THE ED MYLETT SHOW - The Power of Visualization: How Fighters Plan for Victory Feat. Michael Chandler
Episode Date: December 28, 2024Winning isn’t just about talent—it’s about preparation, resilience, and an unshakable mindset. In this Mashup Episode, I bring together four elite minds—Michael Chandler, Mikey Garcia, Tim Gro...ver, and David Goggins—to break down the mental playbook behind what it truly takes to succeed at the highest level. You’ll hear Mikey Garcia, a world-champion boxer, reveal how visualization isn’t just about picturing success but also anticipating obstacles—like a knockdown or an injury—and planning how to respond without panic. Michael Chandler, one of the most relentless fighters in the UFC, shares his approach to balancing media pressure, preparation, and conserving mental energy in the days leading up to a monumental fight. Legendary mindset coach Tim Grover, who trained Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, uncovers the difference between athletes who “compete” and those who win at winning—and why obsession isn’t a flaw, but a requirement. Finally, David Goggins brings his raw and unfiltered perspective on pushing past self-imposed limits, facing inner demons, and how confronting your past can set you free to pursue your greatest potential. Key Takeaways: - The power of specific visualization to anticipate and prepare for adversity. - How elite performers handle the intense pressure of high-stakes moments. - Why obsession and an unbalanced focus are often the real keys to sustained success. - The role of relentless accountability in achieving the extraordinary. This episode isn’t just about fighting—it’s about winning in every area of your life. These lessons apply whether you’re stepping into a ring, leading a team, or navigating life’s challenges. If you’re ready to uncover what separates the good from the great and apply these strategies to your own journey, you won’t want to miss this one. Thank you for watching this video—Please Share it and get the word out! What part of this video resonated with you the most? Comment below! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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This is the Ed Mylet Show. Hey everyone, welcome to my weekend special.
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The young man I'm going to introduce to you is, he's like a second son to me. I'm honored when he calls me dad. He's one of the greatest fighters in
the world, in the UFC, but he's really one of the greatest people that I've ever
met. I love him dearly. He's a good man. The great Michael Chandler. Michael, welcome
to the show. What's up dad? Man, it's uh, thank you for the kind intro.
You're, you are the man.
Oh, here's my surprise for you, Mr. Chandler.
I have my really, really good friend joining us today.
Everybody and Michael.
This is Mikey Garcia, who is a four time, he's a box boxing champion, four division champion.
Mikey, thanks for jumping in brother.
Thank you. Thank you.
And Michael, pleasure to meet you brother. So bro, I'm just curious Mikey, if you're talking
about you've had these huge fights, in fact I've been at Texas Stadium with this
dude in front of 50,000 people. I mean he's had huge, huge fights. Is it
different in a big fight Mikey? Like anything you would say to Michael, you
know, mentally? Is there anything different when it's a huge high-profile
fight as opposed to you know something that no offense anything different when it's a huge high-profile fight as opposed to
you know something that no offense to any of great boxers but some casino on the come up compared to
you know a big arena Vegas fight or whatever did that affect your mentality?
Did you look at the fight differently or is it just another fight?
Look you've been in it you know your whole life you know I was in it since I was a little kid
so I always took each fight as a big fight
because I knew, you know, winning one fight
would lead to the next and move my career forward.
So getting to the big arena, to the big stage,
you know, you talked about, you know,
AT&T Stadium, you know, in Texas,
you know, and 50,000 people there.
But to me, it was just another night.
I worked my whole life to get there. But to me, it was just another night. I worked my whole life to get there. And I think, you know, I was just excited to finally make it to
that, you know, stage to the highest, you know, in my career. And what I did do a
lot is I visualized that a lot. I visualized the fight, I visualized, you
know, training, I visualized, you know, every scenario during the fight, I visualized training, I visualized every scenario during the fight,
winning or losing rounds, overcoming challenges in the fight, a cut, a knockdown, whatever
it could be, I would always visualize.
And that went for every fight, but especially on the big one, because I didn't want anything
to be out of my norm to scare me or timid me in any way, you know.
So for me, it was visualizing everything, the ring walk, you know, the introduction to the fight,
just so that I could have that already in my head. When I experienced it, it wasn't as new. It was
already there before I had already logged it in. I've already seen myself in front of that kind of attendance, that kind of crowd. And I just felt comfortable. I felt normal. It felt like another day. The training obviously was harder. The training was, you know, more, more vigorous for the training camp and longer weeks, all that. Because I was fighting a bigger guy, I was fighting a bigger, you know, man in the ring on fight night. So I had to prepare a little differently. But mentally because I was fighting a bigger guy I was fighting a bigger you
know man in the ring on fight night so I had to prepare a little differently but
mentally I was you know strong it was it was like a normal thing like I just need
to be here I visualized David Brown even even though the fight didn't go the way
I originally wanted to I thought was my first loss but I walked out of that a
hundred percent healthy fine we hung out the next day we flew back together we originally wanted to, I thought was my first loss, but I walked out of that 100% healthy,
fine, we hung out the next day, we flew back together. We flew back together. You can tell,
you can tell that my mindset was sharp as ever. I was still, you know, confident, I was still
having plans for the future and it didn't send me back, you know, it wasn't ever like that.
So that's where I got. Let me ask you, by the way, does that sound familiar? Michael, about the visualization?
By the way, all of you, this is a gift you're getting today that, you know, I didn't intend
to give you publicly and I don't know that I'll put all this out either, by the way, but to have two
gladiators talk to one another like this about it. What's, and by the way, Mikey and I did fly back
after that fight together and I was like just struck by how calm he was like sorry bro we're gonna another one we're gonna do
this we're gonna do that but Mikey what was interesting about what you just
said and Michael I'll let you ask Mikey anything you want to that's why I
brought him here today but Mikey you would actually visualize negatives too
you were okay with visiting I lost around or whatever I'm interested in
that you think that was an okay thing too because I do as well.
Might as well. I mean you're gonna lose a round, you're gonna get hit, something bad is gonna happen.
To avoid thinking about it to me seems sort of silly. Why not become familiar with it so you can respond?
Is that why you would do it?
Yes, it's just so that you don't get nervous or panic if something does happen during the fight.
It's better to be well prepared for any scenario,
including a knockdown or a cut, something of that nature.
But no matter what I envisioned or I visualized,
I always came out the winner.
I would always visualize myself winning
at the end of the night.
Whether it was I lost a couple of rounds
or it was a tough fight, I got dropped in one of the rounds,
but I got up and I know how
how to react and I know how to continue with with the remainder rounds and always winning at the
end of the night. In other instances, different fights, I did get dropped on two separate occasions
but I knew what to do. I knew how to react. I had already planned how to even get up from a knockdown. I didn't want to get up in any
way that would make the referee think that I was hurt and stop the fight. So I purposely figured
how to position myself, how to take my time, how to take a knee first and then slowly gradually walk
up and then walk a little bit towards the neutral corner to give my opponent more space,
more space so that when the fight resumed, I wasn't right in front of him, you know, and he's
attacking me. I give more space, you know, so I would visualize that and prepare myself. I didn't
do it in training camp where I would purposely go down and get up. No, but I would do it here,
you know, training my mind to be able to react in those scenarios If I got cut I knew exactly what to signal my corner
Let them know that I was cut so they could prepare the medicine so that soon as the the end of the round was there
You know the the bell rang I was already close to the to my corner
In fact a lot of the rounds I would walk close to my corner at the 10 second count
I walked close to my corner
So in case there was
anything, they'd be the first ones to attend me while my opponent still has to walk all the way
across to his corner. Those are a few seconds, a few seconds extra that I will have that my opponent
doesn't have. So I would practice all this. What I want everybody to get, whether you're an
entrepreneur or you're an athlete or I want Michael too for this is the specificity of preparation.
Right? The specific to think that you would actually and in Michael's case it's
not quite as easy if he's on the ground but the specific thing that you're
actually edging towards your corner early to get those extra seconds of cuts.
Now one thing you were great at, this is more like inside stuff for Michael, one
of the things Mikey was most well known for in boxing was his ability to go in with a
game plan for the fight because his brother's the greatest trainer in the
world and so they had a game plan for the fight but mid-fight mid-round begin
to pick up on tendencies that he didn't see on film. In other words, react when
things don't go the way he expected them to go Michael, right? But that, I think, Mikey, you correct me if I'm wrong, I think that was
actually your greatest strength in the ring, was your ability to adapt to a dude,
whatever you saw that night. First, am I right about that? And two, any insight for
him? Let's say he gets in there with Connor, right? He's got to have a game
plan, we're not gonna say what it is, but like most fights, you know, like Tyson
says, everything can change when you get punched in the mouth or just Connor comes in there with something totally
different right Connor's gonna throw some things out of me hasn't seen before
how were you were you consciously thinking as you're going or is it some
depth perception thing you're using a feel thing like what would you do to
read him look I'm looking at my opponent you know I'm taking the first round or
two rounds to study my opponent.
The way I study my opponent is I feel his speed.
I let him punch a few times
to be able to time the reaction,
you know, time the speed of the punches
and also timing his defense.
So I'll jab a couple of times
and see how fast he can either block or dodge the punch.
So I can make my adjustments as the rounds go by. Second round, I'm still feeling him out,
but maybe by the third round, you know, I'm already have a good idea of what to do. However,
things can change. Like you just mentioned, things change. So I prepared myself to be able to adapt.
And as the rounds kept going, I'm also listening to the guy's breathing. I'm myself to be able to adapt. And as the rounds kept going,
I'm also listening to the guy's breathing.
I'm listening to the way his body, his posture,
are his hands still up high
and he's still got the same intensity behind it?
Or is he starting to slow down?
He's starting to wear out.
Are we tying up?
If we're hugging, if we're tying up,
is he trying to let loose to continue fighting?
Or is he just kind of trying to rest now?
It's an eighth round. Maybe he's just resting a little bit, you know, something attached to all that and at the same time
I'm I'm figuring out what I got to do to keep countering his you know fight his game
If he's changing something if he's still on if he's still trying to do something, okay
Maybe I got a box a little bit more. Maybe I got a pressure
If he's still on it, if he's still trying to do something, okay, maybe I gotta box a little bit more,
maybe I gotta pressure.
So all that training came from being in shape in the gym.
