Five Tips For Choosing Your Friends Better

You need to learn to choose your friends, because friendship is one of the most important interpersonal relationships that exists. Furthermore, it is also where you can experience the most disappointments. Sometimes a person may fail you after many years of friendship, or you may suddenly realize that they are toxic. There are times when people complain about not having real friends. If you are in this position, it may be time to learn and choose your friends.

Thanks to technology, it’s pretty easy to make friends these days, or at least that’s what we think. The results of a survey in Time magazine revealed that many did not have close friends. Perhaps the reason is that most people do not know how to choose their friends correctly. Here are some tips that may help!

Tips for choosing your friends better

1. Talk about common interests

One of the first tips to better choose your friends is to talk about common interests. Although you may feel sympathy for a person when you first meet them, it is always a good idea to have a conversation where you can find out if you share any ideas or hobbies.

Why is this necessary? Well, that’s because you need to make plans with your friends to get to know them even better and strengthen their relationship. If you can not meet often in your free time, you can just forget to try and plan a weekend trip. That would be virtually impossible. Therefore, talking about common interests will enable you to find like-minded people with whom you can share your free time.

2. Choosing your friends better: Find out if they only contact you when they need you

The second tip for choosing your friends better is to try to find out if they are contacting you because they want to share their time with you by doing a joint activity, or if on the contrary they are only looking for you when they need you. You will easily discover this because they will probably ask you to do you a favor.

As this situation continues over time, you will begin to feel unwell. In fact, you will realize that you are the only one asking them to meet for coffee or a chat. Also, they are rarely available when you need to talk and ease the pressure. These are important things to keep in mind.

3. How do your friends treat other people?

This advice is as necessary as it is important. Yes, a person can treat you well, but that does not mean they have the same values. Thus, they may not be the person you want to start a friendship with. For that reason, it is important that you analyze how they treat other people, especially other friends and family.

Imagine that you are always very comfortable with a friend. You share your opinions and can discuss all kinds of topics without any problems. One day, however, they show you a part of their personality that you did not know and did not necessarily like with their partner or one of their parents. So if you take into account these circumstances you will be able to draw your own conclusions and make a decision.

4. Address controversial issues

Talking about politics, for example, can be a controversial topic to talk about. It’s about choosing the most sensitive topics where you can talk to your friends to see how they react. Maybe you realize that they are taboo for some of them, or that someone thinks that their opinion is the only thing that matters.

Addressing controversial issues will also help you measure the degree of tolerance your friends have. Even if you do not think the same about a particular topic, it is important that you respect the opinions of others. In addition, it is important for you to listen to them in the same way that you expect them to listen to you.

5. Do not be obsessed with finding the perfect friend

The last of the tips is to avoid getting obsessed with finding the perfect friend. This will only cause you to be constantly on the lookout and feel that you do not fit in with anyone. This is indicated in the article “The negative consequences of maximizing friendship selection”. You should choose your friendships better, but be flexible.

As you can see, your goal should be to choose the people who really bring something positive into your life. You also need to analyze the friendships you currently have, or the ones you have had a long-term relationship with. Are they positive?