Toughness has long been held as the key to overcoming a challenge and achieving greatness, whether it is on the sports field, at a boardroom, or at the dining room table. Yet, the prevailing model has promoted a mentality based on fear, false bravado, and hiding any sign of weakness. In other words, the old model of toughness has failed us. In the popular imagination, being tough means projecting confidence, pushing through pain without complaint, and ignoring soppy emotions. Steve Magness possesses an incredible range of wisdom and knowledge about the science, psychology and practical sides of sport performance. Do Hard Things is a master class in how to develop resilience, persistence and confidence under pressure.”— Christie Aschwanden, New York Times bestselling author of Good to Go Set authentic goals for yourself. When you’re all about image, you set goals designed to impress other people: I’m going to run a marathon or I’m going to marry the most attractive partner I can find. But if these superficial goals don’t resonate with your actual desires, you’re unlikely to meet them.

Let’s get one thing straight. If something like this has ever happened to you, the problem is not that you’re not tough enough. The problem lies in society’s toxic definition of toughness. In this summary, we’ll share a new definition of toughness that’s grounded in science and psychology. What’s more, we’ll guide you through strategies for building this toughness within yourself. Steve Magnessis a world-renowned expert on performance. He is the author of the new book Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and The Surprising Science of Real Toughness. He is the coauthor of Peak Performance. The Passion Paradox, and the author of The Science of Running. Collectively his books have sold more than half a million copies in print, ebook, and audio formats. The book is a refreshing and insightful take on a topic that is often misunderstood and oversimplified. Magness does a great job of explaining the science and psychology behind resilience and how it can be applied to various situations and challenges. He also shares his own personal stories and experiences as a coach and an athlete, which add credibility and authenticity to his message. From beloved performance expert, executive coach, and coauthor of Peak PerformanceSteve Magness comes a radical rethinking of how we perceive toughness and what it means to achieve our high ambitions in the face of hard things.A welcome alternative to the traditional emphasis on ‘pushing through.’ Informative and entertaining, this has the power to help readers go the extra mile.”— Publishers Weekly Old school toughness is all about projecting a facade – creating an image of toughness that depends on overstating your endurance levels and capabilities. The problem? It's demotivating when our expectations don’t match up, at least partly, with reality. 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. And giving up isn’t exactly “tough,” is it?

Along with being taught to push through discomfort, we are often told to ignore our feelings. Once again, this runs counter the latest science and the best performers. The world’s best performers are often acute listeners of their inner worlds. They are able to listen to and read their bodies. In psychology this ability is called interoception. And research from the University of California San Diego found that elite athletes have higher levels of interoception. They are able to understand, distinguish, and process the signals their body is sending them. The same researchers found that those individuals who were judged as more resilient, scored higher on tests of interoception. Is there an athlete you work with, or someone you’ve just observed from afar, who you think is really good at this?We're past the days of ‘no pain, no gain.’ Steve Magness, elite running coach and performance guru, on what toughness looks like now.”— GQ

A must-read book on a timely and timeless topic, written by the perfect person to explore what it actually means to be tough. Steve's been thinking about these issues for years, and this book presents a fascinating and, more importantly, extremely helpful new perspective on toughness and how to build it." — Brad Stulberg, bestselling author of The Practice of Groundedness and Peak Performance It’s creating space so that you can navigate. When we go through challenging things, it’s almost like the wind compresses and we feel like we have to react. We feel some anxiety and then our immediate reaction is, “Get me out of this situation. Escape, escape, escape.” Toughness is creating the space so that you don’t default to that easy decision, but instead can figure out, okay, how do I work through this in a productive manner?Every day, the crewman – whose name was Steven Callahan – begged the captain to give him more than his ration of water. Every day, the captain held firm. Thanks to the captain, Steven Callahan survived the ordeal. And the captain? Well, he survived too. Because he was also Steven Callahan.

Steve Magness possesses an incredible range of wisdom and knowledge about the science, psychology and practical sides of sport performance. This book is a master class in how to develop resilience, persistence and confidence under pressure.” Get to know your thought patterns – where are your thoughts going in response to a stimulus? Is there a pattern you can identify? Why do you think your thoughts always move in this direction? Steve Magness possesses an incredible range of wisdom and knowledge about the science, psychology and practical sides of sport performance. REAL TOUGHNESS is a master class in how to develop resilience, persistence and confidence under pressure.” Steve Magness has established himself as a leading voice in performance optimization and achieving one's personal best, arete as the Greek's say. In Do Hard Things, Magness questions longstanding beliefs that toughness is developed through hubris and infallibility. What he reveals is both hopeful and reassuring. Do Hard Things is essential reading for anyone looking to cultivate inner strength in a genuine and authentic way."A calm conversation, on the other hand, makes room for a more thoughtful response. It might sound something like this: Oh no, this hurts. That’s OK – that’s normal. Stay loose. Keep breathing. You’ve got this. Book Summary: A Year of Positive Thinking by Cyndie Spiegel “A Year of Positive Thinking” by Cyndie Spiegel is a self-help book that aims to guide readers through a year of positive thinking. The book is divided into 365 short… You might have even tried to adopt these strategies yourself. And you might have found . . . they didn’t work. Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness have written essential playbooks for success, happiness, and getting the most out of ourselves and our lives." A must-read book on a timely and timeless topic, written by the perfect person to explore what it actually means to be tough. Steve's been thinking about these issues for years, and this book presents a fascinating and, more importantly, extremely helpful new perspective on toughness and how to build it." Brad Stulberg