Training hard in the gym, all those weeks of training,
you know, all that.
There's days in sparring sessions
where I would box 12 rounds,
beautiful footwork, beautiful speed,
counter punch for 12 rounds
so that I knew I can do that for 12 rounds on finite.
But then there was other days where I would switch it, where I'd be fighting you know,
eight rounds solid, forward, pressure, pressure. In case I needed to do that on finite, I know I'm
capable of doing that as well. So training, I would do all that. I would do all that in training.
A lot of people would say well some of that he's got time because there's 12 rounds but there are sure but there are eight but there's a ton of guys in the UFC that are spending time reading. I think of Izzy
he does that he's reading cadence, he's reading speed, he's reading pace. John Jones, St. Pierre did it.
This is done in the UFC as well. They're pacing themselves in the round. They're making these are just things
for Michael as he's ready for the fight that I want him to at least have the
gift of in considering and then just you know for back and forth was there anything and then Michael
I'll let you ask him something anything um press wise that week this is more of like an inside
thing but like big fights there's more press there's more demands on your time particularly
fight week right and I mean can you imagine McGregor Chandler,
what the press demands will be that week?
Did you, I mean, it's one of the biggest fights
in the history of the sport.
So, anything you did to mentally stay a particular way
or pace yourself or that you would think of
in dealing with, just even press for the week of the fight.
The press, that media is gonna be tough tough, it's going to be rough.
Everybody's going to be pulling you left and right. Everybody wants, you know, 10 minutes of your time
and you're obligated, you know, to some extent you have to give, you know, press, you got to
give the media some time, you got to give them interviews. It's part of promoting, it's part of being professional, you know, at that level. But what I used to do was any moments that I had free time, I'd go
rest. I would always make sure I get enough rest. Even if it was only a 20, 30 minute little nap,
even if you don't go to sleep, but just laying down, chilling and resting your eyes for those
20, 30 minutes will help.
At the end of the day, your number one goal is to perform and fight on Saturday night, on fight night, your best of your capabilities.
The media can wait a little bit.
The media can be put to the side.
You, you got to give them a little bit, but it's not all that matters.
The number one thing is winning the fight.
You know, that's number one.
So you got to give them some time.
Yeah, it's part of promoting part of the business,
part of, you know, marketing the fight.
But every moment that I had, every hour,
every 30 minutes that I had, I'd go take a break.
I'd go take a nap.
Cause that would really, really help me continue my day
and keep the energy.
It's exhausting to be in front of media,
repeating the same over and over and over and over.
And you have to have the smile and same energy. You're exerting a lot of energy over the days you know you
may not be working out as hard anymore because now it's chill we get lighter
work and until you got a cut weight you're kind of slowing down on the pace
of the training but the whole media the whole press it's exhausting so take all
the time that you have to rest your body.
Like I said, at the end of the day, if you really don't feel like doing every
single interview, you don't have to. You don't feel so good. I'm not doing that
one. I'm only doing the ones that really really matter because I'm
contractually obligated. I'll do that. You know, the network or the main ones.
After that, I'm done. I'm resting. I want to win the fight.
Yeah, these are all things, by the way, by the way everybody and by the let's just be clear
Michael's had tons of huge fights Madison Square Garden I mean he's fought
in the biggest arena in the world just like
Mikey has right he's done this but everyone listening to this it's getting
an inside peek of what top athletes in the world
think about and talk about same thing comes in business sometimes you got to
say no to meetings because you got a big close at the end of the week you got to
be your best and peak at that moment, right? So these are all the same
principles. Mikey, all the, Michael rather, all the big fights you've had. I just wanted to put someone
almost the same sport but a little bit different. We could have to just have you think about it
just from a little bit out of the box but still in the same box type thing. Both of you guys have had the biggest fights in the world, you've both won them. This fight
Mikey's, Michael rather, is going up and wait a little bit per his own decision so cutting won't
be as bad. You went up and wait too Mikey four different times. Michael, anything you want to
ask Mikey before I let him go so we can have the rest of the show and talk but anything you want
to ask him? Yeah I mean more than anything I just I love to piggyback off of like you know what you were
saying about the visualization. I mean just for the audience listening and even hearing it from a
world-class guy like Mikey who I have watched on TV so many times knowing that before going into
that fight during the visualization isn't all just about success. It's also about overcoming obstacles,
right? Because who doesn't want to be able to see themselves knowing that, you know, you're going to
be in the trenches taking grenades and you're going to be able to get through them and how you're going
to react and respond and seeing yourself become victorious even when there is a little bit of
adversity as well as, you know, we're not there yet to fight week yet.
Next week I gotta go out to New York for a full day
to do some press stuff.
The press is about to start picking up.
And I think for me,
realizing that I have such a great crowd of witnesses,
I've had big fights, but this is even bigger.
So therefore it's even more of a conviction to show up
with a smile on my face as much as I can, but also
be selfish when I need to, to take a little bit of time and maybe say no to a couple of
them or you're like, ah, this one's not exactly, you know, one of the big ones, you know?
But no, that, that inside of even just like thinking about and your highlights and the
fights that I've seen you in and thinking about that man,
because you've always just been that man,
that dominant guy out there,
but then also hearing those little idiosyncrasies
about the visualization and all the different things
that you looked at and watched and played
inside of your head, even leading into those fights.
And they weren't always positive,
but they always ended with your hand getting raised. Yeah. Mikey, I gotta tell you man, I'm
really grateful you did this today bro. Like you know you didn't need to do it.
Immediately Michael, just so you know, immediately I asked Mikey, he's like yep
I got you. He was in New York, he's like I got it, I'll make it happen. I had to
change the time on him. He's like no problem bro and the other thing
everybody should know and I talked about this Michael all the time, Mikey saved his
money. Mikey saved his money. All you athletes listening, that's why he's real casual on a t-shirt and
me and Chandler are still working right now. Chandler saved his money too. But Mikey saved his money and he's a young wealthy man.
Bunch of real estate, he's done really, really well for himself. So I love you brother. Thank you for
jumping in. I appreciate it. I'll text you when we're done here. Let me know. Thanks Ed and Mikey.
We want to wish you the very best, Michael. Um,
you know, we know how gangster you are. We know, you know,
you're such a bad ass. You are. Um, you got this. I mean,
you've been training your whole life for this. There's nothing, nothing more.
That, that, that we gotta give you, you know, much more tips on, on fighting.
You know, I mean, you've done it. Um,
you just gotta go in there and take care of business brother.
I wish you the very best. I'll be checking it out.
Thank you so much, man. I appreciate you, man.
And I'm gonna have Ed connect us so we can do it today.
I'll connect you when we're done.
I would love that.
You're the man, Mike.
I appreciate you, brother.
We'll go get some dinner after your fight.
Yeah.
Hey, yeah.
What'd you say?
Julio's?
Where you wanna go?
We're gonna go to Javier's, but you're gonna win this fight.
You're gonna win the fight and you're gonna buy us dinner.
So that's what we're gonna do.
I got that.
I got you guys. All right, brother.
Take care of Mikey.
Thank you.
All right.
Have a good one.
God bless you, man.
How cool was that, bro?
Was that cool?
It's so cool, man.
Absolute warrior.
I mean, that was the thing too.
Obviously phenomenal technician, phenomenal at boxing, but also just a warrior, man.
Like it's, and obviously, like you said, different sports, but they're the same.
It's it's hand to hand combat, whether it's wrestling, boxing, kickboxing, these hand-to-hand combat competitions, man.
Yep and one of the things that you all should know that you know kind of inside baseball stuff
that Mikey and I work on and that Michael and I work on is visualization. A lot of you ask about
that but it's like really detailed stuff and it's okay to visit failure. It's okay to visit a down
cycle and in fact I think it's really important
because then you can program yourself out of it. So anyway, I just wanted to have you visit with
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Very short intermission here, folks.
I'm glad you're enjoying the show so far.
Don't forget to follow the show on Apple and Spotify.
Links are in the show notes.
Now on to our next guest.
I got him right there. That's Goggins everyone.
Number one requested guest, you don't know this, for my show the last two years is you. Really?
Yeah, yeah really. Honored. This is a gentleman who completed Navy SEAL training, Army Ranger
training, Air Force TACP training. I believe he's the only person in history to do that. Yes sir.
This is a guy who did three hell weeks, 60 plus ultra marathons, running with broken
bones for 30 miles to get into one of the mega ultra marathons.
And a lot of people call him the toughest man alive, but I'm excited because I get to
call him my friend now.
I've enjoyed this conversation so much and I think you guys are going to join the on-camera
one.
So this is Goggins everybody.
Yeah, I appreciate you having me man.
Thank you.
Thank you. Start a little bit with like how you grew up
cause I think that's part of the story.
Well, my dad, so I grew up in Buffalo, New York.
My dad really helped create this.
I'm not giving him credit.
Like, oh, he was a great dad.
Like clap my hands for his ass.
He helped create this because he was just that,
he was a devil. You know, he was a guy that had to be very insecure,
very beat down, something had to happen to him
when he was younger.
Because the way he treated me, my brother, my mom,
was just horrible.
So he would beat us, my mom, my brother, my me,
and I'm not talking about like, oh, you got in trouble,
so let me give you a whipping.
When he would, he was a drunk. So whenever he woke up, oh, you got in trouble. So let me give you a whipping. He was a drunk.
So whenever he woke up, man, he woke up drinking.
Went to bed drinking.
And that's just how it was.
And when he'd get drunk, he just got violent.
So my mom caught my dad cheating.
We got home about four o'clock in the morning.
So I'm about seven, eight years old.
And I hear some ruckus outside my room
as I'm getting ready to bed down for the night.
And my mom and dad are outside my room
because there's a staircase right there.
And my dad is smacking the hell out of my mom.
And knocks her almost unconscious
where she's kind of out of it, you know, she's kind of loopy.
She falls down, he grabs her by her hair
and drags her down the stairs by her hair.
And so at this age, I'm sitting there thinking, man,
what the fuck should I do, man?
I'm scared, but then something in me's saying,
you gotta go and do something.
But I'm scared to death of this guy,
because he's been beating the shit out of me
since I can remember.
And I mean like laying me out for nothing.
And I'm sitting there thinking, man, okay, man,
what am I gonna do?
So my brother, he and I were very different.
