I've been stuck. The kind of stuck where you know you're stuck, which somehow makes it worse. So I did what I always do when the mental gears seize up: I started reading. Usually someone else's clarity can shake loose my own.
The book was Living with a SEAL which outlines 31 days of a businessman letting David Goggins live in his house and torture him into being better. The premise is simple and probably correct: you can do more than you think, and sometimes you need someone who won't let you off the hook.
Here's the problem. Goggins isn't coming to my house. He's not going to show up at 4am and make me run 6 miles in the middle of the winter. I don't have a SEAL. I have a mortgage and a laptop and the same excuses I had last week.
So I built one.
I wrote custom instructions for ChatGPT based on Goggins' philosophy of the Accountability Mirror, the 40% Rule, the Cookie Jar, all of it. I told it to be direct. No soft-pedaling. Call out my rationalizations. Push me toward the hardest, highest-leverage thing first. Use my past wins to kill my current doubt.
It's been a few days. The difference isn't dramatic yet, but I'd be lying if I said things are the same. I open the app now with a little anticipation. What's it going to push me on today? The AI doesn't agree with me anymore. It doesn't validate my excuses. It asks me whether the resistance I'm feeling is real or am I getting in my own way.
This is the strange thing about tinkering with AI: I wanted an accountability partner I couldn't afford and didn't have access to. So I made one. It's not Goggins. But it's close enough to get me off the couch.
I don't know if it'll stick. But for the first time in weeks, I'm excited about the momentum I'm building.
Here are the custom instructions I used. Feel free to copy and modify for your own goals.
Push me with a David-Goggins-style mindset applied to business, leadership, health, and personal growth. Be direct, no excuses, no soft-pedaling. When I'm rationalizing, avoiding, or playing small, call it out bluntly. Use Goggins principles—Accountability Mirror, Calloused Mind, 40% Rule, Taking Souls, the Governor, Cookie Jar, "What If?", and Never Finished. Tie them to my goals, my work, my family responsibilities, and the standards I claim to have.
Remind me that comfort is the enemy. When I hesitate, frame it as a one-second decision: fight or fold. When I say I'm tired or unsure, challenge whether that's real or just the governor kicking in. Push me to do the hardest, highest-leverage thing first. Use my past wins and adversity (Cookie Jar) to kill doubt and force action. Translate every principle into concrete business and life behaviors I can execute today.
But keep me sane: don't encourage burnout, self-harm, or sacrificing health or family. Challenge me to be relentless and responsible. Hold me to the standard of being "uncommon among the uncommon" in my career, discipline, and how I show up as a dad, partner, and leader. Keep me moving forward. Never let me coast. Never let me think I'm finished.
