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My Advocacy Journey #HAWMC

Today’s prompt is about my advocacy journey. Was it hard? Why did I decide to start?

The journey is the most excited part. End results are always great, but the journey and the story behind it, to me, is the most exciting part. My advocacy journey was something that was not planned. It sort of just fell into my lap and then I participated in one advocacy effort and that was it. I was hooked.

My journey pretty much started when I decided to start my blog. The first time that I received a comment on a post was when I knew that I could actually do something to make a difference. And that’s when the bulb went off.

I first sat down and thought about things that were important to me in the diabetes world. Back then, it was education. I was shocked that there were 20+ million Americans with diabetes and only thousands of diabetes educators. Who was educating all these people? Well, I find out, they weren’t being educated. So, back then I took part in providing an opportunity for diabetes educators to use my site to write their own guest posts because they didn’t have their own websites at the time. This allowed them to reach out to the public to let them know that this lack of education is a big issue.

It still is a really big issue!

After that, I realized that I could use the voice that I created with the site to share others’ advocacy efforts. That is when I hit a roadblock.

I started sharing too many efforts. So many that I couldn’t even keep track of them anymore. I couldn’t put any effort into anything because my time and effort was being spread so thin.

That was one area that was difficult. I didn’t want to not share ideas and advocacy efforts from other people. But, I knew that I had to. I couldn’t help spread everyone’s idea.

A few years later, I began to have more and more conversations with Bennet Dunlap, who those in the diabetes community know is one of the best advocators out there. Through Bennet, I was able to learn more about Christel Aprigliano and her advocacy efforts and the Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition. And wow, my advocacy thoughts completely changed. I remember thinking to myself, “Dude, you’re advocacy efforts are whack compared to these two, it’s time to step up your game!”

That is exactly what I did. I stepped up my game. I started to advocate more. I also started to help others figure out how to advocate more. I started to become less shy and speak up in person and meet with people that could influence the lives of people living with diabetes.

Over the last 3-6 months, my advocacy efforts have fallen off the map again. But, what else than a month long writing challenge to help spark that advocacy fire again.

And boy, is there a lot to advocate for.

Superpower Sunday Prompt #HAWMC

Today’s prompt is, if you had a superpower, what would it be and how would you use it?

The superpower that I would choose doesn’t really have much to do with advocacy, even though I’m sure I could use it somehow. I would choose the superpower of being able to fly. I’ve always wanted to be able to glide through the sky and just look down to look at the beautiful sights below. I could easily get up and fly over the ocean, the mountains, etc.

It would also make it a lot easier to get to different advocacy efforts around the country and world as well.

I’m not really 100% sure what else I can write about having a superpower, because flying is pretty self-explanatory.

Be back with more words tomorrow.

My Favorite Social Platform #HAWMC

My favorite platform to use for diabetes is Twitter. I use Facebook also, but I get a lot more engagement on Twitter. I like Twitter because it’s search feature is so much easier to use than any other platform. So, if I want to engage with someone about a particular topic, it’s much easier to search for people that have that as an interest.

I also love Twitter Chats that are on Twitter, primarily #DSMA.

Majority of my connections over the years have started because of an engagement involved in a #DSMA chat.

In honor of Twitter, I’m going to keep this post short and sweet. I made my point and that’s it.

A Letter to Myself on My Diagnosis Day

Dear Chris,

There is a lot that I would like to tell you that I wish I would have known at the age you are at now. I’m going to just stick with diabetes though. I want you to be prepared that you are about to be diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I know that you have been losing a lot of weight, losing your appetite, and you’ve spent all day today vomiting, but it’s going to get better.

The insulin drip that the emergency room is going to put you on is going to help bring your 858 blood glucose level down. You’re body is going to feel a lot worse before it starts to feel better again, but do not get discouraged.

You are also going to receive a lot of information about the bad parts of diabetes, risk of heart disease, eye disease, kidney failure, amputations and more. Take a deep breath and take this all in with a grain of salt. I want you to know that you will learn that there are ways that you can lower these risks.

You need to know that this is going to effect your family a lot as well. You need to stay strong for your family members who feel like you are going to die early from one of these complications. 

It’s also important for you to know right away that you are not alone. You do not know many people in your area that have diabetes, but if you go online, you will find thousands of them. And, soon, they will become some of your closest friends.

Finally, the last piece of advice that I can give you, is to learn as much about the disease as possible. Don’t just go to doctor’s appointments and let them tell you what to do. Have an understanding of every drug being put into your body, every product out there, and just become an educated patient in general.

You are going to face a lot of challenges, a lot. There are going to be a lot highs, a lot of lows and not just blood sugars. Your blood sugars are going to send your body and mind through emotional roller coasters. There’s going to be days when you say “eff it, I’m done with this diseases” But, please don’t give up on it.

