Manders Mindset
Are you feeling stuck or stagnant in your life? Do you envision yourself living differently but have no idea how to start? The answer might lie in a shift in your mindset.
Hosted by Amanda Russo, The Breathing Goddess, who is a Breathwork Detox Facilitator, Transformative Mindset Coach, and Divorce Paralegal.
Amanda's journey into mindset and empowerment began by working with children in group homes and daycares. She later transitioned to family law, helping people navigate the challenging emotions of divorce. During this time, Amanda also overcame her own weight and health challenges through strength training, meditation, yoga, reiki, and plant medicine.
Amanda interviews guests from diverse backgrounds, including entrepreneurs, athletes, artists, and wellness experts, who share their incredible journeys of conquering fears and limiting beliefs to achieve remarkable success. Hear real people tell how shifting their mindsets—and often their words—has dramatically changed their lives.
Amanda also shares her personal journey, detailing how she transformed obstacles into opportunities by adopting a healthier, holistic lifestyle.
Discover practical strategies and inspiring stories that will empower you to break free from limitations and cultivate a mindset geared towards growth and positivity.
Tune in for a fun, friendly, and empowering experience that will help you become the best version of yourself.
Manders Mindset
Less Stuff, More Purpose with Glen Van Peski | 151
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What if doing more starts with taking less?
In this thought-provoking episode of Manders Mindset, host Amanda Russo sits down with Glen Van Peski, founder of Gossamer Gear and a trailblazer in ultralight backpacking for a candid conversation that stretches far beyond the trailhead. Glen shares how a 4,200-mile bike ride at age 17 and a knack for engineering led to a career in minimalist gear design, but what unfolds is a much deeper journey into intentional living.
From lessons on gratitude to the quiet power of subtraction, Glen explores how simplifying our backpacks and our lives can help us find more joy, purpose, and connection. With reflections on generosity, silence, and embracing discomfort, this episode is a gentle yet powerful call to rethink what we carry, literally and emotionally.
🎙️ In this episode, listeners will discover:
🥾 How Glen's ultralight backpacking journey began with a 70-pound pack and a problem to solve
🧠Why engineering skills and self-awareness created a bridge between problem-solving and mindfulness
🧠The surprising power of subtraction—in backpacks, business, and personal growth
đź’Ś How handwritten notes and receiving with humility build authentic connection
🌿 Glen’s outdoor pyramid: a fresh take on nature, presence, and unplugging
đź’ˇ Why discomfort is often the first sign of growth and purpose
đź•’ Timeline Summary:
[2:18] – Glen reflects on growing up without screens and learning to never say "I'm bored"
[9:20] – A cross-country bike trip at 17 and a chance job kickstarts an engineering career
[17:45] – The Boy Scouts trip that ignited a passion for designing ultralight gear
[24:10] – The lesson of "take less, do more" and how it's reshaped Glen's entire life
[31:08] – Why giving generously is only half the equation and receiving matters too
[38:35] – Minimalism as a mindset: rethinking purchases and making space for what matters
[52:50] – The Outdoor Pyramid: Glen's prescription for reconnecting with nature
[1:03:15] – The quiet power of reflection, and why silence is a secret superpower
To Connect with Amanda:
Schedule a 1:1 Virtual Breathwork Session HERE
📸 Instagram: @thebreathinggoddess
Follow & Support the Podcast:
📱 Instagram: @MandersMindset
đź‘Ą Join the Manders Mindset Facebook Community HERE!
To Connect with Glen:
Glen's website: glenvanpeski.com
Gossamer Gear: gossamergear.com
Resources mentioned by Glem in the episode:
- The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter
- Subtract by Leidy Klotz
- Infectious Generosity by Chris Anderson
Welcome to the Manders Mindset Podcast. Here you'll find both monologue and interviews of entrepreneurs, coaches, healers and a variety of other people when your host, amanda Russo, will discuss her own mindset and perspective and her guest's mindset and perspective on the world around us. Manders and her guests will help explain to you how shifting your mindset will shift your life, will help explain to you how shifting your mindset will shift your life.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Mander's Mindset, where we explore the power of shifting your mindset to shift your life. I'm your host, amanda Russo, and today's guest is someone I've been really looking forward to speaking with. He generously gifted me a copy of his book, and even in the book he quoted some things I find myself saying on the daily, so I am really excited for this. I am here today with Glenn Van Pesky, and he's known as the trail, as legend. He's a pioneer in the ultra light backpacking community and he's the founder of Gossamer Gear, which he launched back in 1998. And I am so excited to delve down his journey. Thanks so much for joining me, glenn.