When my brother would see the fighting,
he would go to his room and hide.
I didn't do that.
I always stuck around.
So this time I stuck around and I decided to help her out.
So I go on the stairs and I jump on his back
and literally he tells my mom, you're raising a gangster
as she's like on the floor.
And he's almost smiling, almost like proud.
But that smile went to a frown pretty quick
and he beat the living hell out of me.
And he beat me literally from my neck down to my ankles,
like black and blue.
So the next morning, I was gonna go to school half the day,
my mom woke up and she pulled the covers back
and what she saw was how bruised I was.
And so when she pulled the covers back
and saw how bruised I was,
I'll never forget looking at her face
because she used to write letters for me and my brother
to miss P.E. because we were so bruised up
from getting beaten.
So, you know, hey, he's sick or whatever.
And so, you know, she was lying a lot for my dad.
So this particular day, she didn't write a letter.
But when I laid in the bed and looked at my mom,
we should pull the covers back,
I'll never forget looking at her face.
And her face is tattooed in my brain.
And while I say that, this past year,
I got the VFW Award for Americanism Award.
And if you Google David Goggins VFW Award,
I'm in front of 5,000 veterans
and I'm getting this amazing award.
John McCain got it and I'm up here thinking,
man, I'm up here getting this award, this is amazing.
It's for giving back and also having a great military career.
And I can give this six minute long speech.
And I'm up there, man, I'm talking, and I'm thinking.
I'm thinking people who helped me out.
And I get to my mom, she's sitting back,
she's sitting right here on stage, right behind me.
And I haven't cried in 30 years.
I can't even picture it.
Haven't cried in 30 years, I don't do that.
And I turn around and say, and I wanna thank my mom
for not picking me up
when I was knocked down, but teaching me how to get up.
Because she never picked me up ever.
And because her circumstances sucked.
So anyway, I looked back and I said that,
and when I got done, I didn't even get a chance to say it.
I looked at her eyes and my head went right back
to her face when she saw me bruised up.
And that fucked me up.
And for 58 seconds, look at the video,
and you'll see me, my head's down, and I'm sobbing.
And I'm in front of 5,000 vets,
and the guy who was hosting the thing
had to come up to me and put his hand on my back.
And I was just destroyed, overcome with emotion.
And then 58 seconds go by and I get up
and I deliver this speech.
And so I tell you that because my life tattooed me.
And so when I came from Buffalo, I was eight years old,
several learned, I didn't have one learning disability,
I had several, but I hid all this shit.
I never talked about my dad being crazy,
or I couldn't read, I couldn't write.
I got held back in my second grade.
So now we move, my mom now finds the courage
to move to the small town called Brazil, Indiana.
Was that beating the catalyst that made you leave?
That was the catalyst.
And that's probably why you flashed back to that second.
Okay, I got you. So basically that next you leave? That was a catalyst. And that's probably why you flash back to that second. Right.
Okay, I got you.
So basically that next morning, so this is what happened.
That beating happened and maybe two days later, my mom's in the living room while my dad's
in the kitchen talking to one of his girls.
My mom walks in the kitchen with me and my brother sitting in our standard locations
at the table.
My dad at the head of the table, me and my brother at the side of the table.
And there's a phone behind my dad,
he always talked on the phone,
smoking a cigarette, drinking a scotch.
And he's talking to one of his girls on the phone.
And my mom walks in,
and this is where she was at mentally.
She walked in looking at me and my brother,
and she said, you guys can come, or you guys can stay,
but I'm getting the fuck out of here.
And so she was broke, like she was just broken.
And I got my shit and I packed, I was gone quick.
My brother was kind of like, what should I do?
So long story short, he ended up coming with us
to Brazil and Indiana, but he didn't want to come.
We had car trouble, it's all in the book.
He had car trouble, all kinds of shit happened,
but we finally get to Brazil and Indiana. Let me jump in real quick. First had car trouble, all kinds of shit happened, but we finally get to Brazilian.
Let me jump in real quick.
First off, when he says the book, everybody,
I've read a lot of books.
My favorite thing about you,
obviously there's this things we're gonna get into
in a little bit here that are just remarkable about you,
that you've achieved.
Actually, I don't think they're remarkable about you.
I think you found remarkable spaces in your own mind
that other people could also find.
Right.
But I think it's remarkable you found them
given these circumstances.
Well said.
But the book that he's referring to, guys,
is Can't Hurt Me.
And when you read this book, everybody,
I'm telling you, these stories,
like he's telling them now, they jump.
Like, I read the whole book in one day.
Wow.
And the reason is, is because I was so fascinated
with you in the first place.
But it's a, it's, I think it's almost like a documentary into what can build somebody
like you.
But it like, for me, people that are listening to this, especially you young people that
listen to it, and I know some of the language is strong, but I just want you all to understand
something.
No matter what you're going through right now, whether you're seven years old or 77
years old, those things don't define you.
This man, what you're about to hear is incredible what he's turned himself into from a dad who was in those conditions to I think your mom was great,
right, but you've sort of said mom wasn't ever again completely herself after those situations, right?
Then he goes into school, has a learning disabilities behind because he wasn't going to school,
kind of starts just lying and cheating to get his way through school. Stuttered. Stuttered, stuttered.
Stuttered bad.
Like my elementary years, I stuttered so bad, I had these white splotches all over my skin.
I had patches of hair falling out of my head.
Out of like stress?
Stressed.
I was so stressed out from my childhood and then now I'm in this situation where I'm like,
God, man, I'm dumb.
I'm not smart.
And now I'm like this black kid man, I'm dumb. I'm not smart. And now, I'm like this black kid
amongst all these white people,
it just made me feel just fucked up.
And my mom was working three jobs.
We lived in a $7 a month place.
She was never home.
And I was like, so, but I didn't wanna put my troubles
on my mom.
Before that, my soon to be stepdad got murdered.
One incident that really shocked my mind
was it was Christmas. So picture everything I talked about. This is my seventh grade year.
We're about to go out for, you know, so school, so Christmas breaks about to happen.
And so here we are. We had elementary to junior high that rode our bus. And we pull up in front of the Junior High School
and the bus lets out.
But not yet.
This kid who missed the bus,
he missed the bus because he had some cookies
for the bus driver.
He goes over and I tell this story
because this story, it fucked me up so bad.
And this kid, mom, brought him to school
and I see them pull up.
I'm in the back of the bus.
And I'm in the very back,
right by the back wheel facing the parking lot.
The parking lot is probably 20 feet wide
and 15 buses are lined up and we all open the bus doors
the same time we all get out.
So the kid, I see him, the mom yells over,
you forgot something, he obviously forgot the cookies.
He goes back, gets the cookies. I I look forward the bus moves forward maybe this much
Next thing I know I'm hearing this lady screaming top for lungs
Pulling like at her hair this is yanking at her here. It's screaming bloody murder
I'm looking over the same way that called a little board like what the hell and she's looking down under my tire
Mm-hmm, and so I see these things on my window and I know what they were, and I'm like, what the hell? And she's looking down under my tire. And so, I see these things on my window,
and I don't know what they were,
but they were like little splots.
So, you know how the old bus school,
you know the buses had little things,
you push it and you pull the window down?
I pushed me, I looked down, I'm looking at her,
and her face, her eyes are looking right down
underneath my tire.
And I'm like, what the hell is she looking at?
So I looked down, and this kid's head was this flat.
And his eyes were bugged out of his head.
And I tell you that story because a year,
almost exactly a year later, the same exact timeframe,
the day after Christmas, my mom soon to be stepped,
or my soon to be stepped, got murdered.
Oh my God.
So that, I tried to bury that,
and now my eighth grade year, he gets murdered,
and so what happens, I had to bring you back here
to set the tone for what happened here.
I wanna understand what the hell you just said.
You're telling me in the seventh grade
you watched a young man get run over by the bus?
I didn't see it, I saw the after effect.
You saw the after of his, oh my God.
And so what I did, so I got off the bus
And this is what curiosity does to you. This is dumbest thing I've done in my life
I'm walking now, so I have to go to the principal's office because I was like witness to this shit
So I'm in the principal's office sitting there and the one thing I did was I looked
under the bus
As I saw I see this and I look under the bus as I'm walking to the principal's office
and I see these little kids shoes.
Now I'm telling you this because this shit is,
it's about PTSD and you know,
so I already had it from my childhood.
Now I'm in seventh grade and I see these little kids shoes
like this big, he was elementary kid,
just twisted in and I'm just like what the fuck
and then nearly a year later, the day after Christmas,
a year later my soon to be stepdad gets murdered
and I tell you that because I slept on my floor
for probably, I don't know, four months to six months.
Why?
I was afraid to sleep in my bed for some reason.
Don't know why.
Some psychological fucking,
but I'm painting this picture for you
to let you know where I was at.
Yeah.
So one time in my Spanish class,
we had all of our notebooks that stayed in the class.
So, and you know, obviously your name's on it.
You go get your notebook for a class.
And I always sat back in the back of every class, man, because I just want to be, just don't look
at me, don't call on me. I don't know shit. Opened my notebook up to the first page and on it was a
noose, like a little hangman noose, with me hanging from it with the same thing, nigga, we're gonna
kill you. And um, this is in the 90s. This is the 90s. In 1995, the KKK marched in the Fourth of July Parade
in Brazil and Indiana.
Now they weren't allowed to march like actually
in the parade, they were allowed to march 100
or 200 feet behind it.
My mom didn't know how bad my grades were.
She never saw one report card.
I hid everything from her and she didn't even ask.
She was so bogged down with life.
And so I got away with a lot of shit
because her mind was occupied.
So it made me honestly a weaker person.
So I scammed life.
My mom helped me scam life for a while.
But this time I couldn't scam life.
I went the second time, took the ASVAB test,
failed it again, and a week later she got a letter
in the mail from my high school. And I'm a junior in high school, and the letterVAB test, failed it again, and a week later she got a letter in the mail from my high school.
And I'm a junior in high school,
and the letter says pretty much your son's gonna flunk out.
He's missed 25% of school,
because she was always gone, so I didn't go to school.
He's gonna miss school, or he's gonna flunk out.
So I was exposed once again.
My mom goes, well, she read the letter to me,
she put my bed, and her best advice was guess what?
You're gonna flunk out of school.
That was it in the conversation.
