Sculpting Project 23: Connected for Change Week 1
Are your friends making you fat or thin? Do you have anything to do with how much your friends weigh? Yes, to both questions. Friends have more influence over each other than I ever imagined.
If my close friend is over weight there is a 45% greater chance that I will be over weight. But this influence doesn’t stop there. If a friend of my friend (this could be some one have I never met) is over weight I have a 25% greater chance of being over weight. And this influence keeps going to a friend of my friend of my friend. If this friend of the 3rd degree is overweight I am still influenced with a 10% greater chance of being over weight. This influence seems to extend to the 3rd degree and is then no longer significant.
These research findings of Nicholas Christakis MD, PhD and James Fowler PhD are just the beginning of ways that friends affect our lives. God has built us as social beings. Our behaviors and emotions are as contagious as a virus.
Over the past 40 years smoking has decreased from 45% of the US population to 21%. These quitters are not quitting by themselves. Smokers stop smoking in groups. When one person stops smoking it has a ripple effect to the 3rd degree of friends.
This Sculpting Project is 
designed to harness the power of friends to create a change in our lives and the lives of our friends. As well as the lives of our friends, friends, friends.
Sculpting Project 23: Connected for Change: Week 1
- Select a change you want to make. (Ex. Be more grateful or get more physically fit.)
- Decide on an action that will promote that change. (Write down 3 things I am grateful for every night before bed or Stretch for 15 minutes every morning when I get up)
- Ask a friend or two to join you in this commitment for 2 weeks. (If your friend is willing , have them ask one of their friends to join your 2 week group.)
- Check-up on each other by phone, in person, or email.TIP: Your friend may want to adjust the action to be a better fit for their change goals. (Ex. Write 1 gratitude letter and mail it each week or Walk for a mile every morning.)
My Desired Change:_____________________________________________________
My Specific Action to Create This Change: ___________________________________________
When I Will Do This Action:_______________________________________________
Who I Will Ask to Join Me:____________________________________________
Who My Friend Asked to Join Us: ________________________________
Check out the book Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives Nicholas Christakis MD, PhD and James Fowler PhD.
Our choice to change is a way to love our neighbor.
soulsculpting 