This month’s TSQL Tuesday comes from Shane O’Neil and he’s asking us to ‘dip into the cookie jar’ (or raid the biscuit tin, for us Brits ), essentially how we use past accomplishments to help us through difficult or challenging times.

I’ve been trying to think about this and while like everyone I’ve had challenging times, both personal and technical, I’m having trouble thinking of a time when I’ve used a past achievement of my own to help me through.

For me I find that it’s the reward that awaits me when I’m done that pushes me on. Perhaps I prefer a carrot to a biscuit (now, that’s not true at all)?

When I’m surrounded by SQL Servers that are engulfed in a wildfire and the pressure is on to get systems back online. Yes, there can be that panic, that feeling of how am I going to sort this mess out but there’s also a buzz, an excitement. It’s that buzz that I love about being a DBA, that stubborn little thing in the back of my mind that says, ‘this is a machine, you can beat it’ that keeps me going. It almost becomes a game, a puzzle and a challenge, man against the machine.

So for me it’s less of a case of looking back for inspiration and more about feeding off the adrenaline and the buzz of the now.