-
Make new friends, but cherish old ones
-
Remember that everything worthwhile usually
takes longer than expected.
-
Refuse to give up on looking for a new friend
because it may take a year or two to find one.
The year or two will pass anyway, and if you
don't look, you will still be without a friend.
-
Watch less TV.
-
Get and stay in shape. Recall the wise saying
"mens sana in corpore sano" which means in a
sound body rests a sound mind. Ultimately, the
body and mind are one. The graffiti writer
rightfully asked, "If you don't take care of
your body, where do you intend to live?" Just
as important, how do you intend to create and
maintain great friends if your body and mind
are not in great shape?"
-
Take friendship seriously but never
take yourself too seriously.
-
Don't be deceived by first
impressions.
-
Refrain from judging people by their relatives.
Just as important,
-
Seize every opportunity to meet someone new.
All it takes is one special person to change
your life forever.
-
Be pleased to meet someone who holds colossally
different views from yours. If you were
to meet someone that is an exact replica of
yourself, one of you would be redundant.
-
Life will always hand you a lot of friendship
opportunity if you look for it. Look for it!
-
Be as friendly to the ditchdigger as to
the corporate executive. Not too many
ditchdiggers have been in the news lately for
stealing from the company they work for but a
lot of executives have.
-
Never try to deprive someone of hope, even if
you think it is false hope. Everyone is
entitled to hope. Besides, they may prove you
wrong.
-
Whine. Whine.
Whine. Every word a whine. Don't be the source
of these whines. So what if
your boss took a strip off your hide, your ex
hasn't let you see the kids for four months,
and your credit card is maxed? Most people have
enough problems of their own and don't want to
hear all of yours. Quality people don't
like whiners. They prefer to hear positive
things and are much more likely to make friends
with positive people. Misery loves company, but
quality company does not love misery. So, don't
complain about everything imaginable to your
friends. It won't take long for you to sound
like a poetry reading gone bad - even to
yourself!
-
-
Never lend money to a friend - old or new.
In the event you don't get paid back, you will
end up losing both.
-
Remember that it takes ten times as much time
and energy to make a new friend as it does to
keep an
old friend.
-
You are in control over the hurt other people
inflict upon you. How much you are wronged is
dependent on how much care and energy you put
into remembering it.
-
Always do the right and honest thing,
regardless of how more difficult it may appear
to be. In the long term, it will be the easier
and more rewarding thing to have done. As the
Buddha says, “Karma means you don't get away
with anything."
-
Every month, have lunch with someone new.
-
-
Judge slowly. Forgive quickly.
-
When meeting someone for the first time, don't
ask, "What do you do for a living?" The person
may just answer "Why, I live, of course."
-
The main reason not to ask this common
question, however, is that you should enjoy the
person's company and find out who they truly
are instead of what they do at work.
-
Don't admire wealthy individuals for how much
money they have but for how generous they are
with it in helping others less fortunate than
themselves.
-
Be neat.
-
Be tough minded about what's really important
to you and tenderhearted about everything else.
-
Be courageous in meeting new people. Even if
you aren't, appear to be. Most people won't be
able to tell the difference.
-
Some of the most fascinating people we meet in
this world are those that we don't go looking
for. Thus, allow more chance into your life.
The more chance you allow, the more interesting
people you will get to know.
-
Opportunity for friendship knocks often. The
question is, how often do you hear it knocking?
-
Most circumstances are neither good nor bad,
but our thinking makes them so. So why not look
at the friendship game as an adventure instead
of a burden?
-
Create a comfortable and inviting home to share
with new acquaintances.
-
Just for the record, it need not be a big
house. Remember that a small house can hold as
much happiness as a big one. With the right
people inside, it will hold even more.
-
Don't believe everything you hear about a new
acquaintance. Let
him prove his worth and not someone else.
-
Show respect for how everyone earns a living,
regardless of how trivial it may appear in
comparison to your career. In fact, show extra
respect for anyone whose job is much harder
than yours and pays less.
-
Be original. If that means people will consider
you eccentric, more power to you for being
remarkably different from everyone else.
Research studies indicate eccentric people are
much happier than normal people. And most
people like meeting happy people and not
unhappy ones.
-
Present your life story with excitement -
not with explanation.
-
Be genuine. Let people know what you stand
for - and what you won't stand for.
-
Be modest.
-
Watch your manners. Be suspicious of anyone who
dwells on telling you how honest they are.
Usually, they aren't.
-
Seek out the good in people and you will find
it. Seek out the bad and the same applies.
-
Be curious and flexible.
-
Capitalize on opportunities that present
themselves for making others feel important.
-
Be enthusiastic about the
real
success of others. At
the same time, don't flaunt your
success - and don't apologize for it
when someone mentions it.
-
Keep good company if you want to meet good
company.
-
Pay your fair
share when you go to dinner.
-
Measure people by how big their hearts
are - not by how big their possessions and
bank accounts are.
-
Don't worry that you can't give people the best
of all personality traits. Give them the best
of what you have.
-
Share your blessings.
-
Give people a
second chance when they compromise their
integrity.
-
Even a third
chance is sometimes warranted. But like
baseball, three strikes and they're
out.
-
But do not shy away from conflict entirely.
Conflict is good for friendship. It determines
whether it has staying power.
-
Remember your friends' birthdays.
-
Use the good silver when your best friends come
to dinner.
-
Learn to make great chili and serve it often.
-
Own a great stereo system to play music your
friends like and not only the music you like.
