53 pages • 1 hour read
David GogginsNever Finished: Unshackle Your Mind and Win the War Within
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 5-Evolution 6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “Disciple of Discipline”
Goggins and his team arrive at their rented cabin after the Leadville race. He makes it as far as his bedroom before collapsing to the floor, where Kish tries to make him comfortable. They both know what the post-ultra “breakdown” entails, but Kish has never witnessed it until now. Goggins is worried how she will feel seeing him so vulnerable that he cannot control his bowels or clean himself. His shivering and erratic breathing scare her, but she works to undress him, clean up his excrement, and find a bowl in which he can urinate because he cannot move to the bathroom.
As he lies cocooned in a comforter on the floor, he relishes the intense pain, foul smells, and uncontrollable body movements. He considers the suffering proof that he gave the race his all, and he feels he can learn a lot from the experience. He compares physical scars with past emotional trauma and argues that both create weak spots unless they are dealt with constructively: “Your history and mindset become a weathered old map ridged with your scars, and if you read them like an archeologist on a dig, you might uncover the code you need to rise again and become better and stronger” (125).
As he drifts to sleep, he recalls going to live with his grandfather, whom he called Sergeant Jack, after he and his mother escaped Trunnis’s abuse. A World War II Air Force veteran, Sergeant Jack subjected his grandson to a strict daily schedule and long lists of chores, which he labeled a “Task List” and marked with military time. Initially, Goggins rebelled against Sergeant Jack’s demands and his lack of affection. With time, however, Goggins took pride in mastering his jobs and learned the value of discipline, which he argues is an equalizer. Discipline negates any lack of potential and opens up possibilities.
Sergeant Jack’s example impressed Goggins deeply. Goggins once saw his grandfather’s hands smashed under the hood of his Cadillac, but Sergeant Jack reacted calmly, staying in total control. “Witnessing that changed me. I’d never been around such strength and composure” (136), Goggins recalls. From that moment, Goggins believed that being tough could prepare him to handle life. Even after Goggins and his mother moved out, he voluntarily spent nights at Sergeant Jack’s house to experience the veteran’s example and expectations.
As he is waking up the morning after Leadville, Goggins remembers his graduation from Air Force basic training. Sergeant Jack, who was never complimentary or affectionate to his grandson, shed a single tear of pride.
Evolution 5 Summary
Although Goggins initially resented the lack of affection and sympathy at his grandfather’s house, Goggins argues that pity can be dangerous for the recipient, causing a need for external validation and sapping independence. Everyone struggles, but self-pity keeps a person stuck and wastes time. The solution is humility. Evolution 5 includes the story of a Medal of Honor recipient working as a janitor at the Air Force Academy. Goggins advocates treating every life experience as a stepping stone and a lesson and remembering that there is always more to learn.
Chapter 6 Summary: “The Art of Getting Hit in the Mouth”
After completing 100 miles in Leadville, Goggins’s competitive spirit is rekindled, and he contemplates his next challenge. He remembers hearing about a rugged 240.3-mile trail race in Moab, Utah. The possibility scares him and sparks memories of avoiding the deep end of the pool as a child. He knows he must push past fear to discover his full capabilities, and he signs up with six weeks to train.
At the starting line, most runners are smiling and high fiving, but Goggins is serious, almost somber, as he anticipates the tribulations ahead. Indeed, a series of problems befall Goggins during the race. First, the temperature drops much earlier than expected, 20 miles before he can get heated gloves from his crew. Because he has Raynaud’s phenomenon, his hands quickly stiffen and go numb, making his water and food inaccessible. He leans on memories of past challenges to push to the next aid station, hungry and dehydrated.
At over 100 miles and 21 hours into the race, Goggins is running with a pacer, whom he tasks with navigation on the poorly marked trails. However, the GPS app is not operating properly, and the pair goes over 10 miles off course. The extra miles mean Goggins will not reach the next aid station in time to take his thyroid medicine before his core temperature plummets. As a result, his thyroid needs 12 hours to heal, leaving him stiff and swollen from the downtime. He also goes from second place to near the bottom of the roster. He believes his goals for Moab are shot, but he reenters the trail to complete the mission and to map out the course mentally for next year.
His competitiveness kicks in again as he passes dozens of runners and challenges Kish as a pacer, and he returns to the top 10. Then, an off-and-on lung problem worsens significantly. He tries to push forward but is gasping for breath and suspects he has pulmonary edema, which he saw kill a fellow candidate during SEAL training. He calls for a medic but is on a stretch of trail no ATV or helicopter can reach. He must walk nine miles to the trailhead where a vehicle is waiting. He admits the race is not worth dying for and leaves the course, logging a DNF (did not finish) for Moab.
