“Callous Your Mind” — David Goggins’ Mantra to Build Mental Toughness

Feeling soft and weak? Here’s how to harden up.

David Goggins is insane.

This retired Navy SEAL has completed several rigorous military training, ran through over 60 ultra-marathons, triathlons, and ultra-triathlons; and once held a world record of “most pull-ups in 24 hours” by doing 4030 pull-ups in 17 hours.

Moreover, he managed to do all those despite having struggled with asthma, obesity, and congenital heart defect (he used to have a hole in his heart).

Many consider him to be the toughest man alive.

In his memoir, Can’t Hurt Me, Goggins wrote about his life’s journey. Growing up with a difficult childhood, suffering through painful medical conditions, surviving hellish training — how these painful things have hardened him and made him who he is today. The memoir contains many profound pieces of advice, such as “the 40% rule” and “the cookie jar.”

Among all of them, the one I find the most helpful is “callous your mind.”

Callous Your Mind

“The reason it’s important to push hardest when you want to quit the most is because it helps you callous your mind. It’s the same reason why you have to do your best work when you are the least motivated.”

— David Goggins

When your skin is continuously met with friction or pressure, it develops calluses. A hardened layer forms on top to protect it and toughen it up.

Calluses are marks of rigorous, consistent practice. They are physical signs that you have ‘leveled up’ and improved in a certain area, for instance:

• Martial artists develop calluses in their knuckles, increasing the power in their punches.
• Guitarists develop calluses in their fingertips, enabling them to hold the strings down with more stability and precision.

Now, what if we calloused our minds?

According to Goggins, the obstacles of the mind is harder to overcome than those of the body (surely, this is something many of us find true), but once the mind prevails, the body will follow without fail.

In Goggins’ case, he can say that because he’s been in situations where his body is horribly weakened (once in a marathon, he broke almost all the bones in his feet), and yet he managed to push through using the sheer strength of his mind. No motivation, no inspiration — just pure, simple willpower.

On the other hand, many of us can be easily discouraged by far smaller obstacles. Remember that time when you talked yourself out of going for a run because the weather is a bit cold and windy? Or, worse yet, when you want to change the TV channel, but changed your mind instead because the remote is too far away and you’re too lazy to get up?

No? Well, good for you.

Honestly, I do that sometimes, and I’m not proud of it.

Something needs to change, and here’s where “callous your mind” comes in.

Seek Discomfort, Embrace Pain

How can we callous our minds? Simple — the same way we callous our bodies: by exposing it to discomfort and pain until the layer of calluses forms naturally.

Building upon the previous examples:

• The martial artist calloused his knuckles by repeatedly training his punches on a block of wood.
• The guitarist calloused his fingertips by consistently practicing complex scales and chords (particularly bar chords).

Is it uncomfortable? Yes. Is it painful? Also yes.

It’s also the only way.

Psychotherapists Phil Stutz and Michels Barry offered a helpful insight on this matter:

“Your experience of pain changes relative to how you react to it. When you move toward it, pain shrinks. When you move away from it, pain grows. If you flee from it, pain pursues you like a monster in a dream.”

Callousing your mind means you have to intentionally expose yourself to discomfort and pain. Over time, a callus will develop on your mind, then the discomfort will lessen and the pain will fade away.

Furthermore, the mind can also be trained to love pain — and no, not in a masochistic way. If you accustom your mind to seek pain, given enough time you’ll crave it the same way you crave sugar.

Honestly, I’m not sure if this conjecture is scientific or not, but I was intrigued by Goggins’ story and tried experimenting with it myself.

For the past few weeks, I’ve started running almost every day.

I used to be a sedentary person. In the beginning, bringing myself to go out and run was really difficult. I’d invent so many excuses to keep myself from going out. And when I do run, I get tired easily.

However, I made a commitment to myself, and thus I forced myself to run no matter the circumstances. Fatigue, bad mood, unfriendly weather — come hell or high water, if it’s time to run, I run.

A few weeks in, I started to notice some change. It’s not so hard anymore. In fact, now the opposite happens: I itch for a run. On rest days, I even have to force myself to stay home and rest. My mind was calloused to the point where the mental barrier is no longer present, and my body followed suit.

I wonder what’ll happen if my mind is calloused in other areas of my life, too. Like in work, for instance. I’d be able to work even when I don’t feel like it.

If you think about it, the ability to “do something even if you don’t want to” is practically a superpower. It’ll certainly change you for the better.

The best part is, this superpower is real, and now you know how to obtain it: By callousing your mind.

The Takeaway

Most of Goggins’ advice is nothing new. Even “callous your mind” is essentially just a retelling of Stoic philosophy.

That’s why, generally, I dislike self-help books. However, Can’t Hurt Me feels different than other books of its kind because Goggins actually embodies what he wrote. His words are big, but he’s got the proof to back them up. So, I can’t help but think that, maybe, this is someone I should listen to.

Take his words (and mine, too) with a grain of salt, though. Try it yourself and see if it works for you.

For now, I’ll leave you with the takeaway, which is pretty straightforward:

To callous your mind, be afraid of becoming soft and flimsy. Don’t shy away from discomfort and pain — welcome them instead. You’ll grow harder and they’ll disappear. Break yourself down so you can build back stronger.

Either you get scorched to cinders, or you stay aflame — but one thing’s for sure: You can’t burn where the fire has already been.