Category: Editorial

I ran across a tweet (are they still tweets?) on X/Twitter that was titled: how to ruin yourself. It had these items, which seem to be coming from a young person. Either a student or in their first job.

1. Stay on your phone all day.
2. Feel sad for no clear reason.
3. Stop eating well and ignore your studies.
4. Sleep super late and wake up in the afternoon.
5. Let sadness take over everything.
6. Always look at others’ lives and feel yours isn’t enough.
7. Keep blaming yourself for the past but never try to let it go.
8. Compare your progress with people who started years before you.
9. Get stuck imagining outcomes instead of creating them.
10. Keep waiting for motivation instead of building discipline.

What was interesting to me is I saw people doing similar things when I was younger. Either adults with careers or fellow students. I’d change “sad” to “anger”, which I saw a lot in the 80s. Replace the phone with TV, as I saw lots of people start to invest a lot of time in TV with the growth of cable and 24-hour channels in the early 80s. Eating well was less of a thing, but drinking more was a thing. However, many people stagnated, or maybe ruined, themselves in similar ways.

What things motivate you? What gets you to become better at, well, anything you want. From your career to a new career to a better parent or coach or friend? What gets you away from short-term enjoyment (or wallowing) into action?

I write about working on your career on a regular basis, but I’ll summarize my advice for making a better you:

1. Be curious about the world
2. Dream of something better
3. Make a plan to realize a dream
4. Give up some leisure time
5. Make adult decisions
6. Be Kind to Yourself

I’ll try to expand on each of these on my blog over time. The list are things I try to do to make changes in my life. Whether at Redgate, while coaching, or even improving a hobby skill. I have to invest a bit of myself to get something back.

Though the journey is by far the most satisfying part.

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.

Most of you reading this are likely technology professionals of some sort. You might be a software developer in C# or a DBA or a manager of those teams. Maybe you’re an analyst working with data and reporting. You have made this a career choice and (hopefully) are growing and learning more about your craft.

I also expect that you want to continue working in the area you are now, or maybe want to move into a related area. Maybe a report writer wants to move into more warehousing/lake housing. Maybe a DBA wants to be a Reliability Engineer. You have a career and you’re working in that area.

However, I’m sure early in your life, you had other jobs. You might have even continued working in some of those areas as you started earning money from technology. Some of you left those jobs behind, but in my first paid job as a network admin, I kept bartending on the weekend to make extra money.

Today I’m wondering what side jobs have you had at work that weren’t related to databases.

These could be paid or unpaid. They could be volunteer , 1099, W-2, anything. Maybe you have an interest, maybe you want to help others, maybe you have a skill that you enjoy as a hobby.

For me, I’ve been a Scout leader (Boy, Cub, and Girl), a bartender, a fundraising speaker, and been on the board of a few organizations. Today, I’m a coach part-time at night and on weekends for a competitive volleyball team. These are fun ways for me to spend my time away from work, and I love having the break from technology.

Let me know today what side jobs you have, or have had, that let you get away from your data professional work.

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.