In the emergency room, he is diagnosed with high-altitude pulmonary edema, given treatment to open his lungs, and released with an inhaler. The team returns to their condo to pack, and Goggins struggles to process the DNF. He awakens at three o’clock in the morning with a mantra repeating in his head: “You’re not done yet, motherfucker!” (182). He returns to the course and completes the 240 miles within the allotted 110 hours, although he chooses to finish at a telephone pole rather than the official finish line because of his DNF.
Evolution 6 Summary
Goggins stresses the importance of creating an inner circle of supportive friends and family. He equates this social body to a battlefield foxhole and uses his race crew as an example. Qualified foxhole members understand the sacrifices and dedication needed to fulfil a dream. This Evolution advocates reevaluating old relationships and sometimes fighting for a dream alone.
Chapter 5-Evolution 6 Analysis
Chapter 5’s flashback to Goggins’s life in Sergeant Jack’s house parallels the structure and objective of the book as a whole. Just as Goggins’s diction establishes the tone of Never Finished from the outset, his grandfather does the same for their relationship by demanding to be called Sergeant Jack instead of something warmer like “Granddad.” Goggins speaks of both the literal early morning awakenings and the many tough lessons he resisted but learned from Sergeant Jack. Similarly, in the Introduction, Goggins calls Never Finished “the wake-up call you don’t want and probably didn’t even know you needed” (17). Moreover, like Sergeant Jack’s Task Lists, the book employs military terminology, and Goggins acknowledges that its assignments can be scary, as were the saw-toothed blades of Sergeant Jack’s rain gutters that Goggins cleared. His grandfather also showed a surprising lack of sympathy for Goggins, which colors Evolution 5’s description of the dangers of pity. Sergeant Jack’s lessons, like Goggins’s, come through demanding discipline and setting an example of strength and self-control. Goggins states that his grandfather’s influence led to healing and growth, which is what Never Finished aims to offer the reader.
In Chapter 6, Goggins argues that he should have mastered shallow-end swimming as a child with the intention of conquering his fear of deep water. He then uses the metaphor of the deep end to refer to the greater challenge that follows and exceeds an accomplishment, as Moab succeeds Leadville. He pushes the reader to constantly expand their goals, but he provides examples that are more relatable to the average person than a 240-mile run, such as starting a business or a new job. He also acknowledges the reader’s potential fears and admits his own, maintaining relatability in his persuasive rhetoric. Still, he repeatedly returns to the provocative imagery of a competent swimmer needlessly relegated to the shallow lanes. This emphasis on finding the next “deep end” and practicing humility enriches the theme of Using Everything. For Goggins, even big accomplishments are stepping stones, and every experience is a chance to learn. Just as Evolution 2 was a lesson in not wasting emotional energy, this section warns against wasting opportunities for growth.
Goggins demonstrates this thirst for learning in Chapter 6 when he decides to run the second half of Moab even after his many setbacks put his race goals out of reach. He explains that the best opportunities to learn come from the worst scenarios. Although he races competitively, what he seeks most is internal, meaning he is more even motivated to continue after the snafus. Likewise, the post-Leadville breakdown experience develops the theme of using everything in two ways. First, Goggins believes he can learn from his physical pain and actively studies himself as his body shuts down. Second, he comments that the loss of bodily functions, foul smells, uncontrollable movements, and intense pain are all welcome proof that he used everything he had during the race.
These chapters also continue to explore the theme of Personal Accountability and Fault as Goggins holds himself accountable not only for personal mistakes but even for the mistakes of others. For example, he leaves Moab with a list of preparation errors, such as not packing his gloves or medicine. Even when his navigator fails, taking them miles off course, Goggins claims responsibility for delegating responsibility and setting his mind on autopilot. Self-reliance emerges as central to the savage mentality and to Goggins’s idea of true leadership, which later chapters revisit.
However, these chapters also clarify that self-reliance is not the same as isolation. In fact, accountability and social support go hand in hand. Goggins explains that he does not select his pacers for their running skills but because they know, understand, and support his goals. He uses this anecdote to introduce Evolution 6, which urges the reader to be deliberate in creating an inner circle that is based on mutual support rather than family ties or a shared past. He uses the metaphor of a military foxhole to stress the importance of this Evolution, explaining that in war, a foxhole could be the difference between life and death. In terms of ultra-racing, career ambitions, or self-improvement, the makeup of a foxhole could mean the death of a dream. His crew’s support during Moab illustrates a healthy inner circle. When he wakes them up at four o’clock to return to the trails (despite the DNF), they are not surprised. They understand Goggins so well that they seem to think, “What took you so damn long?” (190).
