Devon Lévesque
Appearances
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
I saw my dad struggling with some mental health thing and he didn't have an outlet. And I come to find out that day after he dropped me off, he killed himself. And then when I saw what happened, my goal was to help people wake up happier.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
That's a rule I have. I have a rule. Do one thing every day you used to do as a kid. Okay. It keeps you young. The vibes people get when they leave Sweet Honey Farm is clarity, is calmness, is less anxiety. And it's not that I'm having them do any crazy drugs or some crazy biohack. And I'm all about the future. I'm just saying, take off your shoes. Go ride a horse.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Jump in a sauna, jump in a cold plunge, move a little bit. Go just walk around without your phone. Go walk through the garden. You're going to feel the grounding ripping through your body. And then when you leave and you jump back into society... You're like, wow, this is, I feel a little bit calm. And you know, that boss calls you and they're all pissed off.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
You're not going to react in a negative way. You're going to respond in the right way. And that's my goal is to calm people's tension in the world by providing these communities. ProMix has an amazing community. Does it really? Yeah. My values, the health, the freedom of time, the community, the giving back, all my family, The values are the core of Promix.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
My values are the core of Sweet Honey Farm. My values and Jesse Itzer's values are the core of All Day Running. The values are being ingrained into these brands to hopefully build a community and help people just wake up happier.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And I'll give a quick high level, but Jesse messaged me after I bear crawled the New York Marathon. And then I went out to his event, 29029, where you climb the height of Mount Everest in 36 hours, four laps into this climb. It's like up 5,000, down up 5,000. Yeah, every mountain's different, but you're hitting the 29,000, 29 feet of Everest. Total elevation.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
By the way, Everest was 29,000, 29 feet 10 years ago. It's now 29,000, 32 feet. Wow. It's gotten taller.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Correct. So I just want to throw that little snippet out there. But I was out at his event in Sun Valley, Idaho. He's a partner and owner of the Hawks as well. And it'll come full story. And so Hawks on one side of the country, this event on the other side, four laps in, he texts me, Deb, meet me at the lodge. I meet him down at the lodge.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
He goes, look, we have about 20 hours left in this race or so. If we take... If we take the jet across the country and watch the game, game six of the playoffs, Hawks, and watch it, we can make it back in time to finish the race. And I'm like, I love some adventures, man. Let's go. And so me and some buddies, Jimmy DeCicco, Jake DeCicco, Dan Churchill, we all jump on the plane with him.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
We fly out to Atlanta. We watch the game. We may or may not have had some tequila. Jesse looks at me and he goes, back on the plane. We get back on the plane. We land in Sun Valley, Idaho at 3 a.m. We finished the race with 30 minutes to spare. No. That was the first 36 hours I ever met Jesse.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Talk about bonding. Yeah. Yeah. Talk about like, we were just kind of how I came in here and we kind of just clicked, you know, that's how Jesse and I were. And we're, we've always been on the same page and all day was never about it. It wasn't about money.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
It's about us having a canvas to bring people together and community and not creating a running company that has first, second or third place, but rather creating a running community and a community that says, hey, everyone's welcome. Let's just have a good time. You know, let's take the seriousness out of running.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
At Running Man, the festival we do every year, we don't pick a first, second or third. Matter of fact, everyone's together helping each other finish their marathon.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Right. Yeah. And so, you know, we're, him and I are just on the same wavelength of, you know, how, how we want to impact people in a positive way. And I think that's, that's kind of how we went into business together.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
I call it type 2 fun. For me.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Tell me about that. So type one, type two, type three. Type one fun is what we were just doing. We were drinking D-Blow, eating some of your food or laughing. We're joking. We're having a good time. We can laugh about it. Now we were laughing during. We're always going to laugh about it. It's immediate fun. Type three is when I was coming off the summer of Everest. All right. And I'm coming down.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
I just I'm at twenty eight and a half thousand feet. There's 50 yards to go. But, you know, coming down that 50 yards before I go over the next cliff, there's 100 people in between and there's two inches to step on. And my oxygen is running out. And all of a sudden I say in my head, Devin, you're likely going to die. This is not fun during. I'm not laughing about it. It is.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
What's my girlfriend Nina going to say at my funeral? What's my mom going to say at my funeral? This is it. I wonder what jokes they're going to make. I wonder what my buddies are going to say. It's not fun during. I'm looking at death in the face. I'm seeing where my head's going to hit the rock. I'm seeing where my body's going to end up. That's not fun. That's type three fun.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And maybe in a year, and I'm laughing about it now, maybe that now it's type three. Type one is what we're... at before this type two is right in the center type two is the cold plunge type two is i don't care who you are cold plunging isn't that fun during you're like holy so not this is nobody likes the no one's like oh my god i love freezing everything off right now It's not that fun.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
But right afterwards, that dopamine rush, that feeling you get of like, that was so fun. Everyone wants to post about it. Like, oh my God, I'm Superman. I'm the ultimate human. I feel good. That's type two fun. And I think every single day, Every single week, every month, every year, everyone should add a type two fun into their life.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
For sure, man. You know, there's everyone, everyone has a story. All you have to do is ask.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
yeah it's one of my favorite things to say to humans every single person has a story you guys are listening we're talking everyone has a story all you have to do is ask and if you can put an environment together where people can open their mind a little bit outside of their normal routine they're not taking the normal route home they're not going to their normal weekend bar etc then their brain is actually going to expand and they're going to feel good so what happens when it expands well relationships are cured relationships
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
form. Right. Yeah. Um, all of a sudden you're sick. You're not so sick anymore. All of a sudden you have anxiety. Oh man, this, this event opened my eyes a little bit and I'm, I'm not even doing what I love. I want to go work with so-and-so or I want to go start this or I want to do that.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Or man, I'm going to hit up that girl that I was so afraid to talk to, or I'm going to hit up the guy that I was nervous to message or, you know, relationships happen. Um,
