(ThySistas.com) How real are your social media friends? Do you have that one or two virtual besties that you talk to on or offline that you probably will never meet in person but your connection is so real? Well that’s the exact same feelings for millions of people around the world today. Sometimes creating new friendships is key to the level that your life is headed in.
Making new friends can be scary but it’s essential to your growth. That friend you grew up with as a child, now has different views, goals and aspirations than you and that’s totally normal and should be accepted. Don’t ever force a friendship but organically connect and engage with the person. Your best friend may be more interested in parenting because she has small children and married, than listening to another one of your genius ideas about starting your own business. This doesn’t mean you two can no longer be friends, it simply means that you should be making new quality friends.
The reason I’m adding the word quality in here because when you’re making new friends, that relationship should be more intentional and of quality because you’re not hosting a popularity contest just to add more friends to your roster. You should be making and connecting with meaningful people who can add value to your life and vice versa.
Let’s say you are interested in taking on a new business adventure and you need to connect with a community of people that help you along this new journey. Facebook groups are great for meeting new people or local meet up groups if you’re more of a meeting someone face to face type of person. I’ve seen so many people develop friendships from engaging in co-working spaces like Starbucks or a private owned rental space. It’s something about being in a space and surrounding yourself with people who are working hard and that energy rubs off on you and you begin to work on your tasks as well.
You may be wondering how exactly to make new quality friends? Below are four suggestions that anyone can do to birth new friendships:
Go explore life: You can’t sit at home and expect new people to just show up at your door. Get out and go meet new people.
Attend a class, workshop, seminar or conference of your interest: Your business bestie may be sitting at the next conference you attend or the class you attend because it’s your favorite hobby.
Open up to people: Stop saying that being an introvert is the reason why you don’t make new friends. You have to open up and talk to people in order to connect with them. Sitting in a corner at an event where you need to be networking is not going to get you anywhere with anybody.
Be yourself: There is no better way to be authentic when meeting new people than being yourself. It takes more energy trying to be someone else that you’re not, anyway.
Making new quality friends is a joy if you simply enjoy the process and organically connect with people. Get out of your comfort zones and go out in this big beautiful world and make some new friends! Walter Winchell says that, “A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.”
Staff Writer; Felicia T. Simpson
One may also connect with this sister online over at; FTSimpson.com.