Tag: life

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 take a break and do something for yourself.

I’m actually taking a break tomorrow. After the world’s longest volleyball season, we said goodbye to kids in Orlando at our last tournament. It was a bit rushed, not all parents were there, and it felt a little incomplete.

Tomorrow we set up an end of year party. This is late, especially as most kids are already on a team for next year, and back to their summer lives and involved with their high school teams. However, we’re getting together, and while I’ll do some chores, I’ll take a break and spend some time just having fun, reminiscing with everyone and closing out the 10+ months I spent with these kids every week.

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 let go of small stuff and focus on something that matters.

Small stuff is just that. It’s not really important in life. I’m very blessed in that most of my life is pretty perfect. There are little things that annoy me, but they are little.

Last week I lost my wallet. I ran some errands, used a card, and the next day realized I didn’t have my wallet. I didn’t see any fraudulent charges when I turned off all my cards. I searched all over the house, but couldn’t find it anywhere. It really annoyed me, more than it should. There were a few hundred dollars in various currencies in there, and a number of credit cards, but nothing that was really that important.

After a few hours of looking, I gave up and started replacing cards and my license. I had to decide to stop being upset and just move on with life. The important things that day were spending some time with family, and this wasn’t enough of a problem to interrupt that.

All in all, it’s a minor hiccup in life, no matter how annoying at the time.

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 pick one of your strengths and use it this week.

The easy joke is that I used my pectorals and did some weightlifting. However, this week I picked a different strength. This week I used: people pleasing and support.

My wife had a dressage competition this week. We ended up driving to a show and living in a camper for a few days, during some of which I worked. A show is stressful, both for her and the horse, and they have a schedule they’re trying to stick to. It was also hot, and limited amenities around.

Instead of trying to maintain my schedule, find time to work out, etc., I decided to be completely supportive and help my wife with her schedule. I didn’t worry about my workouts, I moved my work around her competition times, and I was ready to jump in and tackle tasks she asked for or needed, subordinating what I wanted to thought I could get done.

That’s a little stressful, as I try to still work, but I let many things go, relaxed where I could, and made the show the priority.

It worked out well, and now I’m back into a normal schedule for me, hitting the gym and worrying about my own chores. She’s happy, too. She qualified for a season ending show, and felt the trip was a success.

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 pick an achievable goal for the week and make progress.

I actually did this last week. I have had a lot of things on my list of things to do this year, and sometimes I get a little paralyzed by the length of the list. There are also some larger projects that I find myself putting off because I keep thinking “I’ll take a day” or “Take a weekend” to do this.

The reality is that I never will likely get a large block of uninterrupted time, when I feel ready to tackle things.

I got up, had some breakfast, and then went outside recently. There were a few other things I could do, but I started with a chainsaw and chopping down some juniper bushes in our front yard. My wife has been asking to do this, and I keep delaying rather than getting started.

I got one out, taking a few breaks as I tried to cut down the tangled limbs and drag them to a nearby gully. My breaks were on the lawnmower, mostly because I needed to get that done as well.

The next day I went out and tackled a second one. I managed to get down to two stumps.

I took a few days off, but then spent about an hour one night working on the third one. I didn’t get it out, but I made more progress.

Baby steps were helpful to me moving forward.