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How to Build Extreme Willpower | David Goggins & Dr. Andrew Huberman

Huberman Lab ClipsPublished Jan 4, 202413:14Added Aug 30, 2026

David Goggins and Dr. Andrew Huberman discuss the neuroscience of willpower and how pushing through challenges and doing what you don't want to do can strengthen a brain area known as the anterior midcingulate cortex.

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Contributed by Heather

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317 segments
Transcript format
  1. 00:02I'm going to share a little neuroscience tidbit.
  2. 00:04Love it.
  3. 00:04But I think it's one that you'll appreciate.
  4. 00:07Most people don't know this,
  5. 00:09but there's a brain structure
  6. 00:11called the anterior midcingulate cortex,
  7. 00:13as we pointed out before, that's a noun, it's a name,
  8. 00:15it doesn't mean anything.
  9. 00:16Right. We could call it
  10. 00:17the cookie monster.
  11. 00:18Right.
  12. 00:20But what's interesting about this brain area
  13. 00:21is there's now a lot of data,
  14. 00:24in humans, not some mouse study,
  15. 00:27showing that when people do something they don't want to do,
  16. 00:31like add three hours of exercise per day or per week,
  17. 00:36or when people who are trying to diet and lose weight
  18. 00:39resist eating something.
  19. 00:40Right.
  20. 00:42When people do anything that they,
  21. 00:43and this is the important part,
  22. 00:44that they don't want to do,
  23. 00:46it's not about adding more work,
  24. 00:47it's about adding more work that you don't want to do.
  25. 00:50Yes.
  26. 00:51This brain area gets bigger.
  27. 00:52Yep.
  28. 00:53Now here's what's especially interesting
  29. 00:54about this brain area to me, and by the way,
  30. 00:56I'm only learning this recently
  31. 00:58because it's new data, but there's a lot of it.
  32. 01:01The anterior midcingulate cortex
  33. 01:04is smaller in obese people,
  34. 01:08it gets bigger when they diet.
  35. 01:10It's larger in athletes,
  36. 01:13it's especially large or grows larger
  37. 01:16in people that see themselves
  38. 01:19as challenged and overcome some challenge.
  39. 01:21Right.
  40. 01:23And in people that live a very long time,
  41. 01:28this area keeps its size.
  42. 01:31In many ways, scientists are starting to think
  43. 01:33of the anterior midcingulate cortex
  44. 01:35not just as one of the seats of willpower.
  45. 01:38Right.
  46. 01:39But perhaps actually the seat of the will to live.
  47. 01:43See, now we're talking.
  48. 01:45And when I learned about the anterior midcingulate cortex,
  49. 01:47I was like almost out of my seat.
  50. 01:49And I've been in the neuroscience game since I was 20.
  51. 01:51Now we're talking. And we're the same age.
  52. 01:52And I was so pumped
  53. 01:53'cause I've heard of the amygdala fear, prefrontal cortex,
  54. 01:56it's planning and action.
  55. 01:57I could tell you every brain area and every,
  56. 01:59I teach neuroanatomy to medical students.
  57. 02:01But when I started seeing the data
  58. 02:03on the anterior midcingulate cortex,
  59. 02:06I was like, whoa, this is interesting.
  60. 02:10Yep.
  61. 02:11And all the data points to the fact
  62. 02:13that we can build this area up.
  63. 02:15Yep.
  64. 02:16But that, as quickly as we build it up,
  65. 02:18if we don't continue to invest in things
  66. 02:20that are hard for us that we don't want to do,
  67. 02:23that's the part that feels so Goggin-esque.
  68. 02:26Yes, sir. To me,
  69. 02:27that we don't want to do,
  70. 02:28like if you love the ice bath,
  71. 02:30"Yeah, I love the ice bath,"
  72. 02:31and you go from one minute to 10 minutes, guess what?
  73. 02:34Your anterior midcingulate cortex did not grow.
  74. 02:36None.
  75. 02:36But if you hate the cold water,
  76. 02:39if you're afraid of drowning and you get into water
  77. 02:42and put your head under.
  78. 02:43Yep.
