This week’s episode of The Growth Guide podcast features Steve Magness, a performance coach who works with athletes, entrepreneurs and executives. He is the author of the book "Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness".  He talks about his book which brings a radical rethinking of how we perceive toughness and what it means to achieve our high ambitions in the face of hard things.

[02.41] Defining toughness – What people commonly think toughness means, comparing physical toughness vs. inner strength.

[08.48] Training model – Why are people caged in an outdated training model to develop children using archaic military-style methods, when the US military has updated their training model.

[15.03] Fear as a motivator – Why fear works as a motivator for a short period of time.

[16:22] Ditching the facade – Acting or appearing tough is just faking it until you make it, until reality smacks us in the face. 

[25.00] Duality of life – We only show people what we want them to see. Steve dives into how dangerous it is when people show only their bright side on social media.

[35.52] Arrogance vs. confidence – Confidence is not about being perfect. Steve explains what is lacking in people who try too hard to let others know they are confident and how you can build inner confidence.

[41.30] Overcorrecting – We have a bias towards always correcting and what happens we tend to overcorrect.

[47.11] Interoceptive system – Steve defines the interoceptive system and explains how it works. 

[56.32] Being alone in your head – How to learn to practice cognitive behavior therapy by making it simple and consistent in your life.

[01.03.50] Using 2nd or 3rd Person – How referring to yourself in the 2nd or 3rd person can free you up to deal with the thought instead of having to be in charge.. 

[01.16.09] Stimulus and response – Increasing the gap between a stimulus and a response to improve your response.

[01.24.14] Intrinsic motivation – Autonomy, mastery, and belonging are the three components that need to cultivate intrinsic motivation. 

Resources

Connect with Steve

LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/steve-magness/ 

Website - stevemagness.com/ (Personal) 

                thegrowtheq.com/ (Company)

Twitter - twitter.com/stevemagness 

Book by Steve – 

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

Book by Marcus Aurelius – 

Meditations

Book by Viktor E. Frankl – 

Man's Search for Meaning