Friendship! it's not about whom you've known the longest, it's about who came and never left your side that is one of my favorite friendship quotes, because of how insightful and true it is. so lately I've been doing a lot of soul-searching, really just analyzing sort of Who I am where I am and where I want to go but part of that is actually taking inventory of the people in my life that I consider friends. I'm talking like true friends, not acquaintances we all have a ton of people that we know but true friends. they're people you could probably count on one hand alright so when you're a kid, right who are your friends exactly people that you go to school with right you're playing on the playground maybe they live up the street from you. you are friends by proxy, people that are around you or in your immediate area, and as you grow as you mature you become closer with certain people.
certain people you share more common things with right other people you were great friends in the earlier years like third grade by seventh grade you have no idea whatever happened to what's-his-face who smelled like Bologna but something happens, when you graduate high school there is a fork in the road now some people stay in the same area and maintain friendships lifelong friendships with some of the people they grew up with right?
1. Spend time around people. this is like whoa mind-blowing stuff, right? but the deal is if you're isolating yourself if you're sitting on your couch playing video games you're never gonna make new friends you need to get out and be social right maybe being social means going to a sporting event maybe it means going to a coffee shop maybe it means going and hanging out in a bar but the fact is in order to make new friends you need to be around potential friends.
2. join a club group or organization of something that you enjoy doing. all right the idea here is that you're going to go out you're gonna be doing something social that you like. you're going to be meeting people that also enjoy the things that you like and so it just kind of makes sense when you think about it at a basic level that if there are a bunch of people around you that all like basket weaving, guess what? friendships are gonna bloom and cool baskets.
3. Volunteer. go do something good for the community that you're not getting paid for. what you're gonna find is that a lot of the people that you're working with you're gonna develop a bond, a camaraderie because you're working towards a goal not because you're getting paid because it's something good to do and the people that you meet are going to have similar values.
4. When you're out and about you're around people start conversations. talk to everybody now the majority of people you're gonna talk to it's gonna be like yo you can't wait to leave because the conversations are gonna be DOA dead on arrival but once in a while you're gonna strike up a conversation with somebody that's actually going to stick and you're gonna find that this conversation leads to more conversations ie a friend bringing us the.
5. Which is make small talk. Small talk I hate small talk guys small talk is a critical component of developing new friendships. you got to be able to do it. you're out being social around people talking to them chatting them up, right?
6. Incredibly important and that is reintroducing yourself at the end of a conversation. my name again is Erin what was yours because this is a way to try and get that name to stick to basically reiterate and to drive at home who you are and get their name one again then it's really important to try and remember that name if you hope to see them again and actually develop a friendship because you can only ask somebody their name so many times before it's rude a trick that I use in order to remember names is when somebody tells me their name I will think of somebody else I know with that name and picture them so whenever I see this person I picture this person and I remember their name does that make sense.
7. accept every invitation. true story I have a good friend her name is Amy, Amy went through a messy divorce and the process lost a lot of her good friends and so what she decided when she was sort of bummed out, right? she's like yeah I don't have all these friends anymore I'm sort of a little bit lonely I'm not being a socialist I'd like to be what she decided for one year was to accept every invitation that people offered and what she found is that she had the best year of her life by the end of it she had some friends that she loved that were incredible that she never would have met if she stayed isolated and didn't say yes! gentlemen accept invitations to say yes kind of makes sense
8. Ask other people to do things you gotta be willing to push yourself a little bit outside of your comfort zone if you're a shy person and a lot of times people that are lacking and friends they do suffer from a degree of shyness or a little bit of social anxiety. you got to be uncomfortable, you got to be willing to be uncomfortable I should say all right you got to push the boundaries, asking other people to do things maybe it's lunch, maybe it's coffee, maybe it's a drink, maybe it's going see a concert, either way, you've got to ask if you never ask you'll never get anyone to say yes. okay, nice work you've successfully implemented steps 1 through 8 you've got good friend prospects now.
9. once you have them as a friend keep them as a friend the way that you do that is by being a good friend what does that mean? it's simple, be a good listener be loyal be trustworthy, be reliable, be yourself you don't need to change for anybody. you're beautiful perfect and special just the way that you are, guys good friends, quality friends, they're not the easier, they're not like under every rock, right? you're not it's like an Easter egg hunt, unfortunately, it's not and you can't put an ad on Craigslist because you get some weird-ass dudes showing up you're like I want to be your friend,
finding new friends is not easy but it is possible but the only way that it's possible is if you're willing to be uncomfortable and put yourself out there you need to set yourself up for success both in life but also in friendship as well, if you're expecting your friend your new best friend to deliver your pizza that's what you're going to be going through a lot of pizza and probably gain a lot of weight this is probably not gonna happen but it could you never know, talk him up, chat him up, I don't know why I always use pizza delivery guys as an ally because I used to deliver pizza in college you got to put yourself out there hopefully these nine tips will help you in your search and quest for your new best friend. If you like this article please share this with your friends.