{"id":17154,"date":"2025-03-27T15:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T23:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/?p=17154"},"modified":"2025-11-13T11:23:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T19:23:06","slug":"outreach-month-end-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/27\/outreach-month-end-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Outreach &#8211; Month-End Update"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Having now reached the end of the sixth month of my year-long <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/myprojects\/foundations-project\/\">Foundations<\/a> project, I\u2019d like to share some reflections on this month\u2019s focus: outreach.<\/p>\n<p>In doing the reading for this month, I found myself impressed by the numerous associations between having strong and broad social ties and living well. Being connected isn\u2019t just good for your career or happiness\u2014it matters for your health too. The association between isolation and mortality is in the same ballpark as smoking a pack of cigarettes every day.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Foundations Conversation Month 6 Update - Outreach\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LH7_e_MvQqA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>It was also while doing this reading that I realized my foundation here is weaker than I thought. I feel like I have fairly good close connections with my family and best friends. I\u2019m also not terrible at meeting people or engaging in low-stakes small talk and socializing. However, I\u2019m bad at managing the periphery of my social world\u2014there are people I consider \u201cgood friends\u201d who I see only once or twice a year.<\/p>\n<p>Going through the reading, I also felt my initial focus for the month, emphasizing activities that allowed me to meet new people, was somewhat misplaced. Instead, I think my real weak point is one layer inward\u2014all those people I sort of know, but don\u2019t make enough effort to sustain a casual friendship.<\/p>\n<p>At this point, it would be easy to trot out various excuses: I have good friends, so who needs acquaintances? (Except the two serve different purposes, and both are necessary for thriving.) I\u2019m too busy as a parent with small kids to \u201chang out\u201d as much as I used to. (Except that\u2019s true of literally everything; if something matters to us, we make time for it.) I don\u2019t like one-sided efforts to sustain weaker ties, and I\u2019d prefer things to be spontaneous. (Except nothing else in life is like this\u2014all good habits require some amount of effort and systems in place.)<\/p>\n<p>Despite these obstacles, I\u2019d like to be better with outreach than I am currently. This month was a good start but, given that the work here takes place over years, it\u2019s hardly finished.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What I Did This Month<\/h2>\n<p>To start, I was pretty good about keeping my once-weekly commitment to participating in some kind of activity with new people. I went to a couple language meet ups and met some people at a birthday party.<\/p>\n<p>The push to do some research to find activities was helpful. In the past couple years, I feel like I often missed opportunities to socialize not only out of busyness, but also because I hadn\u2019t kept opportunities on my radar, so I didn\u2019t have any potential activities to try during weeks when I was relatively free.<\/p>\n<p>I also made efforts to spend some time with some old friends. I don\u2019t expect to go back to pre-kids levels of socializing, but here too the once-per-week threshold seems like a doable minimum.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, I decided to make following up with friends and colleagues at regular intervals a more structured habit. Creating a list of people I know with recurring reminders to contact them and putting it in my productivity system nudges me to reach out to people. I\u2019m also putting birthdays and other events in the same list so I can keep track of those too, now that I no longer use social media.<\/p>\n<p>The month wasn\u2019t perfect. As I write this, it is December. (I write these updates three months in advance to give my team and myself lead time in preparing the <a href=\"https:\/\/join.ingeniumcourses.com\/foundations\/\">course<\/a>.) My family and my in-laws visited, which meant this wasn\u2019t the ideal month to focus on outreach. But that hiccup aside, I\u2019m confident that I\u2019ll be able to sustain the roughly once-per-week habit in the coming months.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Plans for Ongoing Outreach<\/h2>\n<p>With a weekly habit, one month really isn\u2019t long enough to make something routine. So I\u2019m going to need to consciously monitor and make an effort here for at least another few months.<\/p>\n<p>Given my assessment of my weak point here, I\u2019m also modifying the keystone habit I\u2019m going to try to sustain: Instead of focusing on meeting new people, I\u2019m going to try to split my efforts evenly between trying activities with new people and sustaining existing friendships with people I don\u2019t interact with automatically. \u2028\u2028One step I have not taken, but feel might be important, is joining or belonging to a more formal organization or group. Putnam\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Bowling-Alone-Collapse-American-Community\/dp\/1982130849\/\">Bowling Alone<\/a> really sold me on the idea that there\u2019s a benefit to belonging to something beyond an informal circle of friends. I suspect this is something I\u2019ll revisit in the last foundation: service.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Updates to Previous Foundations<\/h2>\n<p>Of course, my goal with this project isn\u2019t simply to focus on one habit for a month and then move on, but to sustain my commitments from all the previous months. Here are some updates for the previous five foundations:<\/p>\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Fitness<\/strong>. Still going strong. My running speed has improved, with my 10 km time getting down to 52 minutes. That\u2019s a major improvement over a few months ago when it was a challenge to run that distance in under an hour, and an even bigger improvement from before this project began when I hadn\u2019t run for more than 30 minutes in almost a decade.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Productivity<\/strong>. The system I reworked during the month is still holding, although I still struggle with keeping up with household chores. Still, the amount of things that slip my mind has dropped considerably, which means the system is doing its job even if I still don\u2019t have time to do everything I\u2019d like.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Money<\/strong>. Also solid. My term life insurance policy was approved, so I can finally check that box after applying for it months ago. I also started the process of setting up educational savings funds for my kids. Since it\u2019s December when I write this, I plan to do a bigger annual review in January as well.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Food<\/strong>. There was some predictable backsliding here during the holiday season. I was fine with this, but it will be important to get back to my defaults next month. I\u2019m now about 15 lbs. lighter than my weight at the start of my project, which is probably close to my ideal weight, so at this point I\u2019m trying to avoid both over- and under-eating, especially as I\u2019ve been exercising more.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Reading<\/strong>. With eight books read this month, I\u2019m mostly back to my normal reading routine. This month was a little lighter than usual, but the holidays cut into work-related reading. Still, I fully expect to be on track to read 100+ books for this project by its end.