Speaker 3:My pleasure. Glad I could be here.
Speaker 2:So that's an awesome bio, but who would you say Glenn is at the core?
Speaker 3:You know I'm just a retired engineer trying to live my best life. I mean, we travel a lot. Obviously, the book has consumed a lot of my time, kind of this last year, probably less going forward. I think I'll devote less time to that. But yeah, we're just enjoying life in Bend, Oregon, here in the outdoors. It's awesome.
Speaker 2:Now take less, do more. I'm so curious. You talked about the minimalistic lifestyle in the book. If that was your history, like growing up at Fungan, can you take us down like family dynamic a little bit?
Speaker 3:Well, sure. So I was lucky enough to grow up as a free range kid. You know, born in the 50s free internet, you know rode our bikes around no cell phones, no helmets. It was great. My mom thought TV was a terrible thing and would rot the mind, and so we never had a TV in the house. I was like go outside and play. And she did have this quirk.
Speaker 3:I think we have a problem with being bored today in our culture. We're unwilling to sit alone with our thoughts. We need the distractions, and my mom had a good solution for this. Even back then, if you were ever bored, you were allowed to say you were bored, but then you had to do whatever she gave you to do. So after spending one afternoon with a pitchfork turning over her vegetable garden, I never said again that I was bored. I could always find something that I wanted to do more than whatever. I was sure she was going to come up with me for me to do so.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I grew up in sunny Southern California great childhood, and then that came to a screeching halt when my parents divorced. When I was in fourth grade, my mom put us three kids assorted mice, cats and dogs into her Dodge van and drove across the country in February and we ended up in Massachusetts, western Massachusetts which was a shock for me Snow and ice and none of my friends and new school and everything. But when I graduated high school, I rode my bicycle back across to the West Coast. So I've been on the West Coast ever since.
Speaker 2:You rode your bicycle.
Speaker 3:Yeah, 4,200 miles.
Speaker 2:How old were you when you did that?
Speaker 3:I was 17 when I left Amherst, massachusetts, and again, this was still pre-internet, so we had no helmets, no cell phones. I called my mom from pay phones twice during the summer, I think Took us like eight weeks, and she just figured yeah great, you've got all the skills you need. Have a great time.
Speaker 2:Did you go by yourself when you?
Speaker 3:I originally planned and I don't know why. I was on a podcast and someone asked like were you always adventurous? Like no, and looking back, I honestly have no idea why. I was kind of a geek, kind of studious in high school. I have no idea why I thought this would be a good idea and fun or how I could even like be in shape to do that. But yeah, I was 17 when we left and I decided to do the trip and then three other friends decided to come along as I was talking up. They said, well, that sounds like fun. So there ended up being four of us doing the trip.
Speaker 2:And how long did it take you?
Speaker 3:It was like seven to eight weeks and we were doing 80, 85 miles a day.
Speaker 2:So then you get there seven or eight weeks later.
Speaker 3:then oh then. So then I cycled down the coast, we rode into San Francisco. I rode by myself down the coast to LA area where my dad lived and was staying with them, without any real plans, without the internet. It was hard to know, hard to find out things. So I kind of thought I wanted to be an interpreter. I liked languages. I wasn't really particularly good at them, but while I was staying with my dad and his new wife in the LA area.
Speaker 3:One of their friends had a small civil engineering company and they offered me a job and it was $3.50 an hour in 1976. I thought I'd made it the big time, and so I decided I would stay on the West Coast and, as a result, I became an engineer, Been on the West Coast up or down, the rest of my life so far. Now, did you have interest in being an engineer? I've been on the West Coast up or down the rest of my life so far.
Speaker 2:Now did you have interest in being an engineer?
Speaker 3:No, but my dad is an engineer. He's an electronics engineer, double E. And I would say, like I meet people today and I tell them I see you, you're in my tribe, you're an engineer, and I don't care what your business card says, I don't care what you get paid to do, but engineers and my wife can verify this they're different, they think a certain way. It's you know, there are some benefits, there are some downsides. Obviously my wife could enumerate those. But yeah, so I would say I kind of have that engineering bent, definitely, but it wasn't on my radar. I never thought like, oh, I should be an engineer.
Speaker 2:So that just kind of fell into your lap.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it worked out. It was a great career. I loved being an engineer. I like solving problems and so, you know, with engineers there's always a new problem to solve, and particularly land development. Every piece of land that you're developing has different criteria. You know, with engineers, there's always a new problem to solve, and particularly land development, every piece of land that you're developing has different criteria. You know, either it's hilly or it's rocky, or it doesn't drain or there's. You know it's like a giant Rubik's cube you have to solve. So it was fun.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you start engineering, and how long did you do that?
