Ep 596 | Why High Performers Should Steal Michael Easter’s Nature Pyramid

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Just a few years ago, I had author Michael Easter join us at one of our Metrics Masterminds events. You may know Michael from his book, The Comfort Crisis. He's also written a handful of other books and articles. He's all over social. And I love the guy. I think what he came and presented 3, 4 years ago really, really resonated with my audience, certainly resonated with me, hence why I had invited him in. And if you haven't read his book, at least this book, Comfort Crisis, make sure you add it to your list, your list, because the premise of the book is, is simple, but I think it's really powerful. And that's that we live in a world that's engineered for comfort, and that comfort is quietly crushing us physically, mentally, emotionally. We're really, we're really padded. Our, our temperature is controlled. We're constantly entertained. We're overstimulated pretty much all the time. And as a result, I think a lot of us, and certainly our youth, have begun to lose resilience, lose our edge. We've forgotten what real challenge might even really feel like. Easter's book, Michael Easter's book, makes a case for intentional discomfort, you know, seeking out hard things like we've, we've we've talked about so much here at No Days Off. It also talks about spending time in nature and voluntarily pushing your limits as a way to reclaim confidence and, and mental toughness and clarity. One of the standout ideas, though, that I want to talk about here with our audience today, one of the standout ideas in The Comfort Crisis is something that Michael Easter calls the nature pyramid. I think it's a really, really solid framework that you can use to rebuild your focus and reset your brain and reintroduce some real natural stress, you know, the good kind, back into your life. So today, I want to walk through it and, and see if maybe it's right for you. So this nature pyramid, what I want you to do is think about the food pyramid, but for nature. Michael Easterhead modeled this concept after the old USDA food pyramid. But of course, instead of servings of grains and vegetables, what he actually does is prescribe doses of nature exposure. Just like the food pyramid, it's kind of tiered. And it's small doses daily, moderate doses monthly, big immersive doses yearly. Nature isn't just about trees and trails. It's about exposure to variability. It's about removing this convenience, specifically the frictionless convenience that we, we get all too often. I think it's about reminding your, your body and reminding your brain how to adapt and how to recover. So let's talk through this pyramid. Level 1 which is really your daily dose of nature. Michael will tell you the goal is to get 20 minutes to 1 hour outside every day. Level 1 daily dose, you know, within— with respect to the pyramid, get 20 minutes to 1 hour outside every day. So maybe it's outside walking the dog, maybe it's simply stepping away from your desk and going for a walk. Maybe it's having a meeting, but doing that meeting as you're walking, like a walking meeting. Maybe it's sitting on your porch without your phone. Michael would say this daily dose, this is your baseline. Studies show that even short daily exposure to nature reduces cortisol, improves mood, enhances your sleep, and it ultimately sharpens your attention. Yet most of us will go full days without ever stepping outside. Oh, it's, it's too hot, or it's too cold, or I'm too busy. This, this, this level that we're talking about here is not about interrupting the indoors. It's just a reset that doesn't require a lot of time off or some sort of training plan. Again, this is your level 1 daily dose. Now level 2 is your monthly micro adventure. So, once a month, you go out for a few hours to a full day. Maybe you hike a local trail. Maybe you go for a plunge in the lake. Maybe you unplug for a few hours and just get uncomfortable on purpose outside. Maybe you kayak a river. I don't know necessarily what you're going to do, but once a month, for a few hours to a full day, you're going to get your monthly micro adventure. This is where you move past convenience and you get a little bit into discomfort. Maybe physical effort puts you in discomfort, but maybe just some stress around doing something new or different outside that you're not used to creates that discomfort. I think Michael Easter's point here is really clear. We've created a life that's so optimized for ease that we've actually weakened the systems designed to adapt to stress. So a monthly adventure doesn't just stretch your body. I think it really starts to recalibrate your mindset. You start to remind yourself that you can do hard things and you just haven't been practicing them lately. This helps you reset that. Now, level 3, this is your yearly epic adventure. At least one time per year for a duration of 3+ days, get out in nature. It might be a backcountry trip. It might be a wilderness hike. It might be hunting or camping with no cell service. Maybe it's just your, your version of a, of a masogi, which we've talked about masogi here at, at No Days Off. We're probably due for another conversation around masogi. This, this level 3, like yearly epic, epic adventure, this is a pretty deep reset. This is the total interruption. This is the no to-do list, no signal, no algorithm feeding you what you think or what you're about to, you know, think about next. In The Comfort Crisis, uh, I think Michael's story talks about spending 33 days in the Arctic with a hunting crew and totally off the grid and him feeling physically taxed and, and stretched emotionally. And, and it reframes his entire definition of hard. He wasn't looking for more convenience, he just needed less distraction and more clarity. I think that's what this third level really gives you. So just for some, uh, you know, some reference, real quick examples. Level 1 daily dose for me I am walking my dog outside every single morning. And there's a really good chance I am running or hiking outside for maybe an hour or so every single day. Now, during the summer, I'm out a little earlier. During the winter, I'm out a little later. Whatever the case may be, I'm adjusting the time. But every day I am outside. I am doing something outside, usually walking or moving. My level 2, the monthly micro adventure, That's probably a longer— because again, this is a few hours to a full day. This is me out hiking, likely again on a trail, going for a few hours, not just 1 hour. Or maybe I'm out fishing, you know, by myself, or just making it a little bit more challenging, but I'm outside all day. And you might say, hey, fishing doesn't sound very taxing. I don't know, get out all by yourself and get in your head for a few days— I'm sorry, for a few hours or a full day. It's a little bit harder than you think, especially if you're not used to being alone. And then the yearly adventure for me, the level 3, I usually have something crazy. You all have heard about these different things. Well, part of the reason I do some of these different things, like run 100 miles, it was, it was encouraged by, by this nature pyramid of Michael Easter's. So just to give you some, some idea, I think if you know you know, if you're listening to this podcast, then, then, then you know how you're wired. You probably don't avoid, you know, hard work. You lean into it. But when we talk about discomfort, we often only mean volume, which means work more or grind longer. And, and I think Michael Easter does a good job of challenging that, that idea. He says, you know, kind of, what if discomfort wasn't just about more hours but about different kinds of of challenge? What if part of high performance meant stepping outside of the digital and fast-moving frictionless world that we operate in? Maybe it's about putting yourself somewhere that forces you or prompts you to adapt and be quiet and reset. I don't think it's a retreat per se. I think it's a recharge. I don't think it's, you know, being soft. I think it's being smart. I don't think this nature pyramid idea is about escaping work. I think it's It's actually the opposite. It's about sustaining high output by incorporating some real recovery, nature-based, intentional recovery, and bringing that into your world. So, here's what I would challenge you to do today or this week. I want you to look at your calendar and I want you to ask, do I have enough time outside every single day? Do I have a micro adventure planned this month? And lastly, do I have at least one immersive off-grid reset plan this year? I also want to encourage you to audit what kind of discomfort you're building into your life. Is there variety? Is there a need to adapt? Are you exposing yourself to unfamiliar situations? I think we all say that we want clarity and we all say we want to get a little bit sharper. But maybe the answer isn't actually more hustle. It's the right kind of hard, in my opinion. It's the right kind of hard layered into your life at right— at the right intervals. And I think that's what Michael Easter did a great job figuring out. And it's probably a message worth, worth spreading and worth repeating. That's all I have for us here today, the No Days Off podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get, to get a little bit better. So let's get after it.