When I opened up the weather forecast earlier this week, this is what was waiting for me.
Of course, I knew Texas in July and August was hot. But this?
To a cold-blooded Canadian like me, this reads as more of a cruel joke than a weather forecast.
And yet, it appears that for the next few weeks I’ll be in Texas, this is the unavoidable reality.
On past trips to visit my partner Kelly’s family in Texas, I’ve simply avoided going outside altogether, hiding inside with the blinds drawn and the AC cranked.
The result of this approach is perhaps best told by my step counter app, which tends to contain conspicuous extended streaks of three-digit step totals during my time in the state.
And yet, while this approach helped me succeed at staying comfortable, it wasn’t without its downsides.
My daily walks are where and when I come up with the bulk of my ideas and work through the problems and challenges I’m facing in my business.
Without those daily walks, my creative mind begins to reflect the parched landscape outside.
In addition to a dearth of new ideas, these periods often coincide with my least productive work periods of work, even on tasks and projects that aren’t inherently “creative”.
Aware of the impact this has on my work and life, this time, I’ve decided to take a new approach.
While I’ve pushed my walks to the fringes of the day when the heat is least oppressive, I’ve otherwise accepted the sticky, sweaty discomfort that accompanies them regardless and ventured outside.
The change started with a realization: That I could wallow in the circumstances I found myself in. Or I could accept them and do what I could to work with and around them.
In the case of the current Texas heat wave, I’m fortunate.
I’ll be in Texas for just a few weeks and will then be off elsewhere, hopefully to cooler temperatures.
But as is becoming painfully clear, the heat—everywhere—is only rising and spreading. Which means sooner or later, all of us will need to find a way to live with it.
The same is true for the environments in which we do our creative work.
Whether it’s AI threatening to make us obsolete, Google or Instagram’s latest algorithm update, or old reliable tactics that no longer seem to work, the climate is constantly shifting around us.
And as it does, we face a choice.
We can bury our heads in the sand, holding onto hope that things will go back to the way they were.
Or we can adapt to the new conditions and make the most of them.
In many cases, this will probably mean letting go of the norms, expectations, and habits we’ve established around how we do things.
In many cases, the new normal will almost certainly be objectively worse than the old normal.
And yet, what choice do we have?
The summers of our youths won’t return simply because we preferred them.
Neither will the conditions that allowed our creative work and businesses to take root and grow.
And while we may have little control over the climate in which we find ourselves, we’re not at the mercy of it.
Not entirely at least.
We have at least one choice available to us:
Wallow and wither?
Or adapt & persevere?
Explore how to navigate a creative life that matters
This article originally appeared in my weekly Creative Wayfinding Newsletter. Each issue is the product of a week of work, and contains something not available for sale.
A fresh perspective, a shot of encouragement when you need it most, and maybe even some genuine wisdom from time to time.
Each week, we explore a different facet of the question “How do we navigate the wilds of creating work that matters?”
It’s something I’m proud to create and I’d be honoured to share it with you.
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