Self Talk
David Goggins was asked, “What do you say to yourself when you’re in that moment failing?”
He replied: “What if…”
He then expanded on this and completed it with a few examples:
“What if… I can become someone that no one thinks that I can be.”
“What if… I can pull off a miracle.”
That didn’t resonate much with me too much, but I had heard the question posed to Andrew Huberman as well:
His response was…
“I was made for this.”
Alex Hormozi’s was asked a similar question and his answer was…
“This is what hard feels like. There is where most people stop and this is why they don’t win.”
These were only the recorded ones I found… so I decided to have fun with it and asked ChatGPT to pretend to be different people (dead, alive, and fictional) and here was the response:
- Steve Jobs: “This moment of failure is simply a design challenge to innovate my way through.”
- Genghis Khan: “Each defeat only sharpens my sword, steels my resolve, and maps the path to conquest.”
- Khalid ibn al-Walid: “The battlefield shifts, and so must I. With faith and strategy, no obstacle can stand.”
- Mike Tyson: “I’ve been knocked down before, but my will hits harder than any punch.”
- Ash Ketchum: “Every setback is a chance to learn, grow, and evolve. I won’t stop until I’m a Pokémon Master.”
- Arthas aka the Lich King: “In the icy grip of defeat, I will forge a new path to power and domination.”
- Joe Rogan: “Every setback is just another story for the podcast, another lesson to learn and share. Adapt and overcome, that’s the game.”
My personal favorite one (that I took from a book on growth mindset):
I am not where I want to be, but I am capable of getting there.
DALL-E generated images for the characters above.