Tag: coping

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.

Today’s tip is to choose a different route and see what you notice on the way.

The pandemic has kept most of us at home. We drive less, go less places, do less. For me, while I still go a few places, I do less for sure.

When I saw this item pop up, I had to think about how I’d choose a new route. Walking from my house only gives me one route for a mile to get to the end of my street and out to a place where I can then go in a few directions. Driving around, it often doesn’t make sense to go a different way, but I thought this might be a good way to change my day.

I’m lucky in that my gym has been open since May, and while there are restrictions and limitations, I can go. My week usually has 3-4 trips, twice for yoga and 1-2 trips for weights. I’ve avoided most classes, though I may go back to a swim a week as well.

The route there is pretty simple, and while the facility is about 10mi away, I can take a separate route, wind through some neighborhoods slightly out of my way, and keep this to about 14mi.

I did that recently. I took the long way, which winds alongside E-470 in S Denver, but also has a small bridge over the highway. That leads to the back of the neighborhood where I used to live. I drove through, looking at houses where friends used to live, or I used to bike/walk/horseback ride through. It was a nice trip on which to reminisce.

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.

Today’s tip is to be overcome frustration by trying out a new approach.

I tend to go with the flow, and I don’t have a lot of frustrations with how my life goes, but I do have some. I’m annoyed that my gym limits class sizes and quite a few people seem to reserve spots and then not show up. However, I’m also grateful I can just go.

I’m annoyed that despite months of fairly safe competition and practice in volleyball, with little evidence of transmission from games, that counties have blanketly closed all competitions. I get it, and I know this disease isn’t something to take lightly, but I also know we need to balance that with continuing to live.

Our club cancelled full practices, limiting us to 5 athletes and two coaches for skills, no competition. That makes coaching hard, and this is a challenge with keeping a team together. After talking with my assistant, rather getting upset, we decided to donate an extra day of time and split out practices to conform to the limits and work on keeping kids in the gym twice a week, along with a rotation so that different teammates get a chance to see each other.

A minor part of my life, but still frustrating. Taking a positive approach and changing up how I work through this has helped cope with the frustration.

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.

Today’s tip is to be curious. Learn about a new topic or an inspiring idea.

I try to learn often. Awhile ago, my daughter had some exposure to welding and wanted to take a class. We looked around and found one at a local shop. We booked it, and a few days ago, we went and spent a few hours welding.

A neat experience, I learned a lot, and I think we’ll invest in one soon. I also learned I’m not very good at this and need a lot of practice.

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.

Today’s tip is to change your speech. When you feel like you can’t do something, add the word “yet”.

A number of things I used to do are out of reach for now. In talking with some friends from down under last week at the PASS Virtual Summit, I joked about coming down if they could get me into the country. Australia and New Zealand are locked up against Americans, and for good reason. We don’t seem to be able to control this virus.

I was sad, but I should have added a “yet” to the end.

I did manage to remember this with my wife. Colorado has restricted gatherings and I had to inform my team that we can’t practice together for now. My wife lamented us competing in upcoming tournaments, saying that we can’t really play. I reminded her this is a “yet.” We’ll find a way to do this again.