Bernard Meltzer once said, ‘A true friend is someone who thinks you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked.’ Friends constitute a large part of our lives as every memory shared with them is etched in the past and is indelible in our minds. This article focuses on some effective ways which will help you have more friends in life. However, when life happens to us, we are forced to go our different ways, even if it means that we cannot spend any more time with those crazy buddies. This can intimidate us and makes us realize how different life would be without them. 

But, life never ceases to proceed and therefore, we are exposed to new situations and places where we have to make new friends, share memories and times when we could’ve done with our school buddies or college friends. But, what if you feel grateful for being friends with the roommate who’s just moved into your apartment or the girl who’s living across your flat? So, accept the fact that change is the only constant and you must meet new people and make new friends.

5 Tips To Have More Friends

Here are the 5 amazing ways that can help you have more friends in life:

1. Be unapologetically yourself

If you think that by being cool and sassy, you can attract people towards you, you’re probably right. But, it will prove hazardous for you and your personality in the long run. When you try to be something that you’re not, you’re unconsciously rejecting your authentic self and molding according to the collective opinion. 

Under such circumstances, even if you have more friends, it will be exhausting for you to uphold that façade for a long time. Eventually, when you try to rip it off, your friends feel cheated, because your true personality was not what they signed up for. So, don’t change yourself so that people can accept you or like you. It’s not going to help anybody. Just be your authentic self, unapologetically. 

2. Be open to various activities

Once you know who you are at the core, decide to sign yourself up for various activities by getting yourself out there. You can start by attending workshops or get membership in some online communities, which gives you a great opportunity to befriend people who share similar interests.

Going to parties, bars and clubs is also a great way to meet people face-to-face and have more informal conversations than other situations. However, if you’re socially anxious or introverted, this might prove to be a bit difficult for you. Therefore, if you want to pass on this one, you can. But make sure that you try to come out of your comfort zone voluntarily and just be yourself. Admittedly, it’s easier than done, but if you don’t try, you’ll never know. 

3. Acknowledge the anxiety and fear

Let’s admit it, once and for all. Meeting new people is scary because we are uncertain about how we will be perceived by them. Will we make a good impression or will it be downhill from the first word? Am I looking good? Is my hair proper? Is my outfit infallible? These questions normally pop up in the minds of the best of the best. The key lies in overcoming this fear and dubiousness by getting out of your mind and focusing on the person you are talking to. When you constantly think about yourself and your physical appearance, you’re centering yourself and your thoughts without paying much attention to what the other person is trying to say verbally and non-verbally. 

Therefore, in this pursuit of leaving a long-lasting impression on the people, you end up making a bad first impression on them, which is difficult to erase. The only solution to this problem is, acknowledge the fear and anxiety that you’re facing before you are about to meet new people and overcome them with some positive affirmations that help in restoring confidence. More often than not, these thoughts are completely made up by your mind and they may not even prove to be true in reality. Therefore, focus on the other person and pay attention to what they are saying. 

4. Start with people you know

Sometimes you have more friends than you know. You only need to recognize them in your life. This can help you from exposing yourself to the intimidating situations of meeting new people and sharing the deepest moments of your life with them. So, it’s easier to start with people you know and then work your way forwards. One way to do so is to reach out to your acquaintances. We all have acquaintances whom we must have met at least 2-3 times in our lives or did a project with them once. However, if you want to turn these acquaintances into friends, then you can start by dropping a friendly message to them and maybe check up on them if they are free. 

Another way to expand your social circles easily is to meet your friends’ friends. You must’ve heard about them through your close friends, so you might have some idea of who they are before you meet them. This might give you a good headstart into opening a conversation with them. Apart from them, you can also decide to accept the invitations and go out. Although this point has been mentioned before, it couldn’t be more stressed. Rejecting an invitation for staying in your room binge-watching Netflix, sounds easy. But remember, you’re limiting your social circle and risking meeting new people who can prove to be beneficial in your life. 

So, we’ll have to repeat the age-old clichéd phrase one more time to make you realize the importance of meeting new people. Get-out-of-comfort-zone. 

5. Don’t be afraid to take the initiative

Now that you’re out of your comfort zone and surrounded by unknown people, don’t be afraid to take the first step. It does not relate to something extraordinary, but a simple ‘hello’ would work just fine. Next, you can share a harmless detail about yourself. Make sure that you don’t overshare the deepest or the darkest part of your life just to hotwire a connection. Under such a situation, the other person will feel awkward and confused, which is not going to help if you want to have more friends. 

These are some of the simple yet effective ways that will help you have more friends in life. Being alone without any friends doesn’t necessarily mean that something’s wrong with you. If you feel there is, then maybe you can work upon it and try to get some honest opinions from your parents. But, under no situation, you must denigrate your self-worth or self-confidence. That will only isolate you from people and exacerbate your social anxiety. 

Do you have more friends in 2022? If yes, how many? 

Recommended reading:  4 Ways To Build Lasting Friendship