239: Building Real-World Toughness by Heading Outside (Steve Magness, Human Performance Expert and Author)

So you want to learn how to handle tough challenges in life, both those you encounter while playing outside and those you find just going about your day-to-day, indoor life and job. But how do you make it happen?

Steve Magness, a world-famous coach, human performance expert and author of the new book Do Hard Thing: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness says part of the reason toughness against life’s challenges is so create is that we are going about it wrong.

In this episode, Steve walks us through what the research shows about building a lifestyle around getting and staying tough, why that matters and what heading outside has to do with it.

Connect with this episode:

Find Steve Magness on Instagram

Visit Steve’s website

Read “Do Hard Things” by Steve Magness

Join the Humans Outside Challenge

Follow Humans Outside on Instagram

Follow Humans Outside on Facebook

Some of the good stuff:

[2:52] Steve Magness’s favorite outdoor space

[3:48] How Steve became someone who likes to go outside

[6:00] Why going outside is so important to him now

[9:18] What’s the difference between toughness and resilience?

[10:41] Examples of awareness

[15:28] What’s wrong with how we tend to think about toughness

[18:06] How do you build toughness?

[21:40] The difference between thoughtful response and reaction

[28:10] How this applies to everyday life

[29:35] Creating a strong why -- and why it matters

[35:41] What this has to do with setting incremental goals

[38:07] Why the Humans Outside 365 challenge is great for this

[41:48] Is toughness a muscle you have to maintain or something you only have to learn once?

[46:44] Steve’s favorite outdoor moment