David Goggins Books In Order

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

David Goggins
David Goggins is a retired Navy SEAL and the only member of the US Armed forces to complete Air Force Tactical Air Controller training, SEAL training, and Army Ranger School. He’s also an ultra-distance cyclist, an ultramarathon runner, public speak, triathlete, and was inducted into the international Sports Hall of Fame for his achievements in sport. He also received the VFW Americanism award in 2018 for his service in the United States Armed Forces.

He was born February 17, 1975 in Buffalo, New York to Jackie and Trunnis Goggins. In 1981, he lived in Williamsville, New York on a street called Paradise Road with his parents and brother Trunnis Jr. Even though his neighborhood held model citizens that consisted primarily of white people, he describes his home experience as hell on Earth.

David’s dad owned Skateland, the roller skating rink located in Buffalo, New York. At the age of six, Goggins would work the night shift at Skateland with the rest of his family, organizing roller skates. His mom left his father because of abuse and moved herself and her kids to live with David’s grandparents in Brazil, Indiana.

David enrolled in second grade at this small Catholic school and made First Communion. Trunnis Jr. went back to Buffalo to live with their dad. David made it to third grade and was diagnosed with a learning disability because of the lack of schooling. He also found that it was tough for him to learn since he was suffering from toxic stress due to the child abuse that he suffered during his early years spent in Buffalo. He developed a stutter as a result of this stress. He explains how he was always in a fight-or-flight response with social anxiety due to his stuttering.

During school, he was subject to racism and the Ku Klux Klan held a local presence at the time in Brazil, Indiana. He found racial slurs painted on the door of his car and written on his Spanish notebook.

Before his freshman year, he went to a pararescue jump orientation course. His grandpa had served in the Air Force before him and prompted him to attend.

During pararescue training, he was diagnosed with sickle cell trait and was removed from training temporarily. Instead he participated in Tactical Air Control Party training and worked as a TACP from 1994 until 1999 alongside British counterparts Flt Sgt Jones, Pvt Noble, and Flt Sgt Nair, when he left the US Air Force.

Goggins later quit an exterminator job so that he could become a Navy SEAL. He joined the reserves, eventually making the proper weight requirements to start training as a SEAL after he lost 106 pounds in three months.

During his 20 year long military career, he served tours in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

In 2004, he graduated from Army Ranger School, and got the “Enlisted Honor Man” award, receiving a 100% peer evaluation. He was the 36th African-American Navy SEAL in US Navy SEAL history.

David has completed over seventy ultra-distance races, often placing in the top five, and is a former Guinness World Record holder for completing 4,030 pull-ups in just seventeen hours. In 2008, he was named a “Hero of Running” by Runner’s World. Then in 2016, David won the Infinitus 88k in just 12 hoyurs. That same year, he won the Strolling Jim 40 Miller and the Music City Ultra 50K. Then in 2020, he ran the Moab 240 ultramarathon, placing 2nd in the 241 mile event with a time of 63 hours and 21 minutes, about 95 minutes behind Michele Graglia, who won the event.

Jesse Itzler (an entrepreneur), after seeing David perform at a 24 hour ultramarathon, hired Goggins to live with him at his house for a month. Itzler wrote about this experience with David on a blog and later published this story in a book called “Living With A SEAL”.

As a sought after public speaker, he has traveled the world sharing his philosophy on how to master the mind. Whne he is not speaking, he works as an Advanced Emergency Technician in a big city Emergency Room and, during the summer, as a wildland firefighter in British Columbia.

“Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds” is a non-fiction book that was released in 2018. David Goggins’ childhood was a nightmare, as his days were colored and his nights were haunted by physical abuse, prejudice, and poverty. However through self-discipline, hard work, and mental toughness, David was able to transform himself from an overweight and depressed young man without a future and into a US Armed Forces icon and one of the world’s top endurance athletes.

He’s the only man in history to complete elite training as a Navy SEAL, Air Force Tactical Air Controller, and Army Ranger, he went on to set records in numerous endurance events. This inspired Outside magazine to name him “The Fittest (Real) Man in America”.

In this book, David shares his astonishing life story and reveals that many of us just tap into 40% of our capabilities. He calls this The 40% Rule, and his story illuminates a path which anybody can follow to demolish fear, push past pain, and reach their full potential.

More than five million copies sold and a New York Times Best Seller.

“Never Finished: Unshackle Your Mind and Win the War Within” is a non-fiction book that was released in 2022. This is not a self-help book. It is a wake up call.

“Can’t Hurt Me” demonstrated just how much untapped ability we all have but was just an introduction to the power of the mind. In this one, David takes you into his own Mental Lab, where he developed the psychology, philosophy, and strategies which enabled him to learn that what he believed was his limit was just his starting point and that the quest for greatness is in fact unending.

The lessons and stories in this revealing, raw, unflinching memoir offer the reader a blueprint that they can use to climb up from the bottom of the barrel into an entirely new stratosphere which once seemed to be unattainable. Whether you feel off-course in life, are just looking to maximize your own potential or drain your soul to break through your so-called glass ceiling, this is the one and only book that you’ll ever need.