Worthy Causes
The causes we are vocal about help when others want to join in too.
A lot of the time our lives represent making difficult decisions or facing unexpected scenarios. When it has relevance to other people, we have a choice to sit quietly or act on it as a positive contributor.
Let me start with a story that has affected my life.
I started karate in 1979. I have trained for most of that time, I run a small club and go to regular courses around the country. Well, I did before the Pandemic.
Whilst I enjoy a foodie lifestyle, I have a varied diet with lots of fruit and vegetables.
When you reach a certain age, the GP calls you in for a general health check. I thought I was going to sail through and expected the GP to say, ‘you are quite a healthy and relaxed person.’
I didn’t fare well on the three counts of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and was overweight. Pre-diabetic too. Felt a bit deflated by the news.
Most of the symptoms we can do something about. We can improve our lifestyles, eat better, exercise more, and cut out the naughty stuff.
I didn’t fare well on the discipline to reduce all those issue areas mentioned.
Twice a day I take tablets to help control my blood pressure, and I take one tablet to control my gout attacks.
Unfortunately, my blood pressure remains high and still get a painful foot now and again. This is with medication.
Knowing well the stresses and strains that I personally go through as a business owner, continually worrying about everyone else and everything else, I started to become more aware of the risks that high blood pressure poses. Suffering a stroke or heart attack can be fatal.
I wanted to share that awareness, especially to the younger entrepreneurs coming through.
There is a reason why high blood pressure is called the Silent Killer. It can creep up on you without knowing and then it’s too late.
Instead of sharing on a specific awareness day, I wanted to do something more personal and also involved taking action.
Along with a video recorded walking along the peaceful beach near home, I made the offer of giving away blood pressure monitors to other business owners, so they can use it themselves and also make available to their team.
Whilst it was well received as a concept, there was not as much buy-in as I had hoped for. I’m not disheartened, I believe in what I am doing, I just need to tap into the right people and not just expect social media to save me.
It does help when you reach out to others for support. Good people such as Paul Tansey have shared his own story. That makes it relatable and makes me extremely grateful.
It makes me realise that when it comes to causes that affect us, we can either talk about it, or we can act. I believe in making a stand where we can help make a positive contribution. For instance, a goal for me isn’t social shares or an article in the paper, it’s when someone else acts and makes an adjustment, for the better, in their life. That’s why we keep going.
We will make progress and I already have platforms to share to a wider audience next month. The issues related to high blood pressure and how it affects us all is a worthy cause I believe in.
If we have a presence and you do it with sincerity you can bring people along with you and when the time is right and has relevance to you and others, we can all be aware.
