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

Written by Steve Magness

Narrated by Mike Chamberlain

National Bestseller

""In Do Hard Things, Steve Magness beautifully and persuasively reimagines our understanding of toughness. This is a must-read for parents and coaches and anyone else looking to prepare for life's biggest challenges."" -- Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers and Talking to Strangers and host of the Revisionist History podcast

From beloved performance expert, executive coach, and coauthor of Peak Performance Steve 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.

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.

Steve Magness, a performance scientist who coaches Olympic athletes, rebuilds our broken model of resilience with one grounded in the latest science and psychology. In Do Hard Things, Magness teaches us how we can work with our body – how experiencing discomfort, leaning in, paying attention, and creating space to take thoughtful action can be the true indications of cultivating inner strength. He offers four core pillars to cultivate such resilience: 

• Pillar 1- Ditch the Façade, Embrace Reality
• Pillar 2- Listen to Your Body
• Pillar 3- Respond, Instead of React 
• Pillar 4- Transcend Discomfort   

Smart and wise all at once, Magness flips the script on what it means to be resilient. Drawing from mindfulness, military case studies, sports psychology, neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy, he provides a roadmap for navigating life’s challenges and achieving high performance that makes us happier, more successful, and, ultimately, better people.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: Jun 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9780063098640

Steve Magness

Steve Magness is a world-renowned expert on performance, coauthor of Peak Performance and The Passion Paradox, and the author of The Science of Running. He is the co-host of two podcasts: The Growth Equation podcast, with Brad Stulberg, and On Coaching with Magness and Marcus, with Jon Marcus. He has written for Runner’s World and Sports Illustrated, and he 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, and he has been featured on NPR and CNN International. Magness has served as a consultant and speaker for NASA, the Houston Rockets, Murphy Oil, the Brooklyn Nets, the Cleveland Guardians, the Seattle Sounders, the New Orleans Pelicans, Athletics New Zealand, Canadian Athletics, New Zealand High Performance, and more. He lives in Houston, Texas.

Reviews for Do Hard Things

[Dixon's Realty LLC · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It was very inspirational, had a lot of information I didn't know as well as kept me entertained.

[Crisman Cooley · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Chock full of small distinctions that make a big difference, wise life experience and actionable advice.

[Ally · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

For building resilient brainpower and consistent improvements in everyday life!

[Kim Døfler · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I found a lot of good insights in this book, and I think it moves from theory to story to real world implementation in a really nice way.

[Will Werneske · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The author used great examples and stories which kept me interested. However getting into the research of things and science behind it lost my interest. That might be of interest to some, but just not my personal cup of tea.

[Moo salah · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It is a very nice book to be read .

[gapril5carrillo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great book! But needs another finalizing summary at the end.

[nttrang · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fantastic and informative. I’ll be buying this book after listening to it.

[MaxMultiplier · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Just amazing. In the top 3 books I’ve read this year. If you’re considering reading it, jump in… you’ll be pleasantly surprised and enlightened by the end of it. Thank you Mark Sturgess

[Nadia · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

3 minutes in and I had to delete the book because of the amount of cussing. What a pity.