Bev's Tips for a Better Work Life
Bev Jones' twice-monthly ezine offering you suggestions
for making your career more productive and more fun.

Dear Friends and Clients,

Every January or February, my friend Sherry Little and I compare notes about our visions for the coming year. First, each of us spends some time thinking about elements we want to address in various spheres of life, like our professional, social or community activities. Then we bring our plans into tighter focus by discussing them with one another.

This year, Sherry said that a New Year’s Resolution she once made to enhance her fitness program now has evolved into a keystone of her 2011 spiritual life. She had resolved to take regular yoga classes as part of her exercise regime, and particularly enjoyed a class taught by Kathy Judd. But last year she stopped going to Kathy’s class because it conflicted with another exercise program.

Sherry noticed that it wasn’t just the physical activity she missed when she quit studying with Kathy. She realized that Kathy had gently led her students to an awareness that everything they do can impact other people. Kathy taught her students that each day brings opportunities to act with kindness, to put yourself in somebody else’s shoes, and to make their day a little better.

Sherry realized that Kathy’s quiet teaching had brought about a shift in her spiritual life. She was more aware of how her actions might touch others. So this year Sherry is returning to Kathy’s class (now at Radiance Yoga in Alexandria). Beyond that, Sherry has promised herself to undertake a daily practice that will underscore how connected we all are to one another.

Yoga teachers often talk about the law of Karma, which suggests that whatever you intentionally do to others will happen to you in the future. In other words, you reap what you sow. So if you remain aware of the impact of your actions on others, and try to consistently act with kindness, your own experience in life will be changed.

Sherry’s 2011 daily practice is to go out of her way to do a small act of kindness. Then she will note each day’s action in a special journal, as a way of continuing to build her focus on the value of intentional kindness. Sherry’s daily karmic acts might include writing a thank you note, resisting the temptation to gossip, going out of her way to offer a sincere compliment, or helping with somebody’s job search.

For some people the concept of Karma may seem exotic or inconsistent with Western religious values. But there is another way to explore the degree to which human beings are inter-connected. As I will discuss in this issue, the new science of social networks examines the ways that people influence one another.

Warm Wishes, Bev


Your Friends & Their Friends
Affect Everything in Your Life

February 15, 2011 * Number 142

Did you notice recent headlines announcing that obesity is contagious? Several studies suggest that you are more likely to gain weight if you hang out with fat people. The importance of social connections in the spread of obesity is just one of the topics being examined by the new science of human networks.

Two scientists explore some of the fascinating findings about social networks in “Connected – How Your Friends’ Friends’ Friends Affect Everything You Feel, Think and Do.” Authors Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler make a convincing case that, like schools of fish changing direction in unison, we are unconsciously led by the people around us. Here are some of their conclusions:

  • Our networks shape us. We all belong to social networks that have properties and functions not actively controlled by the people within them. These networks give rise to cultures that are more complicated than the participants realize, and develop much like a cake that becomes something greater than the sum of its ingredients. Humans are “ultrasocial” and our brains are deeply influenced by the networks to which we belong.

  • Our networks are smart. Social networks can manifest an intelligence that augments or complements individual intelligence, the way an ant colony can act smarter than the smartest single ant.

  • Happiness is contagious to three degrees of separation. Our emotions and behaviors are greatly influenced by the emotions and behaviors of those in our networks. You are influenced not only by your close contacts, but also by your contacts’ contacts, and their contacts, as well. For example, the authors found that a person is about 15 percent more likely to be happy if a directly connected person (i.e. a person at one degree of separation) is happy. But happiness continues to spread, like ripples in a pond. The happiness effect for people at two degrees of separation (the friend of a friend) is 10 percent, and for people at three degrees (the friend of a friend of a friend) is 6 percent.

  • Our networks can support change. We might be more effective in tackling social issues, like crime or public health, by addressing groups of people, and not just individuals. For example, to help people quit smoking or lose weight perhaps we need to involve their families, friends and even their friends’ friends.

  • Your actions matter. The authors say, “the surprising power of social networks is not just the effect others have on us. It is also the effect we have on others…The ubiquity of human connection means that each of us has a much bigger impact on others than we can see.”
Want to read more about topics like this? Visit Bev's website at www.ClearWaysConsulting.com. Check out brief book reviews, eZine archives and Bev’s blog. If you have questions email to Bev directly.
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Bevs Tips for a Better Work Life is published on the first and third Tuesday of each month by Beverly E. Jones of ClearWays Consulting, LLC. Bev is a lawyer and former executive who now coaches accomplished executives and other professionals to bring new direction, energy and enjoyment to their work lives.

Copyright ©2011, ClearWays Consulting, LLC Beverly E. Jones
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