Do Hard Things by Sydney Gladden

Chapter 1

sydneygladden — 2025-01-27 16:13:26 UTC

Skill

sydneygladden — 2025-02-06 19:06:20 UTC

A skill I am learning during both ballet and contemporary would be how to maintain my stamina. Physically yes, but mostly mental stamina. Trying to stay in it during dance class will also help me stay in it during my traditional styled classes such as history.

Teach this skill

sydneygladden — 2025-02-06 19:09:26 UTC

I would personally teach this skill to someone who is learning by giving them designated time to talk about whatever they can think of to clear their brain. From there I would give them a longer designated amount of time (probably 1 minute more) to talk about one focused topic. They will not be allowed to discuss anything other than the certain topic in hopes of increasing their mental stamina.

Find Your Way Through

sydneygladden — 2025-02-06 19:14:44 UTC

A person I know who found their way through would be my mom. A while back she chose a tough path of running a marathon, there were many days she faced challenges such as lack of motivation or the desire to quit. It was a tough couple of months for her mentally and physically but eventually she found her way through and completed ther marathon!

Book Take Away

sydneygladden — 2025-02-06 19:25:32 UTC

A book take away I would like to remember and incorporate throughout my day to day life would be, that you cant train in the same nature for everything you do. Training for the military requires different training than training to perform a concert piece in a few months. Be patient and find a way that works for you while also being challenged.

Feel

sydneygladden — 2025-02-11 20:34:12 UTC

Feel

sydneygladden — 2025-02-11 20:35:19 UTC

Envision and Reflect

sydneygladden — 2025-02-11 20:52:56 UTC

Goal: Run 30 miles in 1 week

Judgment and Expectations: It doesn't matter if the person next to me can finish faster than me, or double the amount I can do. As long as I am challenging myself and holding myself accountable I am doing a good job.

Course Correct: Possible stressors that may occur would be finding time to fit in all my miles. I could correct those stressors by waking up earlier before class and running or enhancing my long runs on Sundays in attempt to ease my other days up.

Prime Your Mind: Magness mentioned athletes warming up by doing things they like. This is perfect for me, a way of warming up my body before I run could be a quick improv jam, going over our combo for midterms, or even working on my studio recital pieces for the kiddos.

Take away

sydneygladden — 2025-02-11 20:55:52 UTC

Something I took away from this chapter would be how to mentally prepare yourself for a challenge as well as how to handle the challenge. Preparing for an obstacle is half the battle and this section definitely helped me think through ways to prepare. As well as nothing in the challenge matters besides you, we don't need worry about the person next to us, focus on yourself and be proud of yourself.

personal inventory

sydneygladden — 2025-02-19 17:56:07 UTC

lower bar:

easily distracted when learning for 1 hour and 45 minutes
easy for me to forget why we do some of the same things every class
feeling in a "mid semester slump"

raise the floor

building stamina to one day be able to focus for that lang
allows primal opportunity to reflect and realize the benefits we can get when repeating things
pushing through can help me build a strong habits preparing myself for when things get worse in the professional world

shed perfection

sydneygladden — 2025-02-19 18:04:02 UTC

not my strong suits:

I struggle with self confidence
I struggle with listening to the music and connecting my movement, especially with music im not familiar with
I struggle with staying on task and not worrying about stuff outside of class like work or family or other classes

Accepting/accommodating

I can work on remembering how awesome it is to even be in class and move, even if I'm personally feeling "meh" I can at least feel good about where I am and who I'm with
I can work on letting the music move me, less focus on what moves I am doing more on how everything ties together
I can write down everything I am worried about during our free write to get those thoughts out before class instead of being stuck on them in the middle of a combo

Trust yourself

sydneygladden — 2025-02-19 18:06:51 UTC

I know I can find positivity in everything I do, when I am dancing and maybe would rather be sleeping or laying in bed I can always find a light in what I am doing, and hopefully that can show to my company members. I can also use it in life but I find myself using it primarily in dance.

Take away

sydneygladden — 2025-02-19 18:15:07 UTC

I was reading a section of the book where Magness talks about the shift of self confidence. Instead of confidence coming from experiences and internal occasions, it. has shifted into something that comes from external praise. I am not completely sure why this specific section stood out to me so much but while finishing the chapter my mind kept going back to that. It is so interesting to read and actually see how our generation has morphed the idea of self confidence.

True confidence song

sydneygladden — 2025-02-19 18:18:55 UTC

Real confidence role model

sydneygladden — 2025-02-19 18:21:51 UTC

A real confidence role model to me is my mentor/old competition director Melissa Best. I can't find a picture of her but she is like a second mom to me and has been with me through some of my toughest days.

Behaviors

sydneygladden — 2025-02-24 01:26:16 UTC

Give-up-itis. Personally when I face a challenge that I may not know how to handle on my own I tend to "give up" in some shape or form. It may be similar to a flight response, but if I feel as if something is unattainable I will quickly give up. Unfortunately.

Leading Yourself

sydneygladden — 2025-02-24 01:35:03 UTC

From small to large- (Not to make running my whole personality this was just the best example) When training for a half marathon, the furthest I had ran was probably 4 miles. So I quite literally had to start small and work my way up to a bigger goal. I made a weekly plan leading me to my goals. Every Sunday I would run further and further increasing my distance and working my way up to 13 miles.

