Are you a lone ranger?

There was an interesting filler piece in Saturday’s paper about the poor effect to your health small talk can bring. It cited scientific research that showed the value of deep, meaningful conversations, a future blog post all of its own. You can be on the look out for that one, How small talk can make you miserable: The value of the deep and meaningful.

But I digress. Reflecting on the importance of solid relationships and folks to talk to and with, it tickled me somewhat to watch a lone ranger today join a team. Regular readers will remember the conversation I had with a journalist last week about Howard Stapleton’s Mosquito device. For the last three years he has been something of a lone ranger as he tried to get legislation introduced to ensure the device is used fairly and properly.

Tonight Howard appeared on ITV Wales after being interviewed today by the lady I met last week. For a limited time, you can watch his appearance on the ITV Wales website. He did a great job Personally, I was disappointed that the programme did not have the scope to discuss the unfairness of the way the device is used currently but the Downing Street website petition was mentioned (if you’re very observant you’ll even see my name on the list of current signatories )

Originally, it was hoped that Give A Brick could appear on the programme to offer support for the petition. As a charity working with young people, I personally feel it is very important that we raise our heads and our voices when something needs to be said. To that end, if anyone reading this is a PR expert and would like to teach me how  a charity can issue a meaningful press statement, I’d love to hear from you Unfortunately, the entire piece was less than two minutes long so I can understand why it was felt there was not enough time to include us.

However, as I watched the piece today, I did so with a certain sense of warm satisfaction. We made a difference today. Only time will tell how this particular story will play out but whatever happens, we worked as part of a team and we helped. We turned a former lone ranger (albeit a reluctant one) into a man who was finally heard.

Referring back to Saturday’s 1 Minute Motivator, what have you done today to make you feel proud? What can you do today to make a difference? If you see something of the lone ranger in yourself, reach out to someone nearby and join their team. We were made for relationships. Stop being the lone ranger and get out there and have some fun!