[8/10] Steve Magness’ Do Hard Things

summary⌗

“Do Hard Things” explores the misconceptions surrounding toughness. Using anecdotes from his experience in running together with the latest scientific results, Steve Magness teaches us how to “cultivate real toughness”. Right away Steve dismisses the conventional wisdom that harsh coaching and tough parenting characterized by verbal and physical abuse, produces real toughness. More often than not, such approaches act as filters rather than effective training methods ( Citation: Jackson & al., 1998 Jackson, C., Henriksen, L. & Foshee, V. (1998). The authoritative parenting index: Predicting health risk behaviors among children and adolescents. Health Education & Behavior, 25(3). 319–337. ; Citation: Rankin Williams & al., 2009 Rankin Williams, L., Degnan, K., Perez-Edgar, K., Henderson, H., Rubin, K., Pine, D., Steinberg, L. & Fox, N. (2009). Impact of behavioral inhibition and parenting style on internalizing and externalizing problems from early childhood through adolescence. Journal of abnormal child psychology, 37. 1063–1075. ; Citation: Darling & al., 2017 Darling, N. & Steinberg, L. (2017). Parenting style as context: An integrative model. In Interpersonal development. (pp. 161–170). Routledge. ; Citation: Jerabek, 2013 Jerabek, I. (2013). The fallacy of tough love – queendom.com’ study reveals that authoritarian parenting can do more harm than good. PRWeb. Retrieved from https://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/8/prweb10996955.htm ; Citation: Baumrind, 1991 Baumrind, D. (1991). The influence of parenting style on adolescent competence and substance use. The journal of early adolescence, 11(1). 56–95. ).

The book explores many psychological factors that play a role in athletic performance. Self-esteem for example is not driven by rewards and punishment but is derived from personal growth. The fake it till you make it mentality is also something that is proven to not work. It works in the short term in low-challenge situations but is completely ineffective in more demanding situations ( Citation: Jerabek, 2019 Jerabek, I. (2019). The validity of the “fake-it-till-you-make-it” philosophy. Retrieved from https://www.prweb.com/releases/the_validity_of_the_fake_it_till_you_make_it_philosophy/prweb16239903.htm ). Similarly, overconfidence is also shown to be detrimental. True self-esteem and true confidence are the product of self-awareness: being true to yourself and the ability to choose appropriate goals to maintain motivation and overcome obstacles. Confidence and esteem, then, come from effectively utilizing one’s capabilities, rather than relying on superficial beliefs.

Emotions and feelings are discussed as valuable indicators of one’s health and state of mind. The book explains how naming and understanding these emotions can provide a sense of control and aid in problem-solving. It highlights the benefits of utilizing anxiety and pressure as motivators, rather than allowing them to hinder progress ( Citation: Strack & al., 2017 Strack, J., Lopes, P., Esteves, F. & Fernandez-Berrocal, P. (2017). Must we suffer to succeed?. Journal of individual differences. ).

Furthermore, it explores how developing equanimity, the ability to respond rather than react, is crucial in developing toughness ( Citation: Kral & al., 2018 Kral, T., Schuyler, B., Mumford, J., Rosenkranz, M., Lutz, A. & Davidson, R. (2018). Impact of short-and long-term mindfulness meditation training on amygdala reactivity to emotional stimuli. Neuroimage, 181. 301–313. ; Citation: Kakigi & al., 2005 Kakigi, R., Nakata, H., Inui, K., Hiroe, N., Nagata, O., Honda, M., Tanaka, S., Sadato, N. & Kawakami, M. (2005). Intracerebral pain processing in a yoga master who claims not to feel pain during meditation. European Journal of Pain, 9(5). 581–589. ). Similar to mindfulness, stoicism, and yoga, equanimity is not about suppression of feelings or indifference, but rather about a balanced approach to experience, meaning that one does not fall into emotional extremes because of worldly winds such as praise and blame, success and failure, pleasure and pain.

This is somewhat in contrast to cognitive narrowing, where one’s focus and attention become too concentrated at the expense of other stimuli in the environment. Not only does this have negative effects on rumination, and decision-making, but it can also lead to depression.

