As adults, we no longer crave temporary connections. We want to make lasting ones. Rather than more friends, we rather just have a few good friends.
But it’s not a bad idea to make new friends, especially if there comes a time in our adult lives that we have to be far from our old friends.
Being in a new city, having new co-workers, or completely wanting a fresh start are perfect examples of when we would want to start new friendships as adults.
However, we are faced with a problem. Establishing good friendships is not as easy as it used to be.
Why Is It Hard To Find New Friend As Adults?
When we were kids making friend were as easy as going to the park and asking a kid to play with the seesaw together. As teenagers, we went with the people who talked to us and went along with them, but as adults, why does making friends seem like an impossible task?
Maybe it’s because we are at the point of our lives where we want to form meaningful relationships rather than having temporary best friends.
Rather than shallow ones, we would prefer to build deeper friendships because when you reach the age of mid-20s and so on, you are reminded how important it is to have good and constant people around.
8 Ways To Put Yourself Out There & Meet New People
Making true friends as an adult is proven to be a hard task because as we grow old, it becomes harder to trust and find potential friends.
That’s why to make it easier for most of you out there, here are 8 ways to find and meet new friends.
Talk More
Being a conversationalist is always a “good friend” quality. Initiating chats and showing your eagerness to connect with new people makes them interested and also helps you get through any awkward stage.
Given that not everyone likes chatty people, but it is still faster to make friends if you present yourself as an approachable person.
Join Multiple Circles
Book clubs, a yoga class, or a hiking group. Widen your horizon by joining groups to also create an opportunity to meet fresh faces.
Being a part of more circles than just your normal ones will help you meet interesting people that have different yet fascinating stories.
A book club can be a place to meet like-minded people. Yoga is where you can meet calm and relaxed people, while hiking groups are where adventurous people can be found.
There are plenty of people waiting to meet you, so start now.
Don’t Assume
You are only hindering yourself from forming relationships with people by assuming that they will immediately like you, and you will also set yourself for pain by assuming that they will always do.
Instead of racking your head if a person likes you, just let things take their course.
Do your best to be kind, likable, and interesting, and naturally, strong friendships will be established by and with the right people.
Not everyone will like you, but there are some who bound to appreciate you someday, and they are they just might be the friends you are looking for.
Learn New Things
Learning new things can be a great way to have something to talk about and also promote personal growth.
Having a working knowledge of many things such as art, tech, fashion, psychology, or whatever it is can become your weapon in finding potential friends.
A good and fruitful conversation is the best way to keep them coming back.
Go To New Places
Go out. Whether to your local library or networking events, don’t just go to work and come back home. Sometimes we meet good friends in new places.
How do you expect to connect with new people when you stay home all day? Step out of your comfort zone and go to places, then eventually encounter different people.
Try Using Friendship Apps
I was shocked that not only do we have dating apps, but we also have apps for finding the friend of our lives. Kidding aside, technology is now presenting an easy and convenient way to meet people. All it takes is to take the opportunity.
There is no shame in trying to look for people with similar or interesting stories online.
In fact, online is a great place to source out friends because a lot of people from around the globe can be reached with just a swipe of your finger on your phone.
If you are interested in this method, here are 5 friendship apps you can try for yourself.
5 Friendship Apps
- Meetup
- Peanut
- Bumble BFF
- Ablo
- Hey! VINA(Female Friendship)
Improve Your Listening
As important as it is to talk, learning how to listen is a great quality of a friend. Knowing when to talk, letting people say their piece, and having the presence of mind during conversation are very likable characteristics of a person.
People who listen tend to understand more, give good insights, and sympathize better, which or all that any person needs in a friend.
Be More Accepting
Friends don’t always have to like the same things or have similar perspectives. Sometimes being different from one another is just okay. Accept that people are different from you, and that can be a good thing.
Through meeting varieties of characters, you get to understand the world from a different view. You can then widen your comprehension of how things work exactly.
Open yourself to new, different, and change; those are the best ways to be a likable friend. In this way, you won’t be limiting the people they can get in your life.
Friendship is easier to build if you have no ridiculous standards that people need to pass through; keep it simple. We aren’t looking for the perfect friend here; what we should aim for is to find good ones.
