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Andrew Huberman
Jun 16, 2025
45 protocols
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How to Grow From Doing Hard Things | Michael Easter
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Behaviors
Rucking
“So I read the book and started doing hard things on a regular basis, mostly rucking.”
3:48 ·
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In this episode
45 protocols
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3:48
Rucking
Behaviors
“So I read the book and started doing hard things on a regular basis, mostly rucking.”
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11:40
Exercise Regularly
Behaviors
“I would prefer to have my problem be that, oh, I have to go exercise or something to take care of my physical activity than the fact that like, oh, I have to go hunt and gather every single day like to get my food.”
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12:05
Morning Sunlight Exposure
Behaviors
“I've tried to persuade, as everyone knows, people to get outside in the morning and get sunlight in their eyes for all sorts of reasons.”
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12:06
Red Light Panel
Tools
“But, you know, the whole business with red light, long wavelength light, infrared light, you can use one of those panels. It can be quite useful.”
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14:43
Outdoor Running
Behaviors
“But when we do that, what are we missing? So when a person runs outdoors, on the other hand, let's say it's on a trail, well, now you have all these other forms of discomfort and stimulation that are coming your way.”
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45:31
Cold Plunge
Tools
“you wake up, you can scroll on your phone, or you can hop in the cold plunge, take a cold shower.”
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45:31
Deliberate Cold Exposure
Behaviors
“you wake up, you can scroll on your phone, or you can hop in the cold plunge, take a cold shower. These days, there's a lot of discussion around doing the cold shower has numerous benefits. Wakes you up, dopamine, norepinephrine, but also it kind of sucks.”
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48:16
Headphones
Tools
“I could pop in my headphones and I could go for a walk and I could take that call while walking.”
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48:52
Grocery Basket
Tools
“You get the basket, you're carrying stuff.”
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49:14
Increase Non-Exercise Activity
Behaviors
“if you look at just, um, non-exercise activity thermogen, it's neat. This is basically a dorky way of saying all the movement in a person's life that isn't dedicated exercise that often outweighs the benefits of exercise in many studies.”
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49:55
Seek Silence
Behaviors
“So in the comfort crisis, I write about the value of silence, for example. We have increased the world's loudness fourfold as human beings. And yet silence is actually pretty good for us in this context of noise.”
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54:16
Read Difficult Physical Books Without Your Phone Nearby
Behaviors
“having the phone out of the room, read something difficult, like a hard book.”
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57:00
Embrace Boredom
Behaviors
“But I think that sort of sitting with boredom and leveraging it to see where else it might take you beyond a screen can be really valuable.”
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57:45
Reduce Phone Use
Behaviors
“there's so much media around cell phones and like, you got to use your cell phone less. Here's a million different ways to use your cell phone less. Yes, that's important. Yes, we should all do it.”
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1:03:00
Write in the Rain Notebook
Tools
“I use a very particular notebook. So write in the rain because I'm in outdoor environments, whatever.”
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1:03:21
Voice Notes App
Tools
“So I took voice notes actually on my phone. And I found that to be really useful too, a tool that people can use.”
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1:08:30
Do a Yearly Misogi
Behaviors
“And the idea is that once a year, you're going to go out and you're going to do something really, really hard.”
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1:16:49
ClearSpace
Tools
“So one of my favorite apps, it's called Clear Space. So what ClearSpace does is that when you go to select the apps that you want to sort of quote unquote block... it gives you a nice quote... there's like a 10 second pause.”
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1:17:31
Use Social Media Intentionally
Behaviors
“And I found it to be really useful because it gets me intentional, right? A lot of times people just pull out their phone, they immediately hit, oh, Instagram, and then you find yourself in it.”
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1:46:21
Try New Foods That Scare You
Diet
“And she goes, my misogi was trying sushi... I forced myself to do it. She's like, I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it.”
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1:47:17
Make Mornings Hard and Evenings Relaxing
Behaviors
“Do you think it's possible to structure one's day around making the morning and day really tough?... And then making your evenings and nights really relaxing.”
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1:47:58
Coffee
Diet
“So wake up at 3.30, get a cup of coffee. Immediately I go to my desk and I just, I write.”
