How to Build Willpower | David Goggins & Dr. Andrew Huberman

I'm going to share a little neuroscience fact. I love it. But I think it's something you'll appreciate. Most people don't know it, but there is a brain structure called the anterior midcingulate cortex, as we pointed out before, that's a noun, it's a name, it doesn't mean anything. Good. We could call it the cookie monster. Good. But the interesting thing about this area of ​​the brain is that there is now a lot of data, in humans, not in mouse studies, that shows that when people do something they don't want to do, like adding three hours of exercise per day or per week, or when people trying to diet and lose weight resist eating anything.

Good. When people do something they don't want to do, and this is the important part, it's not about adding more work, it's about adding more work they don't want to do. Yes. This area of ​​the brain becomes larger. Yes. Now this is what's especially interesting to me about this area of ​​the brain, and by the way, I'm only learning this recently because it's new data, but there's a lot of it. The anterior midcingulate cortex is smaller in obese people and enlarges when they diet. It is greater in athletes, it is especially large or it grows in people who are challenged and overcome a challenge.

Good. And in people who live a long time, this area maintains its size. In many ways, scientists are beginning to think of the anterior midcingulate cortex as not just one of the seats of

willpower

. Good. But perhaps it is actually the seat of the will to live. Look, now we're talking. And when I learned about the anterior midcingulate cortex, I was almost out of my seat. And I've been in the neuroscience game since I was 20 years old. Now we are talking. And we are the same age. And I was very excited because I had heard about fear from the amygdala, the prefrontal cortex, its planning and action.

I could tell you every area of ​​the brain and every one of them. I teach neuroanatomy to medical students. But when I started looking at the data on the anterior midcingulate cortex, I thought, wow, this is interesting. Yes. And all the data indicates that we can develop this area. Yes. But that, as quickly as we develop it, if we don't continue to invest in things that are difficult for us and that we don't want to do, that's the part that feels so Goggin-esque. Yes sir. To me, that's what we don't want to do, like if you love the ice bath, "Yeah, I love the ice bath," and you go from one minute to 10 minutes, guess what?

His anterior midcingulate cortex did not grow. None. But if you hate cold water, if you are afraid of drowning and you go into the water and put your head under. Yes. Then its anterior midpart, and it survives, then the anterior midcingulate cortex becomes larger. But if you don't do it the next day, or if you do it the next day and you enjoy it because, hey, hey, I made it yesterday, woo-hoo, merry, merry Christmas, as you would say. That's right, merry Christmas. Guess what? The anterior midcingulate cortex contracts again. DAVID: Yes. To me, this is one of the most important discoveries that neuroscience has ever made because I don't want to do something, but I do it anyway.

That's how it is. That grows this area, and it's almost like I have a friend, he's been sober for 30 years from alcohol, and he always says, you know, the amazing thing about addiction is that there is a cure, the problem is that only one works. day at a time. time. Yes. And that's why you have to renew it every day. That's how it is. So for me, the anterior midcingulate cortex, when I found out about it, two things popped into my head, wow, this is super interesting, and two, I have to tell David Goggins. And I waited until now.

Glad to hear it. Telling you because I felt like, well, for obvious reasons, I wanted to tell you and I wanted to tell you here. Well, I love that because that's how I've lived my entire life, I didn't know anything about that. But people say, "Man, you're very strong-willed." It's something you

build

, as I never forgot. I was on a podcast once and this guy said, “You were blessed with a strong mind.” What the hell are you talking about? Was I blessed with a strong mind? That's something you have to develop. You develop that over years, decades of suffering and suffering again.

That's why a lot of people who graduate from Navy SEAL training, which I talk about very openly all the time, a lot of guys don't want to go back in that water, they don't want to go back to the hard stuff. Anything difficult, anything difficult in life, once you get over it, it's like you become a prisoner of war. How many prisoners of war do you know who want to return to the prisoner of war camp? None. When something sucks so much in life, this is what we're talking about now, very few people want to go back.

They are happy to have graduated. I realized that I am the same, I don't want to go back. I have to go back, I have to go back. Because that's exactly where all the knowledge of my life was and what exactly you're talking about. Well, I didn't know anything about this, but the way I grew up was doing these things constantly, so now, it's just life. I wake up, while it still sucks, it's just life. Don't sit there and say, oh my gosh, like I have days where I don't want to do it, but I know I'm going to do it.

I know this from years of doing it, so it's beautiful. And that's why I came here with you today, and I'm glad you're talking about this because human beings need to hear this, they need to stop listening to these tricks about this and that, there's no fucking trick, bro. , there's no fucking trick, yeah, you can this and that and saunas and this, all this shit that they, yeah, it's cool. There is no fucking life hack. To grow that thing, how do you grow it? Do it and do it and do it and do it. That's the trick, the trick is going to suck.

