Making friends is never easy and it becomes even harder when you become an adult. From becoming pickier about who you want around you to fear getting rejected, nothing about making friends as an adult is easy.
Yet, there are actually ways that you can improve your chances of making friends in adulthood.
Open up your mind
When it comes to making friends, it is critical that you are proactive and positive before even attempting an interaction. Stop worrying or dwelling on rejection and instead, focus on giving the best impression when you meet new people.
Also, be open to making friends of any gender, age or ethnic background. Not only does this widen your pool of potential friends, it helps you open yourself up to new experiences.
Pursue a hobby in a group
What do you like doing as a hobby? Painting? Photography? Reading? Any hobby that you have probably has a group or community of people with similar interests. Join such groups or communities to increase chances of making friends.
Pursuing your hobby in a community allows you to develop relationships organically with people that you already have a common ground with.
Keep showing up
Often, at first, interactions with other will often be awkward since we are weary of each other. This might make you want to check out of future interactions, but remember that meeting people at first will always be like this.
Know that the other people are as tense and awkward as you are. So, show up each time when you have to. This helps build trust between you and the group, allowing for a relationship to develop.
Connect with people closest to you
Neighbors and co-workers are all potential friends in waiting. Chances are, you spend a large portion of your life with these two sets of people and they will be the ones closest to you in the event of something happening.
So, make effort to connect with them on a deeper level. Invite your neighbor over for dinner sometimes, or invite your co-worker to lunch or drink after hours. You can both begin on work related topics sure, but the longer you spend time together, branch out into areas of common interest beyond work.
And if all else fails, these apps can help you meet like-minded people who can then become your friends.
