Meteophilia
No such thing as bad weather, just bad gear.
Next week, I’ll be hiking the Tombstones with a couple of my college buddies. To get to the foot of the mountains, we’ll have to drive along the only road in Canada that crosses the Arctic Circle. We also need to be prepared for a lot of contingencies. As of today, the forecast is characteristically unsettled:
Saturday - Rain
Sunday - Sunny with clouds
Monday - Snow
Tuesday - Rain
Wednesday - Sun / Clouds / Rain / Snow
My addiction to reliability means that I have almost as much fun preparing for an adventure as I do adventuring. We’ll go through a series of checklists and arrange our loadouts on the ground to make sure we’re not missing anything (and to take a cool photo). Besides bear spray, shelters and other Maslowian items, there’s one thing that we are all bringing that’s harder to notice: meteophilia – a love of weather.
From a young age, the neutrality of weather was drilled into me. My brother and I were set loose in the yard no matter what the conditions (thunder and lightning included!) and always had a good time. We grew up on the west coast of North America, bouncing around from Vancouver Island to Washington State to the Yukon, across all sorts of climates. Vacations were outside and wild. Sadly, that meant no trips to Disneyland. We went camping, canoeing, fishing, hunting, hiking, sledding, berry picking, or my dad’s favorite: collecting firewood with free labor.
Had we grown up in Norway, we might have already had a name for this style of living. Friluftsliv means “free-air life” and constitutes a kind of philosophy among Norwegians. Life is best spent outside, no matter what time of year. It’s no wonder that the country is famous for excellent outdoor gear. Without appropriate clothing and tools, appreciating the weather in a place like Svalbard – a large rock in the middle of the Arctic ocean – isn’t conducive to a long life. When life gives you frostbite, make Helly Hansen.
Meteophilia is a particularly portable aspect of this philosophy. Even if outdoor living is touted as an unassailable ideal, it’s not for everyone. But everyone does have to deal with changing climates, both literal and metaphorical. Just as masochistic backcountry hikers have to deal with rainstorms and heatwaves, businesses must deal with their own types of headwinds.
The reason I prefer to go on adventures with fellow meteophiles is because they separate difficult situations from bad attitudes. Being a grincheux won’t help solve any practical problems, so you might as well keep your head up during the process. My octogenarian running coach says there are only two things you can do when running into a headwind.
“Shorten your stride and don’t feel sorry for yourself.”
Same goes for difficult work climates. Retreating and feeling sorry for yourself pretty much renders you a useless teammate. You can grow an appreciation for the weather, whatever the weather, and you should. That means taking a step back to consider what crucial pieces of gear are necessary to endure the elements (regardless of your meteorologic preferences). What “gear” means to you will depend on the specifics of your work, but I have picked up a few patterns for fostering an appreciation for ever-changing work climates. These are from my past 5-7 years of work, which featured some challenging periods:
Work friends – Having a couple of people you can (temporarily) bitch and moan to is super helpful.
Time off – Real time off. Ideally without a predefined end date. Even if stuff breaks while you’re gone, you will feel refreshed enough to rebuild what matters and pick up where you left off.
Back-up projects and running to-do lists – Sometimes the best thing to do when you hit a wall is to procrastinate. And the best way to procrastinate is to work on something else for a while.
Walks – Even though I don’t see a correlation between physical fitness and performance in the workplace (other than perceived charisma), there’s nothing like a good 30-90 minute walk. Basically has a coin-flip chance of temporarily fixing your mood.
Portfolio views – Taking a step back to do a “loadout” of all the things you’re working on and how they fit together gives you a chance to spot opportunities to do two things at once or drop some low-priority things altogether.
Replanning – Plans are exhaust. What matters is the planning engine, which should run constantly. If you replan on a regular basis you can anticipate what gear you need and slowly build your perfect kit.
If you liked this post, check out the book I’m working on. It’ll include everything I know about solving problems without brute force. Subscribe for new chapters as they come out.
No Blundercheck next week, since I’ll be out enjoying some inclement weather and avoiding grizzly bears with the fellas.