And that's when I realized, that's when I realized. That's why I wanted to come here today, I didn't want to come here and talk about no fucking passion and purpose and how to get out of bed and how to ring a fucking alarm clock and all that slogan shit, 'Cause that's not how I lived, that's not how I lived . I lived, I woke up like every human being does and I'm like, "Fuck, man, I'm a fucking piece of shit today. How the hell am I going to do this?" And you fight it and you fight it, you don't override it, there's no override button.

It's the conversation in your head. So how do you do that? We don't have enough conversations about the real conversation that every human being has and they have no idea how to get out of it, but they do. It's that shit right there, man, you gotta

build

your will. How do you build your will? Exactly what you said, man. Exactly what you said. Well, I feel like knowing the name of something, the anterior midcingulate cortex, doesn't fundamentally change us. But one thing I like about biology is that

willpower

, if someone feels like they don't have it, it feels like something other people have.

But everyone, unless they have brain damage, such as a hole in the head, has two anterior midcingulate cortices, one on each side of the brain. Everyone has one, they have two. So I feel like it's just a matter of opening the portal, and the portal, again, I'm going to say it 10 times and forgive me, I think people say, "Oh, I do hard things, I do sets to failure and then I do reps." forced". I love weight training, I love doing sets to failure, I even like forced reps, but guess what? I like forced repetitions, so I will tell you that they do not strengthen my anterior midcingulate cortex.

Good. Because I like to do. That's how it is. Anything you like to do will not improve this aspect of willpower. And it seems so obvious that once you hear it, you're like, "Oh, yeah, of course." But I think you really close that loop for people when you share what you're sharing today and also what you've shared before elsewhere, when you try to explain that friction is the critical ingredient. Good. And I think people think, oh, if it's effort, well, then I'm getting better, that's part of it, necessary, but not enough, as we say in science.

But the sucking part, the being tormented, the stick, are really unpleasant terms. Very. These are probably the nastiest terms we've ever used on this podcast. Very. Those are the levers, those are the gears. And without that, what you're talking about, David Goggins as a verb. Good. You know, sometimes I make a joke, but it's not a joke. DAVID: Right. Goggins is a noun and it is a verb. People say, "I'm going to Goggins." Good. Good? But, again, I don't think I'm a psychologist, but I think that's what you're talking about. The stick, the friction, being chased, it's the suction part that grows this anterior midcingulate cortex.

Now you know why there are so many people in this world who fail to discover their purpose, their purpose in life, where am I going? Because to grow that, even if you don't look like me, what my daily life looks like. It doesn't look like fun, it doesn't look like fun. So it's a choice that people have to make in life. But the funny thing is that even the richest of the rich, who have everything, always ask me this question: "I feel like I'm missing something." I don't feel like I'm missing anything. I don't have what you all have, but you will never in my life hear me tell you that I am missing something.

And everyone is missing this feeling. I found it a long time ago, and I found it right there, in that willpower thing. When you are nothing, nothing, and you become something like me, you call it happiness, peace, whatever the fuck you want to call it, people are missing exactly what happened with David Goggins. "Why do not you smile?" I do it, I do it. But I discovered something, which is why you'll never hear me say, "I'm missing something." I found it years ago. You find it in the suck, you find it in the suck, and you repeatedly find it in the suck, to the point where you know exactly who you are.

Most people are missing something because they don't know who they are, they never examine themselves, they have never done this experiment on themselves. The laboratory rat, we are all laboratory rats. But you are also the scientist. You create your own self. Most people are missing something because there are so many things trapped there. I don't even want to say potential, I think that word is overused too. There are so many things in you that God or whoever you believe in, or if you're an atheist, in you, that you haven't unlocked, that you're hanging around with this beautiful wife or great husband and all this money, You say, "God, I feel like I'm missing something".

Yes, because about 75% of you is still fucking there, still chained, because you just didn't want to find your willpower, you didn't want to find your soul, your will, your heart, your determination, your guts, your courage and how it works. See that, it looks scary, like your scary little lab I walked into, scary. Waking up every day and saying, "I'm stupid, but I want to find a way to be smarter," instead of saying, "Man, I just can't do that." Then you limit this box, so your box becomes so small in terms of things that you can do.

My box wasn't even a box, it was a fucking little hole. And then, as I examined myself, as I gained some willpower, some courage, it became bigger than this table. But that's what we all do, which is why I wanted to come here today and talk to you about the real shit. No fucking tricks, no tricks, bro. It's you against you, you against you. And if you don't understand that, you have a real problem, a real problem. I can understand you misunderstood me running down the street, shirtless, “Fuck this, yeah, yeah,” I can understand it, I understand it.

If you don't understand what I'm saying today, you're the problem and you don't want to fix it.