I was such an ADD unguent in my life and I thought I was such an a-hole with nowhere to go with so many issues and so many things that climb over and overcome but the thing about it is we all have the ability to come from nothing to something I was 300 pounds and my goal was to be a Navy SEAL impossible goal but what if I could you have to be willing to suffer to get to the other side you know the other side of suffering is a whole nother world that people have no
idea that even exists from the very beginning how I became Who I am the day I grew up very soft very insecure I was beat as a child a lot not only physically but also mentally my dad was an alcoholic so it transferred to him being very abusive me growing up not just to me but also my mother and from that my foundation that early age was cracked I had a very cracked foundation growing up so with the crack foundation and my mom having a crack foundation I had no one to really you know show
me the ropes show me the way and so we went from that kind of crack foundation to another crack foundation I went to a small town in Indiana and Brazilian and there was about five black families there so being called [ __ ] was something that happened regularly I had a lot of friends but also you know when you have a crack foundation the only thing you really see is the negative you don't see a lot of people that like you all you see is that people that don't like you so that crack foundation just
kept on getting more and more cracked and throughout the years I developed a stutter had a lot of issues with people social anxiety I copied all through school I had learned disability so I changed a lot going through school so my foundation continued to get cracked and when you get to that point in your life and no one is there to really help you out you have to figure some things out so what made me who I am today is basically that cracked foundation and not liking it so I had to learn how to mend
that cracked foundation alone now what happens is you have to really develop a lot of mental toughness but to me mental toughness wasn't enough I had to really develop a calloused mind so I was a victim mentality I was a victim everybody messed my life up my dad society my mom whatever maybe I was dealt a bad hand and so it gives you a victim mentality so I developed a way to get over the victims mentality it was through callous in your minds so I was literally callous and over the victims mentality through out working
all my faults so I developed a work ethic that became known as you know what it is now that's how I got this world toughest man because I I'm not the best person to run I let the smartest I'm not anything but I learned to outwork everybody around me and that's how I got to romantic a so I don't live a very glamorous life at all I live very uncomfortable to a lot of people it's not that I'm broke it's not that I don't have the means to do it it's like a boxer a boxer
may have a four million dollar house but before a big fight he may go away to the mountains for about two months to Train totally secluded desolate world may live on a cot may live on the ground what that boxers doing is he's trying to form his mentality he's trying to get that mentality to a very Granum allistic state so he goes inside that ring his mentality is ready to do whatever it takes to win that boxing match so what I realized from my foundation growing up was that a very soft soft mind and I
live that way now like that box our training for that big fight you know I lived that way all the time so always I'm always sharpening my sword and how I sharpen my swords I have a mentality but my refrigerator is never full I've never arrived and every time I get close to the top of the mountain I fall back down on purpose I believe that true growth is that scratch starting from scratch is true growth you have to have friction in your life there has to be friction in your life for you to be
able to move forward so many people probably the hardest man on the planet I got to that point from having a never-ending work ethic so if you want anything in life a lot of people we live in a society right now where mediocrity is often rewarded like mediocrity is almost a standard and for me if you live that way that's where you could be a so let's say you have 10 people you have 10 people in all of them are mediocre and you beat those 10 people in a race or at work whatever maybe you're
really still mediocre what we do in life is reset our standards to everybody else what we do in life is we look at what someone did before us we look at his standard I'm looking in by standards I set my own standard and how I became this whatever people call the hardest man on the planet is I literally set my own standards I started to reinvent the wheel for myself I didn't follow the crowd whenever the crowd was denied in fall I did what I had to do to get ready to go and in doing
that that's where true growth is is finding yourself I'm not trying to be like Michael Jordan or that Tiger Woods or anybody else I said like David gagas and through that you can find out what you're made of and you are trying to conquer yourself and that's how I got this title my advice to people who are going through hard times a lot people know my story I come from a very very very humble beginning you have to be open with that like friends and social media if you're on social media and what they do
is they show you the best side of him everybody on the social media everybody out here in this world if you have friends everybody has two sides to him we decide that we want you to see which is our best side our best side but we also have this side that we're not working on the Cybernet working on is that side there we learn no one to see like a social media everybody posts where they're going you know I'm going here for vacation this is me in the gym this is me here this is me
