How to be a true friend

While being a friend can come easy to a lot of us, this is usually because we have not been confronted with any significant challenges in the friendships we have. While going out and chatting with someone is part of friendship, there is another part of it that separates casual friendship from true and meaningful friendship.

While you might have lots of people, you talk to and enjoy the company of, how many of them are going to be there for you when times are tough? Similarly, how far are you willing to go to inconvenience yourself on behalf of someone you consider a friend?

The following will look at what being a true friend really is.

Listening to their problems

Even if you don’t have any solutions, part of being a true friend is sacrificing your time to listen to the problems of your friend. Most people just want a way to vent their issues and have them validated by another person. They don’t expect you to have all the answers, especially when it’s a delicate issue (like a problem in their romantic relationship) that you don’t feel comfortable making authoritative judgements on.

Giving honest advice

Being a true friend means giving honest advice to your friends when you think you can help them by telling them some hard truths. Allowing your friend to continue with self-destructive behaviour because you don’t want to deal with confrontation is not being a true friend. While they may get mad at you initially for telling them something they don’t want to hear, they will thank you later for opening their eyes to the issue.

Being conscious of their feelings

Part of being a true friend is acknowledging the feelings of the other person in everything you do with or around them. For example, if your buddy is having trouble in their love life, then ignoring them at a party to chat up someone you are interested in is going to make them feel horrible. Sometimes being a true friend means sacrificing your own desires to be supportive of them so that they don’t feel left behind.