Social Life Improves Your Dating Success

While men and women differ on this particular topic, a social life is important to both genders. Ironically, more and more men and women both report having great difficulty in the once simple prospect of making friends. Remember how easy it was when we were all young? You stood next to someone on the playground or in line and just asked them if they wanted to be your friend. Once they agreed you were off and running and playing together.

The adult world makes it a little more difficult. Many people report that the majority of the friends either come from their work environment or a hobby interest. If work friends aren't happening and you don't have a hobby that is ready to lift off the ground and boost your social life, then you have to go out, meet people, and be ready to exchange information so that you can contact them again.

Workshops and seminars are a really good place to network and sometimes you can make one good friend in these environments, but making friends means going out and finding places where you can hang out, talk to a wide variety of people and going on about your business once you have collected their name and number or email address.

Regardless of their gender, don't call a brand new friend the next day. Give it a few days to a week before you go charging off to ask them to meet you for coffee or drinks or whatever. There is no need to make up an excuse, just simply tell them that you really enjoyed their company and that you had some free time that you'd like to spend getting together and hanging out. Make it easy for them and they will usually respond with a positive response.

You do have to take a significant amount of time to develop real friendships. You really can't run out and find a new best friend like you could when you were eight. Instead you have to start showing up to a lot of places, spending time with people individually. Going fishing or sailing or hiking or whatever floats everyone's proverbial boat creates a good adventure to get to know two or three new friends at once.

The hardest part about making new friends is realizing that you may have some significant differences. You might need to really take a poll of your inner feelings about some issues, especially those that center around religion or politics. After all, nobody is going to meet all of your criteria. You may find that you like one person more than you originally planned and you might find the person you thought was going to be the greatest friend in the world isn't going to make any type of friend for you. Relax, be as accepting as possible, and then let the new relationships in your life take on a course of their own. Present yourself as authentically as possible and never be afraid to be who you are.

When you start hanging out with any one particular friend over a period of a few weeks with more regularity, you might decide that you want to meet their friends. This is a simple method of expending your circle and deciding that the person your new friend is talking about sounds like someone worth meeting, and expressing that thought. In most cases, the next time the gang is all heading out to grab a bite to eat together that you will be invited along. Let things unfold naturally and over the period of a few months you will go from no friends to a strong circle of growing friends. And friendships that are really true and strong are worth more than you could ever calculate.