Does social support help just as much as physical support when facing an obstacle? 

Jodi has been reading NIH studies before she has even had her morning coffee, and it turns out that having someone you care about beside you make even real hills look less steep. 

Why is that important for business? 

The way you perceive the slant or steepness of a hill is changed by a lot of factors, including your energy levels and even the weight of the backpack you are carrying. But perhaps surprisingly, it is equally as affected by support. Having anyone beside you as you contemplate a hill makes you perceive the hill as less steep than it appears when you are alone. Having someone that you are closer to or have known for longer makes it seem even less daunting. When you have some kind of social support, your perception of slant (and difficulty) goes down. “Social support reduces psychological load.”

This can relate to many areas of your life. Your mind’s perception of a thing impacts how much of a challenge you perceive it to be. But most importantly, we have scientific evidence of why support is important when you are leading. There is always a hill of sorts in front of you when you are running a business, and it’s going to seem bigger and harder if you are standing there by yourself. 

Much like our episode on Business Depression (https://soheresmystory.com/ep80-ever-been-business-depressed-replay/), sometimes the best way to get out of a rut is to surround yourself by people who support and inspire you. You have to build in layers of psychosocial resources, because they “moderate your vision in a similar manner to physical resources”. We know instinctually that it feels good to have someone to talk to and rant to, but we are often also embarrassed by this need. But truly – it helps the hill not seem so big. It has value, even if there is no “solution” offered. 

If we recognize the validity of this experiment in our own lives, it helps to eradicate some of the guilt and to seek out support. It also helps us realize that it isn’t about having a solution when people come to us for support – like grief, it is simply the presence of someone who cares that matters. 

So how do you find more people to stand shoulder to shoulder with? Who do you think about standing next to you when you envision contemplating the next hill? 

Resources mentioned

NIH Paper - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3291107/?fbclid=IwAR0aaZJbg2WVYIZmUPTdjMIk3HGIzoJnu_xL3B3j15voffgm88Op1eb8o6M

Original thread on FB https://www.facebook.com/516700194/posts/10161372193515195?d=n&sfns=mo

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