Speaker 3:I did that till I retired in 2017.
Speaker 2:Okay, so did you enjoy it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I loved the engineering. I worked for other people, I had my own companies, I consulted, you know I was on the private side. I worked in government towards the end. So I have a somewhat varied experience in land development engineering, I would say, and I enjoyed it all. It was fun in different ways, but it was always fun. I enjoyed the challenge and solving problems.
Speaker 2:And there's always a problem you're solving.
Speaker 3:There is and that's. You know, that can be good in life and it caused me to accidentally start a backpacking company along the way. But there are some problems that aren't looking to be solved. Like, my wife is not interested in generally in me solving her problems, but particularly in me solving her. So I've learned that in 43 years of marriage. Sometimes people that's kind of the one of the curses of being an engineer is you always think there could be a slightly better solution or you could do it a little differently or a little better, and not everyone appreciates hearing that.
Speaker 2:So has that caused issues for you in life outside of your relationship with your wife?
Speaker 3:no, I mean I've gotten better over the years. I've developed some self-awareness that it's better to solve problems kind of keep them to myself. Not everyone is interested. The backpacking company started because I was just solving a problem for myself. I wanted lighter backpacking gear, and so I sewed it myself, and that turned out to be one that a lot of people were interested in. So you just never know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now way along the engineering journey. When was the backpacking?
Speaker 3:So that started well, it kind of started back. My mom thought every kid should leave home knowing how to cook, bake and sew. She just considered those like basic life skills. And so all three of us kids know how to do. All three Rode my bicycle out here, got a job, got married, had kids, started my own engineering company. And when Brian our oldest, when Brian got into Boy Scouts, then I joined as an adult leader to do that with him.
Speaker 3:The scoutmaster in our local troop, a buddy of mine that I knew from land development, he had just read Ray Jardine's book, his first book on the Pacific Crest Trail, Hiker's Handbook. And so Ray Jardine set up this kind of you know, ultralight backpacking credo, so to speak. And he had sewed his own pack and had very minimal gear. I got interested in making lighter gear. The first trip we did in the sierras with the scout troop my pack weighed over 70 pounds and brian's was heavy too. The boys, some of them, were pretty small and they just couldn't carry that much weight. So that got me interested in making my own. So I sewed myself a pack and it kind of got out of hand from there.
Speaker 2:It was just you wanting to get it for yourself.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean that's, I'm making stuff all the time. I just made something the other day. I needed something, I think, for our rv. We had oh, we had a bunch of map books, atlases for our sprinter van and I needed some place to keep them. So I sewed a bag to keep them all there, with a little container for the pen and for the highlighter so we could mark off where we went, and Velcro to close it. It was non-grip fabric so when you put it down it wouldn't slide around. So I'm always coming up with little things that we need.
Speaker 2:I love that. Now you mentioned it was after your son got involved in Boy Scouts.
Speaker 3:Right, I was involved in Scouts as a child, as a youth, and we didn't do a lot of camping, we kind of spent time in the woods, but not a lot of backpacking. In fact, I don't remember maybe once or twice, maybe not even backpacking, but the troop that we joined Brian and I did a lot of backpacking and a lot of other things too I mean canoe trips and summer camps was super active troop. So, yeah, we started backpacking and I didn't have the gear with me, since I'd come West on a bicycle. All my backpacking gear that I had as a scout was still back East. So we went down to REI and said, yeah, we're going for a week in the Sierra, what do we need? And they loaded us up.
Speaker 2:And you mentioned in the book about subtracting, not adding, can help in backpacking and basically in life a long journey of working to reduce my base pack weight.
Speaker 3:So for the non-backpackers in your audience, which is probably everyone you never know.
Speaker 3:Backpackers talk about a base pack weight. That's everything except food and water and the clothes you're wearing, because the food and water vary wildly based on the trip. You know how long the trip is and where you're going. So my base pack weight is generally under five pounds when I go backpacking. So that's my backpack, my rain gear, my insulation, extra socks, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, stove, food bag, water treatment, first aid everything Except food and water. It's under five pounds. So obviously I've been doing that a long time and thought about it more than a lot of people, for backpacking, taking less allows you to do more. You know, with less weight on your backpack, on your back, you can go further during the day, you can take side trips and explore, you can help other people with their loads, and I realized that a lot of those lessons that I'd learned had applications to the rest of life also, and so that was one of the factors that led up to finally writing the book.
