Fail Fail Fail... Until You Win! - Jocko Willink | Most Dangerous Motivational Speech

**Jocko Willink** (0:10)
And that's life. Life without those challenges, it's just existence. Don't just exist, go live. Eventually, inaction will cost you. But your default setting should be, I'm going to do something. Just get up, move towards that challenge, and go attack it. Go do something that's hard.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:40)
Struggle sucks.

**Jocko Willink** (0:43)
Depends on how you frame it. If you want freedom in your life, you have to have discipline. Move towards that challenge, whatever that challenge is, and you may be successful and you may not be successful, but you will be better. And the next challenge, you can be more prepared for. Because we're going to have wins, we're going to have losses. We're going to have successes, we're going to have failures. We're going to have good nights, we're going to have bad nights. We're going to have good relationships, we're going to have bad relationships. We're going to have good ideas and bad ideas. We're going to make money, we're going to lose money. All these things are going to happen. And if you oscillate emotionally up and down drastically, it's going to be problematic. Embrace those emotions, but don't let those emotions embrace you. Keep pushing through things that suck. This is a very difficult thing to do because it hurts. I'm going to go forward, I'm not going to quit, so I'm going to go forward, bring it on.
When you talk to people that went to SEAL training that didn't make it, most of the time, it's some reason. There's a medical reason, there's a family problem, there's very few people that look at you and say, oh, I quit because it sucked, which is what happens to the vast majority of people. The vast majority of people that don't make it through SEAL training, they didn't make it through because they quit.
Your excuses will destroy you and take everything that you ever wanted from you. If you let them. When your excuses make you feel a little bit better about the fact that you didn't execute on what you needed to execute on, then they can make you feel better, but they're not helping you. They're not helping you at all. This went wrong, this failed, didn't accomplish this, and it's not the fault of my boss, it's not the fault of my girlfriend, it's not the fault of my parents, it's not the fault of the weather, it's my fault. And I'm gonna take ownership of it, and I'm gonna fix it. That's what extreme ownership is. Because when you look around at your life, and you look around at your job, and your financial situation, and your relationship, and your physical health, and when you look at all those things, and all the problems that you may have with those things, and you say, the reason I have all those problems, is because of me, that can hurt, that can sting. And a lot of times, our ego rejects that, and makes excuses, and lies. And then, we don't have to change anything. And then nothing changes. When the excuses all go away, and people can actually confront the fact that this is all because of me, it hurts, but is also unbelievably empowering. Because the more discipline you have in your life, the more freedom you will end up with. So if you lack the discipline to exercise and eat healthy, you will end up being a slave to disease. If you lack the discipline to work hard, save your money, you will end up a slave to finances. If you lack the discipline to manage your time correctly, you will end up with no free time. If you have self-discipline, if you have the discipline to save your money and work hard and invest your money properly, if you have the discipline to manage your time correctly and not waste a bunch of time, if you have the discipline to exercise and eat healthy, you will end up with freedom. And you're gonna start to progress in every aspect of your life. And you'll see that if you have that kind of discipline right now, you're gonna end up with freedom. If you have discipline, you will attain freedom. Go try and accomplish something that's hard. You may win, you may lose, you may succeed, you may fail. I'll tell you what, you'll be better. And if you don't have that kind of discipline, and you don't work hard, and you don't exercise, and you don't apply yourself, you're gonna end up shackled.
So, if you're in the woods and you don't know where to go, start walking. You gotta start walking, because the perspective is not gonna change. You have to start moving forward. But standing there lost and not doing anything is just waiting to die, waiting to starve to death. Don't let that happen.