The New Book From Joe Burton
GET THE GYST™
12 Practices to Calm Your Body, Focus Your Mind, and Stop Drifting Through Life
You can look successful on the outside while you're breaking on the inside.
This book is how you get steady again.
Paperback, hardcover, and ebook. Audiobook narrated by Joe, coming November 2026.
Foreword by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, author of When Skateboards Will Be Free
What is The GYST?
Watch the 2-minute overview.
Welcome to The Drift
High-functioning but exhausted. Successful but restless. Connected but lonely.
Modern life isn't broken by accident. It's engineered to pull you into The Drift, a constant current of distraction, stress, and disconnection. Most people never see it happening. Almost everyone recognizes it once they do.
The Drift compounds chaos. The GYST compounds stability.
Four pillars. One steady life.
Say it like "gist." GET THE GYST™ is a practical framework for staying steady. Each letter is a pillar. Align the four, and life gets more stable, focused, and resilient, even when the world isn't.
Ground
Stabilize your nervous system, so your body supports your ambition.
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Your Mind
Manage your thoughts and emotions, so they don’t manage you.
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Systems
Design your environment, so discipline becomes unnecessary.
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Tribe
Build relationships and community, so you grow with resilience and belonging.
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What's inside
• 12 practices across four pillars, each simple enough to start today
• The science behind why they work, in plain English
• Joe's own story, from childhood poverty to leading global companies
• "Lock It In" steps that turn each practice into a habit
This book is for you if you're:
• High-functioning but running on empty
• Always on, and tired of it
• Doing everything right on paper but still feeling off course
Meet Joe
Joe Burton is the former president of Headspace, founder of Whil, and current CEO of NovaOne. He's also the author of Creating Mindful Leaders (Wiley).
After losing family members to addiction and mental health challenges, he spent more than two decades asking one question: why do capable, caring people drift away from the lives they want? GET THE GYST is his answer.
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Bring GET THE GYST™ to your team
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The GET THE GYST™ Workshop turns the book into a hands-on session. Your people learn the 12 GYST Practices, try them in the room, and leave with a workbook and an action plan.
Let's Connect
GET THE GYST™ launches November 2026.
Join the list and we'll tell you the day it's out - and share access to exclusive subscriber content.