The first five chapters of PTO: Prioritize Time Outdoors comprise a section called Let’s Get Out There. This section builds the case for why living a great story often happens in the out-of-doors, and it describes three goals for helping us create that great story. These chapters conclude by laying out the various ways we benefit from spending time outdoors, including as mental therapy, strengthening social bonds, improving performance at work, and raising happier kids.
Here’s an excerpt from Chapter 1: “Live a Great Story”:
“Perhaps you spend much of your time indoors. I know of people who smilingly refer to themselves as avid indoorsmen. Good for them. Indoors has many benefits. Indoors is where most of us make our money and our homes. The indoors is still best for comfort, cleanliness, and pizza. Most children are conceived indoors.[1]
“But when it comes to making stories and memories, you just can’t beat getting out there. Even in my many years since college, I recall few specific details from, say, my kids’ birthday parties or school concerts. Many of them blend together into a general, happy, “I’m glad I was there” sort of memory. On the other hand, I vividly remember the morning my family woke up in the Tetons to watch a porcupine enjoy its breakfast outside our tent. We increase our chances not only to see rare wildlife but also to see them in a context where the presence of humans doesn’t set off alarm bells. More stories start to write themselves – more “hey, remember that time?” moments – when we’re out in the elements.
That’s no accident. We make memories outdoors because our senses are awakened and we feel more alive. We’re more connected to the people we’re out there with. Every day spent outdoors is memorable largely because it’s not the everyday: One day is less likely to bleed into the next, especially if we’re on the move. We make memories because we might be doing something we’ve either never done before or didn’t know we could do. We break out of the daily malaise – the ruts – when we spend time under open skies.
“Now, it’s not lost on me that stories, memories, and fun make for a rather squishy currency by which to measure our experiences. Frankly, I might say memories aren’t specifically what many of us set out as the goal when we plan our vacations. The thing is, though, they matter. Along with rest and relaxation, making memories are an (perhaps the?) unspoken, underlying reason we take cruises with our families, save up to go to Hawaii, or spend a week with Mickey Mouse. We take photos and capture videos to bring home, often of traditional settings that patch together the quilt of the American experience. Even a trip to a natural wonderland like Yellowstone isn’t complete if we don’t sit on the bleachers ringing Old Faithful, waiting to snap pictures of its reliable spout.
“And yet, other than the fact most of us don’t have geysers in our backyards, one could argue there’s not that much of a story in watching a regular, predictable geyser any more than there’s a story in a waterslide or a photo op with Goofy. Deep down, I think many of us actually welcome some unpredictability in these adventures so we can laugh, pull together, or rise to a challenge, just as my groups experienced in the Boundary Waters or on that pre-frosh trek through Vermont. That’s where we find the greatest stories.”
[1] Which, when you think about it, makes the whole “birds and the bees” reference somewhat more incongruous.
Erik Lien 