How to choose your Friends

Sometimes you need to make new friends. Perhaps old friendships have faded away, or perhaps you are in a new environment where you don’t know a lot of people yet. Friendships are crucial to health and well-being. Building new friendships will take time, but you will soon find friends who will be there for you in good times as well as bad.

 
Trust in chemistry. Just as in romantic relationships, friendships are based on mutual attraction. If you find yourself looking forward to seeing someone again, chances are that you’ve found a potential new friend.

Find common ground. Choose friends who can understand or share important aspects of your life. People are often friends with people similar to them, and there’s nothing wrong with that. You might bond over similar past experiences or shared challenges.

• Establish connections by talking about what you have in common. If you hear someone quote your favorite movie, tell them that you love it, too. Ask questions and offer examples from your own life.
  

Seek diversity. Make sure that you are open to friends who might challenge some of your assumptions. The best friends help to broaden our horizons.

• Look for clubs and organizations that have a range of different people in them.
• Remember that everyone has many different aspects. Someone might come from a very different sort of family, but have precisely the same kind of enthusiasm for chess as you do!
• Having a diverse set of friends helps you to relate to a wider range of people. You learn more about the world, with positive results not only for your social life, but your professional life as well.

 Choose friends who support you. A good friend doesn’t have to agree with everything you say. But they must care about your life and listen to you. You need friends who will respond to you and support you on your own path. If someone never laughs at your jokes or gets outraged on your behalf, they’re not going to be a real friend.
 
Notice how people treat their other friends. If someone is friendly to you, but mean to other people, or if they spend a lot of time gossiping about their other friends’ shortcomings, they are unlikely to become a really good friend. In the end, they will treat you the way they treat their other friends.

Enjoy spending time with your friends. This might sound obvious, but when you’re lonely, it can be tempting to grab on to anything that seems like friendship. Real friends, though, make you feel genuinely happy. You should laugh together and look forward to hanging out. If something feels off, it probably is. Let that person go and keep meeting new people.

Don’t burn bridges. Even if a new friendship doesn’t take off, treat that person politely and respectfully. People change over time, and you might find yourself growing closer to them later on.