{"id":26867,"date":"2021-02-19T11:56:34","date_gmt":"2021-02-19T15:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=26867"},"modified":"2021-02-25T22:06:30","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T02:06:30","slug":"david-goggins-taking-souls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/david-goggins-taking-souls\/","title":{"rendered":"David Goggins: Taking Souls & Besting Your Opponent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What does David Goggins’ “taking souls” quote refer to? How did this philosophy help him get through Hell Week in the Navy SEALs?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When faced with Hell Week, Goggins adopted the idea of “taking souls,” or acknowledging your opponent and using your feelings about them as a way to fuel your motivation. David Goggins’ “taking souls” approach helped his group all get through Hell Week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more about David Goggins’ “taking souls” quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

David Goggins: Taking Souls<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When working toward your goals, it\u2019s easy to sabotage your success by doubting yourself. For example, you might feel intimidated by your opponents\u2014anyone who you think doubts your ability to succeed and makes you doubt yourself. This could be a boss, teacher, or coworker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, work to harness your feelings around that perceived doubt and use them to apply yourself and prove your opponent wrong. <\/strong>Goggins discusses how he developed this technique to survive Hell Week of SEAL training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before entering Hell Week a second time, Goggins realized that he wanted some tools to help him succeed. As with other military training, recruits are subjected not only to physically demanding activities, but also to intense verbal interactions from officers as they try to weed out the mentally strong<\/a> from the weak. Goggins perceived these men as his opponents\u2014they were actively trying to break him and the other men down and make them quit. He wanted to prove that he could survive Hell Week and impress them in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To do this, he came up with two main strategies:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Get the schedule of events. <\/strong>Recruits weren\u2019t typically allowed to see the schedule of events, but Goggins thought it\u2019d greatly increase their chances of surviving by knowing what came next.<\/li>
  2. Help the team find its second wind. <\/strong>Toward the end of Hell Week, Goggins\u2019s team was exhausted. The men needed to harness any remaining energy to keep going and exceed their superiors\u2019 expectations. He reminded his team that the officers wanted to break them down and encouraged them not to give them the satisfaction. David Goggins calls this \u201ctaking souls\u201d\u2014acknowledging your opponents and using your feelings toward them to fuel your best work, take them by surprise, and earn their respect.<\/strong> David Goggins’ “taking souls” strategy is well-known.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Take Action: Best Your Opponent<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    As Goggins\u2019s story shows, surviving and thriving in a competitive situation is about using negative energy from an opponent to your advantage. You can think about David Goggins’ taking souls approach in your own life. Apply this idea to a situation in your life:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. Identify a challenge or competitive situation you face.<\/strong> For example, maybe you\u2019re struggling to excel at work or get a good grade in math class.<\/li>
    2. Identify the opponent you face in that situation.<\/strong> Maybe you\u2019re struggling at work because your boss insists on micromanaging your every move, or maybe you feel like your math teacher doesn\u2019t believe in you.<\/li>
    3. Choose a project or other task you can do to showcase your skills.<\/strong> It could be creating a stellar proposal for work or getting a perfect score on an exam.<\/li>
    4. Take the negative energy you have toward the obstacle or opponent and channel it to excel in your project.<\/strong> If you need to improve your skills<\/a> to succeed, you might need to do things like studying longer hours, or working out more outside of practice. Your ultimate goal is to amaze your opponent and earn their respect by vastly exceeding their expectations.<\/li>
    5. (Optional) Share your experience on social media with the hashtags #takingsouls #canthurtme<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Now that you know what David Goggins’ “taking souls” strategy is like, you can think about how to use this strategy in your life. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      What does David Goggins’ “taking souls” quote refer to? How did this philosophy help him get through Hell Week in the Navy SEALs? When faced with Hell Week, Goggins adopted the idea of “taking souls,” or acknowledging your opponent and using your feelings about them as a way to fuel your motivation. David Goggins’ “taking souls” approach helped his group all get through Hell Week. Read more about David Goggins’ “taking souls” quote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,9,43],"tags":[209],"class_list":["post-26867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motivation","category-psychology","category-self-improvement","tag-cant-hurt-me","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nDavid Goggins: Taking Souls & Besting Your Opponent - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"David Goggins' "taking souls" strategy helped him and his group get through Navy SEAL Hell Week. 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