30+ David Goggins Quotes to Unlock Your Unstoppable Inner Potential

If you’re looking for the kind of no nonsense motivation that can push you to toughen your mind and your body, look no further than the words of David Goggins.

Who is David Goggins?

David Goggins is a retired U.S. Navy SEAL, triathlete, ultra distance cyclist, ultra marathon runner, motivational speaker, and bestselling author. Goggins weighed nearly 300 lbs. when he first expressed interest in the SEAL program. After being told he was too heavy to qualify, he returned in less than three months weighing 190 lbs. He once held the Guinness World Record for the highest number of pull-ups completed in 24 hours. He won the Infinitus 88k in 12 hours, almost 20 minutes ahead of the second place finisher.

Goggins is a “take-no-prisoners” kind of motivator, a philosophy he espouses in detail in his fantastic bestselling memoir, Can’t Hurt Me. His philosophy in life is deeply rooted in the idea that self-belief and hard work are at the very core of accomplishing anything in life.

David Goggins quotes about…

Below are 31 explosive David Goggins quotes that are sure to help you find your motivation to push past any obstacle life may throw at you.

Positive Self-Talk

1. The most important conversations you’ll ever have are the ones you’ll have with yourself.
2. I became the roughest critic in the world on myself, and that’s what truly changed me.
3. It’s easier to accept the fact that you’re just not good enough. We all have a lot more than we think we have.
4. When you look in the mirror, that’s the one person that you cannot lie to.
5. Self-talk and visualization are the two keys to my success.
6. We live in an external world. Everything, you have to see it, touch it. If you can for the rest of your life, live inside yourself – to find greatness, you have to go inside.
   

Self-Discovery

7. You gotta start your journey. It may suck, but eventually you will come out the other side on top.
8. Life is one big tug of war between mediocrity and trying to find your best self.
9. Life is a battle between trying to find more of yourself knowing that the real you is afraid, likes comfort, likes to be patted on the back, and doing what you need to do to get better.
10. Always be willing to embrace ignorance and become the dumb fuck in the classroom again, because that is the only way to expand your body of knowledge and body of work. It’s the only way to expand your mind.
    

Discipline

11. It’s possible to transcend anything that doesn’t kill you.
12. We’re either getting better or we’re getting worse.
13. I don’t stop when I’m tired. I stop when I’m done.
14. Nobody cares what you did yesterday. What have you done today to better yourself?
15. Most of this generation quits the second they get talked to. It’s so easy to be great nowadays because most people are just weak, If you have any mental toughness, any fraction of self-discipline – the ability to not want to do it, but still do it – you’ll be successful.
16. I hated jumping out of airplanes, I hated shooting guns, I hated the job as a Navy SEAL – but I did it because I wanted to change myself. Everything you do, I’m not really comfortable doing, but if you choose to go that route, to be a navy seal, you might as well go be the hardest motherfucker in the world.
17. Don’t worry about the elements around you and what’s going on. You gotta get out there and get it.
    

Honesty

18. The things that we decide to run from are the truth. When you make excuses, you’re running from the truth.
19. We like to live our lives on social media with lies about ourselves about how great we are. Get to the source! Fix the problem.
20. You will never learn from people if you always tap dance around the truth.
    

Motivation

21. Motivation is crap. Motivation comes and goes. When you’re driven, whatever is in front of you will get destroyed.
22. Be more than motivated, be more than driven, become literally obsessed to the point where people think you’re fucking nuts.
23. In the military we always say we don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.
24. The reason it’s important to push hardest when you want to quit the most is because it helps you callous your mind. It’s the same reason why you have to do your best work when you are the least motivated.
25. For me to fix this, I gotta read my book. Okay, I’m afraid of my shadow. How can I overcome that? – Go in the military. Get your ass kicked. Do things you hate to do. Be uncomfortable every fucking day of your life.
26. You want to be uncommon amongst uncommon people. Period.
    

Suffering

26. Suffering is a test. That’s all it is. Suffering is the true test of life.
27. A lot of us don’t know about another world that exists for us because it’s on the other side of suffering. That’s the real growth in life.
28. I want you to know that I’m comfortable being very uncomfortable.
29. Everybody wants a quick fix like 6 minute abs – you may get some results from it, but those results won’t be permanent. The permanent results come from you having to suffer. You have to make that a tattoo on your brain so that when the hard time comes again, you don’t forget it.
30. I’ve been guided by something much more powerful: The path of most resistance. Talent, not required.
31. My happiness is my reflection on the suffering during my journey and knowing that I never quit nor was I guided by anybody on this earth.