High Heat & Nuance

**We will have special holiday hours Dec. 24-Jan. 1st to let our staff recharge**

It took me until last week to even consider cooking with something other than high heat on the stove. You know the dial on the stove when you turn it until you hear the clicking sound? I watch the gas ignite and leave it there (at max temperature) every damn time. It doesn’t matter if I’m boiling water, scrambling eggs, sauteing vegetables, or cooking a New York strip, I’ve had one option in my head: high heat.

I assume you aren’t as ridiculously misguided as I am in the kitchen, but I just figured that some things just need to cook longer while others not so much. The burners, however, were always turned up.

Since considering other options like low and medium heat, my cooking has opened up to new possibilities and much less frustration. Now if you’ve made it three paragraphs in from a guy who hasn’t figured out variable heat in 2018, you get a prize. Today, the prize is the carryover to the more common problem, which is our tendency to lack flexibility in how we approach any of the different scenarios in our lives.

The hard charging folks in the group, for example, do everything the way I run a stove top. We are full tilt, pedal to the medal, high heat actors with our name tags reading “TYPE A” in all caps. Sure, it can get some results, but let’s be honest it’s not the perfect approach.

If you run hot and tend to do everything with this cliche-esque “110%” intensity, I want to challenge your reasoning for doing so. If it’s because it has served you, do some reflection. I’d bet this attitude gets great results only in areas that reward “high heat” behavior like starting a business or executing last minute projects. In the same way that not all recipes call for “high heat”, you can’t tackle every situation the same. Relationships and nuanced efforts that require finesse and long-term diligence are likely suffering from your one track perspective. 

Logan Gelbrich

@functionalcoach