But remember what I said about trauma—it is in every cell in your body, and affects your decision-making in ways that you can’t even comprehend.
I keep bringing up the Goggins book, as much as I disliked it—the one thing I kept thinking about when I was reading that book is that he also grew up in a violent household from age 0 to 7, even more violent than mine.
All these triathlons he’s running—that’s not perseverance, that’s not willpower, that’s soothing, and it doesn’t take a psychology PhD to figure that out.
But we live in a society that values superhuman endurance and physical prowess and tolerance of pain, so a few million books later, he’s a hero.
by Jared Dillian
(Formatting mine)
For those who don't know, David Goggins is an ex-marine who wrote a book called Can't hurt me, about surviving a traumatic childhood and making it into the marines.
He's a real tough guy, "mind over matter", "just work harder” type. He frequently talks about running 80 miles on broken toes.
First, it's relieving to have someone else point out how much Goggins extreme success seems to be coping with his past. He may have physically survived, but I'm not sure he's emotionally survived.
Second, these kinds of people worry me. I don’t think therapy can help them. His way of coping gets him book deals and podcast interviews. With that much positive reinforcement, why would he ever change?
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