The Strength of Heat

Lately, it's been really hot here in San Diego.  Abnormally hot.  And the humidity has been pretty high, so it's felt a bit warmer than it actually is.  Yesterday, we set a heat record for 88º.  And there I was, pluggin' away at a new vest in my non-air conditioned garage studio, sewing under halogen lighting...

Yeah, I know what you're thinking.  "88 degrees!?!?! What a wimp! That's nothin' compared to how hot it gets where I live!"

And you're probably right.  The difference is not in the varying degrees of temperature, but in the varying degree of people.

I moved to California a little over 15 years ago, and it was a startling culture shock.  I had never seen palm trees that I could remember, or juniper trees, or bougainvillia.  I certainly had never experienced such a subtle change in the seasons--I was from the midwest and had just finished graduate school in Minnesota!  When it was winter, you knew it!  When it was summer, you carried shotguns to ward off the mosquitos!

But living in southern California all these years has somehow changed me.  I am not the same person that I used to be when it comes to my body's reaction to climate change.  Cold seems colder.  Hot seems hotter.  And that's because I simply don't experience the radical changes in temperature that most of the other country experiences.  Consistency can be a blessing, but it can also be a curse.

And that's the point.  Let me say it again:  Consistency can be a blessing, but it can also be a curse.

Right now, in my development of Relished Artistry, I am experiencing the equivalency to a lot of "heat".  I'm not in my comfort zone, and I'm certainly not living a life that compares to anything that I have lived before.  Being an entrepreneur in the world today is not what being an entrepreneur was like many years ago (make that even 5 years ago when it comes to the internet)...  I realized that a lot of the books that I was reading were inapplicable to the economy as it exists today.  That was clear.  The references that worked in the past weren't going to work for today.  But doing something about that is what's really the challenge:  what exactly does one do?

One gets used to the heat, I guess.  One starts to become comfortable with inconsistency.  One doesn't let is stand in one's way.

So.  Screw the heat.  Back to the studio.  I've got work to do.  : )

Live life with Relish!