#ForTheHealthOfIt

I’d like to announce a hashtag I am starting that I hope catches on. It’s called, as you might have guessed from my subject line, #ForTheHealthOfIt.

I was inspired by one last conversation I saw after millions of others that went something like this.

Person A: It is 11:30 and I am having my 15th cup of coffee because I am so busy.

Person B: I feel your pain. I am on my 20th.

Person C: I know. I have been up since 3:30 and no break in sight.

I feel like people post this stuff online to show off. Maybe it’s to show off how busy they are, or maybe they want to show clients or bosses how dedicated they are. Maybe it’s a combination of those reasons and more. I used to do this to some extent. I would post, “OMG I am on my 7th white paper this week and blah blah blah.”

Here is my concern. I am worried that marketing folks and entrepreneurs (the 2 often intersect) are one of the most unhealthy collections of professionals around right now. We’re at our desks most of the time, and there are long hours of writing, meetings, sitting on planes, eating airport food, eating trade show food (not sure which is worse), and pressure. There is deadline pressure. There is pressure to look hungry for your business. There is pressure to always be available, always “on.” There is so much pressure, in fact, that if given the chance to, say, cook a healthy meal or use that extra hour to do work, our crew will often choose the latter. A sunny day means we can sit on our butts and look outside at the pretty scenery, even before and after regular hours.

Here’s the problem. This all catches up with you. You may not see it coming because it can be slow and steady, but that constant crappy food, no exercise, no sleep lifestyle you’re leading can have extremely damaging, long-lasting impacts on your life. Guess what? If you end up with a heart attack, you’re gonna miss all kinds of work. Guess what else? If you die your family and friends will not care a jot about how many times you stayed up working till 4 AM.

The Call to Action

Entrepreneurs and Marketers understand the “call to action” phrase. So here is mine.

Every day, just once, I want you to post something you did to take care of yourself with the hashtag #ForTheHealthOfIt. Did you opt to eat a salad instead of a hot dog? Did you do the steps instead of the elevator? Did you make yourself take a half hour to walk instead of eating lunch and watching more content marketing or SnapChat webinars? Post it all.

What I hope more than anything is that this makes people think about doing one little thing every day for their health. That can be enough to get you wanting to do more good things for yourself. That good feeling gets addictive, you know? The idea is NOT to shame others or to use the hashtag to brag or make other people feel bad. It’s to make sure this mostly sedentary, overworking, over-caffeinated group of people lives past 60.

Are you in?