It’s a decent red ale, some warm caramel and honey notes with a piney hop finish. 3.25/5 stars.
Brrr. We had an actual “cold” week here in the Willamette Valley. I use the word loosely, though we did have several days of hard frost (temps below 30 degrees F for several hours). It’s not something that happens every winter, and it typically takes an adjustment of perception to remember how the temperatures compare to those where I grew up. For example, my parents reported a low of -20F recently, plus windchill. I don’t know if Portlanders have ever experienced temperatures below zero.
I wrote in my last post about shifts in perspective, but I think there’s more to explore today. It will never cease to amaze me how quickly and relatively easily the human brain can adapt to changes and develop new baselines. Not that those baselines are always healthy (just ask my wife, the psychologist), but yet we adapt. I think temperature is an interesting one to examine. When I lived in Minnesota, I would rejoice on the first sunny, upper-40-degree day. I would run outside in shorts and a T-shirt and bask in the warmth. Once the temperature exceeded 80 degrees, I would sweat and curse the sun. When I moved to Oklahoma, I thought it was miserable to be outside in the winter (where it only occasionally dropped below freezing) and wouldn’t break out the shorts until the temperature passed 60. Anything under 100 was tolerable, typically. Then I moved to Oregon. Now, after living in the temperate Northwest for nearly ten years, I’m a complete mess. I don’t like cold, and I don’t like hot. My comfort zone is now between 50 and 80 degrees. Crazy. And what’s even crazier is that I’m sure I would adapt within a year to someplace else. Brains are weird.
We adapt to changes in our environment all the time. Sometimes, unlike adapting to temperature changes, it’s to our detriment. A recent example for me was with my work just before going out on parental leave. I was already sufficiently busy with extra projects in addition to my regular workload. I had a pretty good level of work, enough that I felt productive without getting overwhelmed. In October, I volunteered to take on coverage for a coworker who had taken a new role in the company. It was only supposed to be for a couple of weeks, just until they could finish the (seemingly continuous) hiring process to fill that and one or two other vacant seats on the team. I managed, barely, to keep both areas operating for two weeks. Then four. Then it was November, and only four weeks away from my baby’s due date. I had to start tying up loose ends and get my own coverage assigned, because I knew that we wouldn’t make it all the way to 40 weeks of gestation. That meant more work, and working ahead, and extra meetings to hand off work. At that point, I was cramming almost two full-time jobs into my work week while trying to mentally prepare for an infant joining our family. At the time, I felt busy but not necessarily stressed. All that work had to get done, so I made sure it happened. I pushed through. Then, at 37 weeks after conception (3 weeks early, for those keeping score), my daughter arrived. Suddenly, it was over. The work was handed off, I was officially on leave, and I had the next 10 weeks to spend with my family.
It wasn’t until January, when I started thinking about returning to work, that it hit me how hard I had been working at the end. I finally had the mental space to reflect on what I had been doing, and how it actually felt. It didn’t feel good, I can tell you that for free. In fact, it lead to some anxiety about going back. I didn’t want to return to that amount of work, didn’t want to return to that feeling of falling behind and having too much to do. I had adapted, again, to a new baseline of feeling happy with not being busy. I also recognized that my previous busy-ness baseline was not a healthy or sustainable one. So, I made a point of changing what I was doing.
I talked to my boss and let her know that I didn’t want to come back to the same responsibilities that I left. I took up writing this blog, as a creative outlet that let me both process my thoughts and recharge from my tactically-focused job. I make a point, every day, to step away from my desk when I finish a task or a meeting and visit my family, or walk the dog, or get some exercise. I know that I’m not as engaged with my work as I was before I left, but I’m OK with that. I’ve shifted my perception, and now I focus on finding satisfaction in my day wherever it comes from. A smile from my baby. A chance to teach a coworker something. Running in circles around the living room with my toddler. A joke shared with a friend. A hug from my wife. I get significantly more satisfaction and pleasure from those interactions than I do from checking off a task in my inbox (although sometimes that is satisfying too, and they still need to be done), yet I feel more productive than when I was merely busy.
Take care of yourself, friends. We all need to adapt constantly. But make sure that your new baseline is something that you want, and can maintain. Sometimes, it gets cold out there. Brrr.
A Beer a Day 