Behind the Brand with Steve Magness

Steve Magness never imagined he would be a writer, let alone caught in the eye of one of sport's most controversial competitive storms entangled with running giant Nike, in what could to be the biggest scandal since Lance Armstrong. But despite all the drama and setbacks, Steve has managed to figure out, through his own experience and the scientific research of others, how to create real tenacity and resilience to overcome whatever life throws at you. Instead of focusing on the drama that still haunts Magness over a decade later, I'd rather walk you through some of the many merits of Do Hard Things that put it on my recommended list and make it worthy to be read.

As a track and field athlete in high school, he dreamed of one day being a running coach or Olympic athlete. Like so many others, life took him on a different path. He is now the author and co-author of numerous bestselling books, including The Science of Running, The Passion Paradox, Peak Performance and his latest , Do Hard Things .

“I wanted to go to the Olympics and be a professional athlete, and that was all I cared about,” he tells me. "I went to school because it was an expectation. I went to college because it allowed me to keep competing and racing. Beyond that, honestly, I had no not a ton of interest."

He's no longer a competitive runner, but today, as I sit down with him to discuss his new book, Do Hard Things, we can't help but to talk about running and what it really is a metaphor for life.

"We can get so caught up in comparing ourselves to everyone else and trying to 'win' and conquer it all. But the reality is that all you can control is what you do it yourself. And that brings us to this ongoing idea and ground where all I'm trying to do is do my best and improve my personal best. So if it allows me to win, great! But if I get to 7th place and set a new personal best, I'm I'm not disappointed because I got to 7th place. I'm thrilled because it's literally the best I've ever done in my life."

Maness is about running a mile and I can't help but draw a comparison to what it's like to be an entrepreneur. He tells how in the first round you feel good, excited and full of energy, but in the second and third rounds your energy starts to wane and your body realizes that you are tired.

"You're going to hit that lull in the middle where it kinda sucks," he says. On the last lap everything hurts but the finish line is so close you can feel it and so you give it your all. "Once you see that goal, whatever it is, [your mind says,] ok, forget everything we need to do."

Maness is a world-renowned expert on health and human performance, and he tells me his sporting event was the mile. His fastest time in his running career was four minutes, one second. I ask him if that extra second ever bothered him, or if he always wished he could save two seconds and beat the time by four minutes for the mile.

"For a very long time, this second bored me to death," he says. "But I think it's also brought something that has helped me throughout my life. It may seem like just a bit more, but all I can control is the work I do. I put everything in to [shave off] those two seconds and it didn't happen so I couldn't do anything but move on."

Magness tells me that her life experience has taught her that it's the hard things we do that build our character, our resilience, our courage and our strength. That said, he thinks there are more nuances to this than just forcing yourself to do things you don't want to do.

“What I discovered was that we were in this unique time and space in the world where everyone needed resilience or tenacity,” he says. "I was writing this book in the middle of the onset of the pandemic. I was writing this book in the midst of political chaos, and people were just uncertain. I think what I was trying to do was add nuance to this idea of ​​resilience and courage and tenacity. A lot of times I think public conversation is almost like, hey, just put your head down and push through. And I think there's a certain deserves this, but it's not the only path to resilience, courage or any...