The Art of Community: Seven Principles for Belonging — Book Notes

Charles H. Vogl

Published: 2016

• When leaders create a robust and committed community, they build relationships that are effective and resilient.
• We all want to enter rings of exclusivity. There are groups that are more exclusive and cooler than the ones which we already belong. The problem lies not in the rings themselves, but our desire and longing to get inside them.
• Even when we do get inside these rings, we will always discover that there’s an even more attractive and exclusive ring beyond. This pattern will continue forever until we break it.
• The solution: find something you like to do and do it often. Then invite others to join us if they like doing that thing too.

Loneliness:

• The number of people who say they have no one to talk to about difficult subjects have tripled in the last few decades.
• More people say that they don’t have a confidante than those who say that they do.
• 1 in 5 Americans report that they are lonely.
• People who are socially disconnected are less happy, experience health declines earlier, and live shorter lives than people who are not lonely.