here what I do is I post my bad side I want I let everybody know I'm this I'm this something this I have to work on all these things it's okay so the first thing is you gotta accept the fact that everybody judging you you Justin yourself it is okay to be dumped it's okay to not be exactly like everybody else it's not you know it's okay to not follow the crowd so that's the that's the one thing I would tell people is don't worry about everybody else is doing worry about what you're doing focus
on what you're doing cuz everybody else out there everybody judging you they also have problems themselves and that's what I realized myself so I stopped comparing myself to everybody else I just compare myself to me about my own hero I'm going hero I believe that a lot more people can relate to the struggle a lot more than the success I it people relate a lot more to that you know I relate a lot more to a person who's the underdog most of us in this world are underdogs there's very few of us out here who
are the one-percenters those one percenters are those people who are like the CEOs these people who are like the best basketball the best golfer very few people are there it's those people who are at the very bottom in the middle who are trying to get there it's all about work ethic so everybody likes the underdog that's why that whole rocky story everybody loves a rocky story but the thing about it is to develop that rocky story you gotta work your ass off and not many people are willing to do that part of it that's that's
the hard part about overcoming the odds overcoming yourself is you have to create a rocky story so why I like the rocky feeling so much is when I was growing up I didn't have much of a role model growing up so in between my cheating and me ditching school and all these things I got obsessed with people that I saw my life in their life and I got obsessed with people who struggled but people who were at the bottom of the daggone sewer I got obsessed with watching these people and I got obsessed with watching
Rocky one round 14 and the reason why this specific round is even to this day I'm 43 years old to this day push pills my body is I can go back to where I was 10 11 12 years old whenever the movie came out I remember my first time watching it and I was watching round 14 of Rocky one I'll never forget watching this guy who was rocky getting his butt kicked Apollo Creed was just knocking him down beating him up and all he wanted to do was go to distance and a lot of people
this makes no sense to them but for a kid who's looking for strength who's looking for like is is it possible you're looking for is it possible can I pull off the impossible and me watching this film that's what I saw so it was a no-name boxer against the best boxer in the world who's Apollo Creed and I watched this guy in the ring who's Rocky is getting his butt kicked falling down getting up in the 14th round Apollo is like just killing this guy but also Apollo's tired he's extremely tired but Apollo knocks him
down in the 14th rounds like the 30th time and even Rocky's coach Mickey is telling rocky to stay down and Apollo turns around he turns around he thinks that he got this guy he thinks he beat him he thinks he finally took this guy out this guy who's kept coming at him and coming at him coming at him Apollo Creed turns around puts his arms in the air he turns his back to rocky just assuming he's down I got him everybody in the crowd saying it's data everybody this guy is climbing the ropes to get
back up totally destroyed nothing left but he found something this the thing about it he found something and I watched this guy get up and once he gets up a power creep turns around and sees this in the look I saw most people don't even see this the look I saw on Apollo Creed's face was this look of total all of who the hell are you Who am I fighting it looked like a paltry soul left his body and rocky got his gloves emotion and to come on and Apollo Creed put his head down and
shook his head why that scene resonates with me so much was I was such an a dungeon in my life and I thought I was such an a-hole we're nowhere to go with so many issues and so many things that climb over and over come on my own I wanted every obstacle and every person ever doubted me to look like Apollo Creed I wanted the people whoever it was people obstacles whatever to look at me like this guy's going to continue after me I wanted with that but rocky had this ability to keep getting up
I don't care if I win I don't care from the best it's not being the hardest man in the world I just want to keep coming after you so through years in years and years of visualizing that scene of that guy just getting up it's just a movie to some people but to me it became what my reality had to become I had to become that guy who can run on broken legs going through hell week who can endure the most pain the most suffering to get where I have to go I'm gonna have to
be that guy a lot of people will never understand that because a lot of people just don't have that kind of mindset but we all have I came from nothing but the thing about it is we all have the ability to come from nothing just something but it takes that kind of spirit takes that kind of spirit the cookie jar - cookie jar something that I developed years ago so what happens to me happens to all of us in situations we get putting these two so I've in my whole life I've been put in struggles