Leading others

sydneygladden — 2025-02-24 01:40:11 UTC

Set the constraints and let them go- In the beginning of the semester all of my dance professors set clear expectations and a blue print of how the semester will go, with the syllabus and as well as verbalizing clearly with the students.

naming an emotion vs physical reaction

sydneygladden — 2025-03-05 17:02:16 UTC

A super common tendancy for me is crossing my arms when im upset. If I would work on keeping my arms separate and more open I would possibly be able to get over my irritated mood faster.

A song (title) the relates to this chapter

sydneygladden — 2025-03-05 17:03:16 UTC

Book take away

sydneygladden — 2025-03-05 17:05:18 UTC

I found it very interesting leanring about Stephens condition. I can't imagine a life where I couldn't accurately express my emotions. Hearing about stories like that makes me feel very grateful for the small things I have.

Helpless Child

sydneygladden — 2025-03-10 00:30:46 UTC

My helpless child typically comes out when it is the middle of the semester and I have to use every ounce of motivation to get to class.

My faithful friend might remind me why I am doing the things I am doing and never let me forget that I CAN do the things I don't have encouragement for.

The proud rival would help calm down my helpless child by reminding me what the end goal/result is.

Switching self talk pronouns

sydneygladden — 2025-03-10 00:35:38 UTC

While going to the gym today I told my self things as if "I can" and "I will feel better after" and then towards the last 10 minutes I would say things like "she can" and "she is doing great"

I noticed when I was talking using "I" pronouns I didn't really feel and difference or real encouragement but when I would talk in third person it felt as if someone was cheering me on and I wasn't alone making my worok out a lot easier.

Positive/Negative

sydneygladden — 2025-03-10 00:40:57 UTC

I think for me I need a mix of positive and negative self talk. Obviously I need to be encouraging but as someone who is highly competitive, I need the devil on my shoulder telling me I can't. For example I used to be completely convinced I wouldn't get into UT so naturally I decided to apply here to prove to myself that I could!

Practice boredom

sydneygladden — 2025-03-27 23:14:48 UTC

As someone who constantly needs to be doing something at all times this exercise was extremely hard for me. When I first set the 5 minute timer I felt confident that I could do it due to the mindset that I can do anything for 5 minutes. This quickly backfired on me as I started to get little tickles/itches all over my body and no matter how often I would scratch them more would appear. After that I started to dose off and become completely unaware of the task at hand. Im not sure how far along that was into my practice since I was so out of it but what I do know is once I started to focus harder and become aware of my surroundings time went by a lot faster. It is safe to say I do not have the brain capasity for this exercise yeet but it is something to work on.

Take away

sydneygladden — 2025-03-27 23:18:14 UTC

Something I want to take away from this experience is that a steady mind is the best place to be at when accomplishing any task. If my brain is frazzled I will almost 100% of the time not work to my fullest capabilities. I should always remember to do my best to stay level headed especially in heightened environments.

Visual Zooming

sydneygladden — 2025-04-01 18:08:18 UTC

Portait versus Paranorma mode- After driving home in traffic coming home from school I am typically pretty worked up from all the drivers not paying attention on the road. One day I tried blurring my vision and allowed the world to keep moving without me for a second. Once I came back I felt a lot more relaxed and ready to continue my day and interact with others.

Take Away

sydneygladden — 2025-04-01 18:11:32 UTC

One thing I would take away from this is that when I am feeling overwhelmed there are lots of different ways I can handle the situation than blowing up and making everyone else go through my big feelings. For example I can find different coping mechanisms that work with me and dont feel like someone is telling me to calm down.

Discussion

sydneygladden — 2025-04-15 19:24:40 UTC

After reading chapter 10 I decided to interview my girlfriend about how to keep making progress. She told me a story about when she played basketball in highschool and felt as if her progress was stagnant and like she was improving. When I asked her how she got out of that funk her answer was simply asking for help. She mentioned that lots of people in sports are supposed to be "tough" and not need to ask for help. She quickly realized that wasn't true and within days of working with coaches a little extra she began progressing again. I thought it was super cool to hear about this, when you spend years with someone it is easy to think you know everything about them, but to learn something knew I have never heard before was like a breath of fresh air. I really enjoyed this task. (I forgot to take a picture so hopefully that was not required)

Chapter takeaway

sydneygladden — 2025-04-25 14:11:25 UTC

One of the last lines in the book states "Be who you are. That's real toughness." This resonates with me because as many others have, I have spent almost my whole life trying to imitate those I admired, find something no one else has ever done so I can be different, and have gone desperate measures in hopes of finally feeling like my real self. It wasn't until recently that I have been able to accept the things I like and don't like, embrace my true personality, and explore things I never thought I would. So reading that line was almost as if it was reassurance for me.

Big Picture

sydneygladden — 2025-04-25 14:16:59 UTC

Over this semester I think the skill we read about that I have carried with me was learning how to sit with hard things and quit giving up so easily. I have never really been a competitive person so the idea that I must be perfect, right, and win has never really been apparent in my life. But with that, I have become very comfortable with not winning, not always being right, and essentially just giving up. So reading this has helped rewire my brain in a way that is true to me and not competitive but also someone who is goal driven and in love with achieving my goals.

Long View

sydneygladden — 2025-04-25 14:19:00 UTC

I think something I will take with me is the fact that I have real toughness. Toughness does not mean some massive built gym bro who never cries, toughness comes within and after reading this book and discovering new tools to help me cope with hard things in my life, I have come out a tougher and stronger person.