How to be a good friend? We all have pondered over this question at least once in our lives. The answer to “How to be a good friend?” is a complex one, but there are some answers that never change.
So, let’s dive into the topic of “How to be a good friend?” and know some of the most genuine answers to it.
Human beings are social beings. We cannot lead a happy life without bonds and friendships. We all need friends and company in life. A good friend can bring a lot of happiness to one’s life.
A good friend can encourage one to become a better person. Having good friends in life is a blessing. The question that many of us need an answer to is “How to be a good friend?”
Friendship is one of the unique relationships in the world. The company adds happiness, joy, contentment, love, respect, and care to one’s everyday life. True friends feel like family.
Researchers found that having a good friend enhances one’s mental health and emotional well-being.
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Let’s take a look at some tips through which one can become a good friend, a true friend, and a great friend.
Here’s a short guide on How to Be a Good Friend.
Here’s How to Be a Good Friend
1. Be Supportive
Good friends support each other. Good friends make sure to encourage one another in all realms of life. At times in life, we begin to question ourselves; we get surrounded by self-doubt. In moments like this, we need true friends we can count on.
Good friends make their friends feel special. A great friend acts as a cheerleader in times of self-doubt and self-questioning. Offer your friends emotional as well as materialistic support as and when they need it.
Thus, to be a good friend, one must be as supportive as possible of their friends’ endeavors and decisions in life. A good friend is like a complete support system that adds positivity to their friends’ lives.
Thus, being supportive is an essential quality that most people seek out in a close friend or a best friend. Being your friends’ support system is critical to the question “How to be a good friend?”
2. Be Trustworthy
A trustworthy friend can be trusted with secrets and can be trusted to be there in tough times. To be reliable, one must be honest and truthful at all times. Trust is one of the most essential ingredients to becoming a good friend.
Your friends should be able to rely on you. Your friends should be able to share their stories and their secrets with you. Great friends can trust each other without having any doubts in mind.
Trust lays the firm foundation of a good friendship. Without trust, a friendship can never survive. A friendship without faith is not a true friendship.
Being a trustworthy friend makes one a good friend. Being trustworthy is one of the most remarkable answers to ‘How to be a good friend?’
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3. Be a Good Listener
A good listener makes a great friend. Real friends are genuinely interested in listening to each other’s stories and experiences. Good friends hear their friends out. Being a good listener is a primary answer in the guide about being a good friend.
To be a good friend, one must listen to understand and not just listen to answer back. A good friend who is a good listener can be cathartic. When we have a friend who is a good listener, we can unload all our burdens~ emotional, psychological, and mental.
The key to being a good listener is to respect boundaries. Never try to force a friend to open up and share details that they don’t want to. Listen to what they genuinely wish to share. Never make your friends feel obligated to share a lot of information that they want to keep to themselves.
4. Be Empathetic
How to be a good friend? A good friend feels what the person is feeling. Good friends put themselves in the other person’s shoes while thinking about their situation.
This helps one realize completely what the other person is going through. Empathy is a key answer to how to be a good friend.
Strong friendships are built on the foundation of empathy.
If one knows that their friends will empathize and completely understand them, one feels safe and secure. It becomes easy to open up without any fears.
Close friends talk and make sure that their friends’ feelings are valued. Being empathetic makes a good friend.
5. Be Reliable
It is essential to be there for your friends. Most people believe being reliable and dependable answers the question of how to be a good friend well. True friendships are those in which one knows that they can rely on their friends in tough times.
Problems arise in everybody’s life. Good friendships remain constant through tough times.
Two friends must be able to rely on each other in times of difficulty. A good friend makes an effort to offer love, care, concern, support, motivation and encouragement in times of difficulty.
Good friends give genuine advice when their friends are faced with a dangerous situation that might hurt them. Being reliable is one of the most important essentials of being a good friend.
One must spend the same level of time with their friends in good times and in bad times. It is a gift to have a friend by your side when faced with a hard time and to have a heartfelt conversation with someone at the end of a bad day.
6. Be Loyal
As suggested earlier, your friends should be able to trust you and the only way your friends can trust you is if you are loyal to them.
