How to Make Friends as a Grown-Up

Today’s episode is about how to make friends – namely, the REALITY we find ourselves in when seeking friendship as grown-ups. How we do it now is going to be different from how we did it as children, teenagers, and young adults – but in a GOOD way.

A friend recently said to me, “The way you talk about making friends sounds kind of like dating.” And, well, that’s because it kind of is.

But it doesn’t need to be that way. There’s value in even our simplest connections, so let’s get rid of that pressure and just enjoy meeting new people, trying new things, and connecting in new ways.

In this episode you’ll hear about:

• The amount of pressure we put on romantic partners vs. friendships – and why, when making friends in real life, it’s better to expect less
• How friendship in media (movies, social media, books, TV) is curated to create drama or dream situations – this is often not real life!
• The realities behind the “pick-up-where-we-left-off friends” and the “friends that will always be there for us” 
• How making friends and maintaining friendships requires staying curious, taking small risks, paying attention, showing up, and using our time, energy, and resources
• Spending time thinking about the kinds of new friends you want to make – i.e., what do you want to do with your friends? What do you want to connect over?
• How to get unstuck with “defined friends” by letting them into other parts of our lives and creating new shared experience routes

Resources & Links

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