How To Maintain Friendships In Your 30s
How to maintain friendships in your 30S!
Your 30s is definitely an interesting time in your life. While you are still young (relatively speaking), there are also a ton of changes coming your way. You’re probably settling down in your career and making some real money. You might be thinking of starting a family, and trying to establish your long-term goals as well. There are a lot of things happening for sure!
But what about your friends? Of course you care about them and cherish them. However, it can be hard to maintain those friendships when you’re so busy with life and have a lot going on. And it’s not like in your 20s where you’d take on anyone as your friend; you (probably) have standards and won’t just let anyone in your circle. Before you know it, you might not have many friends in your 30s.
And it’s not just you with this situation; your friends are also probably busy with their lives as well. So how do you prevent your friendships from slipping away? I will show you how today!
In this post, I’ll go over 5 different things you should know on how to maintain friendships in your 30s. These strategies will help you keep those wonderful friends you’ve known for so long. With the right mindset, you can keep progressing with the things happening in your 30s while also maintaining those friendships.
Without further ado, let’s get started.
1. