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  • Do Hard Things

  • Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness
  • By: Steve Magness
  • Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
  • Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (97 ratings)

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Do Hard Things

By: Steve Magness
Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
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Publisher's Summary

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.

©2022 Steve Magness (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

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What listeners say about Do Hard Things

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Animal cruelty described here, with no apology.

I didn’t get too far into this book when descriptions of dogs being given electric shocks as part as research in fear forced me to stop. ….. for good. If the author had at least acknowledged that giving dogs electric shocks so that humans can figure out there own fear responses is not acceptable I might have kept going . But he doesn’t . Not interested in this kind of book…. disgusting.

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5 people found this helpful

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For the science lovers

I was pleasantly surprised to find this book had a lot of running analogies, which makes it really easy to apply the lessons learned into everyday life. The application of science and philosophy in those lessons keeps the book interesting and engaging!

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Was hard to keep focus

Some good info and insight into toughness as we perceive it. But the story itself is hard to follow. Will re listen and update review afterwards.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Very frustrating

Firstly author tried to redefine toughness as something more like goal achievement, confidence, self esteem or success. I didn't agree with authors new definition of toughness. Author then explained that traditional approaches to achieving toughness fail but seemed like this was just because he redefined toughness.
Author then tells you how to achieve his new definition of toughness.
Very frustrating

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic book.

Really insightful. Lots of things to take away. I think this should be a must listen for those trying to improve their lives.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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A fantastic read to help improve all areas of your life

This book was excellent. I would highly recommend to anybody who’s trying to improve any part of their life, or to anyone who’s going through a rough patch. Highly enjoyable to listen to, and highly relevant. Thanks for this book!

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An enjoyable thought provoking listen

I was apprehensive on getting this one after reading some of the reviews at the end of the day to each their own. I enjoyed it. I found it very thought-provoking. Sure, some of it was boring yet the thought-provoking bits made up for it

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating

Alot of very interesting insights here ... actually based on some evidence ... as opposed to much of our precious approach ...Bravo.

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