5 Surprising Places to Learn About Friendship
If you want to be a better friend, there are some surprising places you can learn from. Just paying attention to your everyday life will garner you some examples to follow (especially if you have a lot of really good friends), but there are also a few places you might not have thought of. Here are five places to pick up tips on friendship.
Celebrities don't always do the right thing when it comes to friendship, and that's the point. They make mistakes and end up on the news a lot, and that helps because it gives you insight into what's really important when it comes to friendship. Sometimes seeing someone else (even a celebrity who you don't know personally) can help shed some light on the best way to treat a friend.
Not every celebrity example is a negative one, of course. Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King seem to make their friendship thrive. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have been friends since they were kids and are still close, and there are several other celebrity best friends who provide positive examples on friendship.
Think back to the times when you were running around on the playground. Didn't it seem as if making friends was easier when we were kids? That's because you were less guarded and more trusting. As adults, we've dealt with years of people being dishonest and hurting us, and as a result we aren't as willing to forgive and forget as we once were.
It's not always a bad thing to go slowly in relationships, but if you are putting up walls when you meet new people you are doing yourself a disservice when it comes to friendship. Talk about the issues you have with your friends, and learn to develop more trust. Think back to when you were a kid and use that as a guide for how to be more open in your friendships.
You might be surprised at some of the lessons you'll learn from observing people at work. While the office is a professional setting, it's still a good place to see how people interact, how they maintain loyalty, how they choose to disagree (and resolve those disagreements), and how they cheer each other up. The office (or wherever you work) is an interesting place because people are forced to be together who aren't necessarily friends, so it's a good learning experience to see how they choose to treat others. Even if you don't have a friend in the office, you'll benefit from watching your coworkers.
Reading about how friendships are portrayed can give you a different perspective than even seeing them played out in TV or the movies. When you read a story about friendship (even when it's indirectly spoken about), you naturally picture the characters and situation. This visual can help you sort out your own friendship issues. Books can also help you express yourself easier, especially if you're introverted and struggle with getting the right words out sometimes. Reading the words of others can sometimes inspire our own.
Relationships on TV and in the movies are fictional but sometimes seeing similar issues from your own life played out on screen can really put things in perspective. For example, if you've just had a big falling out with your friend, watching someone on a TV show resolve their problems may give you the incentive to talk to your pal. Or, if you see two people who end their friendship over a fight, it may show you just how precious real-life friendships are.
1. Celebrities
Celebrities don't always do the right thing when it comes to friendship, and that's the point. They make mistakes and end up on the news a lot, and that helps because it gives you insight into what's really important when it comes to friendship. Sometimes seeing someone else (even a celebrity who you don't know personally) can help shed some light on the best way to treat a friend.
Not every celebrity example is a negative one, of course. Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King seem to make their friendship thrive. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have been friends since they were kids and are still close, and there are several other celebrity best friends who provide positive examples on friendship.
2. The Playground
Think back to the times when you were running around on the playground. Didn't it seem as if making friends was easier when we were kids? That's because you were less guarded and more trusting. As adults, we've dealt with years of people being dishonest and hurting us, and as a result we aren't as willing to forgive and forget as we once were.
It's not always a bad thing to go slowly in relationships, but if you are putting up walls when you meet new people you are doing yourself a disservice when it comes to friendship. Talk about the issues you have with your friends, and learn to develop more trust. Think back to when you were a kid and use that as a guide for how to be more open in your friendships.
3. Work
You might be surprised at some of the lessons you'll learn from observing people at work. While the office is a professional setting, it's still a good place to see how people interact, how they maintain loyalty, how they choose to disagree (and resolve those disagreements), and how they cheer each other up. The office (or wherever you work) is an interesting place because people are forced to be together who aren't necessarily friends, so it's a good learning experience to see how they choose to treat others. Even if you don't have a friend in the office, you'll benefit from watching your coworkers.
4. Books
Reading about how friendships are portrayed can give you a different perspective than even seeing them played out in TV or the movies. When you read a story about friendship (even when it's indirectly spoken about), you naturally picture the characters and situation. This visual can help you sort out your own friendship issues. Books can also help you express yourself easier, especially if you're introverted and struggle with getting the right words out sometimes. Reading the words of others can sometimes inspire our own.
5. Movies and Television
Relationships on TV and in the movies are fictional but sometimes seeing similar issues from your own life played out on screen can really put things in perspective. For example, if you've just had a big falling out with your friend, watching someone on a TV show resolve their problems may give you the incentive to talk to your pal. Or, if you see two people who end their friendship over a fight, it may show you just how precious real-life friendships are.
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