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You are here: Home / Adventures / Finding The Door: The Secret To Never Ever Stopping – Ever

Finding The Door: The Secret To Never Ever Stopping – Ever

September 23, 2011 By Joel Runyon 27 Comments

If you can see yourself doing something, you can do it. If you can’t see yourself doing it, usually you can’t achieve it. – David Goggins

David Goggins is a Navy Seal, endurance athlete and all around hardcore dude you probably dont want to mess with. I could talk about him all day, but this video does a much better job with a lot less words. Take just 6 minutes and watch this video. We’ll be talking about it the rest of the post.

David Goggins – Human 2.0: The Long Run

There’s not much I don’t like about David Goggins. He’s doing impossible things, shattering expectations, pushing his limits and doing it for a great reason (raise scholarship money for children of fallen soldiers). However, the greatest takeaway I got from David was this quote about how he manages to keep going, despite the mental and physical walls that crop up during something as tasking as his ultra-endurance events:

In a race, you hit several walls. Every time you hit a wall, it’s a big deciding factor in that race, or in life, if you’re not running. You have a big decision to make.  You can either stop at that wall and go parallel left or parallel right. You are looking for that door.  When you get to that door you have another decision to make.  Should I open it or should I keep it closed.  If you keep it closed you made the decision to quit.  If you open that door you made the decision  to carry on, to continue on your journey or mission, whatever you’re on.  I always open that door!  Once you open that door, and you go through it, your mind resets and it gives you a few more miles.

I love it.

Your limits don’t exist. They’re just a wall…with a door in it. Keep moving until you find the door. You might go left for a while, you might go right for a while, but if you keep going, you will find that door. And then you get to choose…

I know times where I’ve hit a wall, found the door and kept going. There’s also a few times that I can point to where I’ve hit the wall and found the door and called it quits. I didn’t go through that door.

Those memories suck. Because I know you missed an opportunity. To push my limits even further. To see what I was really made of. To see if what I was doing was really literally impossible.

Don’t miss an opportunity.

WHEN YOU THINK YOU ARE DONE YOU’RE ONLY 40% OF WHAT YOUR BODY IS CAPABLE OF DOING. THAT’S JUST THE LIMIT THAT WE PUT ON OURSELVES. – David Goggins

When you hit a wall. Keep going, even if you can’t go forward anymore. Go to the right. Go to the left. But keep going. Eventually you’ll find a door. And when you do find it. Go through it. And don’t stop. Ever.

***

NerveRush

The David Goggins video featured in this post is one of many like it that you can find at NerveRush. NerveRush is a joint side project I created with Alan Perlman (also known as the worlds most mysterious man) focused on compiling the most gut-wrenching and thrill-seeking video clips into a collective mishmash of adrenaline. If you love adventure, adrenaline and endurance, you’ll love NerveRush. If you’re interested, take a shot of adrenaline and let us know what you think. If adrenaline isn’t your thing, no worries, there are a lot more projects in the works.

Impossible League Community
Speaking of projects, we have over 120+ people in the Impossible League community. We’ll be talking about challenges next week and we’ll start our first 30 day challenge at the beginning of October. It’s gonna be awesome. Join in the league and don’t miss out.

Impossible T-Shirts
Also, a lot of people have been asking me about Impossible t-shirts. They should be in by next week. I’m probably mord excited to unveil them than most things in recent memory, so give me a few days to wrap things up and I’ll have them ready to go. And they’ll be awesome. Like really awesome. Promise

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Filed Under: Adventures, Hacks, The Impossible Tagged With: david goggins, Endurance, human 2.0, long run, ultra-endurance, ultra-marathon

About Joel Runyon

I started IMPOSSIBLE to push myself to try to live a life worth writing about by pushing my limits, living an adventure & telling a great story by doing the impossible. You can get free updates in your inbox via your new favorite newsletter, free fitness training tutorials, and see all my businesses at Impossible X and our philanthropic efforts at Impossible.org

Comments

  1. nicole says

    September 23, 2011 at 10:15 pm

    Your timing w/ the Goggins clip is impeccable. I have my longest training run tomorrow morning (running towards Mt Rainier). After a less than stellar performance during a 10k last weekend, my brain has been hyped up over my long run all week. I’m shooting for 11 miles tomorrow and I’m pretty sure I will find that wall and when I do, I’m going to replay this clip in my head. Thank you. 🙂

    Reply
    • Joel Runyon says

      September 27, 2011 at 12:12 am

      I hope you rocked your training run! Remember, when you think you are done, you’re only at 40% of what your body is capable of.

      Reply
      • nicole says

        September 27, 2011 at 12:26 am

        I did! 11 miles with a big jump at the end in celebration. 40%… wow, so my 1st half should be in the bag!

        Reply
        • Joel Runyon says

          September 27, 2011 at 12:36 am

          At that pace, you could do 27.5 miles :). First FULL marathon in the bag!

          Reply
  2. Deborah says

    September 24, 2011 at 12:06 pm

    Why the flip am I sitting at my computer when I could be moving?! This is a FANTASTIC post, Joel, and David Goggins is an inspiration.

    Reply
    • Joel Runyon says

      September 27, 2011 at 12:12 am

      He is borderline human :). Makes me feel like I need to step my game up!

      Reply
  3. davidd says

    September 25, 2011 at 3:06 am

    Are the three missing “e” letters in the last paragraph some kind of secret code?

    Reply
    • Joel Runyon says

      September 27, 2011 at 12:13 am

      I would tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.

      Reply
  4. Zulu says

    September 28, 2011 at 6:37 pm

    Recently had hit a metaphoric wall after ending a long term relationship – didn’t want to do anything – somehow managed to pick my self up and keep going, this is a beautiful reminder to keep on keeping on.. Signing up for the league now (“,) – Thanks for sharing

    Reply
    • Joel Runyon says

      September 30, 2011 at 2:33 am

      Awesome. Glad to have you Zulu. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help!

      Reply
  5. Robert says

    September 27, 2012 at 11:34 pm

    Thanks for the motivation! as soon as I saw the video I got up and almost sprinted 5 miles thinking of this! There’s a month left for the MC Marathon, so with David Goggins motivational speech, it should be a walk in the park.

    Thanks for posting!

    Reply
  6. Frank says

    January 23, 2013 at 5:13 am

    When I watch this Video I always want to punch myself because it just makes it stone cold clear that I am not working my limits. Damn, I’ll go for a run now.

    Reply

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