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>That\u2019s it for this month. Next week, I\u2019ll share an update for the next foundation: sleep.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Having now reached the end of the sixth month of my year-long Foundations project, I\u2019d like to share some reflections on this month\u2019s focus: outreach. In doing the reading for this month, I found myself impressed by the numerous associations between having strong and broad social ties and living well. Being connected isn\u2019t just good [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-personal-development","7":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Outreach - Month-End Update - Scott H Young<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/27\/outreach-month-end-update\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Outreach - Month-End Update - Scott H Young\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Having now reached the end of the sixth month of my year-long Foundations project, I\u2019d like to share some reflections on this month\u2019s focus: outreach. In doing the reading for this month, I found myself impressed by the numerous associations between having strong and broad social ties and living well. Being connected isn\u2019t just good [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/27\/outreach-month-end-update\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Scott H Young\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AuthorScottYoung\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-27T23:49:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-13T19:23:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scott Young\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@scotthyoung\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@scotthyoung\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scott Young\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/27\\\/outreach-month-end-update\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/27\\\/outreach-month-end-update\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Scott Young\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9904804296dddc70b5fdedde997fd92e\"},\"headline\":\"Outreach &#8211; Month-End Update\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-27T23:49:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-13T19:23:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/27\\\/outreach-month-end-update\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1167,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"General\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/27\\\/outreach-month-end-update\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/27\\\/outreach-month-end-update\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/27\\\/outreach-month-end-update\\\/\",\"name\":\"Outreach - Month-End Update - Scott H Young\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-27T23:49:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-13T19:23:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9904804296dddc70b5fdedde997fd92e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/27\\\/outreach-month-end-update\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/27\\\/outreach-month-end-update\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/27\\\/outreach-month-end-update\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Outreach &#8211; Month-End Update\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Scott H Young\",\"description\":\"Learn faster, achieve more\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9904804296dddc70b5fdedde997fd92e\",\"name\":\"Scott Young\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ca5b31d9b26a01360fe494ba6c936b8e0c27dd00453bc606c4ad946850239bf7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ca5b31d9b26a01360fe494ba6c936b8e0c27dd00453bc606c4ad946850239bf7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ca5b31d9b26a01360fe494ba6c936b8e0c27dd00453bc606c4ad946850239bf7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Scott Young\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/vatadmin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Outreach - Month-End Update - Scott H Young","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/27\/outreach-month-end-update\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Outreach - Month-End Update - Scott H Young","og_description":"Having now reached the end of the sixth month of my year-long Foundations project, I\u2019d like to share some reflections on this month\u2019s focus: outreach. In doing the reading for this month, I found myself impressed by the numerous associations between having strong and broad social ties and living well. Being connected isn\u2019t just good [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/27\/outreach-month-end-update\/","og_site_name":"Scott H Young","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AuthorScottYoung\/","article_published_time":"2025-03-27T23:49:07+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-11-13T19:23:06+00:00","author":"Scott Young","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@scotthyoung","twitter_site":"@scotthyoung","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scott Young","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/27\/outreach-month-end-update\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/27\/outreach-month-end-update\/"},"author":{"name":"Scott Young","@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9904804296dddc70b5fdedde997fd92e"},"headline":"Outreach &#8211; Month-End Update","datePublished":"2025-03-27T23:49:07+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-13T19:23:06+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/27\/outreach-month-end-update\/"},"wordCount":1167,"commentCount":0,"articleSection":["General"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/27\/outreach-month-end-update\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/27\/outreach-month-end-update\/","url":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/27\/outreach-month-end-update\/","name":"Outreach - Month-End Update - Scott H Young","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-03-27T23:49:07+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-13T19:23:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9904804296dddc70b5fdedde997fd92e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/27\/outreach-month-end-update\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/27\/outreach-month-end-update\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/27\/outreach-month-end-update\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Outreach &#8211; Month-End Update"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/","name":"Scott H Young","description":"Learn faster, achieve more","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9904804296dddc70b5fdedde997fd92e","name":"Scott Young","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ca5b31d9b26a01360fe494ba6c936b8e0c27dd00453bc606c4ad946850239bf7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ca5b31d9b26a01360fe494ba6c936b8e0c27dd00453bc606c4ad946850239bf7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ca5b31d9b26a01360fe494ba6c936b8e0c27dd00453bc606c4ad946850239bf7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Scott Young"},"url":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/author\/vatadmin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17154"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17901,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17154\/revisions\/17901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}