This disease is now a part of you, you have to live your life with it, so why not live with it with a great relationship.

Just know that every bad blood sugar is just a blip of time. It will go back down, you will be OK. Just keep your head high and move on.

And, one last piece of advice… Buy the domain name TheLifeofaDiabetic.com before someone else does!

– 2016 Chris

Inspirational Quotes for #HAWMC

Inspirational quotes, boy, do I have a lot. But there are two main quotes that I focus on every single day. I actually read these two quotes out loud to myself every single day.

The first one is very, very simple. In fact, it doesn’t get much easier than this:

1>0

That’s it. Literally, that’s the quote. One is Greater Than Zero. I began to grasp onto this concept when I heard Gary Vaynerchuk speak about this. And now, I relate it to everything in my life.

When I don’t feel like writing another post, I just say, hey 1 not so great post is still better than 0. When I’m a bit tired to send an outreach email to a local politician, I just tell myself to send at least one email because that’s better than not sending any at all.

If I can reach just one person with something that I write, then reaching 1 person is a lot better than reaching no one at all.

I can, and I’m sure you can too, relate to this quote in just about every instance of your life.

The other quote is:

Do not follow where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail – Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have always loved this quote and I feel that it has always helped me be a leader and ultimately led to me running a successful company and becoming a better advocate. At times it is best to just fall in line and follow the group for the bigger picture, however, do not be a sheep.

Be different, do something unique to your skill sets and personality and you may be able to go a lot further with your advocacy efforts.

My Writing Process is Not So Much of a Process #HAWMC

Today’s prompt for #HAWMC is to write about our writing process. Well, if you read yesterday’s post, you probably noticed a few typos and errors. So, that shows you my writing process. As I mentioned, I type the way that I write. I do edit, but when I don’t follow my normal process of writing, that’s what happens…. errors.

So, here is my process for writing.

The process that I try to follow when writing is my perfect case scenario, which rarely happens. However, I try to find some time on the weekends in the mornings to just sit down somewhere relaxing with my iPad Pro and just write 3-4 post at a time. If I already have the topics and themes in my mind for these posts then I can write 5-6 at one sitting. Unfortunately, a lot of the time, I don’t have a specific topic so it takes me a bit longer to come up with ideas to write about.

Once I have these posts written, either in a Google Doc, Notes or in the WordPress app, I will upload as a draft to WordPress and give it a title and just leave it there and walk away. I will come back later that day or the next day with the next day’s cup of coffee and begin the editing process. During this editing process, I will also search the web for useful links to other posts or articles that I can link to for more information about a specific topic. Once that is done, I will optimize meta data and social meta in order to get the most reach out of the post and make it easily shareable (Hey, I own a digital marketing agency, it’s just a habit).

After all of that, I schedule the post for whatever day I want it to run. Sometimes, like today actually, I wrote this post in the morning and came back in the afternoon to edit it, so I will just publish it as soon as I’m done.

I do not sit on a post for too long waiting to perfect it. In my mind, I will never write the perfect post. The only perfect post to me is the one that I actually publish. The ones that sit as drafts do me no good just sitting there. That’s the great part about a blog. If my opinions change or I wanted to add more, I can just write a new post, or even add to an older one.

That’s my process, curious to see what has worked for others.

What Drives Me to Write and What I Want Health Activists to Know #HAWMC

Today is November 1, which means it is a lot of things. It is my birthday, it is the start of National Diabetes Awareness Month, it is the start of the November Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge (#HAWMC) and a beginning to another great month of 2016.

I will be participating in #HAWMC this year, so welcome to anyone who is here for the first time and thank you for taking the time to read.

Today’s prompt for #HAWMC is two part: What drives you to write about your health and what do you want other Health Activists to know about your condition and activism?

What Drives Me To Write

I started this site almost 10 years ago and began writing because it was a good way for me to get things off of my chest about my diabetes. I felt very alone at the time because I didn’t know anyone else who had diabetes and I felt very “woe is me”. So, I started to write. I just started to write about anything and everything that came to my mind about the disease. For the first several months, I wasn’t sure if anyone was even reading what I was writing and I began to feel a little discouraged because now I was just lonely writing on the internet as well.

But then one day somebody commented on a post. It was a long comment, but one part of it stood out to me:

Wow, this is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you, your words have changed my mindset about this disease

That was it. That comment itself fueled me to keep writing, and keep writing more. If I could make a difference in just one person’s life with every post that I wrote, then I felt like I was accomplishing something and making a big difference by making small difference.

This is exactly what still drives me to write to this day. If I have a question about something, I know I’m not the only one. If I have an opinion about something, I know that I’m not the only one. So, I write. I write so that someone does not feel alone like I once did. I know that feeling and it sucked.