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1:47:58
Do Focused Work First Thing in the Morning
Behaviors
“So wake up at 3.30, get a cup of coffee. Immediately I go to my desk and I just, I write.”
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1:51:31
Exercise Before Dinner
Behaviors
“And then I will usually, uh, I'll usually exercise before I eat dinner, usually around four.”
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1:52:05
Manage Caffeine Deliberately
Behaviors
“years ago, um, I did a sort of caffeine audit and my caffeine was out of control.”
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1:54:08
Yerba Mate
Diet
“I like caffeine, but mostly in the form of yerba mate, either this or just brewed leaves. And it's a very different caffeine high. It rises more slowly. It kind of arcs down.”
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1:54:38
Align Your Schedule to Your Circadian Rhythm
Behaviors
“I definitely agree that once we figure out our optimal circadian schedule, which for you sounds like you're a true, probably genetically from what we understand, early bird.”
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1:58:12
Alpha-GPC
Supplements
“there's a place for the occasional use of things like alpha GPC or caffeine, certainly.”
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1:58:18
Nicotine
Supplements
“Some people nowadays are using non-smoke, non-vaped nicotine... But I think if you're going to explore chemistry for changing your brain state... you want to be really careful about what you do with that enhanced brain state.”
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2:00:12
Backpacking Stove
Tools
“I often don't bring a stove when I do outdoor, uh, adventure stuff simply because one, it's more weight to carry.”
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2:01:09
Choose Trail Foods That Are Easy on Your Stomach
Diet
“one, it's gotta be good on my stomach. That's rule number one, because if you eat something that's going to upset your stomach and you got to hike 25 miles, you're going to have a really, really bad day.”
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2:01:29
Choose Calorie-Dense Trail Foods
Diet
“two it obviously has to be calorie dense because if you take let's say to give a kind of extreme example two pounds in peanut butter that has way more calories than two pounds in apples”
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2:01:55
Choose Trail Foods That Taste Good
Diet
“number three is that it has to taste good because if you don't like how it tastes you're probably not going to eat it.”
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2:02:04
Check Protein Intake on Long Trips
Diet
“And then four, I kind of look at like nutritional composition. I'll go, okay, am I getting enough protein?”
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2:02:25
Met-Rx Big 100 Bar
Diet
“One big win that I found are these bars from, and I have no affiliation with these guys. I think it's made by MetRX, and it's called the Big 100 Bar... it's got like 400-something calories in it. It's got 30 grams of protein”
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2:03:33
Eat More Foods That Are Ingredients Rather Than Have Ingredients
Diet
“Generally, like my – people will ask me about nutrition advice and mine is basically just like try and eat more foods that are ingredients rather than have ingredients.”
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2:06:20
Camping
Behaviors
“when getting out into nature and camping for a couple of nights, really getting away from cell phone contact and getting more oriented to the sunrise and sunset as the cues for circadian rhythm has a long lasting effect on circadian rhythms”
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2:07:05
Backpacking
Behaviors
“But I think most people can think, okay, I could probably get away for two, three nights and camp. Or talk to someone who knows how to backpack and get a proper kit together and go backpacking.”
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2:08:24
Car Camping
Behaviors
“And hell, you can even car camp. Like you don't have to like walk 20 miles out into the middle of nowhere. You can car camp.”
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2:08:34
Spend Three Days in Nature
Behaviors
“And he's basically found that after three days in nature, like some really beneficial things happen to people and people come back reporting that they just feel so much calmer, more collected, they're just like more reset, more aligned in their life.”
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2:28:50
Weighted Backpack
Tools
“Easy to throw some weight in the backpack and go for a walk.”
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2:58:15
Old Phone for Social Media
Tools
“I put social media, so Instagram and X, on an old phone.”
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3:00:30
Stop Drinking Alcohol
Behaviors
“I can't tell you the number of people who have reached out and said, I watched this Huberman episode and I decided to stop drinking and my life is way better.”
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3:01:30
Suitcase Carry
Behaviors
“I have a 72 pound kettlebell set in my living room. And when I wake up in the morning, I pick it up and I suitcase, carry it back and forth once with one arm. And I suitcase, carry it back and forth with the other arm”
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3:01:30
72-Pound Kettlebell
Tools
“I have a 72 pound kettlebell set in my living room.”