111. Set a social well-being goal for 2025

Happy New Year's!

If you’re someone who likes to mark the new year by reflecting on/setting goals, here are 3 reasons you might want to put improving your social health at the top of the list.

*Most* people underestimate the impact of improving social health … but you’re not like most people!

Data point of the week
A 2018 survey found that people in the US and UK ranked social relationships as significantly less important to health than they actually are. Most people believed that smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise, and weight had more influence on health and life expectancy than social connectedness, but this not the case.

Reason #1: Your social health has an outsized impact on your PHYSICAL health.
According to Forbes Health, Americans’ top New Year’s resolutions in 2024 closely reflected the mistaken health beliefs held by the survey respondents above. For those who made resolutions:

  • 48% set goals to improve fitness

  • 34% set goals to lose weight

  • 32% set goals to improve diet

  • 25% set goals to make more time for loved ones

All are worthy goals in their own right, but let’s check out the impact each has on health.

 
Chart showing lack of social connection impact on life expectancy
 


Of course, physical, mental, and social health are inseparable. Improvement in one area often leads to improvement in the others.

Reason #2: Your social health has an outsized impact on your MENTAL health
Feeling socially connected has numerous mental health benefits including reducing symptoms of depression. This study found that people with depression who had no previous group membership reduced their risk of depression relapse by 24% by joining one social group. Joining three groups reduced their risk of relapse by 63%! The researchers reported that,

“ Membership in social groups is both protective against developing depression and curative of existing depression.”

Reason #3: Your social health has an outsized impact on your HAPPINESS
The strongest finding from the longest longitudinal study in the world (the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which has followed well over 1000 participants over 87 years) is that, 🥁🥁🥁 (drumroll)

“Close relationships, more than money or fame, are what keep people happy throughout their lives” and “are better predictors of long and happy lives than social class, IQ, or even genes.”


Reflection
I am fortunate that—in my life right now—I feel “friend rich” (a new term I’ve coined) and am happy with my overall social health. That hasn’t always been the case, and I don’t take it for granted!

Even so, there are always areas for improvement. So, I'm taking my own advice from the blog post, Start the Thing You Want to Join, and am starting a virtual community of women entrepreneurs to support each other's business growth, tentatively called The Referral Engine.

If you happen to be a woman entrepreneur, you’re invited to join! Get in touch and I’ll give you more information.

That’s my 2025 social goal. What about you?

 

 

Credit: LanaSweet

 

Connection Skill & Action Step: Set a social well-being goal
Maybe you already have a goal in mind to improve your social well-being. If so, please share! If you’re not sure where to start, it may be helpful to take a few minutes to take the friendship self-assessment and reflect on how you’re feeling about your most important relationships.

There are 4 pathways to improving your social well-being (I’ll go into more detail next week). Looking at your Friendship Assessment results, choose ONE of these 4 pathways to focus on for the next 3 months or so (it’s hard to work on multiple goals at once.

  • Expand: Do you want more people to spend time with, connect with, have fun with? This involves meeting people, building new relationships, and expanding your social circle.

  • Contract: Do you have someone (or sometwo) in your life that brings you down, makes you feel bad about yourself, or otherwise negatively impacts your well-being? It may be time to pull back, set boundaries, or even end the relationship.

  • Deepen: Who are the people you enjoy spending time with, who bring you up? How can you deepen and strengthen those relationships?

  • Sustain: How can you maintain your existing relationships and keep them healthy?


Questions to reflect on or to spark conversation. Please share your responses in the comments—we love hearing from you!

What are your social/connection goals for 2025?



gif of man buried in cute puppies

I hope you’re surrounded by love and affection this year!

Jessica GiffordComment