So this is when I developed my accountability mirror.
This is awesome.
I look in the mirror and at this time,
I didn't want to be the black kid in school.
There's like five or six of us in school,
like 1700 kids and like that.
And I made up a character to kind of like draw attention
from color.
And so what I did was I started to design haircuts.
And one haircut I had was the old man.
And I shaved my head up here just like this.
You did this?
I did this. And I would keep the hair on just like this. You did this? I did this.
And I would keep the hair on the side like an old man has.
And one time I shaved my whole head and had a reverse part.
So I had hair up here and it kind of zigzagged.
So I did things to be this cool, crazy,
kind of like creative kid.
You know, like Chris Cross came out this time.
So I had my pants sagging but backwards.
So my back pockets were here.
I had a toothbrush, I was crazy, man.
But I was a crazy, cool kid in school.
So, I look in the fucking mirror, I see this letter,
I'm fucked up, and I'm like, you know what, man,
no one is coming to help me.
I remember back to what my principal said,
because I went to the principal when they wrote
that shit in my car and in my notebook notebook and the best advice he can give me, God help his
soul was this, they're ignorant. They spelled nigger Niger. God. And so that's, but honestly,
I talked to the guy as I wrote my book and I have nothing wrong with Principal Freeman. He actually, I actually interviewed him for the book
and he was happy to interview, he was a good man.
What the fuck, you could tell some black,
you're a white guy in white society, we could tell me.
You could shut another fucking school
and have a fucking damn, so I started talking to myself
this way in this mirror.
What the fuck is Principal Freeman,
at that time, like this is the best
you can fucking do, Principal Freeman? That was my mind then, but in this mirror. What the fuck is Principal Freeman? At that time, like, this is the best you can fucking do, Principal Freeman?
That was my mind then, but in this mirror,
it wasn't my mom, it wasn't Principal Freeman,
it wasn't my dad, it was me.
Because when nobody coming back to fucking help David Goggins,
that was my mindset now.
And so, with my non-spelling ass,
I started getting these sticky notes.
And writing, you're fucked up.
And my mom wakes up like, what is wrong with you?
I go, man, I have to change, because I can't stay here.
I can't, I looked at myself in the mirror
and I was defeated.
I go, look at myself, I'm like, who am I?
So I'm defeated in this mirror,
and I'm like, okay, I'm changing.
I said, mom, can we please get a tutor?
So we can only afford $15 a week for a tutor.
So I have four hours a month.
Four hours a month.
I had a fourth grade reading level, man.
Four hours a month for six months.
So I had.
So this tutor did one thing for me, very big.
Once I can remember her damn name.
But basically she saw that I was slow, very slow,
and couldn't retain shit.
And I think she was joking.
She goes, you're gonna have to write down everything
a thousand times for you to remember this.
I took it as okay.
Literally.
Roger that.
So I literally went to the store
and I bought these spiral notebooks.
And I started literally writing down,
let's say it was a math equation,
the same fucking math equation.
Over and over and over and over again.
When it came to a paragraph comprehension,
I couldn't read the fucking paragraph and then remember it.
So we had like, I think 25 or 30
paragraph comprehension things.
I had to write down the whole fucking thing,
like a whole paragraph, and you don't have much time
to take the fucking test.
But that's how I learned.
So how I learned the Navy Dive Man,
it was like a thousand pages Navy Dive Man,
I got it a year in advance.
Oh my gosh.
And wrote the book out probably 14 times.
Like the Boyle's Law, Child's Law, Gay Lusak's Law,
Doughton's Law, all these laws,
but over and over the whole manual.
So it's not like, so now I've done it so many times
I can go back in my mind and say,
okay, page 71 was Boyle's Law,
and I can go back in this.
And I'm looking at it right now,
and I remember writing it down so many times
that it takes me to say, okay, I got it
and I can write it down almost verbatim.
So that's how I learned even to this day.
But the work ethic, people think I became this guy
from running, no.
I became this guy from fucking studying.
I had to study for hours.
What might take you an hour to learn?
Take me two days.
So that's where, at the table, at the table,
and my best friend Johnny remembers me,
like God, you just changed, something happened.
I got obsessed.
So I take the test, I score high, I get in the Air Force.
And that's when I'm like, man, I'm gonna be a pair of rescue men.
And this is when I realized, man, I teach myself how to
swim, I taught myself how to swim, and this is when I
realized, man, that I'm negative buoyant as hell.
And there's a lot of things.
So what gets people in special operations is the water.
Not swimming, but the water confidence.
When they're like taking your air from you
and your underwater panic.
I realized I was very uncomfortable.
So long story short, I was there for six weeks.
I was moving on pretty well, second in my class.
And I was getting through all the water confidence,
but barely, but I wanted to quit every fucking night.
I didn't go to sleep every night.
Just paranoid the next day of getting back in that pool.
So six months go by, we had this medical examination
and they draw my blood and they said,
you have sickle cell.
Sickle cell is a blood disease
that some African Americans have.
Basically, if something happens in a stressful situation,
stroke, heart attack, sudden death.
This happened to a few African Americans in the military,
so they pulled me from training saying,
you can't do this job.
And when you live a very stressed out life,
like I was living, that's your norm.
So not sleeping, being scared, that was my norm.
I wouldn't go quick.
But when they pull you out of training,
and now I'm fucking comfortable.
So now I'm seeing my class of 24 guys,
it was like 150, now it's 24 guys,
and they're in the pool, and I'm on the side of the pool,
I'm not in the water now, I'm seeing what I was doing,
and I'm seeing these guys struggling, panicking in the water,
like wanting to quit, and I'm like, fuck that.
I'm not going, so now I'm comfortable,
and I'm able to see now, I'm not going back.
So now, my big dream of being a pair of rescue men,
I'm now seeing that do this.
I'm like, I wanna get out of the Air Force.
I don't even wanna be in the fucking military.
So this is what I'm saying, so I'm hoping now
that this sickle cell thing's gonna get me
kicked out of the military.
Because I'm like, okay, I don't wanna go back
in the fucking, I'm done.
So I'm not getting happy, because now I'm like, I won't don't want to go back in the fucking, I'm done. So I'm like getting happy,
because now I'm like, I won't quit,
they're going to medically drop me from the course,
this is great, I can keep my head up.
I'll learn how to read, I'll learn how to write,
I passed the ASVAB test,
but I'm fixing everything on the surface.
I'm not going into the fucking dungeon.
So the doc calls up, I go back to the doc, I'm like skipping down there thinking,
I'm getting out of here, man.
Medically discharged.
He goes, man, you know what?
You were doing good in your class,
and we don't really know,
we don't know how you got this far with this, whatever,
so guess what we're gonna do?
We're gonna put you back in the train.
I'm like, fuck.
So I'm thinking now, I only have about a couple, you know, two and a half weeks left of training,
because I missed a week, a week and some chains.
I go, you know what, great, man.
I have to suck this up, man.
I can do this.
So, I'm trying to motivate myself,
all the way back to my CEO, my command officer,
Sergeant Lumberg.
I get to Sergeant Lumberg, Sergeant Lumberg looks at me,
he says, God, that's great, you're back in the training.
You got to start from day one.
Because I'm at critical parts of training. You gotta start from day one.
Because I'm at critical parts of training.
I can't miss that many days.
And I'm like, but I was a great liar.
And I would look at a hardcore man
and tell him that I just fucking quit.
So I looked at him and said,
hey, you know what, sorry man, this sickle cell thing,
man, the doc was talking about sudden death,
stroke, heart attack.
I didn't give a fuck about sickle cell thing, man, the doc was talking about sudden death, stroke, heart attack. I didn't give a fuck about sickle cell, but guy, I didn't know anything about it. I knew I was struggling. I knew I had some health issues, but I thought because I was killing myself and what I
was doing. And he said, no, you're right, man. I wouldn't want to do that either. So he gave me a
medical out of pair rescue. And he said, when we figure this out more,
we'll have you come back.
I wouldn't ever go back.
I'm like, I'm never getting back in the fucking water again,
but I was able to leave on a medical.
But I quit.
You quit.
Why do you admit it?
Why do you tell this story?
I have to.
Because everybody thinks I'm the world's
toughest motherfucker ever lived.
And I might be somewhere about that now mm-hmm
But that's where I was
And I tell the story because if I just talk about I broke the pull-up record
I I did all these fucking races. I went to seal channel with you
I was in three hell weeks Ranger school if I talk about all the badass ery
Like we like on social fucking media, and I don't tell you that I was a fucked up kid and I was scared of shit and I was
depressed and insecure and all this shit, what good am I for anybody?
I'm a superhero, but I'm a liar.
I'm that now, but I wasn't born that.
I had to make myself into this shit.
It's amazing to me that this,
you won't accept it this way,
but like this military icon,
but not really like a social icon too.
Like when people aspire to be tough and mentally tough.
I mean, there are UFC fighters
that when they win fights now,
quote you in their post-conference interviews.
I don't even know if you know that or not,
but like I watched it.
They're like, Goggin know if you know that or not, but like I watch it, they're like,
Goggin says, you know, seriously.
So that guy kind of bullshits his way out of the military.
Like that's staggering.
And then that guy,
if you don't mind me jumping ahead a little bit,
then that guy ends up kind of living in an apartment,
gains a ton of weight, gets up to almost 300 pounds,
killing cockroaches as an exterminator.
This is just crazy where we're gonna go right now.
And then where we're gonna go after that's even more bananas,
but go ahead, jump back.
So what's funny though, so I get out of pair rescue,
so I go to a job called Tac P.
Just real quick about that, it's a great fucking job,
one of the best jobs in the military,
but I'm all poopy past now, I'm not a pair rescueriman. So I'm thinking, Tac P is some weak ass motherfuckers.
Tac P is one of the best fucking jobs in the world.
But my mind, once again, has me shackled.
Now I'm thinking, I'm not a paraeskiman.
So I'm like, you know, Tac P was a great job.
I had great friends in it and I did it pretty well, but I could have
been so much better. My mind was once again hijacking me. So I get out, but from the time
from 1994 to 1999, or 1998, I go from 175 pounds to 297. Not much education, four and a half years in the military
I started spraying for cockroaches.
And making $1,000 a month.
And I only had an $810 apartment.
So I'm scrounging, dude.
