It can be difficult to meet new people and make friends, especially when you move to a new city or find yourself out of your comfort zone. Even if you are well-established in your current location, you may find it difficult to make friends because your work too much or you just don’t have the social avenues to make “friend” connections.
There are several ways that you can meet people that you might not have considered in the past. Being more social can make your life more exciting and fulfilled and you won’t have time to be bored because your free time will be better occupied.
1. Expand on current relationships. You probably have several acquaintances that you see on a daily basis or a weekly basis. If you get along well with certain people, you can see if this acquaintance would like to go out and do something socially with you.
If you have common interests, you might suggest that the two of you do something together that involves your interest.
2. Make an effort to accept invitations. Sometimes people that you know may be having a barbecue or other type of social gathering. Try to ensure that you are able to attend and then show up at the appointed time. These types of gatherings often lead to meeting different people who are friends of friends.
If you meet people that you click with, you can make a plan to see them again in the future or you can invite your friends to your own event and ask them to extend the invitation to the friends that were at their gathering too.
3. Go out, even when you don’t feel like it. It turns out that when people invite someone to join them for dinner or a movie or something else; they really want to hang out with you. If you tend to say “no” often, people will eventually stop asking you to go with them. It is tough, sometimes to get the motivation to go out, when the weather is poor and your home is nice and cozy, but most of the time when you don’t feel like going out you are going to have a great time once you leave your comfort zone.
4. Consider joining local clubs for things that you are interested in. This is a really great way to meet new people who have similar interests to you. Joining these kinds of groups gets you out of the house, out of your shell and out socializing at least once per week.
5. Be persistent, but not creepy. If you get someone’s contact information, try contacting them several times and trying to make plans with them. If they decline the first time, try again, but don’t call them several times a day or even several times per week. If you have given people your contact information and they have not contacted you, don’t take it personally, some people are quite laid back and since they don’t quite know you yet they may not take your personal feelings into account. They may not have realized that you were hoping to hear from them within a certain time frame, so don’t be afraid to call them back and let them know that you would like to get together and hang out with them.
6. Do you work with people that you get along well with? What about people that you go to school with? Often people that we see on a daily basis that we get along well with are the best choice for going out with to do social things. Take the time to get to know a few people and if you find that you get along well with them, don’t be afraid to make the first move and ask them to join you in an activity. Take the initiative and make the plans after you have extended the invites. People appreciate that you have thought of everything – for example, you make dinner plans with some friends and then make the reservation at a local popular restaurant, ensuring that your group will be able to count on a specific time and place.
Trying to make new friends can be frustrating at first, but once you have used the same methods a few times you will know exactly what works and what does not. Don’t give up, everyone is different and it just takes time to get to know people.
Ref: lifezap