I've put myself in struggles I've purposely put obstacles in front of me to see how I'm gonna feel like for instance I've run 205 miles at one time non-stop do you know what goes through your mind when your goal is to run over 200 miles and you're at Mile 100 you're a mile 100 you run for over 24 hours and your body is broken you're destroyed you have nothing left but you have a hundred plus more miles to go how do you find more so I developed this thing called the cookie jar and the cookie
jar is a reminder Sall it is it's a reminder even the hardest person in the planet Earth we forget how badass we are when times get hard when times get hard your mind spazzes out it freaks out it goes somewhere else we forget that cookie jar you got take one second take one second and that cookie jar has all these things in it all the things you overcame all the things that you suffer through all the things that got in your way and you fought through so you go in your mental cookie jar when you're
going through bad times and you want to quit you want to bail out you think about it okay David would you do you went through to hell weeks you went through Ranger School you went through this you went through that it's a reminder it's a reminder that you are that badass and it's as if that's all it is the cookie jar is you take one second when you're an extreme environment and your mind and your body are saying we're done we need to quit you can't remind yourself hang on a second I've overcome a hell
of a lot more than this and I have the strength to persevere to move on to not be mediocre to not settle for what's in front of me to overcome the odds the would--if mentality is a mentality of a lot of us in this world have people who say we cannot do something you can't do it you're too short you look a certain way you act a certain way you're not smart enough I hit that roadblock every time os 300 pounds I'll never forget I was 300 pounds I went for 175 or 300 pounds and
my goal was to be a Navy SEAL impossible goal and every Navy recruiter that saw me said that besides one every cruder said there's no way man you're 297 pounds and you got to lose so much weight so fast I talked to one recruiter I never forget getting back in my truck and he says you cannot do this I got in my truck and I said to myself but what if I could what if I could pull off this miracle how will I feel at the very end if I can defy all the odds the
would--if mentality is this guy told me I was a 36 african-american Navy Seal and Navy SEAL history in over 70 years this guy told me there's only 35 African Americans to ever be a Navy SEAL he was pretty much telling me you ain't got what it takes I took that and said what if I can be the 36 versus taking what he said all the negativity he's putting on me because he can't he can't imagine himself doing what I'm about to do so most people who can't imagine it they they reflect it's like a mirror
they put that right on you if they can't see themselves doing it I can't see you doing it I take that mirror and I totally discard it and I say would if I can be the 36 person to never do it so I use all their negativity as positivity and fuel to get me trying you to go what drives me today is be my best and be my best is a never ending journey a lot of people call me obsessed that's fine I probably am obsessed when you finally realize like for me that humble beginning
I had when you realize that I could have literally given up and right now at 43 I can still be a 300-pound man spraying for cockroaches it's truly amazing that a lot of us walk this planet earth being a fraction of what we're capable of being I look back on last 24 years old and that could have been my 100% if I chose to take the path of least resistance that could have been 100% never knowing that in that 300-pound body the kid who couldn't read all this other stuff for Gary level is now a
person that's been through almost every Special Ops train in the world has broke several records and has continued to grow once she realized was on the other side of that that will keep you I'm the most driven person in the world because I realized that I was leaving so much on the table I was leaving so much on the table never knowing that inside that fat guy was this person here and once you peel the crop you know peel that crust away and see who you really are you open your mind to holding of the
world so I've opened my mind up to hold another world that most people can't even fathom because they haven't dug deep into their own personal problems so they think people think I'm crazy because I found a whole other way of living I think they're crazy for never even trying to get to the other side of whatever's in front of them so what drives me every day it's finding more of myself so highly suggested someone of breaking the habit of constantly making excuses is do something every day that sucks there's a there's a saying out there
the saying that says triple down on your strengths tripling down on your strengths does one thing to you makes you very comfortable it makes you very strong at what you're good at so why people have excuses is that's the world they live in they live in a world where if they're good at running all they do is run if they're good at reading all they do is read so the excuse world comes up is because when the world life doesn't give a damn what you're good at this is going to put challenges in front of
you so that challenge comes up that you're not great at the first thing the whole triple down on your strengths mentality does is it forces you to say I'm not good at it so I'm not going to do it versus saying I'm not good at it I'm going to be great at it I'm going to figure out I'm gonna put the work that's how you start to callus your mind these excuses that we're making are just because we're not good at it so it makes us feel insecure it makes us feel a certain way that's