If you have more than one friend, if you have a lot of friends, never share the secrets of one friend with another.
One must not talk ill about their friends behind their backs. A good friend never ignores their old friends when they make new friends. Good friends never leave their closest friends behind. They maintain a lasting friendship with their old friends and never make them feel like an outsider.
Being a loyal friend is one of the best gifts you can give someone.
7. Be Grateful
Always be thankful for your friends. Appreciate their presence and what they do for you. Tell them when you are grateful for them. Tell them when you feel happy about what they do for you, even if they are tiny little efforts.
Being grateful and thankful to your friends makes them feel special and makes them feel like you are glad to have them in your life as your friends.
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8. Be Non-Judgmental
Every person we meet is fighting a battle~ a battle against all the odds of life, a battle against all their insecurities, a battle against all their imperfections, a battle against all their flaws.
How to be a good friend? As a good friend, there must not be even one moment when your friends feel judged by you. It would help if you never made your friends feel bad about themselves.
A non-judgmental friendship instils a sense of safety and security and makes for an everlasting friendship.
9. Be Honest
It is essential to be honest with your friends even if it might not make them feel good at times. It is sometimes necessary to complete your friends realize when they are making a mistake.
We must try to be as honest with our friends as possible. We must not sugarcoat information to make our friends feel better, but at the same time, we must also not be too harsh on them with our words.
Honesty makes a friendship live longer. It makes a company more genuine.
In a friendship, it is also essential to be honest with your own self. You must admit to yourself when you do something wrong, and you must think of ways to improve yourself as a friend.
10. Be Respectful
Respect should come from both ends but there is no relationship in this world that can survive without respect being a part of it.
How to be a good friend? To be a good friend, respect your friends’ boundaries, respect their circumstances, respect their hobbies and passions, respect their interests, respect their choices and preferences.
When we respect someone, we make them feel welcomed into our lives and feel good. Being respectful checks a lot of boxes when it comes to the question of how to be a good friend.
Talking with an open mind and with complete respect makes your friends feel like they are essential to you. Consideration leads to love, care, concern, growth and development. All other virtues and values of a good friendship are based on the sole value of respect. A company without regard can never survive the test of time.
People blossom where they are respected. Thus, to be a good friend, treat your friends with lots and lots of respect.
11. Be Authentic
Always be yourself in every friendship. Never try to be something or someone you are not. Always be your true authentic self all the time.
A friendship that makes you feel like you need to be something you are not is not a pure friendship. Such bonds never last because it gets tiring to act or behave like someone you are not in real life.
Believe in yourself. Believe in your authenticity, in your strengths, in your virtues, in your capabilities, in your powers ,and in your ability to be a good friend and a true friend.
12. Never forget to have fun
Whenever we wonder how to be a good friend, we always think about being happy, and the key to happiness is to have fun in whatever we do.
Best friends spend quality time together. Every friendship needs to be a fun friendship. Best friends always spend time together, filled with lots of happiness and laughter.
Go for a long drive, go for a walk in the park, watch movies together, take selfies, click lots of pictures, go on trips, read books together, watch your favorite TV shows together, go out to a restaurant, watch the sunrise or the sunset together, go to a comedy show, go to fairs, join a cooking class together and so on. Never ever stop having fun with your friends.
Making friends also becomes easier when you are a fun person.
Spending quality time with a friend means that you get to do things together that matter to you both.
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13. Make your friends feel valued and special
A good friend ensures that their friends feel special, wanted, needed and valued. Make your friends feel like they are essential for you and that they matter a lot to you.
Do something creative.
Make a thank you card, write a letter, sing a song, share posts with them on social media, make them their favorite dishes and desserts, take them out to their favorite restaurant, make a collage of all your happy, joyous, beautiful memories, make them laugh, gift them their favorite book’s first edition copy, cheer them on in a tough time, write a poem or just talk to them for hours and hours.
A true friendship does not require a lot of effort; it requires small tiny steps constantly and regularly. Make your friends feel loved and celebrate their uniqueness and beauty as often as possible.
