It was seemingly easy to make friends in high school and college because you spent seven hours with the same people each day. But once we graduate, we tend to grow apart from most of those friends to live our lives. It may seem impossible to form new friendships, but we’re here to help you find a little direction and learn exciting ways to make new friends as an adult.

Join a Local Group

Join your local book club or community theater! If you’re not a fan of acting, try stage managing or helping with set construction; they say once you make theatre friends, they’re family forever!

Look at your town’s event calendar and find out what’s going on in your community. Who knows, other people might attend to meet someone like you.

Change Your Mindset

If you believe that you won’t make any friends, then you won’t. Believing this negative thought can cause you to avoid social events to prove yourself correct.

You must change your mindset first to change your circumstances. Think of how great it will feel once you’ve made a new group of wonderful friends—hold onto that feeling and use it to fuel your efforts in making friends.

Try to break out of your comfort zone and say yes more often! You don’t have to be like Jim Carrey in Yes Man and say yes to every single opportunity that life throws your way.

It’s as simple as saying yes to a friend who wants to meet up for coffee instead of saying no because you want to watch Netflix at home.

Find an Online Community

Online communities have grown stronger since the start of the pandemic, which means it’s even easier for you to join them.

Start by using friend-finding or messaging apps, like Discord, to talk about your interests and connect with others.

Quality Over Quantity

The type of friends you have and how they make you feel is 100 percent more important than how many you have; quality over quantity.

If you have two friends you care about, and you know they care for and love you, then that’s all you need. It’s better to have two great friends than 10 friends who don’t care for your well-being.

Remember, it’s not about the number of friends you have. It’s about having friends that lift you up, encourage you, care for you, celebrate you, and love you for who you are.

Take Your Dog to a Dog Park

One of the easiest ways to make friends as an adult is by taking your dog to the dog park! Dog owners usually walk their dogs by themselves, so it may be a great way to meet someone new.

What makes this such an easy step is you already have an ice breaker: your dogs! You can start the conversation by asking what kind of dog the other person has and take it from there.

Taking your dog to the park is only one of the many ways you can get to know your neighborhood!

With these exciting ideas, making new friends as an adult never looked better. Break out of your shell and start forming new friendships.