My story is not about being at the brink of death, my story is not about some dramatic incident, or any other external factor. My story is about an internal realisation of the truth about myself. I am 43 years old and for almost 42 years I have been a quitter, I had smaller injuries (quinjuries as Mark Divine instructors would say) and a ton of other excuses why I couldn’t do this, why I wasn’t responsible, accountable or whatever. I remember various incidents in my life where I was running from my responsibility, running from situation where I should have stood my ground. I was eager to accept any excuse and give up on things when the going got tough.

After 42 years I stumbled across something that sparked a new era for me and my life. It started an adventure to get to know the real me. That spark was David Goggins in Jesse Itzlers book “Living with a seal”. It led me to find out more about him and about his passion, what drove him to his almost insane determination. I literally sucked up every piece of information I could find on the internet about this guy – which was the first contact with the Team Never Quit podcast as you had him on your show twice. That digging up of information led me to find out more about seals which in turn brought me to Jocko Willink and his podcast and ultimately again to the Team Never Quit podcast.
Ever since then I have turned myself inside out. I stopped making or accepting excuses, I face the things I don’t like, I do things until they are finished, I don’t complain about extra work, extra reps or anything. I am taking responsibility for me and my life. How does that show?

I ate too much and the wrong stuff -> Roger that, changed it to healthy food completely and lost about 10 pounds of weight in the last 4 weeks.
I had no real goal in life, I had a bunch of ideas loosely connected and I wasn’t pursuing any of them really -> Roger that! Now, every day I get up at 5:30 a.m. without an alarm clock and write down my goals in life. They start to align and form my real goals. For my top 3 goals I write down actions that I will do to pursue them today. I am a heck more focused and starting to get driven to achieve those goals.
I had back problems and only a few of my muscles were actually in training -> Roger that! I do one workout every day. Be it running or calisthenics but I strive to improve my body 1% every day for the rest of my life.
I was making up excuses to not do things or push things out or not take responsibility for something -> Roger that! I do the things that I don’t like to do on a daily basis and I get things done. I take responsibility not only for my actions but also for my inactions and for the things that happen in my life. Every time when in my previous life I would make a face and start finding arguments against something I now say to myself: “Roger that!” and I simply and quickly start doing it.

David Goggins installed the right mindset in my brain to always work on myself to be a better version of me. Along my journey the Team Never Quit Podcast is my companion with stories to remind me of that mindset and to remind me to never ever quit!

Thanks a whole lot for changing my life and staying with me to ensure that never quit mentally sticks! I am thankful that I ran into your podcast and I really truly appreciate your work, your effort and everything you put into it! Sometimes I can imagine you are sitting there doing that podcast but you don’t get immediate feedback – let me assure you: you are doing a fabulous job, you have changed my life for the better and you are there along the rest of my way.

Please give a warm Thank You to the complete team and keep it up!

Cheers
Marcus