With New Year’s Eve just hours away, what better time to talk about goals, motivation and personal development.

I’ve read countless books on these topics over the years. Not necessary for the “action steps” they give to better your life immediately, but for the reflection questions they often pose. Without a doubt Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins is my new favorite. It’s a great blend between reflection, adversity, challenges, motivation, gratefulness.

The book is rough, hard-edged, primal, honest, simple, inspiring, real. David opens up completely and shares the most painful moments of his life … and why they were the blessing that gave him strength to push through insane physical and mental challenges. Even if you have a “constantly pushing” mindset, this book will bring you down to Earth. It puts everything in a new perspective – the brutal reality of David Goggins. He pushes everything to a whole new dimension. But not in the superhero, “he’s gifted” or “here’s the secret” kind of way. Quite the opposite – the hard truth is that there’s no secret to success. There’s no shortcut either. There’s just HARD work. Lots and lots and lots of HARD WORK, again, and again, and again!

David highlights the biggest barriers that lie in front of us, namely the ones we put ourselves. He suggests a way to remove them, or at least what worked good for him. And even though we can’t all reach the level of self-control and mastery over mind he has, the point is to push ourselves a bit more every day and be the best us we can possibly be.

Read the book, you’ll do a great favour to yourself. You will inevitably evaluate your current situation. You’ll become grateful for the situation you’re in, as well as critical to yourself for stopping short of your full potential. And I bet, you’ll make at least one positive change because of it.

Happy reading!