55 Inspirational David Goggins Quotes to Get You Out of Your Comfort Zone

David Goggins' book cover for 'Can't Hurt Me'

David Goggins is a retired Navy SEAL, ultramarathon runner, ultra-distance cyclist, triathlete, public speaker and published author. Goggins has long been considered one of the world's best ultra-endurance athletes. Aside from completing more than seventy ultra-distance races, he is also the former Guinness World Record holder for completing 4,030 pull-ups in seventeen hours.

Many refer to Goggins in the present as "the toughest man alive," but it wasn't always that way. Between abuse, bullying, poverty, poor grades and health struggles, Goggins had his fair share of hardships growing up. After failing the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), Goggins took this as a major wake-up call to turn his life around. 

Goggins famously said that after failing the ASVAB, he began brainwashing himself into craving discomfort, and as a result, he became tougher and more resilient. This very notion has been the foundation of his public speaking and why so many folks are inspired by his words. Here are 55 David Goggins quotes to help you embrace discomfort and unlock your full potential. 

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55 David Goggins Quotes

1. "Pain unlocks a secret doorway in the mind, one that leads to both peak performance and beautiful silence."

2. "Don't stop when you're tired, stop when you're done."

3. "Always be ready to adjust, recalibrate, and stay after it to become better, somehow."

4. "If you can get through things that you hate to do, on the other side is greatness."

5. "We all have the ability to come from nothing to something."

6. "The most important conversations you’ll ever have are the ones you’ll have with yourself."

7. "Suffering is a test. That's all it is. Suffering is the true test of life." 

8. "The only thing more contagious than a good attitude is a bad one." 

9. "You have to be willing to go to war with yourself and create a whole new identity." 

10. "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."

11. "We're either getting better or we're getting worse."

12. "In every failure there is something to be gained, even if it’s only practice for the next test you’ll have to take. Because that next test is coming. That’s a guarantee."

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13. "There is no more time to waste. Hours and days evaporate like creeks in the desert. That’s why it’s okay to be cruel to yourself as long as you realize you’re doing it to become better."

14. "The vast majority of us are slaves to our minds. Most don’t even make the first effort when it comes to mastering their thought process because it’s a never-ending chore and impossible to get right every time."\

15. "Analyze your schedule, kill your empty habits, burn out the bulls--t, and see what’s left."

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16. "Everyone fails sometimes and life isn’t supposed to be fair, much less bend to your every whim."

17. "It's a lot more than mind over matter. It takes relentless self-discipline to schedule suffering into your day, every day."

18. "From the time you take your first breath, you become eligible to die. You also become eligible to find your greatness and become the one warrior."

19. "The Buddha famously said that life is suffering. I’m not a Buddhist, but I know what he meant and so do you. To exist in this world, we must contend with humiliation, broken dreams, sadness, and loss. That’s just nature."

20. "When you think that you are done, you’re only 40% into what your body’s capable of doing. That’s just the limits that we put on ourselves."

21. "The more things you can do to get outside of that zone that makes you feel good, the stronger your mind is going to get. It’s not fun, but now my mind is used to it."

22. "Fear is my ultimate guide."

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23. "It’s funny, humans tend to hatch our most challenging goals and dreams, the ones that demand our greatest effort yet promise absolutely nothing when we are tucked into our comfort zones."

24. "We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training."

25. "It’s going to be hard work, discipline, and the non-cognitive skills – hard work, dedication, sacrifice – that will set you apart."

26. "The worst thing that can happen to a man is to become civilized."

27. "Pain unlocks a secret doorway in the mind, one that leads to both peak performance, and beautiful silence."

28. "Become a savage and live life on your own terms."

29. "Seeds burst from the inside out in a self-destructive ritual of new life."

30. "You may lose the battle of the morning but don't lose the war of the day."

31. "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."

32. "People take classes on self-help, mental toughness, breathing control – the only way to get tougher is to put yourself in hellacious situations."

33. "Mental toughness is a lifestyle."

34. "Life is the most brutal endurance sport of all time!"

35. "There is no more time to waste. Hours and days evaporate like creeks in the desert."

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36. "No one is going to come help you. No one is coming to save you."

37.  "It’s possible to transcend anything that doesn’t kill you."

38. "The hard part is getting to that point, because the ticket to victory often comes down to bringing your very best when you feel your worst."

39. "I thought I’d solved a problem when really I was creating new ones by taking the path of least resistance."

40. "If you choose to do something, attack it."

41. "Before you start a goal – let’s take care of our insecurities because they are going to surface when you put yourself in the crucible and you’re suffering."

42. "Denial is the ultimate comfort zone."

43. "No matter who you are, who your parents are or were, where you live, what you do for a living, or how much money you have, you’re probably living at about 40 percent of your true capability."

44. "You have to build calluses on your brain just like how you build calluses on your hands. Calluses your mind through pain and suffering."

45. "It’s a lot more than mind over matter. It takes relentless self-discipline to schedule suffering into your day, every day."

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46. "Refused to compromise who I was to conform to their unwritten rules."

47. "Your entitled mind is dead weight. Cut it loose. Don’t focus on what you think you deserve. Take aim on what you are willing to earn!"

48. "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."

49. "Greatness pulls mediocrity into the mud. Get out there and get after it."

50. "A warrior is not a person that carries a gun. The biggest war you ever go through is right between your own ears. It’s in your mind. We’re all going through a war in our mind, and we have to callus our mind to fight that war and to win that war."

51. "I didn’t hang my head, because injuries happen. I’d given it everything I had and when you handle business like that, your effort will not go unnoticed."

52. "You can tolerate doubt as a backseat driver, but if you put doubt in the pilot’s seat, defeat is guaranteed."

53. "The only way we can change is to be real with ourselves."

54. "In every failure a lot of good things will have happened, and we must acknowledge them."

55. "The human body can withstand and accomplish a hell of a lot more than most of us think possible, and that it all begins and ends in the mind."

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