Top 5 Reasons you Must Choose your Friends Wisely

Friendship is the most beautiful thing in the ocean of relationships. It is a feeling, an expression and sometimes a mentor. Since, friends have the capability of being your guiding light, it becomes your duty to turn on your flash light and look for your friends with scrutiny and acceptance alike; much like mining diamonds from rocks.

So often, we can’t tell the difference between an acquaintance and a friend. To many people, it is a ‘To-may-to: To-mah-to’ difference, but really, it is a tomato- potato  difference! I use this metaphor to make a point though, ‘Friends, if chosen wisely can make all the difference in the world’. With the right company, you will find yourself at peace, rather than just being present in pretension at a social gathering.  

The “not friend- just an acquaintance” issue will be faced by many introverts like myself. This approach may seem weird or even anti-social to my socialite buddies! 
Yet! Here I am trying to prove that choosing friends is better than having a pool of friends (who are actually acquaintances). I want to urge everyone to have friends who ARE family, and not just ‘like family’.

So lets quickly break down the ‘Top 5 Reasons you Must Choose your Friends Wisely’:

1. You are Precious

This theory can be too hard for some socialites to accept and digest, so they come up with statements like, “ You don't need to choose your people, unless you are that important!” Learn to disagree there; you are just as important as anyone else, because each and every person on this face of earth is unique in their own beautiful way. You are precious, and everything about your life is incomparable, your company, your thoughts, feelings, time and everything other little thing is one in a million. It would all be wasted if you trust a wrong person with these precious things, just to find out later that it wasn’t worth it. By no means, I imply that people are bad; I just mean that you have to find your match. Just how you think a thousand times before committing to a life partner, then why not for a friend? All this simply because, you are important and you deserve that best for yourself.

2. Comfort First

Be sure you are comfortable with your friend. Comfort in terms of talking, sharing, thinking and proximity as well. Think about all your current close friends, reflect on how comfy you are around them. You can talk about anything and everything, there are zero awkward silences, effortless communication, and you are comfortable hanging out with them outside your meet- up setting (any place other than where you became friends first). It is also important to be comfortable with each other's habits and lifestyle. If they have a very different lifestyle than you, then you will keep up for once or twice, but soon you will cave in and the friendship will go for a toss!

3. Better the Wavelength, Longer the Relationship

If you have the same thoughts, feelings and mentality better the chances for you to connect with a person. Opposites probably don’t attract here; for being friends, you need the other person to understand and empathize with you. That's how you can gossip about someone together (*wink*), or like the same people, hobbies or things. When you have the same wavelength with a friend, you can go from being partners in crime to being soul mates. If you'll find both these people in one body, stay put, do not let them go.

4. Company Matters

Find people you look forward to meeting and hanging out with. The people you enjoy. The people who make you feel like home. Most importantly find people who makes you a better person, find someone who will put some sense in you when you lose it, or give strength when you are down. Steer clear from all those who won't stand up for you (or against you) when needed. The Crux of the matter is that your company matters, it affects your lifestyle, your habits, your nature and your overall peace of mind! Keep calm and have the right company of people. 

5. Unconditional Acceptance

I love this term so much, because it just holds true for everything. No relationship will ever succeed without unconditional acceptance; be it friendship, love, colleague or whatever it is that you share with a person. If someone feels unaccepted, they will shut down towards you. So if you are in the market to find some friends... Accept Accept Accept. Even though, you will choose your people who you are comfortable with, have the same wavelength, whose company you enjoy, in spite of all the choosing, you WILL have some differences. It is your decision whether these are the differences you can accept and deal with or not. Be wise, but be prepared for some contrast.

I just want to sum up by saying to all my friends and acquaintances who are reading this, that give some thought to who you are around on a daily basis, and how much time you spend with the real friends. You meet a crazy amount of people in a day, you smile and say hi to 90% of them. You make small talk to 50%, but you only tell your secrets to 10% of these people. Focus on the 10% here. When you grow old and need an ear only this 10% will show up. Know the magic of friendship, pick the diamonds and treasure them. Be a socialite all you like, but make sure you don’t lose the real friends in that crowd.

Be picky with friends! Be happy always 😇