A bit over a week ago, the volleyball team my wife and I coach won their first tournament of 2024. We’ve had an up and down year, and been close to one win, but the kids hadn’t been able to put together enough good things to win until then.

Today we’re finishing the annual three day local President’s Day tournament. As I write this on Friday, I have no idea how we’ll do. We have a couple kids recovering from illness, and one from injury, so fingers crossed things go well.

Actually, things will be great. I’m not overly concerned about wins or losses here, and however things go, kids will learn some lessons, either from success or failure.

And that’s life.

A lot of the skills I’ve learned at work in communicating, teaching, getting along with others, they come into play here. At the same time, the coaching skills I’ve learned, are applicable to work situations.

The key thing is this isn’t work (not really). It’s a break away from technology. I take stats on paper, I’m in a room with a lot of others, and we’re laughing, crying, having fun, struggling, but in a very different way from the time at my desk.

Hopefully you have some nice breaks away from work as well.