How to Build Extreme Willpower | David Goggins & Dr. Andrew Huberman
Step 1 (00:00:02) – Neuroscience Insight: The Anterior Midcingulate Cortex
I'm going to share a little neuroscience tidbit. Love it. But I think it's one that you'll appreciate. Most people don't know this, but there's a brain structure called the anterior midcingulate cortex. It's a noun, it's a name, it doesn't mean anything. We could call it the cookie monster. But what's interesting about this brain area is there's now a lot of data in humans, not some mouse study, showing that when people do something they don't want to do like add three hours of exercise per day or resist eating something while dieting this brain area gets bigger.
Step 2 (00:00:32) – Why Doing What You Don’t Want to Do Grows the Brain
When people do anything they don't want to do, it's not about adding more work; it's about adding more work they don't want to do. This brain area gets bigger. The anterior midcingulate cortex is smaller in obese people; it gets bigger when they diet. It's larger in athletes, especially those who see themselves as challenged and overcome challenges. In people who live a long time, this area maintains size. Scientists now believe it may be the seat of willpower—or even the will to live.
Step 3 (00:01:39) – Why This Discovery Shocked Neuroscientists
When I learned about the anterior midcingulate cortex, I was almost out of my seat. I've been in neuroscience since I was 20. I teach neuroanatomy to medical students. But this was different. The data shows we can build this area—but it shrinks again if we stop doing hard things we don’t want to do. That’s the Goggin-esque part.
Step 4 (00:02:34) – Comfort Doesn’t Build Willpower
If you love ice baths and go from one minute to 10, your cortex did not grow. But if you hate cold water, fear drowning, and still go under—your cortex grows. If you do it the next day and enjoy it because you succeeded yesterday, it shrinks again. Growth only happens in discomfort.
Step 5 (00:03:03) – Willpower Must Be Renewed Daily
Like addiction recovery—there is a cure, but it only works one day at a time. Willpower must be renewed daily. This discovery made me think, “I need to tell David Goggins.”
Step 6 (00:03:31) – Goggins: Willpower is Built, Not Given
Goggins: “People say I was blessed with a strong mind. Hell no. I built it through decades of suffering.” Navy SEAL graduates avoid hard things—they don’t want to go back to the pain. Goggins says: “I don't want to go back either. I have to go back. That’s where the knowledge of my life exists.”
Step 7 (00:04:38) – Living in Hard Mode Becomes Normal
“I wake up and it still sucks, but I know I'm going to do it. Years of repetition make it life.” This is why Goggins came on the show—to tell people the truth:
There is no hack. The hack is doing things that suck.
Step 8 (00:06:25) – The Real Inner Conversation
People wake up thinking, “I'm a piece of shit today.” You fight it. There is no override button. You build will through repetition of hard things. Exactly what Huberman described.
Step 9 (00:07:27) – Everyone Has the Brain for Willpower
Everyone (unless severely brain damaged) has two anterior midcingulate cortexes. It's not magic. It's a portal you can open by doing hard things you don’t want to do.
Anything you like doing won’t grow it.
It’s the friction that builds willpower.
Step 10 (00:08:55) – Why “The Suck” is The Engine
The unpleasant emotions—the haunt, the stick, the friction—are the gears that grow this brain region. That’s why “Goggins” has become a verb. The world fails not because people are weak, but because they avoid discomfort.
Step 11 (00:09:26) – Why Even the Rich Feel Empty
Rich people often say, “I feel like I’m missing something.” Goggins: “I don’t have what you have, but I’m not missing anything.”
People miss the feeling that only suffering gives—the feeling of earning your identity.
Step 12 (00:10:52) – Knowing Yourself Comes from Suffering
“You find it in the suck. Repeatedly. Until you know exactly who you are.”
People are lost because they’ve never examined themselves, never run the experiment on themselves.
Step 13 (00:11:29) – Why Most People Stay Small
People walk around with wealth and comfort but feel empty because 75% of themselves is still locked inside. They never developed willpower, courage, determination, guts. It looks scary—but that’s where growth lives.
Step 14 (00:12:28) – Expanding Your Life by Facing Hard Things
Goggins began with a tiny mental “pinhole.” Through self-examination and willpower practice, it expanded beyond a table.
This is why he came: to talk about real things, not hacks.
Step 15 (00:12:59) – The Final Message: You vs. You
“There are no hacks. It’s you against you.”
If people misunderstand his running, shouting, suffering—that’s fine.
But if they misunderstand this message?
Then they don’t want to fix themselves.
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