10 Ways to Make Friends

By Eduard Ezeanu
Today's world offers us many opportunities to meet new people and make friends. You simply need to discover the best ones and put them into practice. As you do so, your social life and not only will flourish.
Here are 10 ways to makes friends that have been tried and tested, and they work great for nearly everybody, no matter their age, profession, education or economic status:
1. Volunteer. Find a cause you believe in and get involved in groups, organizations or projects that serve that particular cause. It's a great way to find like-minded people, who believe in the same cause you do, and make friends with them.
2. Take dancing lessons. Dancinglessons are an excellent method to meet people and interact with them in a fun, social way. Preferably, learn partner dancessuch as tango, salsa or waltz, as dancing with a partner will make it even easier to get sociable.
3. Go to a meet-up. In many cities, there are special events called meet ups, organized just for people who would like to meet other people and build friendships. Go online and use a search engine to look for meet ups in your city, and then attend some of them.
4. Join a jogging group. Jogging can be done alone but it can also be done in larger groups. There are special groups for people who like to jog and they do so together. If you want to stay in shape and make friends at the same time, find such a group, contact them and ask them to join them.
5. Use Facebook. Connecting andstarting interactions with people on Facebook is easy, even with people you don't really know but you have some friends in common with. You can use it to meet friends of your friends and start building friendships with them directly, then you can eventually meet in-person.
6. Have you considered church? If you're a religious person, church is a very good place to meet people and make friends. It's an environment where individuals are particularly friendly and kind to others, and making conversation is easy and accessible.
7. Take a class. If you want to learn new things and build friendships at the same time, a class might be the thing for you. Think of something specific you want to learn, find a class on that topic and enroll in it. You'll meet people interested in the same topic andyou'll always have something to talk about.
8. Get a dog. Many persons love pets, dogs in particular. Walking your dog in the park is an easy way to strike conversations with other people with dogs. There are plenty of people out there who got to know each other because of their pets.
9. Talk to strangers. There are opportunities to make friends almost everywhere, if you just start chatting with the persons around you: on a bus, in a queue, in the supermarket etc. It does take some confidence touse these opportunities, and that confidence is worth acquiring.
10. Meet your friends' friends. Many of your current friends also have other friends whom you don't know. Well, it can be an excellent idea to meet and get to know some of them. Simply ask your friends to take you with them when they go out with some of their other friends. It can work wonders for you.
Eduard Ezeanu is a communication coach specializing in social success. If you enjoyed this article, also learn how to start a conversation and discover how to make people like you from two first-class articles on his People Skills Decoded blog.