In essence, we are encouraged to embrace challenges, seek personal growth, and develop resilience through self-awareness, autonomy, and a sense of purpose. By adopting these principles, individuals can navigate difficulties and develop “real toughness”.

thoughts⌗

The book contains a nice balance between light-weight anecdotes and the more heavy descriptions of psychological experiments and scientific facts. The content seems well-researched and established and it seems that Steve knows what he talks about. The book was not quite what I expected it to be. I expected more about physical training, diets and overall the effect on the body and mind of doing hard things. As mentioned in the summary, the book leans heavily on mental health. It is somewhat surprising that a healthy and strong mind is a necessity for top-performing athletes, though it does remind me of e.g. what Andre Agassi wrote in his biography Open: that he lost important matches because his head wasn’t in the right place.

Steve proposes several “pillars” that need to be built to cultivate toughness. Most of these pillars are mantras, or advice to achieve a sort of mental calmness. These pillars can be found in many self-help books, so most of it was not new to me, but it was a nice refresher in the new context of high-performance athletics. The last pillar, for example, to find meaning in discomfort comes from Viktor Frankl’s book Man’s Search for Meaning.

some interesting facts⌗

• There’s a condition that is sometimes called “give up itis” ( Citation: Leach, 2018 Leach, J. (2018). ’Give-up-itis’ revisited: Neuropathology of extremis. Medical Hypotheses, 120. 14–21. ), the phenomenon often described as a sensation of listlessness, extreme apathy and hopelessness where an individual loses the will to live and dies, even if there is nothing physically wrong with them. Steve gives an example from one of the first settlements in the Americas, Jamestown, where a large portion of the population died due to “apathy, idleness and laziness”. In the first year, only 38 out of the 108 original settlers survived, and in the next decade, the odds of survival did not improve much. That is, until James Smith arrived and created the rule that every man must work on the farms for four hours a day, under the new motto “work or starve”. As explained by John Leach, “That sensation of choice indicates a reversal of mental defeat and the reimposition of some personal control over the situation which is a key factor in recovery. . . . (Give-up-itis) is the clinical expression of mental defeat; in particular, it is a pathology of a normal, passive coping response.". This is also explained by Peter Bourne ( Citation: Bourne & al., 1968 Bourne, P., Rose, R. & Mason, J. (1968). 17-OHCS levels in combat: Special forces a team under threat of attack. Archives of General Psychiatry, 19(2). 135–140. ) who analyzed the cortisol levels of soldiers before and after stressful combat situations. As he explains it “Our level of control changes how we respond to stress."

• The self-esteem movement in the US, e.g. getting trophies and awards for everything, was strongly influenced by the politician John Vasconcellos. He envisioned that a lack of self-esteem is the biggest contributor to many pressing problems in the USA: drugs, crime, depression, poverty and family problems. He argued that if every US citizen would feel worthy and valuable then they could all reach their full potential and all the problems mentioned above would naturally disappear. He assigned a sociologist, Neil Smelser, to head a task force tasked with investigating the impact of self-esteem ( Citation: Mecca & al., 1990 Mecca, A. & Vasconcellos, J. (1990). California task force to promote self-esteem and personal and social responsibility. Sacramento, CA: California State Dept, of Education. ). After a preliminary report by Smelser, Vasconcellos was convinced: “Self-esteem is the likeliest candidate for a social vaccine, something that empowers us to live responsibly and that inoculates us against the lures of crime, violence, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, child abuse, chronic welfare dependency, and educational failure.”. Unfortunately, Vasconcellos was all wrong and he based this conclusion not on the actual outcomes of Smelser’s main conclusions but on a small unrelated segment of his research. Nonetheless, Vasconcellos managed to convince politicians, the media and the public that raising self-esteem was an absolute must. Soon after, school programs and promotional campaigns were set up to ensure every American individual would be steaming with self-esteem. Unfortunately, this only works if self-esteem comes from within, not through external factors, and by doing actual hard work.

Bibliography⌗