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

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In Do Hard Things, Magness not only argues why the old model is broken, but also presents us with a new roadmap; a guide to develop real resiliency, real confidence, and to live a healthier, happier life. Do Hard Things tasks us with re-thinking the ingrained ideas we have about the traditional model of toughness, while at the same time, providing us with the mental tools to develop real toughness.

As I wrote for another review this year, I try to pick up at least one self-help guidance book every year and try to incorporate at least one key take away from it in my life. 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. It’s time to move to a definition based on navigating discomfort by creating space to take thoughtful action.

Unfortunately for the author, who clearly cannot be expected to look at examples from just outside his cultural landscape, the resilience part of the book was incredibly banal, at least in my part of the world. The book is a mixture of performance science, psychology, social psychology, Buddhist philosophy, and self-help.

The subtitle of this book is “Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness”.If you are interested in self-betterment, and/or high performance - then this one needs to be on your to-read list. My summary can't replace the way Magness weaves story and science together to change who you are as a person. Steven Magness is a performance scientist and executive coach, who specializes in working with Olympic athletes.

The better you’re able to identify and interpret these, the more likely you are to cope with the difficulties you face. Really enjoyed the 3rd pillar, as i feel like i conquered being more present to my surrounding when i was in my college years, but have recently now have had more distractions and not embracing the feeling of the run. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion. The author is a performance expert and an elite coach, and in this book, he is showing us that the old model of toughness that was based on fear and hiding weakness is not the model we should be using anymore.In the workplace, a recent study of over 1,000 office workers showed that the strongest predictor of how well they dealt with demanding work was whether they felt respected and valued by their managers. A study of elementary school students found that overconfident readers often chose books way above their level of comprehension. I’ve always subscribed to this type of mentality, and I believe that having an easy life just leaves us feeling unfulfilled, contrary to our preconceived theories. 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. I really like books formatted in this fashion, and find that this presentation style really helps me retain the information covered.

As a sport psych I recoil when I hear people bang on about mental toughness and this title felt similar.Magness's outstanding critique of the traditional/harsh/calous view of toughness, with clear reasoning as to why it doesn't breed true success.