Every person, regardless of age, has opportunities to make new friends. How and where do you, as a (young) adult or as a senior, find the best opportunities to find a new boyfriend or girlfriend? For example, what about finding contacts through work, club life or courses or training? And what is an essential condition for sustainable, friendly contacts?
Make friends at any age
Contrary to what some people think, there are plenty of opportunities for young adults, middle-aged people and seniors to make new friends, even if it may not be as easy as it was in your youth. Below you will find some tips.
With whom do you have the best chance of true friendship?
You have the best chance of making new, good friends with people who:
- live near you,
- you regularly encounter ‘spontaneously’,
- in an environment where people are generally not on their guard and where there is a familiar atmosphere.
The above conditions are met relatively often during your study years. The close friendships you make during this period of life are often more lasting than the friendships you make in other phases of your life. But how does that actually happen?
What about friendly contacts through your work?
Because of all the current job hoppers and employees affected by reorganizations, it has become a lot more difficult to make a real friendship with a colleague than it was often the case a few years ago. Due to modern developments
, contacts with your colleagues outside of work are often limited to the more superficial and non-binding nature of being each other’s acquaintances. Or because of the trend to use each other primarily as an instrument for networking.
Find people with the same interest through an association, course or training
The best approach to making a new friendship is to become a member of a sports or music club or another association where joint activities are carried out.
What also works very well is taking lessons at, for example, a folk high school, a music school, an evening school or other part-time training. Or you join a group of volunteers.
This way you meet people with similar interests as yourself and with a bit of luck you will find some people with whom you get along so well that you become real friends with them. If you are looking for a new boyfriend or girlfriend, you will meet people on a course or training in a natural and straightforward way who you may want to get to know better.
Reach out to people from your childhood circle of friends
Of course you can also reconnect with friends or acquaintances from the past. Many acquaintances from the past who you lost track of because you were taking another course or finding work, may now be found via social media such as Facebook or LinkedIn. Maybe this time those classmates or neighbors from the past will become your real friends today!
Realize that you must first be a good friend to yourself before you can be a good friend to someone else
What is essential is the idea that if you do not get along well with yourself, there is little chance that you will get along better with another person.
Therefore, if you want to make new friendships, it is very important to make sure that you accept yourself as you are (with all your limitations) and are able to accept others as they are. This essential condition for friendships applies regardless of the stage of life you are in. In essence, when you act like a true friend, you create space for the other person to befriend you.
Give friendship the opportunity to develop
Of course, true friendship takes time. The grass does not grow faster if you pull the blades. Don’t insist on friendship: that turns people away.
Show genuine interest in other people’s lives and discover whether the interest is mutual.
read more
- Making friends as an adult
- What is true friendship?