If we could randomly select ten thousand men to be married to ten thousand women, and if we could then follow these couples for years to see who died when, statistical analysis suggests that what we would find is this: being married adds seven years to a man’s life and two years to a woman’s life– better benefits than most medical treatments.
Dr. Nicholas A. Christakis, MD, MPH, PhD, Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives.
Last week, I had a speaking gig and didn’t know beforehand who the other speakers were. Nicholas happened to be one of them. In a weird coincidence, I just downloaded his book to my iPad the day before. His book will go down in history as being extremely important. He’s focused on your real social network, not the online version, because that’s where real meaningful relationships and behaviors happen.