First things first, the Arabic translation was terrible. At times, it genuinely felt AI-translated, and that took away from the reading experience.
But David Goggins’ story itself was incredible. His life was full of struggles from a very young age, and what he went through with his father was just awful.
My favorite chapter was “Truth Hurts.”
After everything he’d been through, Goggins finally decided to change his life. He started with what he called the Accountability Mirror. He stood in front of a mirror, got brutally honest with himself about everything he needed to change, wrote his goals on sticky notes, and started working on them.
What I liked most was that he stopped making excuses for himself.
Even the way he studied for the ASVAB caught my attention. He would spend an hour with his teacher, then sit alone for hours going over the same material again and again until he actually understood and memorized it.
That made me think about myself and how I sometimes put things off just because I know they’ll take a lot of time, even when I know I should just get started.
The next chapter completely ruined my expectations, in a good way.
I thought that was it. He had changed his life, succeeded, and everything was finally going to work out. But then he failed again and dropped out of training.
I liked that the book didn’t try to make his life look like one success after another. Even after changing, he still found himself avoiding certain problems and making excuses. Eventually, he had to confront himself all over again.
Then came Navy SEAL training and Hell Week, and things got crazy.
The amount of pain, exhaustion, and injuries he went through was unbelievable. Sometimes I genuinely wondered if parts of the story were exaggerated, because he would somehow keep going even when he seemed physically close to breaking down.
One of my favorite ideas from the book was the Cookie Jar.
Basically, it’s about remembering your past achievements and the difficult things you’ve already overcome, then using those memories to push yourself forward whenever you feel like giving up.
The 40% Rule also stuck with me. Goggins argues that when you feel like you’ve reached your limit and can’t go any further, you probably still have more left in you than you think.
Another thing I liked was what he said about luck. Things won’t always go your way, and just because you’ve imagined yourself becoming successful or set a goal doesn’t mean you’ve earned anything yet. What matters is how much work you’re actually willing to put in.
In “Talent Not Required,” I also liked his point about how much time we waste expecting quick results, when consistent work and practice matter more than talent alone.
But I didn’t enjoy every chapter.
The last three chapters, especially, were pretty boring to me. It felt like the book kept repeating stories about races and physical challenges. After a while, I just wasn’t as excited to keep reading as I was in the beginning.
Overall, I enjoyed the book. It was fascinating to see how much Goggins managed to change his life and his mindset.
But the biggest thing I took away from it was how it made me think differently about laziness and procrastination.
Instead of constantly telling myself something is too difficult or that I don’t know how to do it, I should just start, learn, and figure things out along the way.
Still, the poor Arabic translation and the repetition toward the end brought my rating down.
7.8/10