And so my life is hard.
And, but fuck it, I'm spraying for cockroaches
from 11 o'clock at night to seven o'clock in the morning.
And that's my life.
But once again, man, you can't lie to yourself.
I can lie to you, and I can lie to everybody else,
and I was great at it, but buddy, every fucking day,
in that dirty mirror, that accountability mirror,
there's no more.
Fuck that accountability mirror,
let's just fucking shave my head and go to work.
But I saw my reflection every day.
But I really didn't know how fat I was.
I didn't really wanna look at myself.
But I was haunted.
These demons were in my head every day.
Man, you ain't shit, man.
God dog, man, you wear this fucking uniform,
you get in your fucking Ecolab truck,
you go spray for cockroaches,
you fucking go in the kitchens,
you eat your fucking brownies and shit,
in the back kitchen, you make shakes and shit
while you're in there, man.
I was like, fuck, man.
So I come home and I never forget it.
I used to spray down steak and shake.
My last stop at about 6.30 at night,
or 6.30 in the morning, I sprayed down steak and shake
and they had this big large shake.
They gave me a special cup
and they just dumped the fucking chocolate milkshake
in there and I go across the street to 7-Eleven.
I had a 45 minute commute home. And I would be, and I'd go over to 7-Eleven. I had a 45 minute commute home.
And I would be, and I'd go over to 7-Eleven
and get these chocolate donuts,
like the mini Hostess donuts.
And I was popping them like fucking Tic Tacs, dude.
You know, it was like, I'd eat it,
I'd just fucking pop it, boom.
This fucking, this be driving, listening to the radio,
popping them like Tic Tacs, drinking the shake.
So by the time I got home, that box of donuts was gone.
My mom lived about two miles down the road
because she moved to Indianapolis, Indiana now.
So what would happen is this, so I would eat that
and my routine was this, shit you not,
my breakfast was not that.
That was my snack for my 45, so now my mom,
and this is no fucking shit,
my breakfast, you know those fucking Pillsbury's
cinnamon rolls?
You got the five, you got the eight.
I had the eight.
So you had the eight, she baked that shit,
and then it was seven to eight scrambled eggs hard,
and half a pound of bacon, well done,
and I would chase that motherfucker down
with fruity pebbles, two bowls, or something sugary.
That was my breakfast after the fucking donuts
and the shake.
So, this day though, I get home, call my mom up on the phone,
she goes, you want your staple?
I'm like, hell yeah, I want my fucking staple, you know?
And that's how I talked to my mom.
Me and my mom came up with some fucked up shit.
People go, man, why you cussing so much?
Because my life wasn't easy.
So I'm like, I should record it for you.
So my mom cusses at me because,
but we have a great relationship.
Okay, great, come over.
And so at this time, my routine was to come home,
turn the TV on, listen to the TV, like blare it.
Because literally, I have this big living room and my shower was back down the hallway. So I turned the TV on, I blared the TV like, blare it, because literally, I have this big living room
and my shower was back down the hallway.
So I turned the TV on and blared the TV
and listened to it a little bit as I showered.
I'm hearing Navy Seal.
Heard about him, knew about him,
but now I want to come out and see what the fuck I'm talking
about, because I heard World's Toughest.
So I come out and watch this documentary.
I come out, I basically, I have my towel
and I have my shank down on the documentary. I come out, I have my towel and I have my
shake down on the counter. I have this little fucking TV in this huge, huge living
room. So I'm looking at the TV and I'm leaning forward and I'm watching this shit and it
pretty much goes through first phase, second phase, and third phase, but they
concentrate on Hell Week. But all I saw was the Pacific Ocean. Right, water again.
Dude, I saw nothing but water. More than para rescue and these guys are like going from this big class to this
It shows him quitting and I see nothing but this jackhammer guys
Snot bubbles and this rolling around sugar cookies in out of surf and carry these boats and laws
I'm like fuck that that shit looks evil, guys, as they quit, I saw their soul
leaving their bodies almost on screen,
because this look came over them.
And I imagined, I remember myself back in pair rescue
training, I bet that's how I fucking looked
in front of that fucking Sergeant Lumberg.
And I bet he could see in my eyes
that I was basically quitting.
He knew I was quitting.
He just gave me a medical.
That motherfucker knew it.
As a man looking at another man,
you know when a man's done.
And I'm like, I thought about Sartre,
I said that motherfucker knew I was quitting, dude.
He just didn't, he saved me and didn't wanna tell me.
He knew it, cause I can look at somebody now
and say, okay dude, you're good. But I know you're quitting. It ain't your to tell me. He knew it. Because I can look at somebody now and say,
okay, dude, you're good, but I know you're quitting.
It ain't your fucking knee or your back or whatever.
You're quitting.
He saw that in me and I said, motherfucker, man.
So now I'm watching these guys go through training
and it goes down to 22 guys were left.
And it was amazing how it ended.
Because these words, I don't know them them exactly but it's in my book exactly and
This command officer is at graduation and these 22 guys graduate buds still training
And his command officers is just whites. He's up there some old skinny fucking commander fucking but you could tell he's been through shit
Salty looking motherfucker and he's looking hard and his speech was amazing.
He goes, we live in a society
where mediocrity is often rewarded.
And he looked down at the 22 men
and he says something about basically
you all detest mediocrity.
And he goes on to talk about this mediocrity and shit.
And I just sat back and I said,
God, man, I just wanna be like these motherfuckers.
I wanna feel, now I was projecting myself in those chairs. I want to how can how do y'all feel?
Like right now. I go I want to feel like you do you you 22 me. I want to feel like that, man
I said, I'm tired of feeling the way I feel every day
I'm tired of how I feel tired of lying to myself lying to people and it's being some piece of shit
And I always knew in the back of lying to myself, lying to people and just being some piece of shit.
And I always knew in the back of my mind
I could be something special.
Yes.
But I knew the work it was gonna take was gonna kill me.
I was afraid of that.
I was afraid of the brutality and the suffering
I was gonna have to endure.
But I knew, I knew I could do something.
But I'm like, I ain't trying to do that kind of work, man.
I'm just not trying to do that.
So I chose the path of the easy, of least resistance.
So now my idea is, it became so haunting
and daunting on me, myself, that I said, I'm done.
I'm fucking done.
And I thought I fixed myself in the accountability mirror
when my mom put the letter down on the bed.
Yeah.
Nah.
So now, at this point,
I actually drive back to Buffalo, New York,
to see my dad.
Haven't seen him in years.
I've not heard this part.
And no one knows about this.
I didn't put this in the book even.
So before I start this journey being Navy SEAL,
I go back to see my dad because I realize now
I gotta fix some shit.
I'm blaming everything.
I gotta go back, you know how a lot of times
you're like, if you're a runner,
your right knee may hurt, but it's not your right knee
that hurts, it's really your left hip.
But we're concentrating on the right knee.
I'm concentrating on all my shit.
But I need to go back to the root of the problem,
which is my dad.
I gotta face the demon.
I gotta go back and see what made him so fucked up
to make me so fucked up.
Why am I fucked up?
So I go back and I go back as an older man now.
I'm in my 20s.
I'm not a kid anymore.
And I wanna see this man and face him as a grown man, but still as a kid in my head. I was still a kid, and I want to see this man and face him as a grown man, but still
as a kid in my head.
I was still a kid, but I was a grown man as my age.
I went back and I realized he was the same man that he was.
Still the same.
Still the same.
And I talked to him, he was still nuts.
And I had to go back and face that one more time, but to face it in a different way.
How'd you do it different?
I looked at him in a way,
we never said sorry to one another,
and he went off about my mom and my grandparents
and all kind of shit.
But I looked at him in a way that I realize now,
why you fucked us up.
I had to almost be him to realize it's okay, brother.
It's okay, because I realized that somewhere
in your fucking life, something fucked you up.
And you didn't deal with it.
And so you put that shit on me, my mom,
and everybody around you.
I'm gonna deal with my shit.
So even though you gave me all this shit,
you gave me a satchel of shit that I didn't deserve,
and now I'm all fucked up and people think I'm a fucking liar and I'm all fucked up,
you gave me this. You created this fucking nightmare of Goggins.
I'm gonna fix it though. So now I get it, I look at it, and this one's sitting in my head.
You're my favorite thing you've ever said right now. And I love all of it,
but that's my favorite thing. I've never heard that.
I'm gonna fix it now. So I almost take it.
I take all this shit, it's mine.
I'm gonna fix all this shit.
But I know to fix shit, people wanna find peace immediately.
And this is where people don't like me.
I don't believe that shit.
You ain't gonna find it through fucking yoga
and all this other bullshit.
I stretch out a lot and I believe in yoga
and all this other shit's great,
but you ain't gonna find it in some fucking room.
You're gonna find peace from going to war with yourself,
because we all got shit.
We all got shit.
People look at me, the reason why my story resonates
with people, because I don't hide.
I'll tell you exactly who the fuck I am,
I will admit to it, people are great at hiding.
So they want to just find peace.
No, you gotta take your shit, fix whatever's fucked up in you.
Don't just shove it under a rug. Fix it.
And then you'll find some peace later.
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That was a great conversation.
And if you want to hear the full interview,
be sure to follow The Ed Mylett Show on Apple and Spotify.
Links are in the show notes.
You'll never miss an episode that way.
Tim Grover, welcome back to the show, brother.
Thank you so much.
So let's take Kobe and Jordan,
the two physically phenomenally gifted dudes, mixed with all the things that you have in
the book about winning. Like if you want to think like Kobe Bryant and what Tim Groover did, we're
gonna read the book. If you want to think like MJ and the things that you learned from MJ and then
that you took to another level, read the book, right? Did you ever work with a guy, don't say who,
I know you wouldn't, but did you ever work with someone as physically gifted as either one of the two of them that
just lacked these things and so as a result we don't know who they are?
Numerous.
Really? As physically gifted?
Even more.
Wow.
Even more. They were by far not my most physically gifted athletes. I work with athletes that
were jumped higher than MJ, who ran faster, who had better footwork than Kobe.
But they- Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant were not the two most physically gifted athletes you've worked with. No.
Whoa, okay. And then so when you would work with these guys and you'd be pushing them in training,
there was a different resistance or fatigue or how was it different?
You know what, Ed, how many times have you had people come up to you and say,
I'll do anything to get where you're at.