Speaker 2:I really like how you listed them as like lessons lesson one, lesson two, lesson three and it made it so much easier for me to even follow, to remember what you said and take it away.
Speaker 3:And I'm hoping that it's been out almost a year now, and so I've heard from a lot of people, and a lot of people that are reading it aren't backpackers and they're still getting a lot out of it. So that was my goal that people could get one or two things out of it that they can use to bring more joy, meaning and purpose into their life.
Speaker 2:And I loved the subtracting comment because I even had a business coach years ago tell me that people think they need to do more. The list needs to be longer. But you have more success when you subtract versus when you add. And I've read that in the book and I was like wow, it's true for backpacking, it's true, I think, for a lot of areas of life. You know, like we think we want to be more calm or more whatever, we need to do all these things. It's not the case.
Speaker 3:What do we need to stop doing? I mentioned this book called Subtract by Lady Klotz in my book and I found it fascinating because he talks about how, as humans, we're wired to solve problems by adding things. He realized this when he's playing with his four-year-old I think at the time, ezra and they're playing with Legos and they're building a bridge, and so he's got the two columns, the two supports, and they're not the same level so they can't put the bridge deck on. So he turns around to look for a piece that they can add to the shorter column to make them equal. And by the time he finally found that, he turns back and he knows he realized ezra has taken one piece off the taller one and so now they're equal and they could build a bridge. And that was like his first thinking like, oh yeah, why did I assume I had to add something to solve the problem where my son subtracted something and he?
Speaker 3:I think everyone ought to read the book. It's super fascinating to me. Of course I am an engineer, but just the applications in landscaping and so many other things were. And, like you said, in business time management it's not what more do we need to do, but what, what less can we do? And one of my favorite quotes is Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who wrote perfection is achieved not when there's nothing left to add, but when there's nothing left to take away it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 2:I think that's so true.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's nothing like eliminating things until you get down to the essence, or eliminating things until you're only doing what you have the time and resources for.
Speaker 2:I remember reading that and I was like, wow, I've never heard anybody else say that. Besides, years ago this one business coach of mine said it and I'm like, oh my gosh, a lot of the things you mentioned in the book I felt could be really correlated to backpacking, to business, to life, you know, and I love that.
Speaker 3:Well, that's my hope, and I tell people there's no earthshattering new revelations in my book. I think most people like you, will probably read some things and go like, oh yeah, I have heard that before. But I also realize that people hear things when they're ready for them and hear them in different ways. My modest hopes for the book is that the stories I told and the words that I used coincide with the right timing in some people's life and they can take something away from it that'll improve their lives.
Speaker 2:There were so many gems in it. There were so many gems in it. You know you mentioned and this is a quote I say probably at least three times a week, but about how I might butcher it.
Speaker 3:But people will forget what you said, they'll forget what you did, but they'll never forget how you made them feel early on as an engineer that I was going to need to work on other aspects of my personality and character, and one of those was I realized that, no matter how hard I worked or how smart I was, anything I wanted to accomplish in life was going to be with the help of other people. And so I realized, okay, I better get smart about relating to other people, and that's not always a strong point for engineers. So, yeah, I've worked hard on that and continue to work on that to build those relationships and, to you know, to be a good friend, to be a listener, to write.
Speaker 3:I'm a big fan of personal notes, handwritten notes. I think there was a day and age, not that long ago, when that was expected. That was just a part of if you were polite society or you were just a regular person. You wrote handwritten notes and with email and everything, it's gotten rare, which to me is an opportunity, because it surprises people now when they get a handwritten note, a follow-up, something like that, and so that's an opportunity, something you can exploit. To you know, create connection, create those relationships.
Speaker 2:You know you mentioned something and I might butcher how you said this exactly, but it was something I had never thought about or never heard, but it was like a mindset shift for me in the moment. But you were talking about being connected with other people and about being humble and how it means something, about being willing to receive, and if you're always looking to give, you're looking to be in control.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's important when you realize and you've probably been in a situation or many people have, I think where you've tried to give and someone wouldn't accept it, and you know that, you know there's nothing you can do about that, and people do that for variety, you know, maybe it's their pride or maybe they don't want to feel like they're in debt or something like that, but that interrupts the flow and when you refuse to accept or accept graciously, then that's as bad as never offering to give Anytime you want to give. Someone has to receive, and so it's good to be, and everyone has different skills and giftings, and so it just makes sense to help each other out Something that we're good at and someone else is not. Being generous makes the world go round, for sure.
Speaker 2:I was a little blown away with the. If you're trying to just give, it's like you're trying to have control. You know, like even in past times have struggled with like always trying to help people and I was like, wow, that's almost me trying to control the situation.
