We Need More Cheerleaders

Hal Cranmer
June 16, 2025

I’m reading a book called ‘Give and Take’. It’s a book about 3 different types of people - givers, takers and matchers.

As you can imagine, it champions the ‘givers’. People who lift others up and contribute mightily to the success of any organization.

Part of the book looks at world-class musicians, athletes and even accountants. How did they get their start?

You would think their parents saw raw talent in them. Then the parent’s hired amazing coaches and teachers who pushed them. Thousands of hours of practicing and voila…

…World class.

The truth is somewhat different. Most of these world class people did not show raw talent initially. Talent came later. Motivation came first.

Those top people had a teacher or coach who encouraged them. Could have been their parent. Or another Mom or Dad in the neighborhood. Those Mom’s and Dad’s just supported them and made them feel good about their performance.

What made these people world class was that they practiced for many more hours than their peers. The reason they practiced so much? Because they had ‘cheerleaders’ that really made them feel good about what they were doing.

I believe the same could be said for healthcare and people who are sick. Too often we hear of doctors who deliver bad news in a cold, unsympathetic manner.

“It’s not curable.”

“You have 6 months to live.”

“Get your affairs in order.”

I’ve heard it called ‘diagnose and adios’. Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s important to know the gravity of someone’s health situation. That doesn’t mean people should give up. We have one life on this planet and we need to fight for it every day.

Having a lot of social and emotional support can actually improve health outcomes. At least that’s what a group of studies shows. In other words, the more cheerleaders you have pulling for you, the better your chance of recovery.

“Prior work has found that those with high quality or quantity of social networks have a decreased risk of mortality in comparison to those who have low quantity or quality of social relationships, even after statistically controlling for baseline health status. In fact, social isolation itself was identified as an independent major risk factor for all-cause mortality.”

“In one longitudinal study, social participation was shown to predict incidence of first-time acute myocardial infarction (MI), even after adjusting for demographic and health variables. In this study, those who had lower social involvement were 1.5 times more likely to have a first MI.”

We see it in our assisted living homes. We really try to operate from the belief that our residents WILL improve their health. And we want to help them do so.

How much does our ‘cheerleading’ help them improve vs. how much the medications, therapies, diet etc. help? I don’t know. I’m running assisted living homes, not clinical trials.

One thing I’m convinced is for sure. It’s not hurting them. And they really appreciate the encouragement.