How To Meet People and Create Friendships

Friends can be a great addition to your life - we all need human interaction of some sort and to build a friendship can be a very rewarding and beautiful experience.

Here are some tips to help you make the steps to making friends.

1. Be open.

   To be open is very important when it comes to attracting new people into your life; nobody is going to want to talk to someone who seems insecure and drawn inwards. In order to make friends, you must be open to meeting people. People sense when someone is not open, it creates an instant barrier. So by all means, open yourself up to all sorts of people, different people, open yourself up to the opportunity of getting to know new interesting people.

2. Join a sport, or a community.

   Whether it is a sports team, a course, or a discussion group at the local library, it does not matter, you have to pick an interest that fits you and go from there. When you are in an environment where you are having fun and are actually interested in what you are doing, you are giving off positive energy. People will be drawn to that. Joining a sport or a course is the perfect opportunity to meet new people with the same interests; by being there you know you at least have one thing in common!

3. Be yourself.

   Don't pretend to be someone else in an attempt to make someone like you, this is not how you make friends. The base to a good and lasting friendship is honesty and the ability to be oneself with the other. If you fake your interests and pretend to be different than you really are, this is not going to last very long, and in the process, make you feel uncomfortable because you have to keep up a charade. Besides, why would you want someone to like you for something you are not?!  It defeats the whole purpose of making friends.

4. Be a good listener.

   Nobody made good friends by only talking about themselves. A friendship is about giving and taking. So when interacting with new people give some and take some, but definitely, be a good listener, this will always be appreciated and will make people want to return the effort by listening to you, and being interested in your story as well.

5. Invest time.

   To make friends, you must invest time in the people you are making friends with, you cannot expect people to be your best friend after seeing them twice. Allow for the friendship to grow through time and times spent together. 

6. Take initiative.

   Don't expect things to come your way. Sometimes you will need to take initiative, ask someone to do go do something, or set up a nice plan to do something fun.

7. Be there for a friend.

   Once you have established a friendship, be a good friend for better and worse.

   It is not a very friendly thing to do to only be there when it's fun; real friends are there to support and lend a helping hand or a listening ear when their friend is going through a difficult period. So be there, for the good and the bad - it will be reciprocated when you might go through a rough time.

8. Be attentive.

   Remember your friend's birthday and special occasions such as anniversaries, and send them a card or give them a nice personal present to celebrate the occasion.

9. Keep investing time.

   Now you are friends, it doesn't mean you can just sit back and expect it to stay this way. To maintain a friendship, you need to keep investing in it, simply by keeping up seeing each other, doing fun things that will add to the history of your friendship, add to the experiences you had together. Or if for whatever reason you cannot get together for a while, make a random telephone call here and there to see how your friend is doing. This will be appreciated and you will be considered a real friend.