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Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness Paperback – Jan. 15 2027
鶹
National Bestseller
"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 ofOutliersԻTalking to Strangersand host of the Revisionist History podcast
From beloved performance expert, executive coach, and coauthor ofPeak 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.
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. InDo 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.
- Print length320 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarperOne
- Publication dateJan. 15 2027
- Dimensions13.49 x 1.83 x 20.32 cm
- ISBN-100063098628
- ISBN-13978-0063098626
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From the Publisher

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Do Hard Things
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Win the Inside Game
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Customer Reviews |
4.5 out of 5 stars 1,985
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4.6 out of 5 stars 176
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Price | $31.26$31.26 | $35.99$35.99 |
Steve Magness introduces a researched-backed rethinking of resilience, empowering readers to navigate life’s challenges and achieve high performance while maintaining balance and well-being. | Performance coach Steve Magness outlines how to move from high-stress survival mode to fulfillment-oriented thriving mode for sustained success. | |
Have to be read in order? | No | No |
Product description
Review
"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
“For too long, we have lauded stories of coaches and leaders who practice the ‘weed-out’ school of toughness—subject a bunch of people to something unpleasant, and those who survive must have become high performers because of it. While those stories have grown in prominence, the body of scientific research has grown in a different direction, indicating that fortitude is not a trait that magically grows under extreme duress, but rather a skill that can slowly but surely be cultivated. It is time to bring the stories in line with the research, and I think Steve Magness is perfectly positioned to do just that.” — David Epstein, New York Times bestselling author of Range and The Sports Gene
"Steve delivers a critical message for our current age of posing and performance: real toughness is not about callous bravado, but instead about the ability to navigate difficulty with grace and an unwavering focus on what matters."
— Cal Newport, New York Times bestselling author of Deep Work and Digital Minimalism
“Steve Magness is one of the giants of modern thinking about high performance across domains, blending a broad knowledge of cutting-edge psychology with hard-earned practical experience from the world-class athletes and other experts he coaches. In his new book, he takes on an age-old question—who triumphs, and why, when the going gets tough?—and reveals that many of our cherished instincts and assumptions are wrong. A crucial read for anyone who cares about delivering their best when the stakes are highest.” — Alex Hutchinson, New York Times bestselling author of Endure
"Do Hard Things will change your mind about what it means to be tough. Steve Magness makes a beautiful and compelling case for the value of inner strength over outer strength and humility over bluster. A must read!” — Annie Duke, author of Thinking in Bets
"In Do Hard Things, Steve Magness dismantles the widely endorsed but damaging suggestion that toughness is about bulldozing your way through difficult situations. Magness' version of toughness—"real toughness"—is more nuanced, forgiving, flexible, and learnable. Real toughness means processing stressors thoughtfully, deliberately, and with vulnerability, rather than superficially and rigidly. Do Hard Things changed how I think about stoicism and strength, both on the sports field and more broadly, and I can't recommend it highly enough." — Adam Alter, Professor of Marketing and Psychology, New York University Stern School of Business and New York Times bestselling author of Irresistible and Drunk Tank Pink
“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
“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
"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
"Steve Magness has established himself as a leading voice in performance optimizationand achieving one'spersonal bestness, 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 hopefuland reassuring. Do Hard Things is essential reading for anyone looking tocultivate inner strength in a genuine andauthenticway." — Dean Karnazes, ultramarathoner and New York Times bestselling author
"Do Hard Things is an incredibly deep and completely new approach that examines why and how people overcome the toughest situations. Explaining different stories in a very entertaining lecture for the readers, Steve Magness, one of the most recognized authors and thinkers in sports science, gives us a master class on how to develop resilience and skills to perform at our best in difficult situations." — Kilian Jornet, author of Above the Clouds
“A thoughtful examination of what it really means to have the right stuff.” — Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and host of the TED podcast WorkLife
“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
About the Author
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.
Product details
- Publisher : HarperOne
- Publication date : Jan. 15 2027
- Language : English
- Print length : 320 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0063098628
- ISBN-13 : 978-0063098626
- Item weight : 454 g
- Dimensions : 13.49 x 1.83 x 20.32 cm
- 鶹 Rank: #274,112 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #8 in Applied Psychology (Books)
- #33 in The Self, Ego & Personality
- #71 in Motivation (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Steve Magness is a world-renowned expert on performance. He is author of the international best seller Do Hard Things. As well as the co-author of Peak Performance and The Passion Paradox. His forthcoming book is called Win The Inside Game. In his coaching practice, Steve works with executives, entrepreneurs, and athletes on their performance and mental skills.
His writing has appeared in Outside, Runner’s World, Forbes, Sports Illustrated, Men's Health, and a variety of other outlets. In addition, Steve's expertise on elite sport and performance has been featured in The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Guardian, Business Insider, and ESPN The Magazine.
Steve received his undergraduate degree from the University of Houston and a graduate degree from George Mason University. He currently lives in Houston, Tx with his wife Hillary. Once upon a time, he ran a mile in 4:01 in high school, at the time the 6th fastest high school mile in US history.