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
mainly i would say relationship building and that can be personal that can be professional that's the main thing that happens the second thing that happens is you're you feel better yeah you know you feel good you've too many of us and too many too much um social media i think tries to put out hey you have to wake up ecstatic every single morning super stoked happy I'm a pretty happy guy.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
I don't wake up ecstatic every morning. And that's just life. But how can you wake up content? How can you wake up and be like, you know what? Life's okay. I'm good. I'm alive. I'm breathing. I have oxygen. I'm okay. And that's what I'm trying to instill in people like, Hey guys, it's okay. Take a deep breath.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And so from the relationships to how you feel, I think of the two major takeaways from our events from Sweet Honey Farm is just like, Hey, let's bring it back to the basics. People are good. Surround yourself with some good people. Here's some good people. And hey, this is what feeling good and content and happy looks like. Try to remember those two things.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Right.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
There was a doctor I was talking to and he said, I was asking him about TRT and I'm curious on this, you know, from you. Not that I, I would take it. I was just curious on his, his perspective on it. And, and he said, well, you know what I tell patients? I say, Hey, One, are you having regular sex? Are you getting sunlight? Are you moving?
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Are you doing the things and taking the things into your body that are going to make them healthier? And then come to me and see if your testosterone is low. You know, try those things first versus just TRT, TRT, TRT. I totally agree with that. You know?
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Yeah.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
I realized my why is I want to live my life without my hands in my pocket. Everyone on this earth is going to go through transitions. The best way I've found for people to transition is to have a good community around them. And that's all I'm trying to foster. I feel like a lot of people are just disconnected from the basics, mother nature, community.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
This is the ultimate living, man. You guys are going to have a blast. Antarctica is beautiful. I'm so excited for you to go. If anyone's listening and you have the chance to go to Antarctica, you should go. It's quite remarkable. But Everest, it goes back to that Marcus Aurelius quote, the nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to real strength.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
I've been really trying to get deeper and deeper of what that means. Am I meditating? Am I working out regularly? Is it the gut health? How can I calm my mind so I can be here now? It's something I'm really passionate about. So I went to this thing in February called the Hoffman Institute, which is seven days, no phone. It's a total reset. Highly recommend. Changed my life. And so I did that.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And I went into Everest with a clear mind. Now it's taken me about four or five years to train for Everest, just understanding gear, understanding layering, understanding climbing, understanding just topography, just understanding everything about a mountain.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Because you have mother nature, you have your physical ability, you have your gear, you have other people on the mountain you have to worry about. So there's a lot of... There's a lot of variables that go into it. And so finally this year I felt comfortable. I'm like, I'm going to go attempt to climb Everest.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And I didn't go in with an expectation of I'm going to stand on top of the world, but rather than an intention to calm my mind. How can I get closer to a calm mind? How can I just be me and just be on my own? I didn't take any sponsors on. I paid for it fully out of pocket and I was just using it for a time to get away. And I was also excited.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
I was with Dr. John, who's an amazing guide. He was introduced through a couple of mutual friends, Jesse Itzler, Mike Posner, et cetera. And then Jen Jen, our Sherpa, who's an amazing guy as well.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Special. Yeah. So- I went out there with that intention, not expectation, and just fully took it in. And what I noticed at Everest is there's not that many people on Everest. That's number one. If you have one hot restaurant in New York City and it's only open one time a year, it's going to look busy because everyone's waiting in line to go up to that one restaurant.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
The other thing about Everest is that you only have a couple times, if any at all, to summit. There's not that many summit windows, sometimes four, sometimes three, sometimes one, sometimes zero. And so when there is a summit push and there is an open window, naturally people are going to go up and a lot of people.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And when I say a lot, I think there was 300 permits this year, which you go to a restaurant tonight in Miami, there's going to be 700 people there. So there's not that many. that many people on Everest.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Right. Everyone's on the same path. And if you deviate outside that pass, you could, you know, you could cause an avalanche. You could get someone hurt. You could get hurt. Like it's, you stay on the path and quotes path, right? They put new lines in every year. And when I say they, it's, it's, it's the locals. It's the, it's the Nepalese team.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
There's about six to eight guys that go up and, and try to put new lines in and those lines aren't guaranteed. And so everything has to go right on Everest. If you're going to summit, Everything. You can't get sick. A lot of people have a cough. Gary, I'm not kidding, man. When I'm chatting with people on Everest, it's... It's... Gary... Yeah, I'll be on your podcast. It's bad.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Yeah, a lot of people are coughing. They have... colds and these these these chest colds going on altitude sickness maybe your gear is broken um you're too tired mother nature avalanches ice falls falling in crevasses food nutrition altitude right like the altitude just having oxygen alone you don't have oxygen up there yeah so There's a lot of variables that come into being able to summit.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
But again, I was looking at it as calming the mind and education. I'm a very curious guy. I dropped out of college. I used climbing the highest point of Antarctica, highest point in South America, Africa, now Everest as my school. That's my education. I think it's important for people to know how they learn. Society doesn't have to tell you how to learn. You decide how you want to learn.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Are you good at listening? Are you good at writing? Are you good at reading? Are you good at... Feeling? Are you good at touching? What is your optimal learning levels? And mine is curiosity and traveling and seeing and touching. That's me. And listening. I'm a sponge. I'm not out on Everest saying, hey, Colin O'Brady, I'm going to tell you what to do. Hey, Dr. John, I'm telling you what to do.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
I'm listening. I'm like a total sponge and I'm just taking it. I'm seeing, I'm listening. I'm like, I'm SpongeBob on Everest, man. I am...
