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

Product Information

Ditch the Façade, Embrace Reality (My psychologist head would label this acceptance) – this section has a great description of why and how our brain tries to protect us and the influence of our identity. All actions that clue us in on Knight’s actual definition of toughness, one founded on showing no weakness, bulldozing through obstacles, and utilizing fear to establish authority and control.

In his bestselling titles Peak Performance and The Passion Paradox as well as his latest, Do Hard Things, Magness shares the secrets behind achieving sustainable success while operating at the peak of your capabilities. It stalls the jump from difficulty to complete despair, from fear and anxiety to full-blown freak out. I use "yelling" in the colloquial sense here – talking down to someone regardless of volume; you can berate or chastise someone, in a low tone of voice, and be yelling. Steve received his undergraduate degree from the University of Houston and a graduate degree from George Mason University.The section on the brain and the inner voices was helpful and something new I’ve walked away with from this book.

In the Israeli military, those who grew up in an authoritarian environment adapted to and coped with the challenges of military life much worse than their peers who grew up in a nurturing environment. Magness’s book helps us to see that by leaning into discomfort, anxiety and all the stressors that coming from trying to achieve difficult things we can learn to respond to things in ways that work successfully rather than instantly reacting and causing ourselves further stresses. He has coached seven athletes to top Top-15 finishes at a World Championship, twelve athletes to births on the World Championship or Olympic teams, and guided more than twenty-five Olympic Trials Qualifiers. I have already been able to use a lot of this book in my work with clients and in my own life and I really appreciate that about any kind of self-helpy book.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. But actually, when you ignore your feelings, you’re wasting a huge opportunity to become more resilient. A lot of stories trying to explain his points on the book, but everything had a reason and helps you digest the true meaning of Do Hard Things.

But if these superficial goals don’t resonate with your actual desires, you’re unlikely to meet them. But you don't train firemen by sending them repeatedly into burning buildings and saying "The good ones will survive". Fortunately for the author, this book’s review will be similarly colored, and so the reader is advised to take whatever I have to say with an even larger than usual grain of salt. With that in mind, I of course had high expectations going into this book and spoiler alert: Do Hard Things far exceeded my expectations. My summary can't replace the way Magness weaves story and science together to change who you are as a person.The book highlights stories of inspiring young people who achieved impressive feats despite their age. When they dug further, the expert meditators had a “greater ability to fully embrace the feeling of pain and … let go of the appraisal of what the pain meant to them. So if you’ve said that learning Icelandic will take you six months max, but it’s six months in and you’re still struggling with basic grammar, you’re likely to give up. On the other hand, if we see the stressor as an opportunity for growth or gain, as something that is difficult but that we can handle, we’re more likely to experience a challenge response. Collectively his books have sold more than a quarter-million copies in print, ebook, and audio formats.