Speaker 3:Could be. I think it depends on if you're always trying to give and you refuse to accept. To me there's like much of life there's a balance to be sought there.
Speaker 2:I get that Now. In the book you also explained, exercising gratitude is a big part of having a life characterized by purpose and meaning. Can you share some examples of how you address goodness in one's life?
Speaker 3:Sure. Well, I think backpacking helps with gratitude because it gives you a new appreciation for all the conveniences of modern life. You know, when we're at our house and we're a little cold or the internet's slow or something like that, it's easy to get discouraged. Yeah, this is terrible. But if you spend a week with a very light pack, sleeping in the dirt, treating your water, shivering around a fire at night, when you get back home it's amazing to just have water you can drink out of the faucet at any temperature. You want hot showers, a soft bed. Cell service is a miracle if you've been without it for a week, although there certainly are benefits being without internet for a week. Backpacking is one way to get gratitude for everything else in life that otherwise we just take for granted.
Speaker 3:I was recently going somewhere with my wife on errands and we're going down this road kind of toward town and suddenly there's like traffic and there's not a lot of people in Bend, so that was rare and I could see a lot of brake lights and I don't sit well as a general rule.
Speaker 3:So I'm like ah, I take a left turn to go up to the next parallel street and it's blocked off for construction. I forgot about that, which is why there was so much traffic on the street we had been on, and now we were even further behind on that street, and so I was getting super frustrated. And then I thought wait a minute here. Just take a step back. Take a look at this You're retired, you have no deadline, it's a beautiful day, you're in a car that functions perfectly, you've got a beautiful woman sitting next to you that for some reason, thinks you're fun to hang around with. I was like what's your issue? It might take 10 minutes longer. And it just completely changed my mindset and allowed me to enjoy the journey instead of getting frustrated at roadblocks.
Speaker 2:I love that. That's an amazing shift that you had and that you just had that shift in the moment.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I mean sometimes someone will say something or sometimes, if you get good, you can catch yourself. I really enjoy a blog post I've read once by David Epstein talking about gratitude as a two by two matrix. And on one axis he's a gentleman engineer, he has things you want or don't want, and on the other axis things you have or don't have. And he says most of us we're grateful for things that we want, that we have, you know good health, nice car, good apartment, good job.
Speaker 3:And he says we tend to, in our culture, focus a lot on things that we want but don't have, you know, nicer car or better job or whatever it may be more stuff, better job or whatever it may be more stuff. He says we miss an important source of gratitude in looking at the sector, that is, things that we don't have, that we don't want, things like and to me there are. If you're attuned to it, there are reminders. Every day you pick up the newspaper and think, oh, I'm glad I don't live in Sudan, that's something I don't have, that I don't want and I'm grateful I could be as simple as you know a plane crashes Well, I wasn't on a plane, that's something I don't have in my life. I'm grateful. Or bad weather that just wrecked a bunch of homes back east. It's like great, that's something I don't have. You forget things that don't you don't have in your life, that you don't want. It's happening to them. So that's a great source of gratitude, to give yourself a little perspective on how good you have it.
Speaker 2:I like that. I've never thought about or heard that example before. You know what you don't want and you don't have. I've heard lots of conversations and lots of people talk about gratitude, gratitude lists, gratitude practices of people talk about gratitude, gratitude lists, gratitude practices. But that makes sense because, regardless of who you are, where you're living your life, situation, there is something that exists that you don't want and you don't have.
Speaker 3:Somebody always has it worse, and in this country there's a lot of people that have it worse and you don't have to look very far. So yeah, of people that have it worse and you don't have to look very far, so yeah, it's a great reminder when you get caught up and thinking how hard life is. Or you know, we tend to look at people that have more and we want more, but we don't look at people that have less or they're struggling with disability, or you know they were born with something that's a disadvantage to them. It's like, wow, there are so many opportunities to be grateful.
Speaker 2:Now I want to transition a tad, but you talk in the book about minimalism and you've embraced that lifestyle a lot and we've talked about here on Gratitude and people wanting more. And we've talked about here on Gratitude and people wanting more. How would you recommend listeners and people listening?
Speaker 3:to us be able to apply minimalism in their life while still remaining grateful. Well, first, I have to be transparent and say that the one area of my life that I've best done minimalism is backpacking. I backpack with very little gear. In other areas of my life, I'm not as minimal as many people. Part of that is being married to Francie, who has a different relationship with stuff. You'll notice a marked difference in our house between my rooms and her rooms, and the common rooms are kind of a combination of them.