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
i'm up there yeah and so you know it took me 47 days you know you have to do rotation seven days 47 days i was out there yeah because you're you're going to different levels and then yep you're hanging out there to acclimate heck yeah man trekked into base camp with my girlfriend which is amazing that's i recommend everyone do adventures with your girl man or your partner then you left her at a certain altitude right like she yeah just left her there never saw her again no no
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
She's still there waiting for you. She's still there.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
17,500.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Dude, I've got a cabin at 10-5.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
You're winded, man.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
You're doing it. And that's what causes the lines on Everest. It's not a line due to people are going too slow because of someone in front of them, a traffic jam. It's due to what you just said. You have to take a knee. You're exhausted. Even with oxygen tanks, you have about five levels on each tank. Some tanks have six. Each level... Level one drops it by 1,500 feet.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
It drops you down 1,500 feet. If you're at 20,000 feet, you're going to 18.5. If you go to level two, you go to 3,000 feet. It's just 1,500 per level. But the issue is if you go all the way max out to level five, your oxygen tank might only last 15 to 45 minutes. those oxygen tanks weigh a lot. You can't just bring up a ton of oxygen tanks.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
So you have to know how to regulate, you have to acclimate, and you have to make sure that your body is recreating these cells, right? And so with that being said, that's why it takes 47 days. Right. You want to trek into base camp. That takes a couple of weeks. You hang out at base camp. You might even go all the way back down to Kathmandu.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
You will then go back up to base camp and you wait for a weather window. And once you get that weather window and you and you after you've done a couple of rotations.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
You're acclimating. The problem with the Nepalese side, and not a lot of people know this, but Everest is split in half. Half of it's China and half of it's Nepal. The China side doesn't have the Kumbo Icefall. The Nepal side does. And so what happened was China didn't approve our permits. They approved them and then they took them away. China's funny with that stuff, man.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
They let their locals go up first, and they're not that inviting to Westerners, and that's just what it is. It's a pretty known fact. Right. And if it's not, well, this podcast will tell. There it is. Climb the Nepal side. Yeah, definitely climb. I mean, it's crazy how they treat us, but- Anyway, so we somehow managed to get a permit on the Nepal side. We get to base camp.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And now we have to redo all of our logistics because we don't have a team out here. We don't have our tents. We don't have... It's kind of a free-for-all. We don't have support. And so we were kind of... We're in a little ruckus for a week or so. Finally get a window to go up the Kumbo Icefall.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
The Kumbo Icefall is one of the scariest places on earth because you have these thousand foot deep crevasses. Ice can fall at any time. There's avalanches all around you. You have to go in the middle of the night because if you are middle of day, you're It could cause melting, which would then increase the likelihood of bicycles falling on you. So a lot of variables are going into it.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Go up the Kumbo Icefall at, say, 11 p.m. Takes about five, six, seven hours to get through it. Exhausting. There's cliffs. There's... I mean, the first time I went through it, I messed up. And I told myself... I was like, I don't need to eat that much. Like... I'm just going to get sick at altitude. And so I didn't eat. And I got really, really sick for not eating. So nutrition is big on Everest.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Finally, we get out of the Kumbo Icefall. You go up to Camp 3. You hang out there for a sec. You come all the way back down. That's rotation number one. If you do it correct, you can acclimate. And then you make for a summit push maybe a week later. It's pretty wild, man. And so... I come back down to base camp. We go up from camp two to camp three, which is 22 ish thousand feet to 23 and a half.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
It was a big storm that came in. And so a hundred people were making a, you know, a jump for summit that day. And everyone started coming back down. And I told Jen, Jen and I, and John, I was like, man, let's just go up. I was like, I think the storm's going to pass. John's like, I kind of do too. Chen Jin's like, it's up to you guys. Let's go.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And so we all, we all proceeded up, ended up getting to camp three safely. The storm did pass, but I mean, it was 50 mile per hour winds. It was, I mean, it was terrifying. And it wasn't storming. It wasn't supposed to storm in the weather forecast. It just boom out of nowhere, 50 mile per hour winds, negative 10, 15 degrees. And you're just, you're in this blizzard and,
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And at that point, again, it's type three, you know, you're like, holy shit. I might, I might actually die right now.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
You know, they, they're, they're somewhat indifferent. Jen, Jen was so cool, man. He, you know, he summited multiple times before and he was, you know, he's a family guy. I was never trying to risk anyone's life and neither was he. So like, we were always, we always were on the same page and I would ask him like, are you comfortable? And he said, yes. John, you comfortable? Yes. I'm comfortable.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Cool guys. Everyone's on the same page. No one has to be a hero. If, you know, if we feel unsafe, let's get out. So finally get up to camp three. Man, I'm in the tent at camp three and there was a group that went up before us. And all I hear in camp three at 11, 12 AM, man. And then it started, it just went on all day.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Yeah, man. Well, one, thanks for having me on here. Appreciate you. You live it. You breathe it. You're doing it, which I respect. Thank you. The how is easy. It's the how is probably a lot of, a lot of humans listening to this right now. Yourself, the how is so easy, man. Guys, we don't quit. You just don't quit. Yeah. Don't quit.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
