Tough: A Book Review

‌My Rating: 8.25/10

• Content: 2.5
• Organization: 2.5
• Communication: 1.75
• Beauty: 1.5

For more on my rating system, see How I Rate Books.

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Quick Take: You will struggle to find a more comprehensive & practical guide to developing the elusive mental toughness necessary for bringing your absolute best on race day. ‌‌‌‌

Short Summary: If you have ever finished a race feeling like you might be a head case & have a very strong aversion to ever having that experience again, then you'll want Greg Everett's Tough in your personal library. Though Greg's area of expertise is Olympic weightlifting, he has written the essential guide to your mental approach to any endeavor where you need to deliver under pressure. For runners, this book hits the mark in bringing attention to aspects of developing toughness that many overlook. Focusing on four categories, or elements, Everett skillful reveals how these elements can be developed to provide a solid foundation for developing toughness. ‌‌I did find Everett's writing style a little stilted & verbose. Occasionally, it seems this is his natural style but it feels unwieldy. I also listened to the audiobook narrated by Everett & the challenges are more evident there. He also tends to repeat the basic point repeatedly in slightly different ways. This definitely gets the point across but it is distracting.

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Some Reading Notes:
The four elements are:

1. Character - Who are you?
2. Capability - What are you able to do?
3. Capacity - What are you willing to withstand?
4. Commitment - What are you willing to do?

CHARACTER -  Who are you?

• Identity/security
• Core values
• Values aligning with identity
• Values aligning with vision of toughness
• Becoming or simply being who we want to be
• Character is built by CHOICE - it’s a decision
• But it is “being aware of who we are in the moment, & we’re actively working to support our identity with the choices we make every day.” So it's an act of becoming.

CAPABILITY - What are you able to do?

• Capability is preparedness, learning & engaging in a growth mindset.
• It is “physical literacy” - knowing that the body will do the thing the mind asks of it.
• As these four elements are laid out I see how closely related & interdependent they are. Once values & identity are settled, it is much easier to take the risks & push the limits to increase our capability

CAPACITY - What are you able to withstand?

• Capacity is the ability to cope: with stress, adversity, danger & the unpredictable.
• The trait most commonly associated with toughness but it is nuanced & trainable.
• Many overlook the element of choice in capacity, considering it a given that we are born with or have in some fixed measure. We must choose to increase our capacity.
• We do this by harnessing the power of adversity & making it work for our benefit.
• I just love this quote: ...capacity is built & demonstrated at infinite levels of intensity & duration, & through experiences of myriad natures.”
• The evolution of mindset through systematic & sensible stress inoculation.

COMMITMENT - What are you willing to do?

• How bad do you want it?
• Commitment is ACTION. Doing shit in real time through discipline, routine, habit building & maintenance.
• In committing we’re “purposely establishing a robust structure to support our intentions & ensure we’re capable of accomplishing our goals - action, not hope.”

RELEVANCE FOR RUNNING

• In my experience as an athlete & a coach, the relevance of these four elements is obvious. In any given workout or race, when the shit hits the fan, one of these four aspects will likely be our undoing.
• I have spent many years trying to build up Capability & Capacity through hard training, mental training tools & straight talk. I always say that the coach can’t want it more than the athlete & have struggled to know how to help athletes who are afraid to commit. This book clearly outlines an approach to framing the mental aspect of your training that is eminently practical.
• It is my opinion that everything hinges on Character. It took this book to make me recognize that what I have been avoiding as a coach - because I don’t want to step on toes or seem inflexible - is just pushing the problem down the road. We must assess our identity & our values in order to know what we are made of, what we are fighting for or why this struggle even matters.
• I think there is a missing element that is not addressed in this book: purpose. By opening up Character as so foundational to this approach, I feel there is a need to ground the who we want to become (character) in why we want to become that person (purpose). Perhaps this topic was outside the constraints Everett placed on the project, but in my experience as both an athlete & a coach, these deeper questions tend to show up when all the other four elements have been emptied of meaning.