September, 2024, MCC Chicago prison
Can’t Hurt Me — David Goggins
I read Can’t Hurt Me while locked up — and it hit different inside those walls. This wasn’t some motivational fluff or feel-good story. It was raw, brutal, and relentless. Goggins doesn’t sugarcoat anything. His life was abuse, racism, failure, obesity, pain — and he turned all of it into fuel. The guy chooses suffering on purpose just to show himself he’s more than his circumstances.
What stood out
What stuck with me most wasn’t just his insane physical endurance — like running 100-mile races on broken legs — it was his mind. He calls it the “calloused mind.” The same way hands get tough from work, the brain can get tougher through suffering — but only if you lean into it, not away from it. Learn from it. Grow.
I’d been hiding from pain for years. I used success to cover it. Money, image, credentials — all smoke and mirrors. But prison stripped it all down. And reading Goggins in that moment was like hearing someone say: good — now we get to work for real.
How it applies to me
I’ve failed hard. Not stumbled — crashed. My actions led to criminal charges, a broken career, and trust I burned to the ground. Goggins would say, “Own every second of that.” No excuses, no blaming, no waiting for someone to come save me. That’s the accountability mirror he talks about — where I look at myself dead-on and stop hiding.
He flipped the script on suffering — not as punishment, but as training. That means this shame, this loss, this time? It’s reps. Reps for a stronger mind. Reps for the real fight — becoming someone I can respect again, who can change and make a difference moving forward.
What I learned
- Suffering is the path, not the obstacle. Stop trying to escape it. And let Jesus walk with me and carry my cross.
- There’s always more in the tank. My limits were mostly lies I agreed to.
- Discipline is love — choosing what’s hard now so I don’t live soft and broken later.
- No one’s coming to rescue me. I have to save myself. But God’s with me in it — that’s what makes it possible. And there are good men out there willing to help.
How I’ll change
I’m not chasing “success” anymore. I’ve done that, and it left me hollow. From now on:
- I’ll get up early and do something hard, even if no one sees it.
- I’ll train my mind like Goggins trained his body — disciplined, honest, focused.
- I’ll stop using my past as a crutch or a curse — and start using it as fuel.
- I’ll show my kids what real growth looks like — not with speeches, but with grit.
This is my “can’t hurt me” season. Not because I’m invincible — but because I won’t quit when it gets hard. I’m in the fight now. And this time, I’m staying in it.