People are coming back down the summit that didn't make it because it was a storm. The blizzard that I was in at camp two to three, they were in at the summit. So imagine how bad it was up there. So people are dying. People can't breathe. Yeah. People are being, trying to be evacuated off, but helicopters can't go above camp two. And all you hear is, give him oxygen, give him oxygen.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
He's not breathing. CPR. Nepalese people yelling, American, British, like all these just yelling intense. It sounds like I'm in a war zone and I'm supposed to go for summit the next day. And I'm just sitting here in my tent. I start getting emotional. People literally in that condition. Dying. Wow. And I'm like, this is crazy. Like, what am I doing here? This is not a place I should be.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And it's not like there's an ambulance or a, you know, like I said, a helicopter, there's nothing around. If you break a leg up there, you're probably going to die. If you're, if you, if you, you know, stop breathing, you're dead. Like, it's not, you don't have resources. So we then had to make the decision to go up. And so we then, I didn't sleep that night because I was terrified.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And so we then went up and pushed the next day. It is so slow trying to get up Mount Everest after camp three. You can't move. I'm saying you might be not even half a mile an hour. I mean, you might be going 0.2 miles an hour. I mean, it's so slow because you're so exhausted. Right. Even, even if you do have a little oxygen. So,
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
fast track to camp four somehow we get there exhausted um people start thinning out you start seeing people turn around imagine being out there for 47 days going for summit and then all of a sudden weather comes in you're like i gotta turn around and that was your only chance maybe in your lifetime wow someone just spent 250 000 to be out there and they're in their their life and and their time and everything and all of a sudden they turn around so
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
That's kind of what's going on. I'm watching it. We get to camp four, you know, super bright outside. And, uh, by the way, there's a lot of trash at camp for a lot. Really? Yeah. And I'll tell you why, you know, as, you know, as I was coming down, I'll tell you after, but, um, so anyways, get to camp four, we then make the summit push, uh, try to get ahead of everyone.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And what happened was my guy, Dr. John was trying to help facilitate me and Jen, Jen. And so he put an extra oxygen on himself. And so he got stuck behind, which I didn't know about. And so he has a little bit of double the weight on him. He's behind us. So now I get separated from him. So now I'm just with Jen, Jen, me on Mount Everest climbing. How did you get separated though?
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
You just climb faster? You can't even, you can't run. You can't walk faster. Everyone's going pretty much the same speed. So yeah, I mean, he was just behind. And when I say behind, a couple hundred yards and it wasn't, he was trying to do us a favor, which John's amazing. One of the best guys out there. He's a great guy. Highly recommend.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
He does, you know, a ton of, a ton of climbs around the world. Kilimanjaro, Aconcagua, et cetera. But,
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Whether it's your company, you know, founders, companies don't fail. Founders give up. Don't quit. Right. Us as humans, we can't quit. That's the how. Just don't quit. But the why is, is, is the purpose. The why is a little bit more in depth. And I'm glad that caught your attention because that was a, It's been a core of mine since I was about 16. And, you know, I'll take you back.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
know he got stuck behind we then make the summit push um i fell asleep i fell asleep on the summit push on the side of the mountain negative 20 degrees out i was exhausted gary i like i couldn't breathe i was tired and i just fall asleep on the line and all of a sudden my tank stops auction and i go And Jen Jen, my Sherpa, turned my oxygen back to level one. It was at level three. Oh, my God.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And he turns it back. The problem was when you go to level three, you start to get relaxed. Because you're like, ah, I got a little bit of oxygen. Right. But the problem when you get relaxed and you're that tired is you fall asleep. When you fall asleep at negative 20 degrees, you freeze. And that's what happened. That's what happened to the two Mongolians before us. They froze on the line. Wow.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
It was in the news. That was the day before us. That was the day before you. Right. The day before us. Wow. And then, so the guy woke me up. How do they get the bodies down from there? They just leave them? Oh, you can't. They're just there.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
There was multiple. And, you know, these bodies, man, they're wax figures. They look like wax characters. They look perfectly preserved. Sometimes their eyes were open. There was a guy, his eyes were open. He had a blue black diamond helmet on. He had a red North Face onesie on, you know, the... Man, and he was just there. And it looked like he was alive.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And I'm looking at him like, man, this is someone's brother. This is someone's maybe father. This is a child of someone. Like this is wild. Multiple, multiple people. So then we proceed past these bodies. It's starting to get scary. You're approaching 29,000, 32 feet. Get to the top. You could hear a pin drop at the top. Perfect weather, rain.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
perfect blue skies get to the summit 505 i had a little extra energy because i took that mini 60 second nap did a little backflip on the top which is really fun and proceeded down up there for about 30 to 45 minutes so you stayed right at the summit for 30 to 45 minutes all the flags stuck in there and like man when you stand on top of the world and you just look around
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And you're like, man, I'm on the tallest point on earth. There's no one higher than me right now. I mean, it's giving me the chills thinking about it. It's so next level. It's a feeling of this crazy energy of just, okay, I did it, but I didn't do it. I got to get down now. Yeah. And that's the hardest part, man. That's the scariest part. I go down. Why is that?
