source


I was given a book to read lately that had a lot of interesting concepts in it. Some of which really relate to the work that we are doing on STEEM right now. I found some of these concepts very interesting and wanted to break down a few of the chapters in a series of posts to look into the examples and ideas that he feels are behind these successes in life. Is it purely ingrained talent or something more.

For this book he is looking at the people who excelled and deviated from the general population in different areas of life.

"Why do some people achieve so much more than others? Can they lie so far out of the ordinary?"

Chapter 1: The Roseto Mystery

The Concept:

In America there is a town called Roseto. This town is made up almost entirely of descendants of Italian immigrants with the majority of the people coming from one small area south of Rome called Roseta Valfortore.

The movement started in the 1880's and the settlers quickly made the area their own and brought their traditions over with them. Life stayed the same for the small community until a doctor was passing through to give a talk in the 1950's.

After spending time among the population and seeing how healthy and happy they were he undertook a study to get the true facts about their life in the early 1960's. He discovered that the death rate from heart attacks was under half the national average and overall death rate was 35% below national average but could find no medical reasons for this. Their lifestyle was actually tougher and unhealthier than the average American which made no sense.

"There as no suicide, no alcoholism, no drug addiction and very little crime."

This was a place that lived outside the everyday experience or as the book states an "outlier".

The Conclusion:

After doing the research and dismissing all of the possible medical reasons for the area to be so far outside the national averages he then had to look in different directions.

If it wasn't in the diet, the area, the DNA or the environment then it must be in the people themselves. After taking a closer look into how the spend their time he realized that there was a totally different social structure to the rest of the country.

People all knew each other and had a lot of connections and extended family within the area. There was a lot of respect given to the different generations within those families with constant contact and shared pastimes and spaces.

People visited each other, stopped to chat to each other and shared common areas to cook and pass the time. There was a huge amount of community groups and activities that further bonded the people and made it a better place to live.

The people were healthier because the had a better approach to life itself which was shared among the whole community and led to a better quality of life and a healthier mind and body overall.

My conclusions:

We have always heard, "Healthy body, Healthy mind." but i don't think that one necessarily leads to the other.. i think you need to have a good balance between the two for it to be true.

If a person grows up in a fun. loving and caring community I can definitely see how that would put them in a better place physically. Fear and stress both take a toll on the body so having a life free from these can only be a good thing for your long term health. This was a study from about 60 years ago before a lot of emphasis was given to psychology in people but the facts are still true today.

If you provide a community for people to grow in that is fun, safe, welcoming, friendly ect.... They are far more likely to thrive and enjoy it as it feels good to be there.
I know from working in jobs with a negative atmosphere how hard it is to turn up every day and how people were always out sick rather than turn up and work. It's important to create the right type of place for people to show up to so that we can all reap the benefits.

If you take social media then why not comment positive things and encourage others to take part. Like their work and pass it around for other to see. Take the time to be social and interact with other users in a positive way and everybody will be healthier for it. I know from my own country the ultimate consequences that happen to some young people that are targeted on their profiles. When the hate and negativity becomes too much and ends up destroying the body too.

It's the community that set the standards so the more people that go about things the right way, the better we will all be in the long run.

We should all strive to create the best environment possible for all of us to thrive in life.

[Ref: Gladwell, M. (2009). Outliers, The story of success. Little, Brown and Company]