One of the first pieces of advice I was given came from my grandmother:

“If in doubt, don't do it.”

The second came from attending Philosophy classes when I need guidance (as I often do). If at a loss or confused in any situation, ask yourself this:

“What would a wise person do?”

Armed with those two bits of advise, I've navigated through my life to varying degrees of success (and failure). Then I encountered the philosophies and tips/pointers of both Mel Robbins and David Goggins, both of which made me stop, think, and reevaluate my life's journey from somewhat functional working adult to my subsequent downfall and where I am now.

For the sake of this post, the question has changed slightly (for the assumption that David Goggins is a wise man, which I think he is):

“What would Goggins do?"

Here's what I learned from listening to David Goggins (America's Black Chuck Norris) talking to various people (including Andrew Huberman and Joe Rogan) during interviews:

Modern Wisdom

“You must continue to evolve.”

• Life is hard, really hard, and it will beat you down if you let it. It will hammer you in your weakest spot, no matter what that is. The trick (if there is one) is to not let it, to be harder and stronger, to the point where nothing can hurt you.
• Maybe you can't save yourself and you need to look to other people, but nobody's going to help you if you don't help yourself first.
• Ask yourself, “What's the next thing for me; how can I grow?”
• Don't sit on your laurels, enjoying your accomplishments for too long. Keep moving forward.
• It's not about making lots of money; it's about bettering yourself, pushing your limits and growing as a person. Growth doesn't come from massive paychecks working for a corporation.
• There's a lot of thought and effort in the training behind going from a born loser to a success. You don't just wake up one day and win the fight. There's a process to follow in order to get better. That process is never finished, no matter how good you get.
• You have to live your own life, your best life, without looking for gurus or idols. Everyone has their own purpose/mission in life and it differs greatly from person to person. Don't just follow blindly because something Goggins did worked for Goggins. You have to find out for yourself if it works for you too.
• I can't help you be better if I don't get better myself.
• I can't just achieve something once and have that be good enough. I have to keep at it.
• Stop hearing yourself talk; it's time to take action and walk the walk. Cut out the noise and get back to the lab that is your mind.
• Knowledge comes from a place of hardship and struggle, not from success. It's built from the ground up.
• No matter how you start, you can overcome your life's trauma (even if you come to it from being a scared, bullied and abused kid).
• No matter how hard you train/work, life is going to get tough. The key is not to quit, but to face it head on, no matter what.
• It's important to stay hungry and humble, to outdo yourself.
• Never get arrogant, no matter what you achieve and what recognition (accolades and medals)  you get.
• Mental toughness “is a perishable skill”: Going through training once (no matter in what area) doesn't mean it lasts forever. You have to keep practicing.
• Keep pushing yourself and your limits, to achieve mastery. Once you've achieved your goal, move the goal posts to something bigger, something more. There's always more you can do.
• You can procrastinate and overthink things as much as you want, but you're not going to move the needle or make progress if you do. You need to act now. It'll give you some confidence and pride in knowing that you could and did do it.
• Go the extra mile or two, even if for nobody but yourself. Don't think of it as extra miles (which can be overwhelming), but taking extra steps, one step at a time until there are no more to take. A lot of people can take those steps but choose not to. That's real failure.
• People lose their battles in the moments where life sucks, in their one-second decisions to pack it in and head for whatever is comfortable and familiar.  “Save yourself” isn't a thought that gets you through hard times. Instead of giving in, visualise the goal you want to achieve. (This links in with Mel Robbins' five second rule.)
• You have to learn to control (and triumph over) your mind and it's desire to flee from danger and unpleasantness. Otherwise, you're going to end up feeling shame, guilt, regret, etc. if you fail and you don't want to carry around that recrimination for a long time when you could endure a moment's unpleasantness to feel confidence, pride and glory. Don't live your life haunted by what you could have been or could have done because you failed the one second decisions.
• Don't look at failure as a final thing, but as a number of attempts you haven't yet got right yet. No matter how many times life knocks you down, get back up and give it another go until you don't get knocked down.
• Take your training seriously and push yourself, but not to the extreme of hurting yourself. Prepare adequately instead of trying to run 100 miles in one go if you've never run shorter distances beforehand.
• Learn to enjoy and welcome the pain of the hard processes. Embrace it. You can endure more than you think.
• Take all the abuse, criticism, hate and disappointment that dream-killers throw at you and find a way to turn it into fuel/inspiration to do better at whatever it is that's making your detractors mad.
• Be present in the moment. Put your phone away (out of sight) when you're not using it. It's a distraction that takes away from your achieving greatness.
• Successful people don't attack or try to tear down other successful people. Only people whom are in a bad/dark headspace do that. Remember that and rise above, be the better person.
• Take time to pull back and assess other people before you get your feelings hurt and react negatively.
• Motivation isn't constant or permanent. You have to learn how to perform without motivation (such as by using the five second rule). You don't need to have motivation in order to achieve your dreams and goals. “You have to be your best self when you're least motivated.” Motivation isn't always going to get you where you want to go.
• Without a well-organised and clear mind and a routine, discipline and motivation count for naught. If your life (everything around you) is not organised, you won't be disciplined. Meditation helps with that. Without a routine, you're lost.
• Start your daily routine with the things you most hate doing. Get them over and done with.

“You don't become confident by shouting affirmations in the mirror, but by having a stack of undeniable proof that you are whom you say you are. Outwork your self-doubt.”
 — Alex Hermosi

• You can wake up and pound your chest in the mirror and do all sorts of bullshit, but what really works is being able to look back at your day and list the things that you actually got done, the real hard work.
• You build belief in yourself through accomplishing daunting tasks. Confidence (self-belief) stems from competence. It has to be built.
• Dream big all you like, but you've got to do the work to make your dream a reality, instead of just a pie-in-the-sky daydream.
• Sometimes (maybe most of the time), nobody's going to come save you, so you have to be able to fix your own shit. You have to be your own fan and motivator.
• When you can go through all your embarrassing and horrible shit, lay it out and walk away unscathed afterwards, you're unstoppable.
• You have to do introspection and examine your personal baggage and demons.
• It's no good blaming other people for the shit they did to you that made/makes you weak or feel sorry for yourself. At some point, you're going to have to make your way through life on your own.
• Being ashamed of oneself is one of the biggest hurdles to success. Own your shit, but don't be ashamed of it. Confront it, fix it and make it better.
• You have to be tough to excel in a cruel world and you have to prepare yourself and your children for that, instead of sheltering them from reality. You can't get away from that.
• Life is full of suffering, most of it not chosen. You might as well practice for it with chosen suffering for your own betterment. Every day, do something that sucks.
• If you have no purpose in life, then you forgot that your purpose in life is self actualisation and betterment. If you wake up in the morning and avoid doing something you don't want to do, you don't care enough about yourself. Why are you not working on something for your own sake?
• There are so many people whom have the ability to make a better life for themselves and to be better versions of themselves, but plainly refuse to push past the doubts, excuses and experiences holding them back and keeping them mediocre.
• It's easy to achieve greatness if you're surrounded by weak people not prepared to put in the requisite effort because it sucks to do so.

To be continued ...