MAKING NEW FRIENDS ALL YOUR LIFE - Defy Aging by Michael Brickey, Ph.D. Board Certified Psychologist

ACTION TO TAKE

Resolve to defy the usual pattern with friendships and make new friends all your life-even when you are well into your hundreds. Always have at least one best friend or be in the process of becoming a best friend.

Michael Brickey, Ph.D.

Conventional thinking and research tells us that as people get older their circle of friends gets smaller and smaller. Can't you just feel life closing in when you think about it? Not making new friends is a script for a premature death. Try on this belief: I make new friends all my life-even when I am well into my hundreds. Notice how time and space open up? When you adopt this belief you tell your mind to develop a script to fulfill it. To make sure the belief sticks, look for examples of people who are always making new friends.

If you are shy, set a goal of learning how to make friends comfortably. Find a shy person who has a knack for making friends and figure out how he or she does it. Or become involved in organizations in which it is easy to make friends. Or make friends by taking on a leadership position in an organization.

If you currently don't have at least one best friend (in addition to your spouse or paramour), make cultivating a best friend high on your list of personal goals. How to do it? Identify someone who shares some common passions and values, spend time with him or her, and share your innermost thoughts and feelings.

Defy Aging Quote:

Make new friends and keep the old. One is silver and the other gold.
-a Girl Scout Song

Friends, you and me....
You brought another friend....
And then there were 3....
We started our group....
Our circle of friends....
And like that circle...
There is no beginning or end....

Defy Aging Humor:

. . . . .If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?

Country and Western song: My wife ran off with my best friend, and I sure do miss him.

Michael Brickey, Ph.D. is a life coach and a Board Certified psychologist and serves on the medical staff of several hospitals. He is the author of Defy Aging: Develop the Mental and Emotional Vitality to Live Longer, Healthier, and Happier Than You Ever Imagined. Critically acclaimed by Dr. Bernie Siegel, Betty Friedan, Dr. Ronald Klatz, and four past presidents of the American Psychological Association, it is available at many bookstores and through his web site www.DrBrickey.com. He coaches people and organizations all over the country by phone as part of his mission to help people do things they didn't think they could do. He also speaks on Defying Aging. Please E-mail Dr. Brickey at BeautyWalk@DrBrickey.com.