Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness

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To not see threats everywhere, to not think that everyone is out to get us, that any slight feeling of discomfort should lead us straight to a freak-out. We resist putting ourselves in any place or situation where we could come face-to-face with our own inferiority. In Do Hard Thingsthey encourage us to go above and beyond the status quo in everything from schoolwork to serving the poor. Reviewing mistakes, working on weaknesses, telling yourself “Can’t hit the slider, so watch for it” backfires if you are too close to action.

Rather than just pointing at the author's lives of how they did "hard things", they pull out examples of teens all over the world accomplishing hard things both big and small. To know if that pain is a warning that injury is imminent, or if that feeling of shame is an uninformed feeling that we should scroll on by. As someone who has repeatedly faced this in life, and especially so in the last few years, and as someone who used a combination of aggressive and disciplined workout regimens and mindfulness practices to take back a little bit of control of my own life, and to set in on a more sound footing despite external circumstances, I can very strongly relate with his suggestions.If you’re honest with yourself, and acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses, what you’re capable of and what might scare you, then you can come to terms with what you’re facing and deal with it. Stress inoculation doesn’t work unless you have acquired the skills to navigate the environment you will encounter. Steve Magness makes a beautiful and compelling case for the value of inner strength over outer strength and humility over bluster. Do Hard Things is one of those books that you read and think "Wow that was amazing, I learned so much". When we go in with bravado, it backfires because at the first inkling that we may not be able to succeed, our brain freaks out.

Steve Magness is one of the giants of modern thinking about high performance across domains, blending a broad knowledge of cutting-edge psychology with hard-earned practical experience from the world-class athletes and other experts he coaches.My hope is that this book is a small step toward a major course correction, one that teaches our children that acting tough isn’t the same thing as being tough. I might be biased because as a runner and someone who works in mental health this book was somehow extremely relevant to both aspects of my life. In the corporate world, we prop up the companies that create slick-looking ads promoting values of inclusion and diversity, all while the inner workings of those organizations are littered with abuse, hostility, and harassment.

com, Alex and Brett Harris are leading the charge in a growing movement of Christian young people who are rebelling against the low expectations of their culture by choosing to “do hard things” for the glory of God.

We hold on to ideas that better resemble a middle school football coach’s ideal of toughness than reality. The introduction of the book uses stories to remind us of the definition of toughness that many of us have been brought up to believe. Throughout the book Magness discusses not only dealing with physical pain and barriers but with mental barriers to performance. In addition, Steve's expertise on elite sport and performance has been featured in The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Men’s Health, The Guardian, Business Insider, and ESPN The Magazine.