What's the PURPOSE of Friendship?

To the world, you may be one person, but to one person, you may be the world.- Dr. Seuss

The core PURPOSE of friendship is to help ourselves change and grow. I can't emphasize enough how important it is to your personal growth and well-being to have a group of good friends. They are quintessential to your happiness and success in life!!

Here's the problem, we're uncomfortable with friendship and/or with the process of making friends. But regardless, they both serve a major PURPOSE in our personal and business life.

The best advice I have ever heard on making friends came from my wife to our 4 girls. She explained to. . ." in order to have friends, you have to be a friend! And as YOU probably know, being a great friend is work.

Why You Need a Few Great Freinds

Great friends are good for your mental, emotional, and physical health. Friends are there to help you celebrate good times and, even more importantly, provide love and encouragement during rough times.

Friends prevent us from isolating ourselves and slipping into loneliness, anxiety, and depression. Recent studies have found that people who have meaningful relationships and social support are much more likely to live longer than their peers.

Here are some more benefits of having great friends . . .

Friends Make You Better —They motivate you to be better and move beyond your limitations; they push you to be the best at what you do and who you are. The best ones are also your greatest cheerleaders. I can't tell you how many times I've experienced a huge success or reached a large goal, and only a few people were ready to celebrate with me. You got my REAL friends!

Friends Create Self-Confidence and Courage — You're real friends will tell you the truth to your face; that's the basic difference between a true friend and a yes-man. A friend won't tell you what you want to hear — they'll tell you what you need to hear to cause you to change course or to stop and re-think. In situations like this, a true friend can save you heartache and time.

Friends Provide Emotional Support — When you're going through difficult times and/or on the verge of a mental or physical breakdown, who do you rely on to bring you back to stability and sanity? When you lose someone you love, who's there with a shoulder to cry on? Right you true Friends. Loss has a way of breaking the best of us, and at that moment, you will want to have a REAL friend.

Friends Help You Survive — Anyone who's had a friend hold your hand through a real-life crisis knows how important it is to have genuine friends who walk through the crap of life with you. If you have one, tell them how much you appreciate them. A friend knows your most challenging stories, a great friend knows those stories because they walked through them with you.

Friends Play a Critical Role in Your Life — They shape who you are, drive you to become your BEST self, trust you with their deep secrets, criticize when they have to, and praise you when praise is due. I tell you the truth when I tell you that without a few great friends in your life . . . LIFE will be difficult.

Having friends to call on during critical times in life is what you're looking for. Friends with the ability to handle difficult situations when you can't, to hold you up when you can't stand, to hold your hand and walk you through, when you want to lay down and give up.

Don't ever take your friends for granted, but make sure they serve the PURPOSE of true genuine friendship.