Your Happiness Factor

Finding and Keeping Good Friends Wendy Mason  is a Career Coach and Life Coach helping you to solve difficult problems at work and at home. Finding and keeping good friends has two parts to it What draws us to people What seals the friendship What draws us to someone? We meet lots of people in life but for most us very few become frends. These seem to be the things that draw into becoming friend with people. Shared interests and values We usually need to find we have something in common with people in order to become friend. This is usually in terms of the kinds of things we enjoy doing and what we believe to be important in life. If I am very interested in sports and you are very interested in, say, looking at paintings, then we may struggle even  to start a conversation that holds our interest. Likewise, if we believe completely different thing about what is important. Of course, our tastes may change over time and after the friendship is formed. S

  How To Grow And Deepen New Friendships I found a great site on how to make friends and develop your social skills.   SucceedSocially.com is a collection of articles related to improving social skill and making friendships. It deals with shyness, and working around the problems that come from feeling that you do not fit comfortably into the norm.   Here is an extract of the writing on that site; it is about deepening and strengthening new friendships. "Just spend more time together I'll break this down further soon, but simply spending more time with someone is the backbone of becoming better friends with them. A close relationship isn't something that happens in a few hours. You need time to get to know the other person, have fun together, and become more comfortable with each other. You need time for all the relationship-enhancing things I mention below to happen. Additionally, it usually takes a while before we start thinking of someone as a

Friendship: Seven Tips for Making New Friends. This post is from Gretchen Rubin who is a thought-provoking and influential writer on happiness.  Ancient philosophers and scientists agree: strong social ties are the KEY to happiness. You need close, long-term relationships; you need to be able to confide in others; you need to belong; you need to get and give support. Studies show that if you have five or more friends with whom to discuss an important matter you’re far more likely to describe yourself as “very happy.” Not only does having strong relationships make it far more likely that you take joy in life, but studies show that it also lengthens life (incredibly, even more than stopping smoking), boosts immunity, and cuts the risk of depression. “Okay, okay,” you’re thinking, “I get it — but it’s not that easy to make new friends.” Here are some strategies to try, if you’re eager to make friends but are finding it tough: 1.  Show up . Just as Woody Allen said that