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Well, you know, it's, you have to go past people. It was what I was saying earlier in the podcast. You have to literally, Gary, I have to, I have a, I have a carabiner attached to the line and I have to, my stomach to your stomach, I have to come around you and put my other carabiner around. Every person, hundreds of people, you have to go around and you have this much to step on. And guess what?
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
It's a 5,000 foot drop if you fall. So it's terrifying. You're just, there's no way I'm getting down right now. And it's not just a walk in the park. You're going down, you know, the size of buildings, just, you know, trying to pass people, rappelling down. I would go over the Hillary step. After summon, I'm at about 28 and a half thousand feet. I go over the Hillary step.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
30 minutes later, behind me, boom, the whole thing collapsed. No. Multiple people fell dead. No. Dead. And I'm just like, John, we got to get the fuck out of here. That is insane. I'm getting out of here, my man. Like, I'm not staying on this mountain. I know, you know, people take three, four days to get off Everest. Two, if you're good. I was like, we're out. I'm thinking one day.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Went down the whole freaking mountain in 20 hours. We were like, see you later.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Ice, snow, mother nature.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Yeah. yeah and the caribbean didn't didn't hold them to the yeah it must have it must have came out and so and if any families are listening man i you know and and you lost someone on everest like serious condolences because it's like it's it's it's scary man i would never go back there i you know and my blessings go out to everyone that tried but like shoot man it's It's really sad.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
I grew up in a small town in New Hampshire, 1,500 people. You know, you had to make your own fun. I had a ski lift half a mile from my house. I grew up fishing, snowboarding, riding my mountain bike. Kind of took it for granted. It was my natural, you know, milking cows. I grew up on a farm. And I took it for granted. And I, you know, you'd have to make...
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
There's good climbers out there. You're not getting to the top of Everest as a bad climber. These are experienced people that have trained their life to do this. It's a sad, sad thing. I don't know. I think if you have a family, if you have a wife or a husband, man, I wouldn't recommend going to Everest. I just wouldn't recommend. I'm not going back. There's also...
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
There's a debacle between the Nepalese and Westerners, and I'll be the first to say it. There's a little bit of a debacle, man. They'll cut your lines. No. They will cut your lines, man. I'm not kidding. I was standing, coming out of the Kumbo Icefall, John and I standing there. There's 20 Sherpas locals around us. Mm-hmm.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And they're all jamming in front of us to get their carabiners on the line ahead of us. And I'm like, brother, like, can I get in? And they're like, they're just pushing me out of the way. And I go to shove in and just put my carabiner on so I don't fall off this freaking cliff. And John's like, no, no, no, chill. And I'm like, why? He's like, they'll cut your line. I'm like, what do you mean?
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
He's like, they'll cut your line. They'll push you off. He's like, don't fight with them. He's like, it's two verse 20. And I'm like, got it. And I'm like, and I believe this goes back to 1953 when Tenzing Norway, a Nepalese, and Sir... They both summited. And some say that Edmund Hillary summited first. Some say Tenzing Norway did. Some say they summited together.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
But the world puts Hillary on this pedestal, which probably isn't the right thing if they did summit together. And so I think ever since 1953, there's been a little chaos and confusion and debacle between
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
the westerners yeah yeah you know it's their mountain it's not ours and so it's you got to watch out for that you got to watch out for who's guiding you you got to watch out for your health you got to watch out for mother nature you got there's so many variables yeah if you have a family i would not recommend who wants to be a guide doing that i mean too forget it i'll be a river guide or something like a little less dangerous yeah i'm good yeah but
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
I've found a little bit more calmness in my brain. I'm happy I did it. And man, what an adventure. I probably wouldn't be talking about this if I didn't do it. And I think it's something cool. I can... I can always have my back pocket and know that I accomplished. So I'm happy I did it, but I would never do it again. That's amazing, man.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
you'd have to make your own fun in whatever you did. And so me and my buddies, you know, would cause problems, cause ruckus, cause, you know, whatever we could to, you know, keep ourselves occupied. And, You know, I, one night on July 17th, 2008, my buddy Maddie and I went into my parents' liquor cabinet and said, hey, let's go grab some alcohol and let's drink with the girls tomorrow night.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And I'd love your perspective on this, but the thing with the brain, bigger is better. Yeah. Right? And I believe when you activate your brain in different scenarios, like I said, not the routine. In and out, you're expanding your brain. And I can take that, my brain and things I learn and I see and I push through. I don't start a race until I get to last 10% of the race.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
That's when the real race starts. The first 90% is, guys, we're having fun. This is type one, type two fun. The last 10 is the type... Damn, man, this is a 2.5 fund. This is some shit. Man, my heart's beating. My head's going to explode. I'm dehydrated. I have a blister on my foot. Jesus, man. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I need this to stop. Like, freaking out. That's...