Right, all the time.
Or I'll do anything to work for you until you tell them what your definition of anything is.
Your definition of anything is different than my definition of anything.
I'll have an athlete, it's very simple.
When I first start with them, when I was training numerous, said what time's the first workout?
I'd say 3.30.
I'd be like, okay.
It's 3.30 a.m.
A.m.
I wouldn't tell them a.m. or p.m.
I'd tell them 3.30.
Okay.
So we're, myself, my staff, we're sitting at, waiting,
cause winning doesn't sleep
and it doesn't understand why you do.
That's awesome.
So then we come back and they roll in the gym about 3, 3.30, like what are you doing
here?
They're like you said 3.30.
No, no.
I said you got the wrong time.
And I said when does a new day start and they look at me goes no
they said no the new day starts at 12 midnight that's right that's a new day
mm-hmm all right what are you waiting for hmm and even if you tell them hey
MJ did this Kobe did this if they don't have it they don't have it they don't
have it you think it's a lack of obsession?
You said, you've referenced a couple times, like sleep at night, your bed doesn't sleep
and all that.
One of the things that, I'll be honest with you, there's a lot in the book that hit me
and you guys go get the book.
Winning Tim Grover, real simple, get it anywhere books are sold.
But there's this part of the book, man, it almost made me cry audibly reading it, but
I did get water in my eyes and I'm gonna get water even explaining it to you, where you're talking about being asleep and
that you get these visitors at night.
And I know those visitors very, very well.
I have them too.
It's attached to my obsessions.
And I don't think the average person who wants to really win understands the extent and degree
of obsession required. They don't. So can you elaborate on that visitors that you get
at night? Everybody thinks obsession is a bad word. It's not. I love to use the
people like, you're a great example. Ed, why? Why keep going? Look at the house.
Not only this house, the other house,
and the other house, and the plane.
And if people pay very close attention to what was just said,
probably about 20 minutes ago, what did you say?
I don't consider myself a winner.
That's obsession.
That's obsession.
And I love to use your plane story as an example.
You went from a very nice size plane to even a bigger plane, but it's still not your 747.
That's right.
That's true.
It's not your 747.
Good.
All right. That's an obsession It's not your 747. All right. That's an obsession.
That's a healthy obsession.
That's what gets you out of bed.
That's what allows you to, when you get out of bed, when all the skeletons are lined up
next to you and telling you, you can't do this, you're not able to do this, you're not
able to do this, you get up every single morning and you shake their hands and give them a hug and say,
Yep.
What you got for me tonight?
Exactly.
I got you.
See, because you're a part of me.
You're a part of me.
And people put some, it's funny,
winners bring all of them wherever they go.
And most individuals, the best part of them,
the thing that allows them to win,
the thing that allows them to be obsessive,
the thing that allows them not to care
what other people think,
the things that allow them to deal with hatred,
the things that keep them going when nothing else will,
they keep in their closets.
The best part of them, they keep in there
because they're worried, what are people going
to think about me if I let those things out?
Don't, I always say this, all right, no.
Everyone says, I'm afraid to become that person.
You should be more afraid afraid to become that person.
You should be more afraid not to become that person. Be afraid not to become that person.
You're a big thing about, you know, meet,
I wanna, at the end of the journey,
I wanna meet my better half and say, hey,
what did you leave behind?
Or I was like hey this
is the person shake hands with them shake hands with them if you can't
become that person you're never gonna be able to shake that person's hand yeah
I'd much rather I live in more fear of I live in way more fear of not becoming
that person than I am about not trying to be him big time
But I do have I won't stay on this for a minute. I get these visitors at night too that you get so I
Don't want people to think that winning is all like Rosie and glory and beautiful nothing it's it's really not and I'd not even
You have to know this here's the, never said this on the show.
You have to really know these truths so that you can actually decide you still want to
win.
Yes.
Right?
Because what does come with becoming this way now at 50 and you're 56 or?
56.
56, you look great.
I've had 50 years of having these visitors in my life.
And they're not going away at it.
That's what everybody wants to do.
The people just want to sweep them under the rug.
They want to keep them in the closet.
They don't want to talk about them.
That's what makes you successful.
That's what makes you special.
That's what makes you different.
And what do we say?
Different scares people. Win say? Different scares people.
Winners and winning scares people.
And they don't want to win because of that. They're trying to win, they're trying to balance,
they're trying to fit in.
What do winners do?
Very few of them have balance in their life.
Maybe after they become successful,
they try to balance a little bit more.
All right.
There is no balance early.
They don't care what other people think.
They're extremely obsessive.
They know it.
And they don't mind telling you that they're chasing the next win
because that's what fuels them.
But when people come to you and say,
you've had enough, you know why, slow down, slow down.
Unwind.
I don't know about you, I do know about you,
I should say that.
We are at our most uncomfortable
when people tell us to unwind.
We like to be wound up.
We like that, that's like a part of,
we have our unique ways of unwinding.
We don't need anybody to tell us to unwind.
My favorite way of unwinding is having some tequila
with a buddy of mine who's another winner
and talking about doing more winning.
I was on Andy's show and I said,
winning is more fun than fun is fun.
I remember that.
And I just really believe that. Like, that's actually what I like. Like, I like the pursuit of winning. I was on Andy's show and I said winning is more fun than fun is fun. I remember that. And I just really believe that like what is actually what
I like. Like I like the pursuit of winning. I like that I
sincerely don't feel that way about myself because I'm scared if I did. Like
I'm scared of these visitors that I have are my fears, my worries, my hopes, my thoughts,
my skeletons.
They take all those forms.
They take all those forms.
And you don't know what form they're going to take that night.
And you know what?
They're going to sit at you with a table.
They're not going to...
I put this in a book.
When you travel, those skeletons are traveling with you on the plane.
They're my constant companion.
All the time.
Yeah.
And if you notice, everyone looks at you
and you fly on that plane alone.
I've said, Ed's never been on that plane alone.
It's true, it's true.
He's never been on that plane alone.
They're with me all the time.
All the time.
And you know what?
When they look at his tequila bottles on the thing
and they're finished, that's because they're drinking
the best stuff also.
That's true.
I wonder who's drinking all that stuff, man.
Stuff gets expensive. I just love this because this is the realest conversation I've ever had about really winning, and it's the realest book about it.
Like, it's...
This isn't one of these Pollyanna things, like, it's not all rosy.
No, there's a lot of it that sucks.
And like, unless you want to sign up, and by the way, I don't know if you feel... Paulina, things like that. It's not all rosy. No, there's a lot of it that sucks.
And like, unless you want to sign up,
and by the way, I don't know if you've ever,
I'm actually cool if you don't.
Like if you actually said,
hey, I don't want all that stuff.
I don't want to, I mean, I don't relate to you.
I'm not gonna hang out with you.
You're not my kind of people.
But I'd actually admire somebody who says,
I won't do these things that are in this book,
and I know I'm not gonna win. Rather than say, I want to win and do none of these things that are in this book and I know I'm not gonna win rather than say I want to win and do none of the things
that are in the book. The people that can admit it they've already won. Hmm. The
people that said this ain't for me, this ain't for me, this ain't, they're
saying they know exactly who they are. I'm good. Hmm. I'm good. If you, most
people will settle for good, most people will settle for good most people will settle for okay Hmm. All right, very few people will settle for great
very few people will sell for unstoppable very few people will settle for
Winning I break things down three different ways
So look at this and I didn't put this in a book, but I want to share I want to share this with you
You have individuals that compete
Mm-hmm. Everybody competes, you know that.
You play golf, you love golf.
You know, you go out and your golfing partner,
I don't know, what's his real name?
Your real name is Kelly Gwynn,
we call him Richard Cabesa.
Dick Cabesa is head in Spanish.
I got it, okay.
Everyone that's wondering what that's his name,
because half the people don't know
that's what Richard Cabesa means.
Right, everybody knows him.
He's gonna be signing autographs on Richard Cabesa. He goes out there, people are like, I I love you and my latin man can I get your... he's had people take pictures with him.
It's awesome. Yeah so and I'll get into it a little bit later about that but there's people that compete
right there's everybody knows how to compete at something right and for most people when they
compete they want to get to the, they wanna just finish.
That's their way.
They just wanna finish, right?
Now to me, if you're that level person,
is that finish gonna lead to another win?
It might not be, it might be in something else.
If you're gonna run a marathon, all right,
and you're not one of these top elite marathon runners,
you're not gonna win the marathon. You're not gonna win.
But you have a mindset to say,
hey, I'm gonna finish this marathon.
Now, is that, when you finish that marathon,
what else is it setting you up for?
But there's people that go in there,
they're just happy competing, they're just happy finishing,
they're just happy to be in the race.
Then you have people that win, right?
Once.
They win once.
And how many individuals do you know,
and you probably don't, well, I shouldn't say this.
I said you know, not associate with,
there's a big difference.
That keep telling you about that win over and over again,
no matter how long it's been.
Gosh, factoid.
I got it, man.
You were quarterback in high school. I got it.oid. All right. I got it man. You were quarterback in high
school. Yes. I got it. You got your masters. I got it. I got it. All right. Then you have
individuals that win at winning. That's really good. They win at winning. So they
win over and over and over again. You think it's all it's cracked up to be?
No, but we don't know any other way.
Best answer of all time.
Very similar, everybody, we don't know any other way.
Best answer of all time.
We can't accept it any other way, we just can't.
I wrote a best-selling book. Crap. I didn't have to do another book. I wrote a best-selling book I didn't have
to do another book you wrote a best-selling book right you know you
have another bad you have another book coming out you know you don't have to do
any of this but if you didn't that would be more detrimental to you.
You don't know any other way.
You just don't.
Yeah.
You think that, by the way, I'm loving this, just so you know.
Because I know people that might be listening,
say, this is a little bit dark.
Welcome to winning. That's why you see so many people.
I watched Nick Saban after he wins these national championships.
He's gotten a little bit better out of the last couple of years.
Have you noticed this?
Yes.
Just a little bit, though.
Like, 1% better.
But a lot.
Either his wife or somebody in his family told him this.
Hey, at least smile for the interview after.
We can get back to work tonight.
But you watch these prolific winners.
