Tag: life

Today’s coping tip is to focus on what’s good, even if today feels tough.

Yesterday was a tough day. I got busy, distracted, had some bad news come up, family needed some care, and I struggled to get work done. On top of that, something I thought would be easy to setup and test for a customer didn’t work at all. I’d made an assumption and my process needs to be redesigned.

I felt like I wasted a day.

However, it wasn’t all bad. I took care of my wife, who had surgery recently. I got her lunch and spent a little time chatting with her. I helped my daughter get a few things done before leaving to return to school. I got the dogs outside for a walk and I found time to exercise.

There were good things, even if it was a tough day.

I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQL Server Central 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 coping tip is to be gentle with yourself when you make mistakes.

I forgot about a commitment. I had agreed to do a webinar and prepare some content. I got busy with life, almost forgot the webinar, and was scrambling to put together a couple of slides. I got something ready, but it didn’t look great, and I wasn’t happy with it.

Fortunately, I never needed the slides in the webinar.

I was upset with myself, and I spent a few minutes berating myself, as well as thinking “what could I do differently?” Should I set more reminders? Do I need a better to-do list? Should I let some personal things go to ensure I stay on task?

Ultimately I stopped that. I had planned for the webinar, it was on my calendar, and I had done some prep the week before. I got hung up this week with a few personal issues, and that is something I need to accept will happen. Things worked out, so I need to forgive this mistake.

I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQL Server Central 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 coping tip is to get outside and notice five beautiful things.

I decided to do this on a snowy, stormy day in Denver. I was up early with my daughter running a couple errands, and I took a few minutes at different times to look around. Here’s what I noticed:

1. My driveway markers stand out nicely and helped us get out of the driveway, which was covered under a blanket of snow.
2. The snow is sticking nicely on the trees, making a wonderful winter wonderland.
3. It was a bit of a blizzard, but walking between the car and a building, we were sheltered. Without wind, even in 25F weather, the air was brisk and refreshing.
4. Snow is fun. Even without sticking together to make a snowball to throw at my kid, it’s a neat form of water.
5. It was mostly cloudy, which made it hard to see, but a few times the sun started to shine through. Even mostly blocked by clouds, the bright ball made the entire landscape brighten up.

I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQL Server Central 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 coping tip is to eat healthy today with some nourishing food.

A few days before think I was getting ready for my daughter to leave for university. I enjoy cooking for everyone, but I wanted to get her something special for dinner. I decided to take this ramen recipe and then add a few new twists.

I added:

• baby corn
• broccoli
• chili garlic sauce on top

I removed:

• sugar snap peas
• avacado (no ripe ones).

It was a good, nice, healthy meal for everyone.

I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQL Server Central 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.