this I'm going to look. If you don't like it, so be it. I had to really

wear this layer of skin. I had to develop a really callous skin on me to take whatever you're going to call me, you're going to call me. But whoever I am, you're going to see me. You're going to to see me for who I am because I need to change who I'm not. If I became fat over the years, can I fell back in the hole? I called myself fat because I was fat.

And people don't want to do that. They want to say, oh, don't call yourself fat. Don't call yourself dumb. If you're not real and raw with who the fuck you are, nothing's going to change. And in this nice new world that we live in, we want to hear, you're just a little big. No, man, you might be fat.

And it's raw. It gets ugly sometimes with me in that mirror, but I'm also proud of myself to be able to tell myself that and then fix what's in that mirror. So the hardest part, you got to see who you're hanging out with, man. You got hanging out with the people who you want to be like the most. Yeah, people will definitely drag. They'll drag it down.

And especially if you around someone that makes a lot of excuses and they're always failing. Oh. Those are just like they're the opposite of inspiration. They're like a vacuum. A hundred percent. You're sticking it out of you. Why are you doing that today, man?

Why are you getting up again so early? Why are you doing this? Why are you doing this? The people you're hanging around with me will suck the fucking life out of you. Yeah. Sometimes you've got to be along, man. Get your shit in.

And then there's also people that are you going to be around that are always failing and always f***ing up and then always coming to you to try to get you to help them. Exactly. Become a giant burden.

Yes. Never look in the mirror and get their own stuff together and they're always looking for external help. That's right. And the reason why I talked about my childhood so much in this because I don't want you to put a title on me

because once you title me as a freak, you now put yourself in a position where you can be very comfortable in saying it's just not possible for me. Yeah, that's so important because you have done so many crazy things. It's very easy to just say, well, he's a crazy outlier. That's it. He's that guy. He's that special guy.

Nope. And that's the thing that makes me so pissed off in this world, man. The one thing that only thing gets me mad nowadays is that so many people die with untapped potential because they think that someone else is better than. them and they were born you know not with the greatest tools you don't need shit

you need the ability to grind your ass into a fine powder and when you need that fine powder find a way to build that motherfucker back up repeatedly that's possible I gotta tell people man that you can achieve

the absolute impossible you don't need great parents you don't need like a private school you don't need to have this humongous GPA and all that sirs. What you need is the one thing I talked about my book, which is straight up brutal work ethic. You have to be willing to outwork everybody in the world. I'm basically teaching you how to callous over your victim's mentality. That's the hard part. That's the hard part. This isn't like

some five-step process where you can do these five steps, you're going to end up with this magical world. No. What I'm trying to do with people is teach them how to find more themselves to where they empower themselves. I'm all about the underdog. Believe in yourself and don't and don't rely on anybody to believe in you. Don't allow in anybody to push you or make you better. Believe in yourself and only yourself and allow that human being to make you a better person. live your life with character, honor, and discipline. And if you live that way, I guarantee you, your goals and dreams will get accomplished.

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