Tom Brady rarely played in his first three years at Michigan. One summer, he contracted appendicitis and lost 25 pounds. The quarterbacks coach who’d recruited him had left, and Brady considered transferring back home to California.
He told a counselor in Michigan’s athletic department that the coaches didn’t believe in him. “Why should they believe in you,” the counselor said, “if you don’t believe in yourself?”
He added: “I’m sorry, Tom. I can’t help you become the starter at Michigan. But what I can help you with is this: I can help you believe you should be the starter at Michigan.”
The counselor was Greg Harden, who recounts the story in his debut book, “Stay Sane in an Insane World: How to Control the Controllables and Thrive,” published on Tuesday (Aug. 15).
Harden worked in the Michigan athletic department for 34 years, working his way up to associate athletic director of athletic counseling. He retired in 2020, though he said he still provides support to the department as an advisor in addition to his other clients.
While much of his work has been with athletes, the lessons are applicable to anyone. Harden writes about not letting others dictate how you perceive yourself. He challenges readers to identify their purpose in life and define what success looks like for them. He lists potential self-defeating attitudes and behaviors.
“People are constantly talking about, ‘I want to be the very best version of myself,’” Harden told MLive last week. “How do you do that? First, you have to become the world’s greatest expert on one subject: yourself.”
The cover for Greg Harden's book, "Stay Sane in an Insane World: How to Control the Controllables and Thrive," published Aug. 15, 2023. (Photo: Blackstone Publishing)
Harden, who received his master’s in social work from Michigan, writes about how to do that over 36 chapters that span a little more than 200 pages. There are short testimonials sprinkled throughout -- from Heisman Trophy winner Desmond Howard, current Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel, and his co-author, Michigan alum Steve Hamilton, among others. Brady, the seven-time Super Bowl champion, wrote the foreword.
Harden had been asked to write a book several times before and had, at various times, drafted chapters; nothing serious. “Then COVID hit and opportunity knocked,” he said with a laugh. “You couldn’t go anywhere. The timing, as bad as it was, was perfect for writing.”
The title reflects that time: The country was dealing with not just the pandemic but political division and racial unrest. Staying sane wasn’t easy. It still isn’t.
The book tour is already underway, with Harden traveling coast to coast to promote his work. He’ll be at Ann Arbor’s downtown public library on Friday for an event at 6:30 p.m. Once he gets in front of people who’ve had the chance to read the book, he hopes they say it spoke to them, that it felt like he wrote it just for them.
“We’re not just trying to get athletes to be better athletes,” he said. “We’re trying to get people to consider, ‘How can I take my life to the next level of excellence? How do I become mentally fit?’”
Harden believes the path towards those answers are inside his book.