Happy Friends, Happier You: How Your Friends Happiness Affects Yours

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We've all heard the saying happy wife, happy life.

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But science and research actually shows that it may be more

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like happy friends, happier.

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You.

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Welcome to episode 1 0 2 of this shit works a podcast dedicated to

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all things, networking, business development, and relationship building.

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I'm your host, Julie Brown.

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And today I am discussing how your friends' happiness affects you.

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This episode is sponsored by Nickerson.

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At full service branding, marketing PR and communications agency

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with team members in Boston.

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Los Angeles, Miami and New York city.

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Visit them@nickersoncos.com.

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I recently read an article and then times magazine titled the science of karma

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three steps to making it work for you.

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I was originally looking at this When I was doing research for episode

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99 of this podcast, but I found the research so interesting that instead

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of rolling it into the karma episode, I decided to dedicate this episode.

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To the findings in the article.

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The article discussed research that has been done on social networks.

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And this research shows that karma might be quite real, but

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not in the way we think about.

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About it, not in the traditional sense of we do good.

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We get good.

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It's more like the six degrees of separation idea.

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Because studies showed that the people who surround us dramatically affect our

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behavior without us even realizing it Like really not realizing it because we

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often don't think about our connections past the first connection as being able

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to influence us but the study shows that behavior our behavior is influenced three

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degrees out So you are affected by the whims of friends of friends of friends

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And similarly they buy you The article goes on to say that political views

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weight gain smoking and even that very very very important thing happiness Are

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all influenced by strangers Like how can this be Here is a direct quote from the

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researchers Our own research has shown that the spread of influence and social

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networks obeys what we call the three degrees of influence rule Everything we

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do or say tends to ripple through our network Having an impact on our friends

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one degree our friends friends two degrees and even our friends friends friends

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Three degrees The three degrees rule applies to a broad range of attitudes

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feelings and behaviors and it applies to the spread of phenomena as diverse as

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political views weight gain And happiness

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When it comes to the direction of happiness.

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The article goes on to say Nath, medical.

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Analyses of the networks.

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It suggests that a person.

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It is about 15% more likely to be happy.

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If a directly connected person.

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At one degree of separation is happy.

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And the spread of happiness.

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Doesn't stop.

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There the happiness.

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Eunice effect for people at two degrees of separation, the friend's friend is 10%.

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And for people at three degrees of separation, the friend

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of a friend, Have a friend.

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It is about six.

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6%.

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So the happiness of people.

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You have never met and may never meet.

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Can and will still affect.

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Affect you.

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It's a little.

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Fucked up.

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Right?

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Like now I'm like, okay, everyone get fucking happy.

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Cause you're all affecting my shit.

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Three degrees out.

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When we think about happiness, we all think money will make

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us happy, but it's not true.

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We'd be better off investing in the happiness of our friends, then working

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our asses off to make more money.

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An excerpt from the study says an extra $5,000 in 1980 $4, which corresponds to

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about $10,000 in $2,009 was associated with only a 2% increased chance of a

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person being happy So going back to that happiness effect having happy friends and

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relatives appears to be a more effective predictor of happiness than earning more

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money And the amazing thing is that even people who are three degrees removed

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from you whom you may never meet can have a stronger impact on your personal

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happiness than a water of hundreds in your pockets so spending time making friends

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has a higher happiness roi than time spent Making money Go back to this If the

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higher amount of money It's associated with a 2% increase and then we know that

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first degrees make us 15% more happy and secondaries make us 10% more happy and

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third degrees make a 6% more happy All of those affect us more than more money

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So we need friends around us that are happy and if you're not sure how to make

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new friends go back and listen to episode 38, where i interviewed dr marissa franco

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about how to make friends as an adult And then relisten to episode 99, about the

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10 ways to put good karma out into your network remember with happiness affects

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spanning three degrees of separation there's a good chance making knows people

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in your daily life happy will flow back to you So introduce your friends to

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other friends so they can help make new friends Make introductions in your network

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so you can have people in your network making new friends by strengthening your

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network and overall happiness of it you can reap the benefits three degrees out

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you can selfishly increase your chance of being consistently happy by making other

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people in your life Happy It's fucking great All right Onto the drink of the

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week which is appropriately named the happy bastard It's a turn on an older

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cocktail called the suffering bastard but because we're all going to be three

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degrees of happy going forward we're going to be happy bastards here's what

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you're going to need One ounce of gin.

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Three fourths hours.

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Of brandy a quarter ounce of st germain A Half ounce of ginger syrup a half ounce

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of fresh squeezed lemon juice and one and a half ounces Uh, fever tree cucumber

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tonic Combine all ingredients except the tonic and a cocktail shaker with ice and

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shake shake shake shake shake shake shake and then strain into a collins glass

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over ice and top the tonic and garnish with a lemon wheel All right friends

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that's it for this week thanks so much for being here now go out and make your