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
where you learn about yourself. How can I, for me, handle chaos? How can I handle exhaustion? How far can this body go? And I'll tell you one thing, this body can do a lot. Our bodies are so, so, so, so smart, man. And they can recover fast. They know when they need hydration. They know when they need protein. It knows. And understanding my body on all fours, I wanted to understand it.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And I wanted to be as comfortable on twos. I wanted to be as comfortable on literally crawling on all fours as I was walking in two feet. And I wanted to see what's that like. I wanted to be as comfortable on Everest as I am walking around Central Park. I wanted to be just as comfortable. And I want to see how can my body adapt and how far can this body really go?
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Not to the point of death, but to the point of like, all right, knocking on that door real quick. And I think I believe in what's helped me in my business career, my personal life, my friendships, everything is when I push my brain a little bit past that uncomfortability, I can handle all those other scenarios so much more easier.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Like, you know, people are, you know, they flip out about the most basic things. And I'm like, man, like, Have you ever stood on a cliff, man? Like, have you ever, have you ever ran a marathon? Have you ever like really been in a situation where, you know, you know, death's knocking on your door?
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Cause if not, then put yourself in a position where it's really hard and you need a test, do a Masovi, do something that you don't know if you're going to complete or not 50%, you're going to complete it 50% not and go put yourself out there. Cause that's where your brain's going to expand. I was reading in a book, take a different route home every day from work. Don't take the same route home.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Don't take that same subway back and forth, back and forth. Take a left turn. Take a right turn. Go to that coffee shop you've never been to. Go to that restaurant. Try that workout place. Try different things. Expand your brain. And that's what these races, the marathons, the bear crawls, the Everest, the Antarctica, the trips, these adventures I put myself riding across America. Yeah.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
that's where my brain expands. The other part, you know, like grinding across America, In New Mexico, people are living in tents, Gary. They're living in tents and they're chilling. And they're former doctors. And guess what? They don't have bills. They can go to the store and get food once a week. They don't have that nagging girlfriend or boyfriend. They're chilling, man.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
I just turned 16 at the time. And I was like, you know, just trying to have some fun as a kid. Yeah, of course. And so I remember I was going, I went into the liquor cabinet and like any kid, you know, you have this Nalgene bottle and I'm putting like... Goldschlager and Jameson, vodka. I'm just trying. I remember Goldschlager, dude. Is that even around anymore?
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And they're doing their life. They're riding their bike every day. They're running and they're living out of their tent. They're jumping in the river. They are living and they have reset the standard of what they want. And you know what that did to me? That made me think. Man, we add the stress to our life. We're the ones that keep stacking up.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Well, I want this and I want that and I need this perfect. Well, guess what? This is the standard. We can all live in a tent next to a river somewhere on this planet. And that's the very simple life if you want that. But if you want to start a company, expect stress. If you want to run a race, expect you're going to have to get in shape.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
If you want to do this, you're going to have to sacrifice that. we're adding the stress to our life. You know what I mean? I can have a simple life, man. I asked to be on this podcast. You wanted me to be on this podcast. I was, you know, the last 24 hours, I'm like, all right, let me look at these notes. Let me listen to Gary. Let me, I put that stress on me. You know what I mean?
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
If I didn't want to do it, I would, hey. I'm gonna back off.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Expands your brain. It makes, it allows you to enjoy the good times much, much more. Man, that Memorial Day weekend when I came back from Everest, I was the happiest guy on earth, man. I was so happy. I enjoyed that burger and I enjoyed my friends and I enjoyed hugging my mom and I enjoyed it so much more than before Everest. That's so cool, man.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
The worst. And I was just mixing it in and we were so excited. And fast forward to the next day, it's summer. So my, you know, I'm I wake up early 5am. I go to work with my dad who was a drywall contractor.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
You didn't take your family to Everest?