14. Focus on the Little Things
Little things occupy the most significant spaces in our hearts. So, how to be a good friend? Focus on the little things.
Beautify your relationship with a friend through the tiny little things that are important to your friendship. Keep the little things in mind whenever you are planning a grand gesture.
Remember the important dates like their birthday. Celebrate each other’s achievements and successes. Let your friends know when you are proud of them. Tell your friends about the things you like about them. Be appreciative of all their little qualities and talents. Please encourage them to do whatever they dream of.
15. Never hurt your friends deliberately
We all hurt others. It is inevitable. Our choices in life can hurt a lot of people. When we hurt someone unintentionally and unknowingly, it is beyond our control. Indeed, we can’t please everyone.
But it is important to remember that we must never hurt our friends deliberately. As we get close to our friends, we realize what they are sensitive about; we get to know what hurts them and makes them sad. As good friends, we must never start conversations about topics that might damage our friends.
A good friend never brings negativity to their friends’ lives, and so, whenever you think, ‘How to be a good friend?’ remember that one should never hurt their friends intentionally or make them feel bad at any point knowingly.
16. Apologize if you make a mistake
We are all human. We make mistakes. It is natural to make mistakes at times. What matters is what we do after we have made a mistake. Being apologetic in case you have committed an error is an essential requirement of being a good friend.
Make sure to always apologize to your friends if you are in the wrong. A simple ‘sorry’ or a small gesture can better a situation. Never let ego play a part in any friendship. Ego does not correspond with any tip on being a good friend.
Apologize as soon as you realize you have done something wrong. Be genuine with your apologies, and don’t say sorry just because you have to. Ones’ apologies must come straight from ones’ heart with no negative feelings, ill feelings, or angry feelings.
17. Make your friends laugh
How to be a good friend? Make your friends laugh. We all have heard that laughter is the best medicine. Laughter can brighten up a dull day. Laughter can make us feel better instantly. Laughter rejuvenates us and makes us feel alive. Laughter tickles our souls and makes us feel genuinely happy from inside. Laughter makes our hearts and minds happy.
Good friends laugh together. Good friends have hundreds of inside jokes which make them chuckle at every possible moment.
True friends never judge each other, and therefore, it is safe to be silly in front of them. Crack jokes, dance weirdly, sing the stupidest of songs, say the funniest dialogues in the most comical voices.
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18. Give your friends the freedom to be themselves in front of you
Always make your friends feel safe enough to be who they actually are in front of you. Close friends don’t think about what their friends will think of them because they don’t fear being judged or looked down upon.
Always make sure that your friends feel alright in expressing themselves freely, openly and ultimately when they are with you. They must not feel the need to filter out their thoughts and words before saying something out loud in front of you. Allowing your friends to be who they genuinely are answers the question ‘How to be a good friend?’ very well.
When we give our friends the chance to be who they are, they grow and become the best versions of themselves. They get in touch with their strengths and weaknesses that help them develop in life.
19. Stay faithful to your promises
Never forget the promises that you make in a friendship. Keeping and maintaining commitments leads to trust and makes people feel like they can believe what you say.
Try your best to keep your promises and never break them. Promises are not meant to be broken; instead, promises are meant to be valued and respected as they matter a lot.
Keeping your promises is very essential when we think about how to be a good friend.
20. Make time for your friends
As we grow up and get busy with our lives, we find it challenging to make time for things that matter. One such thing is friendship. Making time for friends is an essential criterion of being a good friend.
We must prioritize our friends and take out time for them. We must hang out with them regularly and as often as possible. We must try to catch up on their lives and keep them updated about what is going on in our own lives.
Friendships last a lifetime when we put in our best efforts, make time and prioritize efficiently.
The answer to ‘How to be a good friend?’ is dynamic. Everyone has different ways and ideas on how to be a good friend. But what matters is that we always put in efforts in all our friendships. To be a good friends, we must put in genuine and honest efforts every day.
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Friendships add value to our lives. Friends make our lives better. Friends help bring out the true essence of life and make life worth living. Friends are a blessing that must be cherished and celebrated every single moment of our life.
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Last Updated on by Sathi
