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How to make friends
If you're anything like me, your expectations and ideas about friendships changed throughout your life. As a kid, you feel cool when you have a lot of friends. But the older we get, the harder it is to:
I'm not even sure which one's harder, but I recently gained brilliant insights from an article titled How to Make Friends as an Adult. The author lived across three continents in nine different towns over the last 20 years, so he was forced to learn how to build new friendships - even when it felt uncomfortable and weird: “Is this what it’s come down to?” I wondered to myself. “Is this what happens when you decide to work fully remote? You get excited about paying two handymen to install a new toilet in order to get a dose of human connection?”
At that very moment, I knew something needed to change.
If I was going to make my new town feel like home, I’d have to get off my ass and make some new friends — or at least a few that didn’t charge me for their time.
Fortunately, this wasn’t the first instance where I’ve had this revelation. As a constant-mover who’s lived across three continents and in nine different cities or towns over the last two decades, I’ve become pretty good at quickly making friends in new places. In fact, despite growing up painfully shy with a debilitating stutter, making connections both online and off is a big part of my job—to the tune where I just wrapped up a manuscript on this very topic for my book publisher. If you’re like me and believe life is best when shared, here are some tips and tactics I’ve picked up on my journey that may help you on your own.
PS - I'm hosting a *free* Masterclass next week where I'll teach how you, too, can write stories like the one above and finally share your ideas, knowledge, memories, and experiences with the world. Sign up now. |
The Personal Growth Letter
by Sinem Günel & Philip Hofmacher
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