Customer reviews
Reviews with images

Great motivation book
Top reviews from Canada
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- Reviewed in Canada on June 20, 2025Verified PurchaseVery good for my university
- Reviewed in Canada on December 7, 2023Verified PurchaseThe book is abundant with thorough research, and will likely change your perspective on where resilience is born.
However, as some others have mentioned, I found he did not include many practical examples of how to implement the knowledge he was providing - he left the reader to make inferences on what to do with the information. (Which is okay, because some of it is obvious, but other times it's frustrating.)
His writing style was a consistent for the most part, but some parts of the book I felt as though he was a bit sporadic. The real world examples he offered seemed a bit stretched to fit that chapter's topic.
- Reviewed in Canada on January 16, 2025Verified PurchaseI bought this book for my husband for christmas. He loves books that are motivating and self-help. He found this book to be really useful and help him through some hard times at work. He finish the book pretty quickly and still goes back to it at times for reference.
I bought this book for my husband for christmas. He loves books that are motivating and self-help. He found this book to be really useful and help him through some hard times at work. He finish the book pretty quickly and still goes back to it at times for reference.
Images in this review
- Reviewed in Canada on September 21, 2022Verified PurchaseI really enjoyed reading Do Hard Things by Steve Magness. I've been a fan of The Growth Equation Podcast for a few years now, and i'm a big fan of Steve Magness and Brad Stulbergs work. I really appreciate their no BS mentality towards self improvement and how there are no silver bullets for success. Do Hard Things presents easy to understand material, along with practical solutions the reader can utilize to persevere and surpass the 'grind culture' by focusing on longevity, attainable tasks, and realistic achievement. This book had helped me immensely as of recently with my athletic endeavours, as well as my academic endeavours, in a time where motivation was low, and the end goal seemed out of reach. I would highly recommend this book to all walks of life, be it academic, athletic, business, or pleasure.
- Reviewed in Canada on July 7, 2022Verified PurchaseIn Do Hard Things, Steve combines interesting science-backed research with his own personal in-the-trenches experience to provide an actionable (and highly practical) guide on how to develop real toughness and inner confidence. I loved the structure of the book and the toughness maxims smattered throughout. I’ve been a huge fan of Steve’s work for years. His books, podcasts, and blog posts have transformed me as a writer, an athlete, and has helped make me an overall, happier person.I couldn’t wait for this book to hit the shelves and can say with full confidence that this is Steve's best work yet. I cannot recommend Do Hard Things enough (+ also can’t wait to read it again)!
5.0 out of 5 starsIn Do Hard Things, Steve combines interesting science-backed research with his own personal in-the-trenches experience to provide an actionable (and highly practical) guide on how to develop real toughness and inner confidence. I loved the structure of the book and the toughness maxims smattered throughout. I’ve been a huge fan of Steve’s work for years. His books, podcasts, and blog posts have transformed me as a writer, an athlete, and has helped make me an overall, happier person.I couldn’t wait for this book to hit the shelves and can say with full confidence that this is Steve's best work yet. I cannot recommend Do Hard Things enough (+ also can’t wait to read it again)!Highly actionable, practical, well-researched, entertaining, and an overall fantastic read.
Reviewed in Canada on July 7, 2022
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- Reviewed in Canada on August 3, 2024Verified PurchaseI liked how he incorporated sports and leadership. If you are a runner, team sports player and a coach or leader at work, this would be a good read.
- Reviewed in Canada on November 17, 2022Verified PurchaseWhile Steve Magness is a coaching expert and takes most of his examples from the sports world, the ideas he puts forth in Do Hard Things can be applied to any endeavour or struggle. He writes of toughness, but I would argue this book is more about finding and building resilience than mere toughness, a word which might not resonate with many who would benefit from reading this book. Excellent read.
- Reviewed in Canada on January 2, 2023Verified PurchaseThis book has some outstanding research, narrative history, and explanation of the factors that influence toughness. The book dispels the myths that have been propped up by media messages and generations of gendered caricatures that have hurt so many of us. It’s a good book, but it could benefit from better editing. Better use of headings could allow the reader to get through the material and find things more easily. The content is great, but the issues with organization take away from it. That said, readers will gain a lot of understanding of true performance, deep truths, some small ‘hacks’, too that can help us do more, be more, and see ourselves and others with greater compassion.
Top reviews from other countries
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Cliente de KindleReviewed in Spain on March 12, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars MUY recomendable
Verified PurchaseImpresionante, le veo útil para deportistas, padres, trabajadores que gestionan a gente... Una obra de arte
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Max DürschlagReviewed in Germany on December 6, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Kein Gelaber
Verified PurchaseWissenschaftliche Untermalungen unterscheidet das Buch erfreulicherweise von den ganzen Erfolgs- und Motivations"profis".
- Alex .Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 5, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful and enlightening.
Verified PurchaseI found this book deeply transformative and inspiring. I have been following ACT therapy for Anxiety which has been life changing... and this fine book fills in the blanks, for me a great combination with books by Dr Claire Weekes and her followers (* Barry McDonagh "Dare Response." and *Carl James "It's only Anxiety ".)Very well written, perceptive and Wise.A must buy.