  79. 02:45Then your anterior mid, and survive,
  80. 02:47then the anterior midcingulate cortex gets bigger.
  81. 02:49But if you don't do it the next day,
  82. 02:51or if you do it the next day and you enjoy it
  83. 02:53because, hey, hey, I did it yesterday,
  84. 02:55woo-hoo, happy me, Merry Christmas,
  85. 02:57as you would say. That's right,
  86. 02:58Merry Christmas.
  87. 02:59Guess what?
  88. 03:00The anterior midcingulate cortex shrinks again.
  89. 03:02DAVID: Yep.
  90. 03:03To me, this is one of the most important discoveries
  91. 03:05that neuroscience has ever made
  92. 03:08because it's that I don't want to do something
  93. 03:11but do it anyway.
  94. 03:12That's right.
  95. 03:13That grows this area,
  96. 03:14and it's almost like I have a friend,
  97. 03:15he's been sober 30 years from alcohol,
  98. 03:18and he always says, you know,
  99. 03:19the amazing thing about addiction is there's a cure,
  100. 03:23the problem is it only works one day at a time.
  101. 03:25Yep.
  102. 03:26And so, you have to renew it every day.
  103. 03:27That's right.
  104. 03:28So the anterior midcingulate cortex to me,
  105. 03:30when I learned about it, two things went off in my head,
  106. 03:33whoa, this is super interesting,
  107. 03:34and two, I got to tell David Goggins about this.
  108. 03:36And I waited until now.
  109. 03:37I'm glad. To tell you
  110. 03:38because I felt like, well, for obvious reasons,
  111. 03:42I wanted to tell you and I wanted to tell you here.
  112. 03:44Well, I love that
  113. 03:45because that's how I've lived my entire life,
  114. 03:48I didn't know anything about that.
  115. 03:50But people go, "Man, you have such a strong will."
  116. 03:54It's something that you build, like I never forgot,
  117. 03:56I was on a podcast one time, and this dude goes,
  118. 03:59"You were blessed with a strong mind."
  119. 04:03Like, the hell you talking about
  120. 04:07I was blessed with a strong mind?
  121. 04:10That's something that you have to develop.
  122. 04:13You develop that over years, decades of suffering
  123. 04:18and going back into the suffer.
  124. 04:21That's why a lot of people who graduate Navy SEAL training,
  125. 04:28I talk about very openly all the time,
  126. 04:32a lot of guys don't want to go back into that water,
  127. 04:35don't want to go back into the hard stuff.
  128. 04:38Anything hard, anything hard in life,
  129. 04:41once you get through it, it's like you become a POW.
  130. 04:45Like, how many POWs you know want to go back to POW camp?
  131. 04:48None.
  132. 04:49When something sucks so bad in life, this is on this,
  133. 04:53that we're talking about now, very few people want to go back.
  134. 04:58They're happy they graduated.
  135. 05:02I realized I'm the same way, I don't want to go back.
  136. 05:07I have to go back, I must go back.
  137. 05:11Because that is exactly where
  138. 05:13all the knowledge of my life exists was back there
  139. 05:17and what exactly what you're talking about.
  140. 05:19Well, I didn't know anything about this,
  141. 05:21but how I grew a will was constantly doing these things,
  142. 05:26so now, it's just life.
  143. 05:30I wake up, while it still sucks, it's just life.
  144. 05:33You don't sit back and like, oh my God,
  145. 05:35like I have days I don't want to do it,
  146. 05:36but I know I'm going to do it.
  147. 05:39I know from years of just doing it, so that's beautiful.
  148. 05:44And this is why I came on here with you today,
  149. 05:46and I'm glad that you're talking about this
  150. 05:48because human beings need to hear this,
  151. 05:51they need to stop hearing these hacks on this and that,
  152. 05:56there's no fucking hack, bro,
  153. 05:58there's no fucking hack,
  154. 05:59yeah, you may this and that and saunas and this,
  155. 06:03all this shit that they, yeah, it's great.
  156. 06:06There is no fucking life hack.
  157. 06:09To grow that thing, how do you grow it?
