I’m haunted by my future goals, not my past failures. I’m haunted by what I may still become. I’m haunted by my own continued thirst for evolution.

David Goggins is a retired Navy SEAL, ultramarathon runner, and motivational speaker known for his incredible feats of endurance and mental toughness. Despite his horrible starting hand in life offering him every excuse to be nothing more than a statistic, Goggins came out of the smoke as an incredible man with an unbreakable spirit and constant hunger to be great. Since his first book Can’t Hurt Me, he has reached millions of people with his message and found himself in the center of the spotlight in the social media sphere. In his follow up book Never Finished, Goggins continues to tell his story as he embarks on the hero’s journey to become the hardest man in the universe.

Not surprisingly, my prior review a year ago was spot on about Goggin’s incredible yet destructive process. I was wary of his mentions of back to back 100 mile races, because I knew that it was not long before he took it too far. Goggins does not shy away from the scary aftermath of his incredible feats, and in many moments opens up about possibly losing it all due to his health conditions. He also breaks down how his mental had shifted after the first book, and how he had grown soft with the fame that he had received. He begins to roll back this softness, and creates a plan to break down his physical and mental barriers. He dives deep into his mental process in which he refers to as the ‘mental lab’, while offering honest/approachable advice to the audience.

Despite my prediction, it’s still a bit disappointing to me that Goggins hasn’t made much progress in the realm of taking care of his body. He still smothers his emotional pain and childhood with physical pain, while continuing to make foolish decisions to prove his mental, particularly post surgeries out of stubbornness. While his post surgery 100 milers are interesting to read about - Goggins has reached a point for me where no distance run will prove anything. In a strange way, his physical feats have gotten too routine.

For me, there wasn’t too much in this book that the original book did not already cover. While there were some interesting stories to be had since - particularly his training regiment throughout the Coronavirus pandemic, his routine hasn’t changed much. That being said, the fact that his endurance has reached higher peaks than the younger version of himself in the 20s is nothing short of profound. Even though some of the parts fell short for me, Never Finished reminded me why Goggins has always been so appealing to me - his fighting spirit, honesty, and willingness serves as a major inspiration in my personal life.

Overall Rating: 7/10

Review of the previous book (one of my all time favorites): Can’t Hurt Me

We all owe it ourselves to stand for something.