Module 2 · Your people
Day 4 of 11 · about 10 minutes
Adult friendships often fade without anyone deciding to end them. Work gets busy, kids get busy, people move. One day you notice you haven't really talked to your closest friend in a year.
What the research found
A review of 148 studies covering 308,849 people found that those with stronger social relationships had a 50% greater likelihood of survival over the study periods than those with weaker ones (Holt-Lunstad, Smith and Layton, PLoS Medicine, 2010). The researchers compared the size of the effect to well-known health risks such as smoking.
Self-made people tend to treat friendship the way they treat anything important. They put it on the calendar instead of waiting for it to happen.
Try this today (10 minutes)
- Write down five people you'd call real friends, or would like to.
- Pick one you haven't seen in a while.
- Message them today with a specific plan: a day, a time and a place. "We should catch up" doesn't count.
The honest note
These studies show a strong link, not proof that friends make you live longer. People who are healthy may also find it easier to stay social. Quality matters more than numbers too. One or two close friends can matter more than a crowd, and that's good news for introverts.
Write it down: print Workbook 2, Your people. It has space for this lesson’s exercise and a week tracker.
The Selfmade Course · Day 4 of 11
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