Too Short for a Blog Post, Too Long for a Tweet 516

 

Here are a couple of excerpts from a book I recently read, "Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds," David Goggins.

Steam billowed all around me. It rippled off my skin and poured from my soul. What started as a spontaneous venting session had become a solo intervention. 

“It’s on you,” I said. “Yeah, I know sh*t is fucked up. I know what you’ve been through. I was there, b*tch! Merry f*cking Christmas. Nobody is coming to save your *ss! Not your mommy, not Wilmoth. Nobody! It’s up to you!” 

By the time I was done talking, I was shaved clean. Water pearled on my scalp, streamed from my forehead, and dripped down the bridge of my nose. I looked different, and for the first time, I’d held myself accountable. A new ritual was born, one that stayed with me for years. It would help me get my grades up, whip my sorry *ss into shape, and see me through graduation and into the Air Force. 

The ritual was simple. I’d shave my face and scalp every night, get loud, and get real. I set goals, wrote them on Post-It notes, and tagged them to what I now call the Accountability Mirror, because each day I’d hold myself accountable to the goals I’d set. 

See, most civilians don’t understand that you need a certain level of callousness to do the job we were being trained to do. To live in a brutal world, you have to accept cold-blooded truths. I’m not saying it’s good. I’m not necessarily proud of it. But special ops is a calloused world and it demands a calloused mind.