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
So, you know, my job at 16 was, you know, go pick up all the scraps, you know, screw, screw the, you know, screw into the wall, the, you know, the drywall, um, you know, just pick up, help them out, go grab lunch. And he was always, he was my coach. He was my football coach. He was, you know, he's my best friend. Um, and he was always like, Deb, keep your hands out of your pocket.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
you know life's you know take it a little easy like you're taking it easy on yourself that's serious guys i got a hater on instagram how do you know who this freaking person is yeah man it's not you know i don't want to sound like this but you know in i think we'll live to 180 i really do um i think in 150 years none of this is i don't think any of this is really going to matter
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
It's, you know, that, that, that person that, you know, you thought was mad at you or that stupid little fight you got in with your girlfriend or that it's not really going to matter. It's really not.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Take it easy. Yeah. It's not like relax. Yeah. Everyone take a chill pill. You know, the other reason I like doing hard stuff is because it, you know, Steven Kotler from, um, His book on flow state speaks on, there's three ways to re-tap into flow state in our brain. You have to do something mindless, you have to do something hard, and you have to do something calm.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And with those three things, you can re-tap into flow state. You have to do all three of them? Flow state only lasts in the brain for 75 minutes, according to studies. 75 minutes, you can be in that state of not understanding time, being in the zone, and just being in your own world. That feeling of, oh my God, what just happened? I just got that shit done that I wanted to get. It's 75 minutes.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
You can't have flow state, Gary, for 10 hours in a row. It's not possible. However, the way to maximize it is by doing hard shit, cold punch, by doing something mindless, meditate, doing something calm. Maybe it's a sauna. And so that's why, like at Sweet Honey, that's what I do every 75 minutes. And that's why I encourage members and people.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Every 75 minutes. Dude, that's so cool. I never thought about that. Yeah. And so then I get to reset and I re-tap into flow state. And so if I'm taking calls or meetings from say 1030 to three, I'm doing it multiple times in between and by my three, four o'clock call or meeting, guess what? I'm at a hundred percent, baby. I'm good to go.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Yeah. And I just lay there, meditate. I'll do a Hoffman meditation. I'll just listen. Sometimes I'll just go pet a horse and I just do something. I just chill. And guess what? By the end of the day, I'm a hundred percent on a call. I'm not, Hey Gary, how are you? Sorry, man. I'm so tired. It was my last call for today. That's not Gary. Let's go, baby. What do we got going on? yo, I'm in it.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
There's always something to do constantly. Get your hands out of your pocket, go pick this up, get your hands in your pocket, go grab lunch, get your hands out of your pocket, help me with this. And so, You know, fast forward, he drops me off at driver's ed, um, four hours go by my friend, Maddie's mom picks us up and she said, you know, three words that changed my life forever.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Let me focus. You and me, baby, let's get this call done. And I think that energy is what we all need in our life. It's not the extra caffeine. It's not the cocaine. It's the good, real energy that we can give to ourself. It's the real dopamine. It's the real flow state. And that's just what I believe in, man, from doing hard shit.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
As many rounds as possible. What's Gary doing? The guy next to you, you're like... E-moms are a walk in the park. It's like, all right, I get a little rest. These are fun.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
I love the GHD. I have one.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Right when I got in the car, she said three words that changed my life. And you know, when, when your friend's mom picks you up, you know, you just got in trouble. And so I had the alcohol and I'm like, shit, this is it. Like we're getting in a lot of trouble. And she, instead she said three words, your father's dead. And he, and I was like, what? I start, I was just in shock, man.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
What is your daily?
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Oh, that was your meditation.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Yeah, the flow state is, you know, when you just lose track of time, man, and you're in this zone of just zen, getting this done. Some people can tap into it easier than most, but Stephen Kotler has a book, Stealing Fire, And it's good. It's a great book. And it talks about Navy SEALs and how you kind of integrate flow state.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
But I do think if you can tap into that and you don't need a, again, you don't need caffeine or anything else to do that. You can do it yourself.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And it was just really cool to see that he actually used that as his superpower. My surgeon, Dr. Sam, sports doc Sam, he's amazing. He's not quick to cut. He's not a guy that's like, all right, your ankle hurts.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
let's let's cut that thing open baby let's go he's a peptide guy he's a stem cell guy he's so he's functional health but he he jumps in a cold plunge every morning before he goes into surgery like that's his jam and he just he rips you know i that's the other thing i think with with
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
with this whole health world is having a doctor, having a biologist, having someone that you can really go to and trust. And they're gonna provide you the information or the peptides or the functional way of going about your injury or your disease or whatever you're dealing with. I don't know. I, I think it's really important. I have this guy on speed dial, you know what I mean?
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Like, I think everyone needs that. And, and especially someone that lives kind of lives that life as well. But yeah.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And I'm like, man, what did I do? Where is he? I start calling him. He wasn't answering. And I, he just dropped me off four hours ago. I was just working with him. I was, I was just working out with him yesterday. He was a professional weightlifter. And, and I was just like, what the heck just happened? And I must have called him 300 times.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
it is to develop my own patterns, not patterns that were passed down from my parents and their parents and their parents, but develop my own about who I am. I think it's understanding what values you live by. You're absolutely no matter what. And I think it's, I think it's to be kind to others and do the right thing when no one's looking. I really do, man. I believe in that.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And I think if we can just, if we can just put a little bit more love out in the world and I don't want to sound too woohoo, but a little bit more love, you know, I'm going to hug you when I leave, man. I'm going to hug her. I'm going to hug him. And I'm going to, you know, I'm going to put that love out in the world. And I think, If more of us could do that, we can be an ultimate human.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
The energy you put out in the world is exactly what you're going to get back. And I'm going to spend every second of my time on earth putting out positive energy and putting out my values because guess what? the people with similar values are going to be attracted back in. So true. Gosh, that's so true.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And the last thing I'll say about being an ultimate human is maximizing your time for what you want, not what your boss wants, not what your mom wants, not what your girlfriend wants, what you want. What do you really want to do? If you're not going to control your time, someone else will. Yeah, so true. And so I would say that's... That's how you can be an ultimate human.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
A hundred percent, my brother. I appreciate you. Thanks for having me. Awesome. Awesome what you guys are doing. Thank you. And as always, guys, that's just science.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Tell me about that. We go up out of nowhere. You're in this blizzard. You're like, holy shit, I might actually die right now. And how are the guys that were with you? People are dying. People literally in that condition. It was terrifying. Get to the top. You could hear a pin drop at the top. Perfect weather. It's so next level. It's a feeling of this crazy energy.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
I get home and, you know, there's friends, families, everyone's around our house. And I come to find out that day after he dropped me off, he went and jumped in front of a truck on the highway and killed himself and took his own life. And so that was the hardest part I've ever gone through in life when your best friend um, takes our life and you don't know why. And I, and I was just so confused.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And as a 16 year old boy, um, I, it was a, it was a pivotal point in my life. And so now, you know, fast forward, you know, to 2020, October 31st, um, when I started the bear crawl in New York city, started in Brooklyn and I went the exact route of, um, the New York marathon. And I'm at about mile 20 and I remember stopping and I'm like, man, I got 6.2 miles left in this bear crawl.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And I was doing this bear crawl for suicide prevention and mental health. That's why I went into it. That's your why. Right? But at mile 20, I realized something. I realized, look, mental health and suicide is a massive cause. But my why is actually how I wanna live my life. And I wanna live my life without my hands in my pocket. I wanna live my life maximizing my time.
