Customer Reviews

Toughness Training for Life: A Revolutionary Program for Maximizing Health, Happiness and Productivity

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

We are taught through life that "we are strengthened by trials." That is not true. We don't grow stronger by adversity. We are made stronger through _healing_ from trials. The same applies to Nietzsche's popular sport/war chant "that which does not kill us makes us stronger." Anyone who has seen a homeless Vietnam Veteran knows that Nietzsche was wrong. "That which does not kill us, which we heal from, makes us stronger" is perhaps a better saying. WWII did not make us stronger. It made us dead, or at best, bitter. Yet a few were able to be strengthened by the combined process. What separated those few? What kept them alive, submissive to their captors, and able to transcend their adversity and use it to their advantage? This is the subject of Loehr's book.

How do we balance our stress and recovery cycles so that we maximize our growth potential?

This is one of my favorite books, because I, like everyone, am constantly seeking order and battling frustration...

He has other books along these lines, but this is the newest and most comprehensive.

--Colin Jensen

I picked this book up after reading an article about Loehr's program in Outside Magazine. Unfortunately, the article had more specific, day-to-day advice than this book does. Loehr's ideas are very interesting and ring true, but he spends a great deal of time justifying his theory and reviewing brain biochemistry and physiology experiments. Then he throws in some case studies and some vague recommendations - eat multiple small meals a day, target your heart rate during exercise, reframe your inner dialogue, etc. Based on the magazine article, I was expecting a program to help you identify your weaknesses when it comes to implementing these changes and structure a program around that. I was expecting a realistic look at why people fail to become tough and how to work around it. The book starts to do that, but never really follows through with specifics.

I have read a lot of book - and this is one of the most helpful. It starts with the premise that to get stronger we need to balance stress/work and rest/recovery in our lives. Loehr looks at the theory of why this is so and also gives practical tips on how to implement it in your life. The ideas are not complex and are easy to implement, but are revolutionary. I have become fitter, have more physical energy and have taken leaps in my career by being mentally tougher since reading this book. I see it as a training program for life. My husband and I have been recommending it to everyone. To be honest, it's not the best written book I have ever read, but the content more than makes up for it.

This is one of the best books I have read on positive (what the author calls "tough") thinking, especially when feeling overwhelmed, stressed out, etc. It has piqued my interest and I will be doing more research into sports mindset training to find out what I can learn and apply for myself. I found this book as helpful or even moreso than THE POWER OF FULL ENGAGEMENT, which he cowrote much later. It has many of the same themes, but more focus on how to be confident, tough, and relazed and having fun.

I met Dr. Jim Loehr at the Nick Bolletieri tennis academy in Bradenton Fla. some 20 years ago. His mid day talks on mental toughness to the juniors were more valuable and everlasting than the actual tennis learned. His words rang true then & remain immortalized in this book, & then some! Dr. Loehr embodies the essence of living in the ultimate life parallel between competing in sports & in life. Whether you are an athlete or not, this book gives you the tools to help you become the best you can be, in general. It is more of an existence tutorial which will benefit any reader from any walk of life at any stage of their life. Dr. Loehr's chosen field of study couldn't be more applicable to the times today. In a world of so must unrest, be it financial, world peace, inner peace & more, this and all of Dr. Loehr's books provide the framework and tools needed to survive, make the best of and eventually climb on top of all life's challenges. Animating his principals coupled with vigilance will make a total winner out of anyone who perseveres. Dr. Loehr had a calling for sure & he delivers his message clearly & succinctly needing little money but a lot of heart. I promise you this, the ONLY pre-requisite to fulfilling the messages in this book is DESIRE. If you have true desire, then your path has been laid out for you in an easy to read book with inarguable truths. Spiritual assistance will only make the whole experience more meaningful. I rate this a 6 out of 5 stars. I would call Dr. Loehr's messages in all of his books the single most important message (outside of prayer) to help each and everyone become what God wants them to become....Thank you for hitting the bullseye, Doc.!

I'm tired of self-improvement books that coddle the reader by focusing on relaxation and self-affirmation exercises, teaching us to shut out the trials of life instead of embracing and learning from them. This is not one of those books.

Instead this book teaches that stress is key to personal growth. Loehr defines a "Toughness Response" to pressure - biochemical, psychological, and behavioral - and instructs us on how to develop it. The author's sports performance background is readily apparent: the book, while easily readable, alternates between scientific discourse and a life coaching tone.

Loehr makes it clear that if we want to perform ideally under pressure, we must be willing to train for it. The essential message is that we can achieve the "Toughness Response" by carefully monitoring, understanding, and finally managing the ebb and flow of stress in our lives through discipline, training, healthy habits, and positive thinking. For those who are interested, Loehr even suggests a specific regimen in which readers take dozens of daily personal statistics from low and high pulse to productivity level to sleep quality to emotional state to exercise levels. But this book will still benefit those who are not willing to make that organizational commitment.

While it's common sense, I was refreshed by the reminders to strive for an ideal balance of challenge and rest and to make an effort to benefit from life's unexpected variety.