Never Finished: Unshackle Your Mind and Win the War Within

Goggins says what he seeks through racing is internal: mental strength rather than a prize. Moreover, before Leadville he says he only races himself. However, passing other runners and even challenging his own pacers fuels him. What role do you think competitiveness with others plays in Goggins’s ideology? Use evidence from the text to support your answer.

The words “savage” and “warrior” represent the mindset Goggins constructs in his Mental Lab. What do these terms mean to him? Do their definitions evolve over the course of the work?

The foxhole is a mutually supportive social circle, and Goggins depends heavily on his race crew. Likewise, in Evolution 4, he encourages victims to ask for help. However, personal accountability is key to his ideology, and in Evolution 5 he says, “Your problems and your past aren’t on anyone else’s agenda” (147). He also says there are times your foxhole might be empty. How does the idea of receiving help from others (or not) fit into the mindset he advocates?

Considering Goggins’s specific ideas of what is mental and what is physical, why do you think he uses imagery of a mirror in the ways he does? Cite his arguments to support your answer.

Goggins urges the reader to build an archive of resilience. In Chapter 2, he says, “My Cookie Jar had always been an energy source, stocked with accomplishments that I could use to remind myself what I had overcome and was capable of” (76). However, he also says he has “moldy-ass cookies—stale victories from a different time that I couldn’t relate to anymore” (76). How does this idea resilience archives have an expiration date relate to the work’s overall meaning?

Goggins occasionally uses elongated compound adjectives, such as when he says: “what-the-fuck-are-you-doing-with-your-life book” (17); “rug-just-got-pulled-out-from-under-you class” (203); and “pity-party-feel-sorry-for-myself land” (149). What is the effect of this construction, and how does it function in Goggins’s persuasive writing? How does it relate to other elements of Goggins’s style? Explain the adjectives’ context in your answer.

Goggins views adversity as fuel, he and credits his mind with his physical feats. However, in Chapter 6, he says, “I’ve been a sickly boy all my life. If my body were only healthy and whole, there would be no telling what I might be able to accomplish” (170). Using textual evidence, explain whether this statement is consistent with his resilience ideology.

After Goggins’s botched knee surgery, he laments that he can no longer get mental strength from physical exercise, although he admits there are other paths to resilience. What other methods of cultivating resilience does Never Finished hint at?