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119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
I wanna live my life being curious. I wanna maximize my life seeing what's out there in the world and helping others. And there's always something to do. And so I wanted to live a life without my hands in my pocket.
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119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And so as I went in with a purpose, an intrinsic motivator, I had extrinsic motivators coming from around. I realized what mattered to me, what really mattered to me. And that was living a life without my hands in my pocket. And I was just talking to you outside. I've formed this mindset, you know, really in the last five years of...
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119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
The closer a man comes to a calm mind, the nearer he is to real strength. So the closer you and I can be here now, talk, and not think about the camera, think about what's going on afterwards, think about this, that, the closer you and I can come to that calm mind, I believe that's real strength. And that's a quote from Marcus Aurelius. I'm not just making this up.
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119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
It's something that's been around and, you know,
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119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
I'm happy I did it, but I would never do it again.
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119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
You have 24 hours in a day. I don't care how you split it. If you say, I'm working for eight hours. I see my wife for two. I see my kids for the other two. I'm eating for two. You're not getting it back. If you want to break it down and say, hey, I'm working a certain amount and family time a certain amount. Cool. It's still 24 hours.
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119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
right there's still 24 hours you're not it's not all of a sudden 20 hours or 24 23 or whatever it's 24 hours yeah in a day we're not getting this time back do it fucking now what are you talking about it's 24 hours you have to maximize and and how can you create a life to where You're happy to where your purpose, you have a why, what makes you happy? What are your values?
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119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
So many people have companies and my mission statement, my pillars in my company, but what about you as a brand, you as a person, you as a human, what are your values? I live life off of five values. And I don't deviate outside of these values. And it helps me de-risk my time and decisions I make. Family, community, health, freedom of time, and giving back. I do not deviate outside of those five.
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119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And it allows me to de-risk decisions I make and where I go and who I meet with and the people I'm surrounded by by simply having these are my core five. If you're about it, cool. If you're not, that's okay.
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119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
The thing with the brain, bigger is better. And I'll tell you one thing.
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119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Like I just don't have time to waste right now though.
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119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Correct.
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119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Sweet honey farm. We'll talk about it. Yeah. You know, community when, when I was younger and I don't want to bring it back to this, but I will, you know, when I was younger and I, I saw my dad struggling with some mental health thing, he was the happiest human on earth I've ever met, man. Like he was such a, Man, he was such a giver. He was always giving to people, helping, donating.
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119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
He was such a good guy. And the last year of his life, I saw him really depressed. And he didn't have an outlet. And I would watch him. And he was reading the Bible. And he was praying. He was trying to do the right thing. And I was just seeing the sorrow on his face. And then when I saw what happened and how... That happened. My goal was to help people wake up happier.
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119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
That's really my goal right now on earth is to help humans wake up happier. And so everyone on this earth is going to go through transitions. We went to elementary school for four years. You go to middle school for four years. You go to high school for four years. You go to college for four years. We are taught by society to transition. But what do you do in those transitions?
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119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
What happens when you enter the military for eight years and you have to go back into civilian life? What happens when... You're an Olympian or an athlete and you're making it to the Olympics. And all of a sudden, 18 years goes by and you get third place and no one remembers you.
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119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And now you don't have a place in society all of a sudden because, well, you didn't get first and you're not in the military anymore. And you're not at this job anymore. What do you do at transition? The best way I've found for people to transition is to have a good community around them.
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119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And that's all I'm trying to foster, whether it's with Pro-Mix, farm-to-table supplements and vitamins, whether it's with Sweet Honey Farm, making an area, a real space where people are welcomed in and not welcomed in for, hey, let me charge your credit card $50,000. I'm saying, hey, What are affordable ways that everyone can have access?
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119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
Health, mental clarity, community should not have a barrier of cost. It should have a welcome, open arms feel, you know, and that's really what I try to
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119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
to encompass with everything that you know i create or co-create is helping we people wake up happier i think with pro mix it starts from within and we'll talk about it but it starts with your gut yeah dude i had you i had your um your gut the the deep yeah the deep load the pre and probiotic was amazing and thank you and sweetened with organic peaches um yeah it was amazing thank you it was
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119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
And so it's like, hey, how can we start from within? Let's get your gut right. Let's get your blood flowing. Let's get your body right from within. Because we all know that your gut impacts your brain. It impacts your mood. It impacts how you're reacting to conversations. It impacts everything, your skin. So let's get that right. And then once your body gets right,
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119. Devon Lévesque: What Facing Death on Everest Taught Me about Living
What type of environment can you be around? And that's why I created Sweet Honey Farm. Less than 1% of Americans right now farm or grow their own food. That's crazy.