At the first of this year, things were going well. Just before the pandemic was in full swing, the company I worked for merged with another company. This added a lot of extra things and stress to the current situation and I found that it was a welcome blessing to work from home all the time. This post is about what I learned and one of the things that I will be working on during this time to keep myself in a better place.
What I realized at the onset of the pandemic
I thought that it would be the best thing ever to be able to work from home and never go into the office. In the beginning it was great as I loved to work from home anyway because I got more done and drivebys were not prevalent. What I realized is that the interaction with the team was really nice. To keep up with things and talk with people physically was more important than I thought. I also found out that I was perfectly OK without interaction while working and that I was more of an introvert than I thought. But now I did not get to travel to SQL Saturday’s and speak, I did not go to the User Group physically and catch up with the members. So while I loved being in my home-office and was perfectly content, I was not perfectly content. I had a side of me that wanted to interact and see the whites of peoples eyes and present in front of. In the end I wanted to be with the #SQLFamily more than I thought I would.
Health Ramifications
I don’t think I take care of myself as much as when I was in the office. I eat worse and I sit all day and find myself having sat for hours on end without drinking water or eating anything. I don’t think that I am in better health than before the pandemic. I weigh more and I have not developed good habits as I should. So I have to start thinking about long term and not short term in my health. I am grateful to have been shown this by the pandemic, I know I cannot keep doing what I have been doing and be OK. I am beginning to put together a plan to get more healthy and develop good habits around exercise, good office practices (taking breaks, getting up from the chair, standing for a bit) so that I can be more healthy and happy, less stress and a good outlet to the daily grind.
My Advice to others
Really it is about finding out who you are and what you want to be. To be of help to your colleagues you need to keep up with yourself and have something to offer. I have given all my time, effort and really everything to everyone else, and I love to do it because growing is very important in keeping your mental health. If you do not learn and grow, you stagnate which means that you start to feel like you don’t have anything to offer and if that is a pattern every day, then it will be really detrimental a month from now, because the frog doesn’t get boiled overnight, it takes a slow rise of temperature and the frog stays in the water until the heat is so much that he cannot get out of the water because of no strength and then he boils. Don’t let the temperature of your water slowly cook you to death, recognize right now that you are in that pot of water and you want to ensure that you get out on dry land to make a difference. Give a little and then give a little more, but remember to give to yourself at the same time. Mostly so that you can thrive, grow and learn the things that make you, you. Take care of yourself through this pandemic and remember that you are a great part of our #SQLFamily and we need you to be complete. Stay safe and see you out there.
Yup I echo a lot of your thoughts here. At a minimum, the one thing I’d suggest to do is to just start with the water. If you drink enough of it, that will also automatically take care of forgetting to get out of the chair occasionally. Two issues knocked off at once!