RL 36: Is Deliberate Discomfort Medicine?
RL 36: Is Deliberate Discomfort Medicine?
Pain is weakness leaving the body... it says so on the USMC recruiting posters!
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For Christmas, I received a stack of books from my partner.
I requested several books about business and a book by a Navy SEAL named David Goggins - “Can’t Hurt Me” (disclaimer: that’s an Amazon affiliate link, I get commission if you click and purchase).
The military has a healthy culture of teasing other branches of service - typically as a perverse way of bonding.
The lesser branches of service would tell you that Marines are crayon-eating knuckle-draggers, which is mostly untrue (you should try a blue crayon, they’re tasty).
So I’m skeptical when I see books by Navy SEALS because the book-writing trope is one we love to rib them about.
Despite my skepticism, the book had an outrageous number of five-star reviews on Amazon - 64,000 of them! I asked for it for Christmas and quickly understood the hype - I ripped through it in about three days.
Background
David Goggins came from a very rough beginning.
He was the subject of abuse by his father, racism from his peers, and abject poverty.
As an adult, he was overweight and working a dead-end job until he decided to drop 100 lbs in 30 days to enlist in the Navy and become a SEAL.
His transformation was remarkable - from learning to swim to completing basic SEAL training on broken legs - it’s a wild read.
What strikes me about the book is his wholehearted belief that the mind is the only thing that keeps us from achieving our potential. We are capable of much more than we believe, but the limiting beliefs in our heads hold us back from finding our true potential.
Why does he believe this?
Goggins ran the notorious Badwater ultramarathon - 130 miles through Death Valley.
After finishing the race, he discovered that he had a small hole in his heart for his entire life that had limited his physical abilities.
Wild.
The book’s call to action is routinely doing uncomfortable things that push our perceived limits.
So, I am running an experiment…
In 2022, I hit a low point in my entrepreneurial endeavor.
I wasn’t sure what the next steps would look like, but I knew I was nowhere near as good an entrepreneur as I wanted to be.
I knew that startups are emotionally draining rollercoasters - the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.
I knew that business and life reward those who do uncomfortable things consistently. Delaying gratification is the only surefire way to achieve massive returns.
In the Marine Corps, I did uncomfortable things as part of my work, but since departing the service, I actively avoided them.
I felt a need to rebuild my mental toughness, so I started running.
I hate running.
It is one of my least favorite endeavors.
So I started running to build back some mental toughness.
It worked.
I felt more resilient because I pushed myself past my perceived limits. My longest run of the year was 8 miles… until I read the David Goggins book and ran 9 in the rain on New Years’ Eve.
My new discomfort routine
Every morning for the last week, I have taken a cold shower when I first get out of bed.
There’s scientific evidence that it’s good for you - Andrew Huberman has been beating the drums about cold showers first thing in the AM recently.
Here’s what I’ve found:
The worst part of my day is over within 3 minutes.
It’s an opportunity to practice discipline when I’m most prepared to follow through on it.
It feels pretty awesome when finished.
We’ll see where we end up with this.
Hopefully, I don’t deliberately torture myself in extremis.
For the next few weeks, however, I am doing challenging things to build mental toughness.
What are you doing to build mental toughness?
Is anyone on the cold shower grind?
LMK by replying directly to this email.
Best,
Brendan
Great read Brendan.
On the wall in the lower boxing room at the Air Force Academy, it reads “Tough times don’t last. Tough people do.” It’s not a bad thing to remind ourselves of that everyday, however you do it.
I don’t know any successful person who doesn’t practice daily discipline and self determination at some point in their day.
Go get ‘em.