So I did love to watch MJ celebrate that win in the evening
that he won, or the few times I saw
Kobe actually celebrate the win.
But I know the next day they're back to work.
I watched a Saban.
And for years, he'd win these national championships.
And you could already see the grimace
on his face
for the next year in the post game interview.
In the post game, yes.
Right, and like I think people look at it,
they go, well then is he,
and I think to your answer you're right,
like people say, well is he really enjoying this?
Yes, and he knows no other way.
So maybe it's not all, I wonder if you ask,
is it all it's cracked up to be?
I think some people might say, no, but it's all I know.
It's all I know. And it's better than
the alternative of living with losing the rest of my life or not trying.
Yes. There's a reason it's lonely at the top. And it's not because you want to be surrounded
with other individuals. That's not the part people, when they talk about it, it's lonely at the top.
It's alone because nobody understands what's going on in here.
Of what you went after you've just won, what you went through and you're already thinking about the
next. You're already thinking about the next and people can't comprehend that and there's people whispering in your ear and they're saying
Enjoy it enjoy by the time they say enjoy it you did enjoy it now. You're already thinking yeah
Do you think it's that I'm just thinking right now?
I'm asking you this because you watched this and you've done it in your own life like
You've you you've had two careers
You've had a career where you helped which which you still do, where you help other people win.
And then there became this point in your life
where you became, you were individually winning
as a speaker, as a coach, as a writer.
It's an interesting thing to watch with you.
You were the behind the scenes guy,
then you weren't the behind the scenes guy.
Do you think that, it's like a dopamine thing,
like when they win, like they're already ready, they have to get another one,
like it's an addiction.
Do you think winning becomes an addiction?
It is an addiction, and the only place
where you can get that high again
is the black market in your mind.
It's the only place.
Because you only know where that entrance is,
you only know where that hit is,
you only know what that drug is.
And here's the crazy part about the next win has to be bigger. It has to be bigger.
It has to be bigger. It has to constantly keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
So true.
It sounds like a sickness when you're listening to this, but I actually think it's beautiful.
I actually think you were born to win
and you learn over a lifetime how not to.
As a child, don't do this, sit down, be a good boy,
get in your place, do this,
then the world starts treating you.
And I think you move further and further away
from your own nature.
I think we were born to win,
we were born to do something great with our life.
I really, I know that's a saying to me.
And I feel a sadness when I meet somebody
who's accepted a life of not winning.
By the way, I'm cool with it, it's okay,
I'm not judging you.
But as someone who wants to pursue that
expression of myself or that,
I just wonder what I would be like, you know,
if I could, what it would be like,
what I would be like if I could get
to the next level.
I'm fascinated with, like I think the people that I really like enjoy, they're curious
people.
Like I want the next experience.
I don't want to live in the previous experience.
Like that guy was like, hey, you know, I made a million dollars in 2009 and it was like in
the mortgage boom or the crash or whatever.
I'm not really interested in living in those, in those times.
You're not, because it's always about about it's always about what's next. It's always
about constantly staying in the rain. It's a constantly about changing your
mindset. The language of winning for people that win is completely different
than the language of winning from other individuals. No. You sit here and you talk
to people and they describe,
when I talk to all my athletes, I said,
describe winning in one word to me.
And everybody would think about, you know, they would be
like it's happy, it's, you know, it's euphoric,
it's all those things, and it is.
But those constant winners, their answers were,
it's unpolished, it's uncivilized, it's nasty, it's hard, it's
dirty, it's unforgiving, and then Kobe comes up and says, it's everything. It's
everything. And if you think about it, and very few people are genuine about this,
and you know the ones that are,
you know the ones that aren't.
How do you feel when somebody's really close to you
and they win?
It's an unbelievable feeling.
Unbelievable feeling.
How do you feel when you win?
Unbelievable feeling.
Even though it's short-lived, How do you feel when your kids win?
It's unbelievable. Yeah. All right
That feeling is everything it is everything that feeling is
Everything it's amazing. He's just said that I'm reading the book last night
And I call my wife about halfway through the book. Because when you read your work,
you know, even in the first book, most you talk about in this book, the most controversial part
of the first book was The Dark Side. Yes. You talk about it in this book. And then when you're reading
this, you're like, this winning thing's mean, this winning thing's unforgiving, this winning thing
doesn't give a shit if you sleep, this winning thing doesn't care, right? Like you go through,
you're like, she's almost, and I, and if you're not careful, guys, you would think,
cause this is truth, it flies in the face
of everything you always hear, but you would think
that it's not something that you really want.
And the evidence of it, I said to my wife last night,
I said the evidence that you know winning is where you belong
is how happy you are when you see your children doing it,
if you have children.
When your children win a spelling bee,
or get straight A's, or hit a home run or win a golf
tournament or do anything exceptional, the amount of joy you feel and pride when they
win, I have a feeling that that's how God feels when he sees one of his children win.
And I think this is something we all miss, that it is a grind, it is difficult, but if
you ever wonder whether you belong winning and that's the path you should pursue,
just ask yourself a question about your children
if you have them, or your parents,
or anybody that you love and care about.
When they win, how do you feel for them?
I literally said this last night.
So, I've heard you speak numerous times,
and when people don't know about this,
like when we're on the stage together at the same event,
I'll stay just to hear you speak.
Mike's first, as you know. You know, I will stay. The last time I heard you together at the same event, I'll stay just to hear you speak. Vice versa, as you know.
I will stay.
The last time I heard you speak was at an event
and you were talking about a golf tournament
you were with with your son.
With Max, yeah.
With Max.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
It's an intense story.
Yeah, it was an intense story.
We went from playing golf to winning.
Yes.
That was the decision.
To your point, your book, and by the way,
I've said this early in the interview,
little words from people, a caring statement,
a little bit of access to some information.
And I've said this many times,
just haven't said it to you,
but like I thank you because, you know,
I've had people say, oh, your son gets all your stuff.
And yeah, he also has talked to Grover.
He's also talked to Grover.
And just so you guys know,
I really
truly believe that one of the reasons that my son is excelling is you. And your information,
little whispers, you get a little direct message, a little text message, a little access to
a call like you've done for my son. And I think that's the other thing that people don't
know. Winners are generous.
Extremely generous. You know why? Because they're truthful, they tell you how it is.
It's not rainbows, it's not unicorns, it's not sprinkles.
This is what it takes, this is what it takes.
And other people, they don't wanna,
we talk about the stuff nobody else wants to talk about.
Does that make us bad people?
In many people's eyes it does,
but it also where the few people
that are gonna hold you accountable,
we're gonna tell you the truth,
and where people are gonna say,
you know what, everybody else sugarcoated it,
these individuals told me exactly how it is.
That's what the book Winning is about.
Now, I don't want people to think
that it's all this thing.
If you read the last chapter of the book,
it kind of ties everything in
and it explains why winners go through this journey.
Why they go through this journey.
Because I have this thing, it's like,
everyone talks about it's the journey, it it's not the destination well to me why the
hell are you taking the journey if you don't know the destination is what he
just amously gonna be running around all right every time you when you get on
your plane or you get in your car you know exactly you're going from here to
here now you may have to take a detour to go somewhere else
to do whatever you're doing,
but you're like, this is where we're going.
You had a post a couple of days ago,
man, it's nice to own a jet because all of a sudden
I gotta go wherever, wherever your destination was.
Yeah.
I'm fired up about today's show
because we're getting right into what it takes to win.
And that is this, write this down, one more, one more.
See I accepted a long time ago, I wasn't the smartest, the best looking, the fast enough,
with the best background, the most connections.
I didn't have any of those things.
What I could control was my work ethic.
You've heard me speak many times about outworking everybody, but I think that just feels good
when we hear it, but most people don't take it seriously. If you think that I have a little bit of success in
my life, I can tell you what I attribute it to. Yes, self-confidence, yes, mindset,
visualization, goals, all the things I talk about all the time. Listening skills,
influence, energy transfer, how to be happier, all of that stuff applies. When
you get to winning, for me, it's come down to maxing out. And what maxing out means is you do one more at least than you think you're capable
of. So when you're done, whatever you're doing, whether it's at the gym or phone
calls or meetings or in sports, one more shot, one more throw, one more swing of
the golf club or the baseball bat, the separator is for the winners, they do one
more. I'm addicted to one
more. And so I want your munch, or going forward to be, one more. What does that
look like if we're working out? That means when we're in the gym and we say
I'm gonna do five sets of ten, I'm crazy. Like I'm a psycho because I want to win.
I want to be somebody. I want to separate. I want to compete. And the way I do that
isn't with my giftedness.
Because I wasn't born with a bunch of gifts and I think gifts are crap.
I think for the most part gifted people struggle in life because things come easy to them.
I like that things haven't come easy for me in my life.
I like that I have natural talents in every area and maybe you like that about you too.
Maybe you've looked at yourself all your life and thought, man I don't have that natural
beauty or that natural talent or this gift for creativity or intellect or humor.
I don't have any of those things. But what I got is I will outwork you.
And so at the gym, one of the things I focus on, they say it's five sets of 10. When I'm at 10, I go one more, bam, 11.
If I'm running on the treadmill and it's a 45 minute run, I never finish at 45. I always go one more minute, 46. If I'm at the office and I'm supposed to
make 25 phone calls that day, when I'm at the end of the day, I always do one more.
If I've got meetings, I always do one more. My mantra for three decades in
business has been one more. Why? Because we get out of life what we think we
deserve.
And I'm the kind of guy that I know
when you do 45 minutes on the treadmill and I do 46,
I deserve to be fitter.
I know that when I'm lifting weights
and I watch you do five sets of 10
and every single time I do one more.
When it's a set of five, I do six.
When it's a set of eight, I do nine.
When it's 45 on the treadmill, I do 46.
When it's supposed to be 20 eight hour workday, I work nine. Whatever it is, I always do one more.
And what that does is it makes me eventually think I'm doing things other people aren't
willing to do, so I should get things other people aren't going to get.
And if you go to the root of the things I believe philosophically about winning, the
people that win, the great athletes that I coach, when I watch the really gifted golfer
win, I'm going to be thinking, I'm going to the root of the things I believe philosophically about winning, the people that win, the great athletes that I
coach, when I watch the really gifted golfer and the one who actually wins,
the gifted golfer, they do what they're supposed to do. You never know they
weren't working hard. It's not like people don't work hard. Everybody works
hard. That's a given now. But what's the separator to where you become the maxed
out version of you?
