In my last blog, I wrote about high-maintenance friends and, if you read that, you might have decided to draw back from some of the people in your life. If that’s the case, perhaps you found Christmas a bit odd because you’re lonely, missing them (even if they were a negative influence!) and would like to make new friends to fill the space that’s left in your life.

Research shows that happiness and mental health are closely linked to friendships, but as I explored in my last blog, some friends are just too high-maintenance to continue going along with the same old patterns.

Often, going into a New Year, I write about resolutions but so do many other bloggers, so I thought I’d try a new theme going into 2023.

So, how to go about making new friends in this coming year?

It starts with making the decision to change – contrary to what a lot of us like to believe, good friendships don’t always ‘just happen’ so sometimes we have to change what we do and how we do it to make more successful friendships.

Next, think about the people that you work with; sometimes you have more in common with them than your working environment and you can take that further. If you find someone else shares your love of dancing, workouts or walking, invite them to join you in one of these. The advantage of working with someone is that you’ve had a chance to get to know them, albeit in a working environment, so you have a heads-up about whether they’re kind, principled or moody at times. If you find them difficult to work with, don’t pursue a friendship with them though!

Even if you start bonding with some of your colleagues, try something outside of work too: join a group of some kind. This could be a book group, a badminton or squash club or a running group. Try to join a group that meets regularly – weekly or monthly contact is important so that you can get to know the other group members really well.

Another great way of meeting like-minded people, who have the potential to become friends, is to volunteer locally. There are lots of volunteering opportunities – it could be working at a dog-rescue centre, litter-picking or visiting older people in a Care Home. Whatever you choose, there will almost certainly be at least one person that you ‘click’ with.

Take some responsibility for organising get-togethers and, if you say you’ll text someone about meeting up, make sure that you do it.

Friendships change and grow and it’s important to remember that all sorts of different friendships can brighten up our lives.

Lastly, don’t take it personally if some new friendships don’t really take off – people are busy and sometimes have things going on in their lives that we know nothing about.

Hopefully you’ve enjoyed reading this blog and, if so, you can see my blogs as soon as they are published (usually on Wednesdays) by pressing the ‘follow’ button and you can share them with your friends. You can also find me on LinkedIn, Instagram (samebutdifferent) and read my FB posts every week at Same But Different #samebutdifferent #relationships # issues #bloggerforever #lovewriting #livingchange #makeitcount #canidothis #canyoudothis #ukblogger #femaleblogger