  158. 06:12Do it, and do it, and do it and do it.
  159. 06:16That's the hack, the hack is going to fucking suck.
  160. 06:19And that's when I realized, that's when I realized.
  161. 06:22That's why I wanted to come on here today,
  162. 06:24I didn't want to come on here
  163. 06:25and talk about no fucking passion and purpose
  164. 06:28and how to get the fuck out of bed
  165. 06:30and how to hit a fucking alarm clock
  166. 06:31and all this catchphrase bullshit,
  167. 06:35'cause that wasn't how I lived, it wasn't how I lived.
  168. 06:38I lived, I woke up like every human being does
  169. 06:41and goes, "Fuck, man, I'm a fucking piece of shit today.
  170. 06:44How the hell is this going to work out for me?"
  171. 06:46And you fight that and you fight that,
  172. 06:49you don't override it, there's no override button.
  173. 06:52It's the conversation in your head.
  174. 06:55So how do you do that?
  175. 06:57We don't have enough of these conversations
  176. 06:59about the real conversation that every human being is having
  177. 07:03and they have no idea how to get out of it, but they do.
  178. 07:07It's that shit right there, man, you got to build your will.
  179. 07:11How do you build your will? Exactly what you said, man.
  180. 07:14Exactly what you said.
  181. 07:16Well, I feel like knowing the name of something,
  182. 07:19anterior midcingulate cortex
  183. 07:20doesn't fundamentally change us.
  184. 07:21But one thing I like about biology is that, willpower,
  185. 07:27if somebody feels they don't have it,
  186. 07:29feels like this thing that other people have.
  187. 07:31But everybody, unless they're brain damaged,
  188. 07:34like a hole through their head
  189. 07:36has two anterior midcingulate cortex,
  190. 07:39one on each side of their brain.
  191. 07:41Everyone has one, they have two.
  192. 07:43So I feel like it's just a question of opening the portal,
  193. 07:48and the portal, again, I'm going to say it 10 times
  194. 07:52and forgive me, is I think people go,
  195. 07:53"Oh, I do hard things, I do sets to failure,
  196. 07:56and then I do forced reps."
  197. 07:57I love training with weights, I love doing sets to failure,
  198. 08:00I even like forced reps, but guess what?
  199. 08:02I like forced reps, so I'll tell you,
  200. 08:04they don't build my anterior midcingulate cortex.
  201. 08:07Right.
  202. 08:08Because I like to do it.
  203. 08:08That's right.
  204. 08:09Anything you like to do
  205. 08:11is not going to enhance this aspect of willpower.
  206. 08:13And it seems so obvious once you hear it,
  207. 08:15you kind of go, "Oh yeah, of course."
  208. 08:17But I think you really close that loop for people
  209. 08:22when you share what you're sharing today
  210. 08:26and what you've shared elsewhere before as well,
  211. 08:27when you're trying to explain
  212. 08:28the friction is the critical ingredient.
  213. 08:30Right.
  214. 08:31And I think people think,
  215. 08:32oh, if it's effort, well, then, I'm getting better,
  216. 08:34that's part of it, necessary, but not sufficient,
  217. 08:37as we say in science.
  218. 08:38But the suck part, the being haunted, the stick,
  219. 08:44they're really unpleasant terms.
  220. 08:46Very.
  221. 08:47These are probably the most unpleasant terms
  222. 08:48we've ever used on this podcast.
  223. 08:50Very.
  224. 08:51Those are the levers, those are the gears.
  225. 08:55And without those, this thing that you're talking about,
  226. 08:58David Goggins as a verb.
  227. 09:00Right.
  228. 09:01You know, I sometimes make the joke, but it's not a joke.
  229. 09:04DAVID: Right.
  230. 09:04Goggins is a name and it's a verb.
  231. 09:08People go, "I'm going to Goggins that."
  232. 09:10Right. Right?
  233. 09:10But that's, I think, again, I'm not a psychologist,
  234. 09:14but I think that's what you're talking about.
  235. 09:15The stick, the friction, being haunted,
  236. 09:19it's the suck part that grows
  237. 09:21this anterior midcingulate cortex.
