The temperature is 103 degrees. Yet, we’ve had a mild summer and this is just the fourth or fifth day of triple digits so far.
I use the heat as an excuse.
“I can’t think when it’s this hot.” “My flowers and yard need my attention, not work.” “Didn’t Julie say that her swimming pool was open for business?”
This winter, when it was cold, I had new dialogue – but same type of excuses.
Do you worry that you’re a procrastinator? Or even worse, lazy? I do. I’ve got tons of energy most the time, yet when the weather is extreme one way or another – my inner-hamster takes a nap. It just stops, right in the middle of spinning the treadmill, and lays down. A sure sign I doomed to be a slug.
However, the hamster is back!
In this extreme heat, I realized it wasn’t laziness that prevented me from achievement. It is the pressing voice of my mother saying “go outside and get some fresh air.” I’ve been conditioned, just like my dog snaps to attention when I use the can opener. I am programmed to be outside when my mother wanted the house to herself. Probably to let her own inner-hamster nap.
The solution is a good ol’ romp with the pup in the park. Just two blocks away, we walk on the shady side of the street and arrive at the children’s pool and watch screaming toddlers jump in the water. They splash us and make us feel like being silly. If there was a Slip-and-Slide, we’d get a running start from the end of the block and skid down it with both (or all four) feet in the air! Someone has graciously placed a bowl at the base of the drinking fountain so Bowser can gulp as much as she wants, while I just stick my face right in the middle of the water stream.
Slurp!
Silly and revived, we return home. I pick up my work where I left off and my inner-hamster gets back on the treadmill. Mom – you’d be proud of me!
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