Speaker 3:I think the point of minimalism is not just owning less stuff, but it's having more time, energy and money for things that matter time, energy and money for things that matter. One thing I've done is you know, it's so easy for us to buy stuff today. I mean, you click on something on your phone, boom, it's at your mailbox a couple of days later, and so I have a list on my phone and a note on my phone called when I'm rich and, let's face it, I am rich. I mean I could buy pretty much whatever I wanted. But the thought is like if I wake up and I'm Jeff Bezos or something, I've got so much money it just doesn't matter anymore. Then I might get one of these, and so it's super powerful to when you see something, you think, oh, that looks nice, nice to just put it on a list and then usually I just forget about it and if I look at it, you know, maybe I'll look at it next time.
Speaker 3:I look at the list Like, yeah, I don't know, I don't get, most of the stuff is just an impulse buy. You know we look at that thing and go I don't really care about that anymore and so you've just saved yourself that junk and spending that money and the time and hassle. And there was a fascinating article in the Wall. One was that U-Haul has increased the size of their trucks over the years because people have more stuff when they move. But there were fascinating statistics on the percentage of people who said they bought something that they know they have but they just can't find it so they had to buy it again. And well, that would be my nightmare.
Speaker 2:You know I hate that when you like, you know you have a hammer but you need to buy another hammer because you don't know where the hammer you have is, because you have so much stuff you know, I feel and I don't know how to explain this the best way but I feel like there's an energy to things and to having like, whether it's clutter, whether it's just having too much stuff, because, like, I've been around places and people's houses that had too much stuff and I felt a different energy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, there's a couple of reasons for not accumulating too much stuff. One is it takes money, it wastes money, money you can do other things with. And then two and I think people forget this and my wife would probably disagree with it but I think stuff takes energy, you know, you see it, you think about it or you're looking for stuff that's hard to find because you have so much stuff, and I think it takes energy to have stuff. And I'm not the only one that says this, and it's probably not true for everyone, but it's certainly true for me. You know, when there's more stuff, it's just like ah, you're worried about the stuff, you're worried about losing the stuff, you're worried about someone stealing the stuff. It's just, you have to dust it and clean it, organize it. I don't know, doesn't bother Francie, but it bothers me. So we work it out.
Speaker 3:But you know, a buddy of mine has an even more sophisticated version of my when I'm rich list and he puts himself on a shopping diet.
Speaker 3:So if he thinks of something like, oh, that new backpack or that book or something would be nice to buy, he puts it on his shopping list and then he gives himself two windows, a year list and then he gives himself two windows a year and so when that window opens up he'll pull out the list and he'll look at the stuff that he's written down of stuff that he thinks he would want to have. And he says that 70 to 80% of the items he either eliminates from the list Cause like nah, I don't care about that anymore, or it's like, yeah, I might want it someday, so I'll leave it on the list, but I'm not going to buy it right now. So he only ends up buying, twice a year, when the shopping window opens up, a very small percentage of stuff that's on the list, whereas I think most of us we don't put it on a list, we just buy it on the list, whereas I think most of us we don't put it on a list, we just buy it.
Speaker 2:I think that's so true. You know, there's so much impulse buying because people just we live in this society of you want it instantly.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And we can now get that in a lot of ways, like Amazon Prime, all these different things that can be there the next day and then a week later. People don't even want it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and we think the stuff is going to make us happy because the people that we see who have that stuff, they look happy. But I mean, study after study shows that the stuff doesn't make us happy. Actually, being generous another fascinating book Infectious Generosity by I forget, the TED Talks guy Super fascinating studies on how being generous creates happiness that lasts, whereas the happiness from you buy that trinket, you might be happy the day you get it, maybe a week later, but in a year you won't even care. But if you're generous and they did studies where they give people some money that they could either give away or they could keep, and the ones who gave it away, you know, a year later they were still happy, it still brought them happiness to remember giving it away, whereas the people who bought something with it it's like it didn't make them happy.
Speaker 2:That's a fascinating study. It's a really cool book I might have to mail you a couple books here. It's a lot of sense, though, that infectionist, like you're giving to somebody, you're being generous, you're doing something to help somebody else out, and you're going to remember that. You're not going to remember this random little thing, whatever it was that you bought, you know.
Speaker 3:If you can even find it. Yeah, that's the thing. It's funny. I mean, the science is out there, we know this, but we still think buying the stuff's going to make us happy.
Speaker 2:In the book you talk also a lot about the outdoors, the importance of it and in society today. So many of us are indoors all the time on screens looking at technology. Do you have a suggestion for people to embrace the outdoors more?
