A Dangerous Mindset
David Goggins is a retired Navy Seal and accomplished endurance athlete. He shares a story about coming out of a broken home and overcoming mental blocks through radical physical feats. Can’t Hurt Me, his recent memoir, describes his use of mental toughness to persevere against all odds to become a successful Seal and athlete. While his story and strength may be inspiring, they inadvertently promote dangerous perspectives on health and wellness.
As Goggins continues to share his story at schools and take on the position of a role model, I think it’s important to put his messages into the context of someone who continues to struggle’s with some form of repressed emotional trauma.
“David chooses to run the toughest races and put himself through some of the hardest military training programs in the country for no other reason than to see what he’s made of. For him, physical and mental suffering are a journey of self-discovery, no other experience makes him feel more clear, focused and alive.” https://davidgoggins.com/about/
Requiring pain to feel alive shouldn’t be promoted to young people as something to strive for. In fact, Goggins himself is first to share the vulnerability of his feelings disclosing a clear lack of self respect, yet neither he nor his promotors connect this back to the dark side of his athletic accomplishments.
His speaking engagements and public appearance promote the sickness that drives him as an inspirational message. The problem here is not with Goggins himself or even his story, which is truly inspirational in the sense that he believed in himself and took the necessary steps to get out of what would otherwise be described as a hopeless situation. The danger of Goggins is held in the manner that his story is being marketed and utilized as motivational material.
The problem with Goggins story as motivation, is that his accomplishments are influenced and driven by internal sickness. The danger of Goggins is a concept slowly engraining itself into the meaning of athletic endurance. There’s a call here for the world of wellness to take a stance and simply acknowledge the state of emotional distress that accompanies the majority of these types of motivational messages. The idea that humans can and should “overcome” the mind to obtain extreme physical feats is gaining in popularity. Training the mind to purely ignore the body is a form of self disrespect.
There’s can be a fine line between persevering through punishment and joyfully pushing oneself to the limits. The culture of extreme workouts is on the rise. I call on all of us to take this an opportunity to honor and respect the limits of motivation in a way that protects the spirit and keeps emotions of love alive.
Evaluating Motivation
Everyone knows about the benefits to exercise, but do we take the time to think about why we’re doing it and how that mindset can effect the whole of our being? Exercising is most commonly studied for improving physical health, but what about the mind and the spirit? Thinking about the human need to move in a holistic way means addressing the motivation behind the exercise itself. There’s a huge difference between having a mindset of fear or a mindset of love.
In our society exercising out of fear is normal. When the mind uses motivational drive based in fear it drains the spirit of joy and decreases overall emotional wellness. Because of the lack of pleasure involved in a fear based system, it requires a larger amount of motivational drive to get started. When fuel is based in fear, there’s a reliance on a certain level of negative energy is need to keep up the habit in place.
Motivation: “The reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way.”
Wellness: “The state of being in good health, especially as an actively pursued goal.”