  238. 09:23So now you know why there's so many people
  239. 09:26that fail in this world to figure out their purpose,
  240. 09:32their purpose in life, where do I go?
  241. 09:34Because to grow that,
  242. 09:38while you may not look like me, how my daily life looks.
  243. 09:43It don't look fun,
  244. 09:46it don't look fun.
  245. 09:48So it's a choice that people have to make in life.
  246. 09:53But what's so funny about it is even the richest of rich,
  247. 09:56who have everything, they always ask me this question,
  248. 09:59"I feel like I'm missing something."
  249. 10:03I don't feel like I'm missing shit.
  250. 10:06I don't have what you all have,
  251. 10:09but you'll never in my life
  252. 10:11hear me tell you I'm missing something.
  253. 10:14And everybody is, they're missing this feeling.
  254. 10:19I found it, a long time ago,
  255. 10:22and I found it right there in that willpower thing.
  256. 10:25When you're nothing, nothing,
  257. 10:28and change yourself into something like me,
  258. 10:33you call it happiness, peace,
  259. 10:36whatever the fuck you want to call it,
  260. 10:40people are missing exactly what went on with David Goggins.
  261. 10:44"Why don't you smile?"
  262. 10:45I do, I do.
  263. 10:47But I figured something out,
  264. 10:49that's why you'll never hear me say,
  265. 10:52"I'm missing something."
  266. 10:53I found it years ago.
  267. 10:55You find it in the suck, you find it in the suck,
  268. 11:00and you find it repeatedly in the suck,
  269. 11:02to the point where you know exactly who you are.
  270. 11:05Most people are missing something
  271. 11:06because they don't know who they are,
  272. 11:10they never examine themselves,
  273. 11:12they've never done this experiment on themselves.
  274. 11:16The lab rat, we're all lab rats.
  275. 11:18But you are also the scientist.
  276. 11:21You create your own self.
  277. 11:24Most people are missing something
  278. 11:25'cause there's so much trapped in there.
  279. 11:29I don't even want to say potential,
  280. 11:30I think that word's used out too much too.
  281. 11:32There's so much in you that God
  282. 11:34or whoever the hell you believe in, or if you're a atheist,
  283. 11:37in you, that you have not unlocked,
  284. 11:40that you walk around with this gorgeous wife
  285. 11:42or great husband and all this money, you're like,
  286. 11:45"God, I feel like I'm missing something."
  287. 11:47Yeah, because it's about 75% of you
  288. 11:51is still fucking in there, still chained up,
  289. 11:55because you just didn't want to find your willpower,
  290. 11:58didn't want to find your soul, your will, your heart,
  291. 12:00your determination, your guts, your courage,
  292. 12:03and what that looks like, it looks scary,
  293. 12:05like your little scary lab I went in, scary.
  294. 12:09To wake up every day and say,
  295. 12:10"I'm stupid, but I want to figure out a way to be smarter,"
  296. 12:14versus saying, "Man, I just can't do that."
  297. 12:16So you limit this box,
  298. 12:19so your box becomes so small of things you can do.
  299. 12:22My box wasn't even a box,
  300. 12:25it was a fucking little like little pinhole.
  301. 12:28And then, through examining myself,
  302. 12:31getting some willpower, some courage,
  303. 12:34it became bigger than this table.
  304. 12:35But that's what we all do,
  305. 12:36that's why I wanted to come here today
  306. 12:37and talk to you about real shit.
  307. 12:39Not no fucking like hacks, there's no hacks, bro.
  308. 12:43It's you against you, you against you.
  309. 12:46And if you misunderstand that,
  310. 12:49you have a real problem, real problem.
  311. 12:52I can understand you misunderstand me
  312. 12:53running down the street, shirt off,
  313. 12:55"Fuck this, yeah, yeah," I can get it, I get it.
  314. 12:58If you misunderstand
  315. 12:59what I'm saying right now today, the problem is you,
  316. 13:04and you don't want to fix it.
  317. 13:06[MUSIC PLAYING]
How to Build Extreme Willpower | David Goggins & Dr. Andrew Huberman — Transcriptly