Friendship

1. Realize your fear is in your head

The first step is to develop a healthy mental image of meeting new people. Some of us see meeting new people as a scary event. We are concerned about making a good impression, whether the other person will like us, how to keep the conversation going, and so on. The more we think about it, the scarier it seems. This initial apprehension develops into a mental fear, which takes a life of its own and unknowingly blocks us from making new friends. Shyness toward others is actually a result of fear.

Actually, all these fears are just in our head. If you think about it, 99% of people are too busy being concerned about these very things themselves to pay attention to you. While you’re worried about the impression you make, they are worried about the impression they will make. Truth be told, they are just as scared as you are. The remaining 1% are people who recognize that a relationship is built on way stronger values than specific words or things said/done during just one encounter. Even if there are people who do judge you based on what you do/say, are these people you want to be friends with? I think not.

2. Start small with people you know

If you haven’t been socializing much, meeting a whole bunch of new people may seem intimidating. If so, start small first. Lower the difficulty of the task by starting off with your inner circle of friends, i.e. people you are more familiar with. Some ways to do that:

Reach out to acquaintances. Have any hi-bye type friends from earlier years? Or friends you lost touch with over time? Drop a friendly SMS and say hi. Ask for a meetup when they are free. See if there are opportunities to reconnect.
See if there are cliques you can join. Cliques are established groups of friends. The idea isn’t to break into the clique, but to practice being around new friends. With cliques, the existing members will probably take the lead in conversations, so you can just take the observatory role and watch the dynamics between other people.
Get to know your friends’ friends. You can join them in their outings or just ask your friend to introduce you to them. If you are comfortable with your friends, there’s a good chance you will be comfortable with their friends too.
Accept invitations to go out. I have friends who rarely go out. When asked out, they reject majority of the invites because they rather stay at home. As a result, their social circles are limited. If you want to have more friends, you have to step out of your comfort zone and go out more often. You can’t make more friends in real life if you stay at home!

3. Get yourself out there

Once you acquaint yourself more with your inner circle of friends, the next step will be to extend to people you don’t know.

Join meetup groups. Meetup.com is a great social networking site. There are many interest groups, such as groups for entrepreneurs, aspiring authors, vegetarians, board-game lovers, cycling enthusiasts, etc. Pick out your interests and join those groups. Meetups are usually monthly depending on the group itself. Great way to meet a lot of new people quickly.
Attend workshops/courses. These serve as central avenues that gather like-minded people. I went to a personal development workshop last year and met many great individuals, some of whom I became good friends with.
Volunteer. Great way to kill 2 birds with one stone — not only do you get to spread kindness and warmth, you meet compassionate people with a cause.
Go to parties. Parties such as birthday parties, Christmas/new year/celebration parties, housewarmings, functions/events, etc. Probably a place where you’ll make a high quantity of new friends but not necessarily quality relationships. Good way to meet more people nonetheless.
Visit bars and clubs. Many people visit them to meet more friends, but I don’t recommend them as the friends you make here are probably more hi-bye friends rather than type #2 or type #3 friends. It’s good to just visit a couple of times and see how they are for yourself before you make your judgment.
Online communities. The internet is a great way to meet new people. Some of my best friendships started online. I met one of my best friends, K, from an IRC channel 10 years ago. I have at least 2 other good friends whom I knew from online too. We’ve since met up numerous times and became great friends. Even today, I have numerous great friendships with people I’ve never met (other personal development bloggers and my readers). Just because we have not met (yet) does not mean we can’t be great friends. Nowadays, online forums are one of the central places where communities gather. Check out online forums on your interest topics. Participate constructively and add value to the discussion. Soon, you’ll get to know the people there better. 🙂

4. Take the first step

Once you are out there with people around you, someone has to make the first move. If the other party doesn’t initiate a talk, take the first step to say hello. Get to know each other a little better! Share something about yourself, and then give the other party a chance to share about him/her. Something easy, like asking how the day is, or what they did today / in the past week is a great conversation starter. Once the ice is broken, it’ll be easier to connect.

Read: 10 Rules of a Great Conversationalist

5. Be open

a) Be open-minded. Don’t judge.

Sometimes you may have a preset notion of the kind of friend you want. Maybe someone who is understanding, listens, has the same hobbies, watches the same movies, has similar educational background, etc. And then when you meet the person and realize that he/she differs from your expectations, you then close yourself off.

Don’t do that. Give the friendship a chance to blossom. More importantly, give yourself a chance with this budding friendship. I have several very good friends who come from totally different backgrounds, and I would never have thought that we would be so close when I first knew them, simply because we are so different. A good number of my ex-clients are people whom I’d never meet in normal circumstances given our diverse backgrounds, yet we get along extremely well, just like good friends.

b) Open your heart

Yt the same note, open your heart to the person. This connection between you and the other party can only begin when your heart is open. This means to be trusting, have faith, and believe in the goodness of others. You can’t form any new connection if you mistrust others or you are fearful that things won’t work out. It’ll send the wrong vibes and cause them to close off their hearts to you too.

When I make new friends, I open myself fully, with full faith that they are good people, with good hearts and good intentions. I notice that because I do that, it has helped me foster a lot of genuine relationships which are built on trust, love and faith. These meaningful relationships wouldn’t be possible if I had closed myself off at the onset. One simple example is how I open myself to all of you fully on my blog, and in return, I attract readers who are genuine, supportive, and kind. I’m not sure about other communities online, but I know Personal Excellence readers exude authenticity and love. I know that because I can feel the warmth from all of you whether in your emails, comments, or messages. 🙂