Last month I participated in Movember. The funds raised by Movember go into aiding the improvement of a number of men’s health issues. It is worth the aggravation of a tickly upper lip that for some reason I cannot stop touching.
The one issue closest to home for me at this point in time is mental health and suicide prevention.
The issues in New Zealand with mental health are well documented and reported.
Globally, on average, 1 man dies by suicide every minute of everyday. That is a terrible and sobering statistic.
We all have our highs and lows in life, I have certainly had my share of both.
In my business, I deal with generally small business owners. People running their own businesses that fill all of the roles that larger businesses have lots of staff to do. At times it can feel like a very lonely place; particularly when things are not going well.
Males are especially bad at sharing these stressful times and there is still a fair bit of the “harden up” attitude around, despite the best efforts of society and some prominent celebrities telling us that that is no longer an option.
I am ashamed to say I used to be one of those with the “harden up cupcake” attitude until I myself hit the wall. Thankfully I followed some sound advice given to me and found someone independent to talk to who gave sound strategies to work through my issues.
One of the most damaging things for me was a lack of work life balance. I worked long hours in a senior stressful role for a long period of time. Even on days off and holidays I was often interrupted by work calls or sometimes took some work with me.
My simple advice to anyone that is feeling the burn is this:
- Don’t be afraid to turn your phone off. The world will not end if you do.
- If you are in business find someone to help you get your operation in order so that you do have work life balance
- Do not be afraid to talk to people about how you are feeling
- Find an impartial confidential counsellor that can give you some strategies to help you through the hard patches