Where do I find more friends???
“Where do I find more friends?”??
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Our modern cities- concrete jungles, for the most part- are not conducive for social life by default.
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Fueled by the economy, our cities are designed primarily to serve the needs of businesses and property owners.
That begs the question: where exactly do you find more friends?
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One solution is easy: you leverage your current social network. But not everyone can do this.
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If you can, say YES to every invitation. Get EVERYONE’s contact when you meet new people, and follow up on everyone.
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All it takes is a meeting with a social butterfly to be introduced to a dozen other people, a few of which could end up your new deep friends.
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What if you don't have that good of a current social network? For example, your network might be trapped, or it might be the wrong crowd.??
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This solution is harder, but it’s important that you master it so you can be free.
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Let’s boil it down into a few actionable steps you can apply immediately:
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1. Go to Google and type in “events in [city].” Browse Google for the various events going on.
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You can also search on Facebook events!
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It’s important here to identify the most social of the events. Some people “go to yoga” to be social, but the problem with that is yoga, while practiced together, is still an individual practice.
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Be brave and go outside your comfort zone. You may discover a new hobby, but the minimum goal is to make a new contact you can hangout with and meet more friends through.
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Note: if you’re in a larger city, look up “Mundo Lingo” if you’re interested in learning another language or you speak more languages. It’s highly social!
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2. Identify a hobby that you have that can be social. You MUST pick one social hobby.
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Example: table tennis. While not the most social of events, it guarantees you’ll be interacting with another human.
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Again, “yoga” or something like that doesn’t necessarily count, unless there’s a social implication in it. I’ve made small talk after yoga sessions but most people are just there to do yoga and not meet people.
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Go to Google or Facebook search and look for events related to this social hobby. While similar to the first one, this is more specific than just finding a ton of random events. This will be a new hobby you can take up!
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3. Join Couchsurfing, AND Meetups.
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These two apps will have things going on.
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Couchsurfing is primarily used by travelers, but you may meet some expats or locals in your area!
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Meet up will always have some events too- it doesn’t matter what you find, just go for it!
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4. Be Creative
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There are SO many ways that I could write about for ways to make new friends and meet new people!
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Do you regularly go to a cafe and notice others? Say “hello.” Smile and talk to people as you’re going about your day.
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Put down your phone and start looking at others in the eyes. I recently did this and within the week made 2 new friends.
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We went on a spontaneous trip to a mountain within 30 minutes of meeting each other (they said hello to me, by the way, so I didn’t even approach them).
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If you want more ways to meet people, leave a comment or send me a PM!