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 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.

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, 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.

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.

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.

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.