Detail Summary

In the book Can’t Hurt Me, the author David Goggins shares his life story and the struggles he faced. He shares his traumatic childhood, poverty, prejudice, and physical abuse. He dived deeper into his past and discussed racial and financial issues. Moreover, he shared how his family suffered because of his abusive father. But all of this didn’t stop him from working hard for his future, and he transformed himself from a depressed person into U.S. Armed Forces Icon.

Not only this, but in his childhood, he was overweight, but through self-discipline, he became a record-breaking athlete. He is one of the world’s top endurance athletes and once held the world record for the most pull-ups in 24 hours.  

Moreover, he has shared his 40% rule in his book to motivate the readers to reach their full potential and use their capabilities.

Can’t Hurt Me Summary Key Points

Want to achieve unimaginable goals? The truth of getting all the success is by consistently doing hard labor. No one can get all life’s luxuries and achieve all their goals in one night. It takes a year and a lot of hard work.

This book is an autobiography of the author sharing how he overcame abuse and poverty by becoming the world’s top endurance athlete.

Your past doesn’t define your future

The next thing in the Can’t Hurt me summary is that our past traumas make us stronger. By sharing his own life struggles, the author tries to tell the readers that our past traumas do not define our future. These life struggles make us stronger. You should learn from the challenges you face in your life.

According to Goggins, Life’s challenges are similar to weightlifting. The more we are able to raise and overcome, the better.

David Goggins had escaped his abusive father when he was a child, but the trauma he had suffered stayed with him well into his thirties. He was subjected to “toxic stress,” which caused him to perform abysmally in school, to the point that he was barely read.

Furthermore, he had a dead-end career in his twenties and began to cope with his feelings through food. He grew to be about 300 pounds in no time.

After seeing a documentary about the Navy SEALs, he grew determined to become a SEAL. Even though he was considerably over the 191-pound weight restriction, it didn’t stop him. In just three months, he lost 109 pounds. He stopped thinking of himself as a victim of circumstance and instead considered life “the ultimate training field.” 

Push yourself to reach your full potential

 To exist in this world, we must contend with humiliation, broken dreams, sadness, and loss.”
― David Goggins

If you think success comes overnight, wake up; you are dreaming. Because success requires a lot of hard work, patience, and consistency, which is what the author teaches us in his book.

The author David Goggins is an ultra-endurance athlete as well as a SEAL. He’s run day-long 100-mile races instead of marathons. When people ask him how he managed to accomplish so much, he answers it’s all due to his work ethic. But today’s society thinks that success is a piece of cake. They always want to follow an easy track. However, there is no quick fix when it comes to mastering oneself.

His ability to work hard is the reason he can accomplish so much. According to Goggins, those who claim they don’t have enough time to achieve ambitious life goals must be early risers. Goggins also tells us that the “governor” in our minds is part of our minds that keeps us back in life. It is aware of our limitations and warns us against exceeding them.

Besides this, David Goggins highlights a fundamental lesson he learned in Navy SEAL training: that everything in life can be a game of the mind and that all pain will pass. He claims that many people in Navy SEAL training don’t realize it’s a mental game, so they resign.

The 40% rule

According to the author, most people use only 40% of their capabilities and think that they tried hard for it. But what they don’t know is that success requires 100%.  You still have 60% to give, according to Goggins. It may seem strange, but we humans have a tendency to give up after exerting only 40% of our maximal ability. You can only truly improve after you let go of the mistaken belief that you have put out your best effort.

“When you think that you are done, you’re only 40% in to what your body’s capable of doing. That’s just the limits that we put on ourselves.”
― David Goggins

Pushing above that 40% mark will improve your pain tolerance and allow you to let go of your self-imposed limitations. This is known as the 40% rule.

You’ll unlock a higher performance level once you start pushing past the 40% that most of the rest of the world seems to be happy with. You’ll get amazing results if you do it this way.

You can also read the book Personality Isn’t Permanent Summary.

Who would I recommend the Can’t Hurt Me Summary to?

Can’t Hurt Me summary is recommended to those who live in their past and don’t even try to change their lives. The book will motivate them to change their fate and believe in themselves. Moreover, a young lady in an abusive relationship who tolerates all of this just to secure the relationship needs to read this book and start taking a stand for herself. It will empower her and make her strong and independent.

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