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Boyd Varty — The Lion Tracker's Guide to Life | The Tim Ferriss Show

Boyd Varty — The Lion Tracker's Guide to Life | Brought to you by Wealthfront automated investing (http://wealthfront.com/tim), Athletic Greens all-in-one nutritional supplement (http://athleticgreens.com/tim), and Helix Sleep premium mattresses (http://helixsleep.com/tim). Boyd Varty (@boydvarty) is the author of The Lion Tracker’s Guide to Life and Cathedral of the Wild. He has been featured in The New York Times, on NBC, and in other media and has taught his philosophy of “tracking your life” to individuals and companies around the world. Boyd grew up in South Africa on Londolozi Game Reserve, which, under his family’s stewardship, has become renowned not only as a sanctuary for animals but as a place where the human spirit could be restored. When Nelson Mandela was released after 27 years of imprisonment, he went to Londolozi to recover. Please enjoy! 00:00 Start 04:09 Genesis story and a “get on with it” attitude 06:21 Saving a wasteland 08:30 The White Knuckle Charter Company 17:22 Creating a thriving safari business + Shangaan trackers 27:28 Supreme tracker Renias Mhlongo 33:05 Most difficult animals to track 36:25 Protecting oneself in Londolozi 40:31 Boyd's changing tracking process 59:11 What is Ubuntu? 1:01:44 40 days and 40 nights, alone, up a tree 1:15:06 Birds who help humans rob bees 1:26:52 The dos and don’ts of interacting with lions in the wild 1:31:18 The conversation of death + ancient myths 1:37:29 A way out of trauma 1:40:54 What is ceremony work? 1:44:55 “An authentic life infused with meaning is a kind of activism.” 1:46:31 The Work of Byron Katie 1:55:11 Boyd’s First Medicine encounter 2:01:52 Feelings. Nothing more than feelings 2:03:33 Healed by a leopard 2:12:46 The therapeutic value of spending time with animals 2:17:45 Boyd’s Hall of Shame public speaking moment 2:24:06 An invitation to visit Londolozi This episode is brought to you by Wealthfront! Wealthfront pioneered the automated investing movement, sometimes referred to as ‘robo-advising,’ and they currently oversee $20 billion of assets for their clients. It takes about three minutes to sign up, and then Wealthfront will build you a globally diversified portfolio of ETFs based on your risk appetite and manage it for you at an incredibly low cost. Let the professionals do the work for you. Go to Wealthfront.com/Tim and open a Wealthfront account today. This episode is brought to you by Helix Sleep! Helix was selected as the #1 overall mattress of 2020 by GQ magazine, Wired, Apartment Therapy, and many others. With Helix, there’s a specific mattress to meet each and every body’s unique comfort needs. Just take their quiz—only two minutes to complete—that matches your body type and sleep preferences to the perfect mattress for you. They have a 10-year warranty, and you get to try it out for a hundred nights, risk free. They’ll even pick it up from you if you don’t love it. And now, Helix is offering up to 200 dollars off all mattress orders plus two free pillows at https://HelixSleep.com/Tim. This episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens. I get asked all the time, “If you could use only one supplement, what would it be?” My answer is usually AG1 by Athletic Greens, my all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in The 4-Hour Body in 2010 and did not get paid to do so. Right now, Athletic Greens is offering you their Vitamin D Liquid Formula free with your first subscription purchase. Visit https://AthleticGreens.com/Tim to claim this special offer today and receive the free Vitamin D Liquid Formula (and five free travel packs) with your first subscription purchase! SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/1dSzTkW LINK TO ALL SHOW TRANSCRIPTS: https://tim.blog/2018/09/20/all-transcripts-from-the-tim-ferriss-show/ About Tim Ferriss: Tim Ferriss is one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People” and an early-stage tech investor/advisor in Uber, Facebook, Twitter, Shopify, Duolingo, Alibaba, and 50+ other companies. He is also the author of five #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef, Tools of Titans and Tribe of Mentors. The Observer and other media have named him “the Oprah of audio” due to the influence of his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, which has exceeded 500 million downloads and been selected for “Best of Apple Podcasts” three years running. Connect with Tim Ferriss: Sign up for "5-Bullet Friday" (Tim's free weekly email newsletter): https://go.tim.blog/5-bullet-friday-yt/ Visit the Tim Ferriss PODCAST: https://tim.blog/podcast/ Visit the Tim Ferriss BLOG: https://tim.blog/ Follow Tim Ferriss on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/tferriss/ Follow Tim Ferriss on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/timferriss/ Like Tim Ferriss on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/TimFerriss/

Tim FerrisshostBoyd Vartyguest

Feb 16, 20222h 28mWatch on YouTube ↗

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WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Boyd Varty on Tracking, Trauma, Healing, and Wild Encounters

Varty describes growing up on Londolozi, where his parents' pioneering get-on-with-it attitude and master Shangaan trackers shaped the reserve's restoration and his own early training.
He explains tracking as presence, attunement, and responding to the next first track without needing to know the destination, a framework he later applied to personal transformation.
He recounts a home invasion and a crocodile attack in his early twenties, and how mentor Martha Beck, ceremony work, and Byron Katie's The Work helped him heal and find purpose.
Varty and Ferriss explore animal encounters (lions, a leopard in a bushfire, bees, the honeyguide bird) and how ubuntu and solitude, including 40 days alone in a tree, reveal a relational view of life.
The conversation closes with humor and practical pointers, including his silent-lion presentation mishap and invitations to visit Londolozi and support the Tracker Academy.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

You don't need to know the destination to know how to proceed.

Varty says Renias's line, "I don't know where I'm going, but I know exactly how to get there," reflects focusing on the next first track and the next moment of presence rather than the whole outcome.

Mastery means being yourself in any situation.

Varty defines mastery this way and illustrates it with Renias, who stayed on a lion track after the clients wanted to return because he had to know where it led.

Healing needed a structure of meaning for Varty.

He says he could only open to healing once he saw that working through his trauma could take him toward his purpose of helping healing come into the world.

Ubuntu means people are not people without other people.

Varty says Solly's plunge into the crocodile channel ("you're in trouble, I'm in trouble") showed a psyche formed around collective consciousness, in contrast to a Western tendency toward constant comparison.

Stand your ground and communicate presence in a lion charge.

Varty describes breathing out, anchoring, holding the lioness's gaze, and only giving space once her energy drops, saying people get killed when their nerve breaks and they run.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

And my definition of mastery is someone who can be themself in any situation.

— Boyd Varty

I realized that, like, true fear is, like true fear is kind of a rare experience in modern life. It's so different to neuroses.

— Boyd Varty

It's a really weird thing like sulking, being angry, and sulking, and moods, and all of that stuff is really for the benefit of other people.

— Boyd Varty

Ubuntu is an African philosophy that says I am because of you or people are not people without other people.

— Boyd Varty

So my healing was actually about finding the purpose to help healing come into the world.

— Boyd Varty

Londolozi's restoration and family legacyShangaan trackers and the art of trackingThe following state and first trackTrauma, healing, and ceremony workUbuntu and relational consciousness40 days alone in a treeEncounters with lions, leopards, and bees

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