Keeping the Trolls Out

AI Image from Adobe Stock

by Skip Cohen

If you're joining me for the first time today, Sunday Morning Reflections is rarely about business and marketing. It's my time to simply share whatever's on my mind. As I've learned over the years, none of us are alone in what we're feeling when it comes to so many of life's challenges.

Whether on Sunday mornings or any other day, just because I don't write about the insanity in this country doesn't mean I don't care about what's going on. I just hate the idea of adding to all the noise in your life. From social media to family, friends, the news, and television, we're all bombarded with WTF moments every day.

Sheila and I work hard to keep the trolls out of our lives. I'm using 'trolls' in the broadest sense, essentially anyone sharing news that's simply idiotic! While sometimes it's unavoidable, Sheila suggested I share the things that work best for us:

• There's music going on all day long. We start with "Spa Radio" or a facsimile each morning. In the afternoon, we switch over to something more contemporary, and there's no way to know what we might be in the mood for. From classical to country to artists like Pink, Phillip Phillips, One Republic, or a classic band from the past, music is going all afternoon. And on Sundays, until noon or so, it's gospel or a facsimile, because that's what Sheila grew up with. The point is that it's always something uplifting.
• We have a set routine every day....we get up around 7:00, and the first activity is getting the dogs out. They then get brushed with a little lovin' time. Sheila goes to her computer, and I go to mine.
• Breakfast has become a daily tradition that is rarely missed. It's always around 9:00 am, and then it's a little more puppy time with Belle on Sheila's lap and Lucy on mine. The conversation is usually about something we've read that's newsworthy.
• Just after breakfast and before puppy time, we each read something motivational out loud. We each pick a new author at the start of each year.
• After breakfast, it's back to our computers...until we sneak in a short nap for the four of us around 11:30. I recognize that as old farts with a pretty open schedule, we can do that...but if you're a whole lot younger, think about it as a solid break to just chill. The quote below says it all - everyone needs time regularly to just do nothing!

Taking time to do nothing often brings everything into perspective.
Doe Zantamata

• We try to exercise for 20-30 minutes every day. During the winter, we'll take the pups for a walk, and when it's warm, we swim. Obviously, living in Florida, we can swim often, but the point is the importance of exercise.
• Dinner is anything, although we enjoy time at home just relaxing.
• We record the news and watch it, fast-forwarding through stories we know have no meaningful updates since the topic first aired. But having recorded the news gives us the ability to skip the commercials.
• We'll watch television in the evening with our favorite shows, movies, etc. With the day ending at 8:00 with a little puppy time, then they're off to bed. We usually wrap up the day around 10:00 PM.

Throughout the day, we've learned to ignore all the trolls out there and we do our best to laugh a lot! We've stopped answering telemarketing calls and text messages from trolls who think they have a right to our time. In fact, I've stopped reading or answering posts on Facebook that can't be substantiated. Every now and then, there's one that sucks me in, but a little research and I'll learn it was all AI-produced and fake. At that point, I usually unfriend the bonehead who posted it.

Essentially, we've learned to raise the drawbridge and keep the trolls out. Life is simply too short, and just this morning Sheila said, "I miss the world we grew up with!" We're not putting our heads in the sand and ignoring what's happening in the world, just not giving up energy to deal with all the BS. 

And just for the record, even though I don't post directly about this stuff: It's still the Gulf of Mexico, Canada has never been our enemy, gas is NOT under $2.00/gallon, costs for just about everything are up, the Rose Garden should never have been paved over, the money being spent to build a ballroom is absurd when kids don't have healthcare or lunches; the members of the cabinet are not smarter than a fifth grader and Congress, while individually there are some remarkable people, as a group they couldn't manage a pretzel stand in a ballpark.

Trust me when I write, that's just the tip of the iceberg - there are times EVERY day when the pride I've had my entire life at being an American is replaced by the embarrassment of everything that comes out of the president's mouth!

So, the way we cope is a routine of positivity, supported by each of us, including two pups and a very small circle of friends. We go for those eleven-second hugs I've always written about and spend a lot of time being grateful for the life we have, even with the trolls that keep trying to take it away.

Make it a great day filled with memories you can document and appreciate later on. Spend time with the people you love the most and do your best to never take them for granted!

Happy Sunday...or Monday on the other side of the world.