Voice of the DBA

I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag.

Today’s tip is to give sincere complements to people you talk to today.

This was easy for me, mostly because I try to find positives in life. Just a few days ago I was at a larger volleyball tournament, and I went to see some kids that I have coached in the past. I got the chance to talk to some of them afterwards, and I complemented them on things that they did well, reminding them to be proud of the good things.

They had plenty of negatives to say about themselves, and I don’t coach kids who are on other teams, so I only had complements.

It was good to see the parents as well, and I thanked them for continuing to support their kids in volleyball, even though they aren’t on my team.

I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag.

Today’s tip is to make a plan to change your daily routine for a day and see how you feel.

I tend to follow the same routines often, usually work, gym, cook, maybe some fix or chore. Changing up a routine is good, but it can be hard.

For me, I don’t sit still well. I usually have plenty of things to do, and I try to tackle something when I have free time. This might sound strange, but I don’t do well with taking days off. I’m either doing chores, fixing something, or coaching. Even my breaks for something like watching a football game are while I’m cooking or looking at the condensed game while playing guitar.

I wasn’t sure what to do with this tip, but last weekend we didn’t have plans. Or I didn’t. My wife had to work, but we had a weekend off from coaching, no plans, weather wasn’t great, so I decided to relax. I read in bed, watched some Netflix, played some guitar, but didn’t work on anything new.

I had a relaxed day, went to the gym later and sat on a bike for an hour, pedaling relatively slowly. Just taking it easy and doing a little work. I went to the store for groceries and had a relaxing time cooking dinner.

It was an odd, low stress, no hurry day for me. Unlike most of my life. I enjoyed the leisure, but felt the next day like I hadn’t done enough. I’d wasted time.

I accepted that, didn’t chastise myself, and moved on. Not likely to take many of those days, but I will take a few.