Speaker 3:Yes, I think another book. Everyone I feel like your listeners are going to think like I read a lot. I don't actually read as much as I'd like, but the Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter is just an awesome book. I've given away almost a hundred copies of it by now and he talks about a couple of things and one is just as you mentioned we don't get outside enough, and his basic prescription is everyone ought to get outside for 20 minutes. With no technology, you're not listening to anything, you're just walking or even sitting, but walking is probably better Outside. 20 minutes three days a week.
Speaker 3:And then he has in his mind like an outside pyramid, kind of like we have like the food pyramid, and then once or twice a year you should do something longer, more like a backpacking trip where you're out there for three days, because there's among backpackers there's kind of an understanding of the three-day rule. It takes three days to kind of stop thinking about all your stuff at home and stuff you have to do and people you have to see and projects you need to work on, but you're just out in the wilderness with a backpack. You can't do any of that, and so after about three days you start to just be present in doing what you're doing. You know it allows your mind to slip into a soft focus where problem solutions will suddenly appear. You're not really thinking about them, but you'll suddenly think or people that you need to get in touch with. That happens to me a lot on walks Like, oh, I haven't talked to Amanda for a while. I should give her a call, check and connect up, see what's going on.
Speaker 3:And sometimes it's interesting how I'll call someone and they said, oh, I just thought of you the other day, or we were just talking about you, or something like that. And if I'd been busy in front of a screen working on my to-do list, I never would have thought to call them. And then Michael Easter thinks that once a year you should do something really hard outside. And they define something really hard as something that you have a 50 50 chance of completing. So that could be a half marathon, 100 mile race, it could be running a mile, depends on where you're coming from. But not something you know you can do, but something's like yeah, I think I can do this just to kind of push your limits and to you know, it could be delivering a speech. Maybe it's not even something outside, but that you push yourself and explore your limits once a year with something big.
Speaker 2:I like how you mentioned Yuba Membo, stuff on the walks. You know, like, even if it's not this big backpacking journey, like you're not, you don't have these other distractions. I think so many people think they're relaxing just scrolling on their phone or listening, it's still a distraction, you know, whether it's the music and the lyrics, like even if you're not looking specifically at something, like your mind's not shutting off, whereas if you're outside and you don't have anything that you're looking at, you're looking at like the sky, the grass, grounding yourself. It's different.
Speaker 3:It is different that's one of the points Michael Easter makes in his book is that we've done too good a job of killing boredom. I mean there's always something to look at, something to listen to, and he says there's always something to look at, something to listen to, and he says it's killing us. Your mind never has a chance to just relax and work through things. What kind of sort stuff out in your mind? It could be past conversations or things that have happened to you. You never have a chance to process those. So they uh, it's important to get away and kind of do nothing. I enjoy it. I tend to be quiet.
Speaker 3:We do a lot of road trips and it drives Francie crazy she has told me she's like sometimes this is probably when we were newly married she says we'll be driving and I'll just say to myself I'm not going to say anything and just see how long it takes before Glenn says something. And I can go say to myself I'm not going to say anything and just see how long it takes before Glenn says something. And I can go hours and hours Very happy, just thinking about things in my own mind without feeling the need to say anything. So she always gets up. She doesn't do that anymore. But yeah, it's so important for us just to spend time. Sometimes it's hard. That's why we should do it spend time and sometimes it's hard. That's why we should do it, even when it's hard, to just be alone with our thoughts, because there's power in that to not distract ourselves from things we need to be thinking about or processing there's so much power.
Speaker 2:In that I completely agree and it is hard, like you mentioned. But something I've done, not necessarily for outside time or screen time away, like that comes easy to me, but like time blocking it, like scheduling the 20 minutes, like three times a week, you know, we all think we have your time. You got 20 minutes and schedule it when you don't have the kids, when you can put the phone down and go outside for a walk. Like everybody's got 20 minutes, you know, like that's 2% of your day.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it could even be for people that are back working in an office. You know you have a half-hour commute. Instead of listening to the radio, Don't turn the radio on. Just think and see what comes up.
Speaker 2:It's so true. People have such a hard time with the quiet, but embrace the uncomfortability at first.
Speaker 3:Exactly, yeah, lean into it because there's some teachings there. I mean, it gives you a chance, like I, for a while I was working and I had about an probably 45 minute commute and it was so great because I worked long hours. But when I you know the ride home I could kind of think over conversations, things that happened, like oh yeah, I might do that a little differently next time. I could kind of process the day. So when I got home to Francie and the kids I could be present there. My mind wasn't still at work. So that can be a valuable tool there.