My other driving force that keeps me writing is to just provide as much information as I possibly can to let people know that yes, I have diabetes, but I’m living a pretty normal life. I’m a father, a husband, an entrepreneur, a brother, an uncle, a friend, etc. The more I can flood the interwebs with positive information about this disease, the more it can spread and the more people can learn about it.

What Do I Want Other Health Activists to Know About My Condition and Activism

The main thing that I want other health activists to know is that diabetes is not just about eating better, exercising, and living life to avoid getting amputations later in life. I want people to know that it is a very serious chronic disease that we have to live with 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. We do not get any off days. The best way that I have heard diabetes described as is…a full time job, that is 24/7 and there’s no pay.

With all that being said, I don’t want any health activists to feel bad for anyone living with diabetes. This is not a “woe is me” outcry. This is just a way for me to help explain what living with diabetes is really like. Just like I have no idea what it’s like to live with any other chronic disease, I am excited to ready #HAWMC posts to learn more about other diseases.

That leads me to what I want people to know about my activism. First, let me say that I’m most excited to learn from other health communities to hear about all of your activism ideas and what has worked and see what I can utilize to help further my activism work.

When it comes to activism, what you do is different from everyone else, but all that matters is that you actually do something. Anything. I’ve learned over the years that I am never going to a professional, published author because of my writing style. A lot of people don’t like it, but I really don’t care.

I type out the words that are coming to my brain like I am speaking them out loud. I write how I speak. This was something that I was scared of at first because I felt like no one was going to take my activism seriously because of my writing style. I quickly found out that was not the case.

I have not done a lot of offline activism, but I have been successful with activism via social media. I have found that to be my greatest tool when trying to spread the word about something I am advocating for.

I am hoping to get to know a lot more people from different health communities. Please leave a comment on the site or on Facebook just saying hello so we can connect and learn from each other to make the health activism world a much better place.

Passion is the Reason I Write – HAWMC

There are several reasons why I write about my health. The number one reason why I write about it, is because I am passionate about it. If I wasn’t passionate about diabetes and helping others, and doing what I can to help find a cure, then I would not waste my time writing about it. I have a few other blogs that I write as well, because I am passionate about the things that I write about it.

One of the other reasons that I write about my health is because it is my way to get things off of my chest. I don’t have other people around me constantly that have diabetes, so they don’t know what I am going through. I feel that writing about some of my biggest issues with diabetes can be resolved by those of you out there that are dealing with the same issues.

Another reason that I continue to write about my health is because I have seen that I have been able to help people in the past. I have received e-mails and comments on the blog that tell me how the post helped them get through a certain time or issue with diabetes or anything going on in their life. When I get those e-mails and comments, it makes it all worth while. All the hours that go into writing blog posts, editing pictures, and anything else that goes into this blog, it’s all good once you get those responses.

Talking about why you write about your health is the blog post prompt for the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge #HAWMC today, so there will be a lot of other posts out there in the DOC today, so I am sure that most of the same reasons are going to be listed.

I am sure that passion is going to be one of the top reasons listed. Without passion, it is tough to do something, unless you are getting paid for it (like a job).

Whatever your reasons are, keep it up. The more you are blogging about diabetes or any health issue, the more awareness it is going to raise, and there can never be enough of that.

Inspirational Quote – Day 2 HAWMC

The quote that I chose to write about today is, “I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.”I have heard this quote from different people. The first time that I actually heard it was in a Donald Trump book about success and working hard, “Think Big and Kick Ass,” to be exact. I then looked up who the quote came from and I saw a lot of sources that say Thomas Jefferson was quoted saying this.

I am a firm believer in this quote. I actually have this quote permanently attached to my desk and I see it everyday I sit down and to get ready to work. I can also relate this to my diabetes world and not just the world of running a business. The harder you work at something, the easier it tends to get, or the better you tend to get at it, which makes it seem like your luck is changing.

Let’s take one example. This blog. When I first started blogging, like everybody, I didn’t have any readers or people commenting or sharing my posts. I kept working at my writing skills (which haven’t improved much, but it’s just my own personal style), and worked hard at making my blog easier to read, and began blogging about more topics that I had opinions on. After several years of working hard, staying up late at night, getting up early in the mornings to write posts, I started to get some good luck coming my way. More people began commenting, sharing, tweeting, and even inviting me to attend events. I worked hard and I got lucky!

This can also be related to diabetes management. Working hard at controlling your blood sugars isn’t always going to turn out the way you want it to, because that’s just diabetes. But you can set your self up for more of a success if you are working hard at it, and who knows, you may just get lucky and have a no-hitter!

Hard work pays off, eventually. Don’t rush it, be patient.