See, the gifted golfer, they hit their 100 balls
because they're supposed to.
But the not so gifted one that ends up winning,
they hit 101 or 110 or 120.
I watched them on the driving range
and I could hear them say, one more, one more.
What's the difference between Kobe Bryant
and other gifted NBA players when he played or Michael Jordan
When they played or right now Kevin Durant people tell me or Steph Curry
They're constantly when everyone else is done shooting in the gym
They say one more Larry Bird was legendary for one more one more the people that would throw the passes to him the ball guys
And practice like he always wants more
He always wants more the he always wants more.
The great hitters that I know, the Mike Trouts and MLB, they're gifted but they just take
a little more, they take that extra batting practice, that extra session.
They're always doing extra.
That's the separator.
Like you can learn all this stuff, you can digest all the tactics and information that
I give out, but if you're not willing to do one more, eventually there's a part of you that says, maybe, maybe I don't deserve it.
I'm just doing what everybody else is doing and that's not good enough.
It's not even good enough to do more than everybody else.
It's your maxed out level.
It's one more of everything.
And so whether that's a phone call, an email, a text, an appointment,
one more time you tell your spouse you love them, one more time you go in
and kiss your children good night.
One more hug of somebody. One more phone call. One more everything. I want your theme to be one more.
Have I said that enough times for you today? So what's that really look like an application?
Well the second thing it does for you is you actually do more reps of whatever it is you're doing.
And when we do more repetitions, we get better. And when we do more repetitions, we're more productive.
So number one is the psychology part.
If you're someone who's always doing things
other people aren't willing to do,
you always max out, you always go to the next level,
you convince yourself you deserve to win.
You can take low self-esteem, low identity, low confidence,
and change it over time by building this habitual addiction
to doing one more, this
obsession of one more. All the greats do one more and all the average don't. It's
not that the average don't work hard. It's not that the average at your company,
it's not that they don't work hard. They probably work pretty hard, but do they
always do extra? Do they always do one more? Do they always do ten more if they
need to? Do they always get after it?
The other part of it, number two,
is you just get better because of the reps.
You're just doing more of something, you get better.
You get stronger.
You become a better phone caller
when you make one more phone call every day.
You become a better communicator
when you do one more meeting every single day.
You get better at coordination in your sport
or at the gym by just doing more reps.
Yes, you get better, So that's the second layer.
But the third one is you stack the odds in your favor.
See, for me, I want the odds that I'm going to win to increase.
The larger numbers we play in life in every area, more is always better.
People tell you more isn't always better.
And almost everything more is better, just you know and almost everything. People who tell you
more isn't better in most things are lazy and they try to justify their own
weakness. Don't let people who are justifying their own weakness convince
you that you working hard, you doing more isn't the pathway to your success.
People say well you got to work smarter not harder. That's a lie because
everybody who wins works smarter.
The separator is who works harder.
And by the way, we become smarter through working harder.
All the new revelations, all the breakthroughs,
all the new discoveries always come
when you're doing one more.
Always come through more repetitions.
You find new ways, new strategies, new words,
new keys by higher repetitions.
So even if you believe working smarter is more important, you will become smarter by
doing more.
So if you work 300 days a year, let's just say 300 days a year, that's 300 more phone
calls every single year.
Over five years, that's 1,500 more contacts.
1,500 more contacts.
Just think about that just for a second. Over 30 years, that's 9,500 more contacts. 1,500 more contacts. Just think about that just for a second.
Over 30 years, that's 9,000 more contacts.
What are the odds the person who makes 9,000 more contacts,
or even 300 more a year, are going to win?
You give me two average people that walk in a room.
Same ability, same skills, same backgrounds, same product.
One of them makes 300 more contacts.
You hear the other one, who's going to win? We know. How about over five years? One of them makes 1,500 more
contacts over five years. Who's gonna win? Over a lifetime, 30 years of work, one
makes 9,000 more contacts. Who's gonna win? You stack the odds in your favor.
Never mind the person who'd made the 9,000 more contacts is better. They've
got more reps. They've got more confidence, they believe they deserve to win. They just have 9,000 more
opportunities. How about a golfer? One of them makes 300 more swings a year, a year,
and that's just one more swing a day, right? And over a year, over five years,
1,500 more, 9,000 over a lifetime. Who's more likely to win? So you pick anything
you want, you begin to stack the odds in your favor. How about at the gym?
If every day you went one more minute in your cardio.
So it's supposed to be 45, you do 46.
Do you know what that starts to do to you?
You start knowing you're different.
You start knowing you obliterate standards.
You start knowing you can break through.
When you break through an artificial barrier,
like 45 minutes, you do one more.
It sets a catalyst for your entire day.
It sets a syntax. It sets a mindset for the rest of your life. Never mind the fact that if
you do 300 more minutes, which is 9,000 more over your lifetime, who's gonna be
more fit? So you begin to stack these things and your entire life changes.
This is what I like to call compound pounding. Most people underestimate what
time can do when
backed up with massive activity. Right as I'm speaking to you, I'm looking out at
the ocean right now and there's a massive rock formation and you can see
the rivets and the rocks and what caused those rivets in the rocks was compound
pounding of the ocean hitting that rock over and over and over again. Over and
over, compound pounding against that rock and over over and over again. Over and over, compound pounding
against that rock. And over time that ocean breaks the rock down over time
where you can see the breakdown in a rock that water does hitting it. Think
about that over time. Not one time when the water hits it, not two times, not
five times. When you add up years and years and years of that water hitting
the rock,
it breaks it down. And that's like getting through to your dream. You have to be like that water
hitting the rock I'm staring at right now, that over time that compound pounding breaks down the
barriers, breaks down the obstacles, breaks down anything in your way of getting to your dream.
So I'm sold out on all the strategies and tactics that I teach you but what I believe in completely is the power of compound pounding and here's the
crazy thing about most people they will give up on their dream before the
compounding has been allowed to kick in. So they'll work at it and they'll work at
it and they'll work at it and they don't see the breakthrough but what they don't
understand is that rock was getting ready to break if you just keep pounding against it.
But because most people don't see the evidence, see if you watch that water hit that rock
over one day, you're going to see no difference.
Two days, no difference.
Five days, no difference.
Maybe even a year, there's no difference.
Maybe even five years.
But you have the compound pounding of every wave hitting that rock over and over again,
there's an inevitability to the breakdown of the rock.
That's true of your goals and dreams as well.
There's an inevitability to success.
It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when when we adopt one more, when we adopt
compound pounding.
Do you know the kind of confidence you begin to have when you just accept in your life
that I am going to be relentless, I'm always going to do extra, and you accept the fact that all
things break down over time. All the barriers will go away, all the obstacles
will go away, everything in your way will go away if you keep after it over an
extended period of time. Most people overestimate what they can do in a year.
They do. They set up goals for a year and people overestimate what they can do in a year.
They do.
They set up goals for a year and they overestimate
where they're gonna get to.
And they dramatically underestimate
what they can do in a decade.
And the reason for that is most people
don't understand the power of compound pounding.
So I want you to accept today
that you're gonna be relentless,
that you're gonna keep coming,
that you're like a dripping faucet.
You're like those waves hitting the rock.
Other people are gonna get slowed down. Other people are gonna take
a break. Other people are gonna flinch. Other people are gonna cool it. Other
people are gonna believe they've made it or maybe some people are gonna believe
they can't make it but you're gonna be relentless. You're gonna be repetitious.
You may not be the fastest. You may not be the smartest. You may not be the
strongest. You may not be the most beautiful. You may not have the most
articulate thoughts and ideas in the world, but what you got is compound pounding.
What you got is one more.
And when they get weak, you just keep comping.
When they flinch, you blow their doors off.
That's how you win in life, is you keep getting after it and keep getting it after until the
job gets done.
So a lot of people can be excited for a day, they can be excited for a month, some people
can be excited for a year or two or three years.
But the winners, they stay excited as long as it takes to get the job done.
They keep after it until the job gets done. They never stop. They're always
after it and that's where their strength comes from. That's where their
confidence comes from is knowing their capacity to keep coming at you and that
all your competition is gonna get weak. They're gonna get tired. They're gonna
surrender. They're gonna give in. they're gonna think they made it,
they're gonna take a break, they're gonna cool it, and you just keep coming. It's
just nature, just like the nature of the ocean against that rock, it's just nature
that you run down your dream, that you knock down your dream. I want you to
implement all the things that I teach on Max Out, all the tactics, all the
strategy, but more than anything I want you to buy into the fact of an inevitability of you winning. That it's inevitable. That it
might not be a year or two years or three years, but you're going to stay excited and you're going
to keep doing one more until the job gets done. Today's message is very simple. You can win.
You should win and you will win. I want you to feel this. You will win if you just keep coming.
You keep getting after it.
You keep doing one more.
You can control this.
You can't control all the exterior things in your life.
People's attitudes, how they treat you, who cancels on you, who changes their mind, who
hates on you, who lets you down.
But you can control this.
You can always go 46 instead of 45.
You can always go 11 instead of 10. You can always go 11 instead of 10.
You can always make the next phone call.
Always do one more meeting.
Always do one more.
Always, always, always.
And I promise you, you will knock down that rock that's in between you and your dream
and make them come true.
Today's really simple.
You're going to knock down whatever that rock is that's in between you and your dream.
You're going to keep after it.
You're going to be relentless.
You're not going after it. You're gonna be relentless. You're not gonna give in. You're gonna be the person
who stays excited until the entire job gets done, until that dream is real and
you know long term all these other people they're gonna flinch, they're gonna
get weak and you won't. You've adopted a max-out mindset and I want to remind you
today to stay connected with me. I want you to win. Hope you can feel it today. I
want to break it down to its most simple form, which is that you use
nature to your advantage. You use the force of you, the force of effort, the
force of sustained effort over an extended period of time to wear out the
obstacles in front of you in your dream. I want you to feel the confidence that
comes with it. I'm telling you, look at me, listen to me. You're gonna do this. You're gonna win if, and it's a big if, if you'll just adopt
it. It ought to be written everywhere. One more, one more, max out, everywhere you
can put it. It's inevitable. It's not if anymore. It's just when.