Indispensable Tip for Success: Choose Friends Wisely

I absolutely love having friends of wide-ranging walks of life, belief systems, and interests. Keeping a diverse group of friends exposes me to fresher perspectives and gives me the opportunity to exercise my eclectic assortment of hobbies and interests. Everyone wants a group of loyal friends, but a wise man knows not to passively become surrounded by whoever may happen to walk into his life.

The friends with whom you spend the majority of your time determine much about how you view your place in the world, your standards for your behavior, and your goals for future success. If your best friends are couch-ridden burnouts, addicts, and champions of mediocrity, chances are that you?ll slowly become comfortable adopting similar habits.

On the other hand, if your closest friends are go-getters, optimists, and idea people who go the extra mile, you will be inspired to push yourself to see how far you can go. You will be less afraid to pursue your dreams and passions because you will be able to witness firsthand as your friends overcome their inhibitions. You will have a support system to reassure you when you doubt your abilities.

But How?

You might think this all sounds fine and dandy but have no idea how to go about separating yourself from your current best friends, let alone go about finding new ones. That?s okay. This isn?t something you can do overnight, but the key is to begin making a small effort to branch out.

The way to do this is to get involved in other activities, groups, or organizations to put yourself in a position to meet more people. Here are a few suggestions:

-Start volunteering through your church or local charity
-Buy a gym membership and take yoga classes
-Join a book club
-Become a member of a student organization (if you?re in college)
-Start frequenting a local coffee shop
-Take up a new hobby like cycling or programming and seek out the local collective
-Grab a beer with a friend from work and meet their friends
-Begin striking up random conversations with strangers
-Sign up for a class on knitting, dancing, cooking, etc.
-Travel or study abroad

These are just a few options that I came up with in a hurry off the top of my head, and I?m sure you could add a number of further items to the list. The point is that any of us can take up new ventures and meet new people if we put forth the effort.

Once you?ve begun to get more involved in your school or community, you?ll begin to make new and more diverse acquaintances. You should focus on being sincere and gaining rapport with everyone you meet. From there, you?ll begin to see real friendships blossom, and before long, you?ll have more people with whom you can choose to spend your time.

Even if you do find a bunch of great new friends, it can be difficult to stop spending large amounts of time with your old friends, even if you know it?s stifling you. You have to focus on what is important to you and work to divide your time in the most suitable way. Begin making plans with different friends a couple days in advance. That way, you?re committed to spending time with new friends as well as old.

Change your friendship time commitments slowly. Old friends can be very resistant to your attempts to foster new friendships. They may feel upset or slighted, like they aren?t good enough for you. Make the changes gradually, and your old friends will be less likely to misinterpret your actions as a sudden shifting of alliances. If need be, sit down and tell them face to face that this is not the case, and that you just want to enjoy a larger and more diverse group of friends.