Be A Role Model
I was reflecting just today on the importance of role models – and not only for kids either. We may not think much about it as adults.
But we observe others all the time and often pick up messages that influence our own behavior. If we’re in a gym with many fit people who work out hard, for instance, we’re probably more likely to work out harder ourselves. Those folks inspire us in some way as we pedal our stationary bike. When we’re around healthy people, we’ll find it easier to stay healthy too. If we watch someone behave kindly toward a stranger, we may feel an impulse to do the same thing soon afterwards. And so on. To me, this means that we affect other people during daily life much more than we may know. And that each of us can contribute something to humanity simply by the way we live. We are intimately connected, we human beings. Even our moods are contagious. A fascinating Harvard University study of nearly 5,000 people indicates that emotions truly are contagious – and there’s much other scientific research that draws this same conclusion. The Harvard study found that an individual’s happiness is influenced by the happiness of those people in their circle. For instance, if you have a friend who becomes happy and lives within one mile, you’re 25% more likely to feel happy yourself. This kind of “happiness contagion” extends to three degrees of separation: that is, researchers discovered that happiness affects the friends of the friends of your friends. Sadness is even more contagious than happiness. There are many, many ways individuals can contribute to a better society, of course. One that’s easy to do right now is to remember that we each influence our fellow human beings in important ways – and to become a role model by living a life that’s as healthy, constructive and productive as possible.
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