When I first moved from Detroit to Charleston a few years ago, the heat was seemingly unbearable. I arrived in mid-July, and I didn’t experience anything other than blistering heat for almost three months.

Fast forward to the next year in Charleston, and it was a different story.

The heat was the same, but suddenly, I was playing basketball outside after work when the heat index was 110 F and I didn’t think anything of it. Sure, it was still warm, but it just felt like summer.

Why is that?

Part of it has to do with conditioning. The first summer, I was thrust into the heat without any warning. But the second year, I gradually eased into it as the days slowly warmed from spring into summer.

But more than anything, I think it was my mindset that made the difference.

For the first summer, I accepted defeat. I told myself that it was unbearably hot out, and that’s how I felt.

But I didn’t accept that rationale for the second summer. I knew that heat was going to be a part of life if I was living in the South, so I committed to making the best of it.

I started to enjoy the feeling of the hot, thick air on my skin and the bright sun on my back. It made me think that I was on a tropical vacation instead of being stuck in an oven.

Rather than letting heat dictate my life, I did what I wanted and accepted that the heat would accompany me.

It’s a tough mindset to accept, and it’s one that I doubt I would have been receptive to hearing about in that first summer when I sat in hot, sweaty misery.

But once I learned how my thinking could impact my experience, I haven’t looked back.

Not that I’m back in the Detroit area, my body isn’t conditioned for the heat anymore.

So when the heat waves come, it hits me by surprise. But rather than reverting back to my own ways, I’m still able to maintain my old mindset and embrace the heat.

And it makes a world of difference.

-Brandon