This Week Do Something Hard
By now you probably know that Esteem Health is a Key Performance Indicator of Life. Esteem Health, and good Esteem Health in particular, is quintessential to sustaining success and living a fulfilling life. Esteem is that intrinsic feeling of worth that dictates how we feel about ourselves, how we see ourselves, and how we show up for not just ourselves, but others as well. I believe that one of the greatest actions we can take to develop good Esteem Health is by challenging ourselves to do hard things...
The Science: Doing Hard Things Builds Confidence
The foundational research here comes from psychologist Albert Bandura and his concept of self-efficacy — one of the most thoroughly studied ideas in all of psychology.
Self-efficacy defined: Your belief in your ability to succeed in specific situations. It's not about actual ability — it's about perceived capability. And the most powerful way to build it is through mastery experiences — doing hard things and succeeding at them.
Bandura's 4 sources of self-efficacy:
Mastery experiences — the #1 source. Actually doing hard things and succeeding. Each win builds belief in your ability to handle the next challenge
Vicarious experiences — watching people similar to you succeed raises your belief that you can too
Social persuasion — encouragement from others
Physiological states — reframing nervousness as excitement rather than fear
The key insight: Most people wait to feel confident before taking action. But Bandura's research shows it works the opposite way — action comes first, confidence follows. You don't build self-efficacy by thinking about doing hard things. You build it by doing them.
The compounding effect: People with high self-efficacy approach challenges as tasks to be mastered rather than threats to be avoided. Each hard thing they do makes the next hard thing feel more manageable — creating an upward spiral of confidence over time.
Give This a Try: List 5 challenges from easy to hard in any area you want more confidence. Complete them in order. Each success builds efficacy for the next, but don't just believe me. Try it for yourself
The Reality: Doing Hard Things Boosts Self Esteem
I grew up playing sports and anyone who shared in that experience can relate to the feeling you get from scoring that touchdown, winning that competition, or hitting that PR. But what's better than that feeling is the realization that your action really just propels us to do it again and achieve more.
When I ran track I had a coach tell us a story that changed my life in many ways and it's the story of Roger Bannister. Roger was a young medical student from Oxford with no professional coaching, no fancy training facilities, and even better, no belief in the so-called ‘limits’ of the human body.
And on May 6,1954, he changed everything in the world of running when he became the first person (on record) to run a sub 4 minute mile.
That morning, Bannister worked his usual shift at St. Mary's Hospital, then took an afternoon train from Paddington Station to Oxford. He wasn't a full-time athlete — his training was limited to three weekly half-hour sessions, squeezed around his medical studies, and on this day the conditions were far from ideal. It had been windy and raining, with a considerable crosswind blowing across the track. Bannister looked up at the white-and-red English flag whipping in the wind atop a nearby church and figured he would have to call off the attempt. But then, shortly after 6 p.m., the wind subsided. He glanced up again and saw the flag fluttering gently. The race was on.
It's said that nearly 1,200 spectators had gathered to watch. Bannister was aided by two friends — Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway — who acted as pacemakers. Brasher led for the first half-mile, Chataway took over, and with about 350 yards to go Bannister took the lead. Bannister, with his long arms and legs pumping, lungs gasping for air, he put on a furious kick over the final 300 yards and nearly collapsed as he crossed the finish line. The announcer read out: "Three..." The rest was drowned out by the roar of the crowd. The 3 was all that mattered because this was something that no one in that stadium had ever heard watching a mile run. The time: 3:59.4.
But here's why the story changed my life: Within 46 days, another runner broke 4 minutes. Within a year, several more did. Within a decade, it became almost routine among elite runners. Today, over 1,600 athletes have done it...
This proved that the barrier wasn't physical at all. It was an internal barrier. It was a belief — a shared psychological ceiling. Once Bannister proved it was possible, though, other runners' self-efficacy exploded. They now had proof that a human being could do it. And so they did.
This highlights the power of doing hard things. It has the power to uplift generations and an entire world so of course it has the power to boost our self-esteem so that's why I'm adamant in you giving something hard a try this week. Now let's get to it!
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