Never Finished: Unshackle Your Mind and Win the War Within

When Goggins begins his acceptance speech for the VFW’s Americanism Award, the first person he thanks is his grandfather. Sergeant Jack Gardner was himself a military veteran, but more importantly, he was the man who introduced Goggins to discipline and self-accountability. The key principles of Never Finished are rooted in Goggins’s grandfather’s lessons. That boot-camp style education began with Gardner demanding the title of “Sergeant Jack.”

Expecting sympathy for his abuse at his father’s hands, young Goggins first rebelled against the early morning awakenings and Task Lists at Sergeant Jack’s house. Goggins only began meeting his grandfather’s expectations to earn more basketball time. The unexpected pride that resulted, however, springboarded into the practice of giving maximum effort on every task. Goggins became a “disciple of discipline” (143). He concedes that this mindset can easily wane if not fostered, and Goggins relearns these lessons later in life—for example, by watching Captain Connolly at Air Assault School. Sergeant Jack, however, laid the groundwork—an example of Using Everything in action.

Flashbacks to Sergeant Jack also build on the theme of Mental Versus Physical Strength. When young Goggins saw his grandfather maintain composure after his hands were smashed under the hood of a car, Goggins was awed. He believed that learning to be that strong could transform his life. Later, during Hell Week, Goggins’s ability to find mental control under physical pressure made him a Navy SEAL.

Goggins also came to appreciate that his grandfather’s home was not the pity party he expected. He explains, “Sergeant Jack didn’t deal in pity. He was out to harden my shell, and that’s exactly what he did” (147). Goggins warns that the external validation that pity provides ultimately saps independence. His grandfather knew the importance of action, and the theme of Personal Accountability and Fault also reflects Sergeant Jack’s influence.

Goggins’s romantic partner, Kish, enters the narrative at Christmas. She and Goggins are spending time with both his family and hers for the holiday. Goggins’s mother and brother meet them at what he calls “the aptly named Loveless Café” (41), and the encounter brings up memories of Goggins’s childhood abuse. His Christmas memories involve scraping gum off a skating rink floor. Kish, however, is looking forward to revisiting warm Christmas traditions with her close-knit family in Florida. Goggins jokingly references Norman Rockwell paintings and matching holiday pajamas. The contrasting images highlight Goggins’s traumatic upbringing and support his claim that one’s starting point does not preclude greatness.

Kish exemplifies Goggins’s definition of “foxhole material.” He stresses the importance of being surrounded by people who understand and support big goals—and the sacrifices such goals require. The early description of Kish as “prissy as fuck” contrasts sharply with tasks she later undertakes for Goggins (122), such as cleaning up excrement during his post-Leadville breakdown and rubbing cream on his bloody skin midrace at Moab.

Goggins also describes Kish, however, as a driven athlete and businessperson, and he is likewise supportive of her goals, such as logging a sub-3:25 marathon or starting law school. Through Kish, Goggins depicts the ideal foxhole as a team.

Kish also serves as Goggins’s confidant in ways that support his idea of leadership. She helps as Goggins repeatedly tries to conceal weaknesses from the rest of his race crew. For example, she shuts the bedroom door behind Goggins when he collapses after Leadville, and she cares for him herself. She is also the only crew member at Moab who knows about his Raynaud’s, and she quietly passes along his gloves as he tries to disguise his body’s reaction to the cold. She understands his ideology: Sympathy from his team would be useless in his eyes, as it is his job to take responsibility, show maximum effort, and set the morale for the crew.

Goggins’s introduction of his abusive father, Trunnis, is dramatic, creating intrigue early in Chapter 1. Goggins states that he never would have achieved his military career or athletic feats if he had not visited Trunnis one last time at age 24, after a 12-year separation. Goggins gives the reason for his visit, saying, “[W]hen you’re living in hell, the only way to find your way out is to confront the Devil himself” (24). Goggins was overweight and depressed, and he blamed his failures on his father.

During the visit, Trunnis was drunk and mean, and Goggins’s memories of abuse were painful. Still, Goggins realized that Trunnis was not the devil but merely a sad old man who had no self-worth and abused women and children to feel dominant. Goggins also realized he drove to Buffalo looking for proof that Trunnis was evil and therefore responsible for every failure and hardship in his life: “I needed Trunnis to be the flaw in my existence in order to claim the lifetime warranty on my get-out-of-jail-free card” (30). This backstory illustrates Evolution 1’s description of trauma breeding entitlement.

After visiting Trunnis, Goggins resolved to take responsibility for his own future, despite the unjust traumas of his past, introducing the theme of personal accountability. In his Mental Lab, where his savage alter-ego was born, Goggins transformed Trunnis’s abuse into empowerment, invoking the theme of using everything—even (and especially) negative experiences. The flashback to Trunnis also supports Goggins’s argument that greatness can defy potential.

Goggins, his brother, and his mother have three distinct ways of dealing with the trauma of their abuse at the hands of Goggins’s father. While she does not deny her past, Jackie’s story illustrates the danger of avoiding painful memories rather than processing them and using them for empowerment, as Goggins has done.

After fleeing her abuser, Jackie earned her master’s degree and landed a six-figure administrative job at a medical school. Despite being a survivor and a professional, however, she never felt self-worth. Goggins argues that by burying her pain, she became a prisoner to it, meaning Trunnis retained control over her. Goggins’s reality provides a sharp contrast, as he faces his demons head-on and uses them for empowerment, feeling like a puppeteer in control of the strings.

Jackie’s story also reveals a second risk in avoiding painful memories. When Jackie returns to Buffalo with Trunnis Jr. in 2018, she is in a fog and can remember few details from living there. Goggins warns that suppressing memories often means losing whole eras of your life.  

However, Goggins’s mother represents an ideal trait in his ideology as well. He uses her as an example of a loyal advocate he wants in his foxhole. For example, when he first decided to become a Navy SEAL, his only supporter was his mother. Because she never questioned his commitment, his mind was not conflicted and he could focus. Likewise, she once served in his race crew for an ultramarathon and wept with pride because she understood his purpose.

The relationship between Goggins and his pacers illustrates his style of both leadership and foxhole formation. During Moab 2019, when his navigator’s GPS malfunctions, sending them over 10 miles off course, Goggins does not show anger. He takes personal accountability, blaming himself for not spot-checking his pacer’s equipment and for mentally going on autopilot. He also focuses on getting back on track, saying leaders too often point fingers instead of solving problems.

As a leader, Goggins also tries to hide weakness from his race crew, feeling their roles are selfless and demanding enough without excess worries. For example, he uses the last of his energy to get out of sight before collapsing to the floor in his post-Leadville breakdown. Likewise, during his first Moab, he arrives at the aid station dehydrated and with numb hands and feet, but he “rein[s] it in” at the first sight of his team (161), not wanting to show even a twitch.

Goggins uses the foxhole metaphor to explain how he chooses his race team, explaining that he does not look for the best runners. It is more important for his pacers to understand him and his goals. For example, when he knocks on doors at four o’clock to say he is finishing Moab after his DNF, his pacers looks like they are thinking, “What took you so damn long?” (190).

Members of Goggins’s foxhole receive help from him as well. For example, at the end of the Leadville race, when his pacer falls behind, Goggins stops, waits, and then runs back to deliver food, adding to his distance and falling behind in the rankings. Likewise, Goggins relies on Casey to get him through the last leg of Moab 2020. The following month, when Casey struggles at the end of his first ultra, Goggins, who has already completed the course, returns to pace Casey to the finish as well. The dynamics of the race crew demonstrate that the foxhole is a team, not a staff.