How to Choose the Right Friends

It has been said, "You are who you befriend." Therefore, you should be extremely careful who you choose to be your friend because that person could have a great influence on your life. Below are some things to consider when deciding who to spend precious time with and who to confide in.

Choose Friends Who Are Positive

If you spend time with positive people, more than likely you will be positive too. It works the other way also. If you spend time with negative people, you're likely to develop negative traits as well. It is true that misery loves company. Therefore, it is better to stay away from negative and miserable people because you could end up just like them.

Try to choose friends who are positive. They will encourage you, celebrate you, and desire the best for you. No one wants a friend who has a bad habit of being negative. It is so much better for both parties when friends are positive, encouraging, and uplifting.

Choose Friends Who Are Ambitious

A good friend is one who has ambition and the drive to do something worthwhile. If you befriend someone with no "get up and go" you will end up the same way. However, it is good to avoid people who only go for quick rich schemes, instant fame, power, and popularity.

Choose Friends Who Are Kind

Make friends with people who are kind, loving, caring, and giving. Those characteristics will rub off on you. Friends who are not kind will be a bad influence on you. Stay away from people who are bossy, manipulative, and controlling. They will take away your freedom to be you.

Choose Friends Who Are Honorable

Try to be friends with people who have healthy relationships with others, such as with their family, other friends, boss, and co-workers. If they can't get along with them, more than likely they won't get along with you either.

It is not good to be friends with people who gossip about others and put them down. Before long they will begin to gossip about you and put you down just as you have witnessed them being that way with others. People who are abusive to others can be a bad influence on you. You might not realize it until it's too late that you have become just like them.

Choose Friends With the Same Interests

It will be boring to be a friend with someone you have nothing in common with. Friendships like that tend to fizzle out quickly. When there are no common interests, there is not much to talk about and not many things to do together that will interest both of you. There will be arguments about things to do and places to go because there will be different opinions about almost everything.

When people have similar interests, friendships last longer and are more enjoyable. Friends might not agree on everything all the time, but most of the time they do agree on things, such as food, fashion, shopping, music, movies, sports, travel, and things that friends usually do together.

Choose Friends with Similar Values

It is always best to be friends with someone with similar values. Diversity is great in some cases especially when it comes to general values and beliefs, but it’s best that friendships be with like-minded people who have the same core values. When you are friends with someone with the same values as yours, the friendship will be a healthy one. Friends who have similar values usually keep each other accountable.

Choose Friends With Common Goals

When friends have common goals, they can help each other achieve them. They do not become jealous of what you are doing or trying to accomplish. Instead of preventing one another from achieving their goals, they work together for the greater good of all.

Choose Friends Who Enhance Your Life

Friends are supposed to bring something to the table to enhance each other's lives. It wouldn't be a healthy relationship if one person uses the other person for his own advantage. Make sure you choose a friend who can bring balance in areas where you are weak and that person is strong. It is much better to choose a friend who stretches, motivates, and encourages you just as much as he allows you to stretch, motivate, and encourage him.

Choose Friends Who Keep Growing

Good friends are those who want to keep learning and growing. No one wants to spend valuable time with someone who is stagnant and is satisfied being that way. If you have a thirst for knowledge, you will also want to be friends with someone who shares that passion.

It is a dull person who can't discuss a book because he has never read it or a person who knows nothing about pop culture or what is in the news. If you become a friend of that person, you will end up just like him by being boring and dull.

Choose Friends Who Encourage

Choose friends who will celebrate you and your achievements. It is better to choose someone who wants you as a genuine friend instead of someone who just tolerates you. A true friend will laugh with you, cry with you, encourage you, and celebrate every milestone on your journey. A true friend won't be jealous of you.

A true friend lives by the following definition.

"A true friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you!" - Elbert Hubbard