Speaker 2:It makes so much sense. Have you always been able to be comfortable with the silence, with the quiet Pretty much, yeah, comfortable with the silence, with the quiet. Pretty much, yeah, so there wasn't something that necessarily helped you with it.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, I grew up before there was distraction. Basically we didn't have a TV in the house. The radio wasn't always on. I don't think the radio was ever on. You spent a lot of time like just thinking things.
Speaker 2:I get it, but I think even people listening to us training the muscle of it and anything with practice, I think you can train.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and to me, if something's uncomfortable for me, it's like that tells me something. I think you can either shy away from it or you can lean into it to get the growth that comes from dealing with that.
Speaker 2:I think there's so much growth on the other side of whatever it is we're uncomfortable to do. You know, seeing how it is Like, I think that's so powerful. Well, thank you so much, so much, Glenn. I really appreciate it my pleasure have you heard of a man named Jay Shetty? I have not so he's got a podcast called Odd Purpose. He's an author, former monk, and he ends his podcast with two segments and I really liked them.
Speaker 2:So I end my podcast with those two segments great both segment is the many sides to us, and there's five questions and they need to be answered in one word each. What is one word someone who was meeting you for the first time which used to describe you as Kind? What is one word that someone who knows you extremely well which used to describe you as Generous? What is one word you'd use?
Speaker 3:to describe yourself.
Speaker 2:Industrious. What is one word that, if someone didn't like you or agree with your mindset, would you use to describe you as?
Speaker 3:Maybe aloof.
Speaker 2:What is one word you're trying to embody right now?
Speaker 3:right now.
Speaker 2:Trying to be more curious. Second segment is the final five, and these can be answered in up to a sentence. What?
Speaker 3:is the best advice you've heard or received.
Speaker 2:It's not about me. Why is that?
Speaker 3:the best. I think once you get your eyes off of yourself and focus on others, you can learn so much, you can serve so much, and it's very hard to live a life of joy and purpose when you're focused on yourself.
Speaker 2:What is the worst advice you've heard or received?
Speaker 3:This would probably be controversial or misunderstood. I would say follow your dream. Why is that the worst? And the reason I say that is the follow your dream puts the focus on you. You know, follow my dream. What do I want? What do I want to make happen? It's all about me, and I think the richness in life is from opening your perspective and looking with an outward focus instead of an inward focus.
Speaker 2:What is something that you used to value that you no longer value?
Speaker 3:I'd say hair, because I used to have some and now I don't. Long hours, I guess. I worked long, long hours my whole life and I don't work as much now that I'm retired. I get more sleep, so that's something I value. I guess the opposite, it's something I value now that I didn't used to sleep.
Speaker 2:If you could describe what you would want your legacy to be, as if someone was reading it, what would you want it to say?
Speaker 3:Glenn touched other lives with his generosity and inspired people to take less and do more to have more joy, purpose and meaning in their lives.
Speaker 2:That's beautiful. If you could create one law in the world that everyone had to follow, what would it be? And I want to know why.
Speaker 3:So my new law is everyone has to get outside for 20 minutes three days a week, with no electronics. I think that would be. The benefits from that would be huge.
Speaker 2:Why would that be the law?
Speaker 3:Well, we kind of already talked about that because of the value of unplugging and allowing your mind to slip into that soft focus and if you're walking, you get a little exercise, you get some fresh air, you're not thinking about yourself, you're just letting your mind wander the world would be a better place for sure I completely agree.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you so much, glenn, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3:My pleasure. And where's the best place for listeners to connect with you? Best place to connect is probably my website, glennvanpeskycom. There's all sorts of tips and tricks there. There's some gear lists and things for backpackers. There's blog posts, tips on relationships. I'm about to probably, by the time this comes out, I'll have some study guides up for people if they want to use my book for their book club or their faith-based group. I'll have some study guides prepared for a free download. So that would be the best place.
Speaker 2:Awesome, I will link that in the show notes and no pressure, I'd like to give it back to the guests. Any final words of wisdom, anything else you want to share with the listeners?
Speaker 3:I would just sign off with the thing I sign in books a lot, which is work hard. Be nice, stay curious.
Speaker 2:I love that. Thank you so much, Glenn.
Speaker 3:My pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2:And thank you, guys, for tuning in to another episode of Nandu's Mindset. In case no one told you today, I'm proud of you, I'm booting for you and you got this, as always. If you enjoyed the the show, I would really appreciate it if you would leave me a five star rating, leave a review and share it with anyone you think would benefit from this. And don't forget you are only one mindset. Shift away from shifting your life. Thanks, guys, until next time.
