Build Your Crew

Find valuable support for your journey.

Having supportive people in your life can make or break your lifestyle behaviors.  You are the Captain of your journey, but your crew can normalize behaviors, give guidance, offer support and help with accountability or motivation.

Who to add to your crew:

  1. The Champion: this person believes in your ability to succeed. They celebrate your successes, support your decisions and cheer you on.  
  2. The Guide: this person understands your strengths, skills and goals. They work with you to create a roadmap with check points to help you get you to your destination.
  3. The Mentor: this person has made a similar behavior shift; they've walked the path you're starting. They can help problem solve and provide support during challenging times.

Your Crew can be situational. Maybe you have one crew on hand as you prepare for a personal life transition such as marriage or retirement, but have a different crew for a professional goal such as applying for a new job. For each transition or goal, use the following prompts to help identify who can best support you. 

 

Ask yourself the following questions: 

  1. What life transition or goal would benefit from support from others? 
  2. Who, among your current contacts, could fulfill each role for your transition or goal?
  3. List all possibilities and then narrow down who you feel could best support you. 
  4. Will you tell these individuals that you have identified them as your Crew?
  5. If so, will you formally or informally establish expectations as to how they can help you? 

Tip: If you are struggling to identify a current contact for any of the above roles, start networking! Get active with local professional or volunteer organizations. Or, cast a wider net by reaching out to others on LinkedIn, Facebook Groups or the Alumni network of your high school or college.

 

 

Give Back:

How can you serve on others' crews? What support do you feel you can offer to friends, family and colleagues and how will you let people know that you're willing to share your skills, experience and compassion? 

 

PDF: 

A downloadable PDF of this website's content is available.

Citations: 

1. Christakis, N. A., & Fowler, J. H. (2007). The Spread of Obesity in a Large Social Network over 32 Years. New England Journal of Medicine, 357(4), 370-379. doi:10.1056/nejmsa066082

                

  2.  Perry, B., Ciciurkaite, G., Brady, C. F., & Garcia, J. (2016). Partner Influence in Diet and Exercise Behaviors: Testing Behavior Modeling, Social Control, and Normative Body Size. PLoS ONE, 11(12), 1–14.