Was this you? Well educated, a career going places perhaps - or at least the potential to go places? The life and soul of the party? Mr/Miss Sporty, Gorgeous, Witty… you fill in the adjective
Did you have plans? Plans to buy a house, an Z class Mercedes, a cottage in the Cotswolds - or the American equivalent (any ideas?)? Find a lovely partner - wonderous and gorgeous and of course successful like you? Then equally wonderous, gorgeous children with names like Ede and Casper no doubt? And after a hardworking youth and perhaps a more entrepreneurial middle age - all making you loads of moolah (that's money for you Americans) - a golden retirement to St Lucia, St Kitts or Cartagena?! Ok, perhaps your plan was a little different to mine. In fact that wasn’t my plan at all - mine would have been altogether more sordid - but I’m trying to appeal to the broadest cross section you understand.
The point is life was good, wasn’t it? Or at least now you realise it was because everything was a possibility and the possibilities were wonderful, wonderbah, wonderlub, fandabbydosey.
CAR CRASH!
That’s the thing about possibilities, they’re uncertain. Things can go crapperrily - very crapperilrily. Like God or fate or whoever/whatever does a big plop on your motoring life or taking the analogy a little further, on your lovely parked car which although not yet moving all that quickly, had unutilised latent capacity that the driver was waiting to unleash in some children’s playgr… I mean, on a racetrack. Note to reader: I’m famous for my naff similies, metaphors, etc… I also know I am oversimplifying things to make a point but too many caveats make for long distracting detours. The thing is you got sick, didn’t you? Suddenly what you took for granted was no longer easy and the difficult things were downright impossible. And the thing that was going to give you all these things you wanted - A GREAT CAREER - now seems the most impossible of all.
Ok, you may be reading this and have no idea what I’m going on about! If that’s the case then lucky lucky you. Next time you’re feeling sorry for yourself, however, and someone says “at least you’ve got your health”, please resist the temptation to roll your eyes as if this is just another piece of hackneyed meaningless advice people just trot out…. because you could be in the second group who have just read what’s written above: those who know exactly how it feels to never be in good health and the effect it has on your life.
This blog is for that second group! If you are one of this group, let me first say “hello!” and encourage you to please come back here - OFTEN! Why? Because I firmly believe that through a mixture of certain essentials - proper support, clever choices - and certain optional elements - retraining, medication, surgery - YOU CAN HAVE A SUCCESSFUL CAREER AND A LIFE WORTH LIVING! What’s more, you can come out the other side as someone stronger, wiser, kinder and with a better view of what’s important in life so that even something as wretched as chronic ill health has its upside… After all, what are the other options available to you? Miserable wallowing? Putting your life on pause until a cure comes along? Self deliverance (that’s uplifting talk for suicide)? Options 1 and 2 are surely pointless. Option 3 has a certain logic but surely only after you’ve tried - and I mean really tried - everything else. And everything else is A LOT!
THIS IS FOR THE HEALTHY PEOPLE TOO...
Let me end with a little note to the healthy, you lucky lucky people, if indeed you are still reading this: Please do come back and check out the blog from from time to time too since…
1. Understanding the incredible extra strain long term ill health places on someone may help you seize the day a little more while appreciating what you’ve got.
2. If there’s anyone in your company or organisation with a long term health condition what you learn here may help you to help them.
3. Hopefully this blog will encourage you to look after your own health and thereby avoid long term problems in the future.
Ok, RANT OVER…. Please come back and by way of totally undermining my credibility, please also check out my nutty little videos at: www.youtube.com/bjorn1974
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