why I tell everybody you cannot fix anything in life until you fix yourself a lot of people out here give great great hi to the do you know in your life that give great advice they give the best advice on the planet Earth but your life's all jacked up no one looks inside themselves because what they see inside is ugly it's uglies full of lies is full of secrets it's full of insecurities once you dive into that you have no more excuses because you'll start ripping away those layers of insecurities you know the other end
of those layers is exactly who you truly are so do something every day that sucks get outside your comfort zone triple down on your weaknesses not your strengths that's how you grow that's how you stop making excuses so my books coming out December 4th it's called can't hurt me wild it can't hurt me is this book is a self-help memoir we have a whole bunch of self-help books out there there are five step pro you know 5 step 5 step this five step desk mine is not a five step program mine is about getting to
the root of the problem and the root of the problem is yourself you have to master your own mind and once you've mastered your mind you know your own mind everything else it's taken care of so can hurt me is about life it's about you it's about my mentality but you get to develop your own mentality so life is full of people who are getting bullied people who aren't ones to get insecure people are going through problems a lot of problems but if you had this mentality that you start to develop of you can't hurt
me Russell when I was going through SEAL training all the train that went through it's what you say to yourself on a daily basis if you say you can't hurt me can't hurt me every time I got my ass kicked in everything I did whether it be a fight or a test or going through SEAL training the Ranger school can't hurt me can't hurt me can't hurt me it starts to get in your mind and before you know it it's the truth so when you fail you fall on your ass somebody bullies you whatever is
going on your life can't hurt me because why that stands why that saying is true it's not because you say it you have to put the work in to develop that calloused mind to believe it's true so a lot of people want to know what I say to myself when I'm out here doing these long events myself talk so so really saying yourself David when you're out there and you're at Mile 75 of 135 mile run through Death Valley well I tell myself back in the day I was the weakest person that God ever created
that's what I thought I've made this man to be the hardest man gotta be created that's what I tell myself I tell myself I'm the hardest man that gotta be treated is it true I don't care if it's true or not I believe it but a lot of people like these books self talk visualization self talk doesn't mean anything you can tell yourself you're the best person ever live self talk without the work without the work it's just lies so I'm telling myself I'm the hardest man on the planet when I'm in the worst situation
possible I'm going back to the three hours I put into training every day I'm going back to the 3:00 a.m. wake-up call looking at my running shoes thinking God dog 75 days in the road no days off running 15 miles a day I don't want to do it and you lace them up so when I'm in that horrible spot now I'm talking to myself I'm also recalling all the training sessions all the years all the hard work so when I talk to myself that way that self-talk is real it's not lies because if you're taking
the test in school and you have instead you for it and you said well I pass this test chances are you're gonna fail it because you haven't put the time in to get you know the result of passing so self-talk of shoes but putting the work in is bigger there's a lot of people in life who are theorists their words they're people who it may be that guy in the corner who's at a library all day long old man with gray hair he's the master than mine he mastered the mind of being a theorist he
got all these books I read about how the brain is supposed to work that's the theorist he has all these theories on how it's supposed to be done you want to be a practitioner in life a lot of people who study theories will put these bars these invisible bars and barriers on your mind about what we can and cannot achieve as human beings that's a theorist a practitioner will listen to a man like a theorist and defy the odds they'll never be a theorist be a practitioner be a guy who goes out there actually does
the work put yourself in situations like when I was going through hell week I got to I got to see where my mind was it's a hundred thirty hours I would see her thirty hours at our 48-72 your mind is a mess you're all over the place a theorist would tell me what he thinks is going to happen a practitioner dives into suffering and as he's suffering he's then writing the book while he's suffering it's easy to write a book while you were in a nice 72-degree library flipping the page a practitioner writes a book
when he's in the hill when he's in suffering when it's 50 degree water everybody's quitting it's not coming out your nose that's how you really start to figure out what the mind and body are capable of don't read a book about it don't be with some man rose put yourself in the environment see how you start to talk to yourself in the worst times in the worst situations and that's how you start to develop that real self talk that real visualization the real tools to get through those hard times you have to be willing to
suffer to get to the other side you know the other side of suffering is a whole nother world that people have no idea that even exists [Music] [Music]