-
Accept pain and
disappointment as part of life if you want to
play the friendship game full
tilt.
-
Don't say you don't have enough time to spend
with a new- found friend. You have the same
number of hours in every day as Bill Clinton,
Nelson Mendela, and many other famous people
who spend time with their friends. If you say
you don't have enough time to spend with your
friends, you are saying you don't have enough
time for happiness - and life!
-
Attend class reunions and try to rekindle old
friendships.
-
When a friend doesn't see things your way,
remember that it works both ways. You don't
always see things her way, either, do you?
-
Serve champagne for no reason at all.
-
A few words of praise or encouragement can make
your friends' day.
-
While playing a sport or a game with a
friend, never criticize his or her performance.
-
Never walk out on an argument with a friend. If
you must, bite your tongue, and say, "It was
all my fault." Do this even if it wasn't. Deep
down, your friend will know whose fault it was.
So will you. Perhaps, all things considered, it
doesn't matter whose fault it was.
-
Be physically there for your friends when they
are ill. It is nice to send a card, gift, or
flowers. But your presents can never substitute
for your presence.
-
Great friendship is not about great things
happening to you. It's about what you make
happen through your creativity, intention, and
good character.
-
Make it a habit to send thank you notes
promptly when a friend does something
unexpected and special for you.
-
The best way to keep your friends is to ensure
that they want to keep you as a friend.
-
If our friends are genuine and caring, they
will tell us what they truly think of us. We
will do the same for them. The Bruderhof is a
Christian sect that considers it unloving to
let friends to go on making the same mistake
time and time again without telling them. It is
important to display courage in informing
friends of the shortcoming. The Bruderhof
consider it an important aspect of Christian
love to be honest with others, even if it may
be hurtful to the people at the time.
-
Some criticism is good for you. Look at the
purpose of your friends' criticism as being to
assist you and not to humiliate you. The way to
handle criticism is not to over react when a
friend or partner says something critical. It's
not what they say but how you choose to react
to it.
-
Don't be boring. Surprise any way you can.
-
Resist the temptation to run any of your
friends' lives. Who the heck is going to run
yours in the mean time?
-
Make new friends, but don't let old ones
languish. It's ten times easier to maintain an
old friendship than to develop new ones.
-
If a friend is not experiencing a great day,
use your cheerful presence to make it so.
-
Forget your
friends' shortcomings as quickly as you do your
own.
-
Seek professional advice from lawyer friends,
accountant friends, and architect friends only
if you are willing to pay the going rate for
it. Most people don't like freeloaders,
particularly when it comes to professional
advice.
-
Think big, big thoughts about your friends, but
relish the small pleasures you experience with
them.
-
Don't expect every friend to return every favor
you afford. It's easy to forget that you
receive more joy from what you give than from
what you get.
-
Just one time do something adventurous with
your best friend even if you think that you
can't afford it. Your memory of the experience
will be priceless.
-
A witty saying proves nothing if it offends. As
Robertson Davis stated, "Few people can see
genius in someone who has offended them."
-
Learn a lot of jokes to spice up your friend's
days.
-
Get your priorities straight. At least once a
day remind yourself that happiness is not a
function of
money,
possessions, power, or status - it is a
function of enduring relationships with
people you love and admire. Ensure that
you are devoting most time to the things
that matter the most.
-
When you give advice - regardless of how good
it is - to friends, don't be upset when they
don't follow it.
-
Contribute to your friends' dreams any way you
can.
-
Be full of surprises as Jesus was. Although
Jesus had many enemies - he had his friends as
well.
-
There will always be people who question your
choice of friends. Generally speaking, ignore
them. Also be careful with
friendship advice
that anyone else gives you, including this
advice.
-
Allow some things about your friends to remain
mysterious.
-
Clearly, you will not be loved by everyone. In
your fantasies, you may hope to liked by every
man, woman, child, and dog that ever walked on
Earth. In reality, there are many common people
(and dogs, too) who would not want to be
friends with you even if you were Brad Pitt or
Nicole Kidman.
-
Return all things you borrow from your friends
promptly.
-
Don't sacrifice the small joys of friendship in
search of the big joys of life that advertisers
promise, but seldom, if ever, deliver. To enjoy
even tiny happenings with others like a
beautiful flower is what makes friendship one
of the biggest rewards in life.
-
When a friend offers to help, let him, even if
you don't particularly need the help. Accept
even if he slows you down. This will kill two
birds with one stone. You will make your friend
feel good and spend quality time with your
friend.
-
Don't ever go
into business with a friend to whom you would
feel uncomfortable giving a key to your
house.
-
Consider whether you would feel happy and
anxiety free giving your best friend a key to
your cottage or home. If not, perhaps it's time
to create another best friend.
-
Don't gossip to friends about other friends.
-
Don't burden a friend with a secret that you
don't want her to tell anyone else.
-
When a friend falls down, don't give up on
them. A few words of encouragement can make a
friend's day.
-
You have something important to say. Say it
with gusto ! ! !
-
Learn to
recognize what works and what doesn't work in
friendship. For instance, friendship thrives on
frequent contact.
-
Never be envious of success that your friends
have attained. Being envious of someone always
creates a barrier in your relationship with
them.
-
Occasionally, you will be given the chance to
be either intellectual or pleasant. Leave being
intellectual to others.
-
Above all, if friendship is more important than
anything else in life, then spend more time at
friendship than at anything else in
life.
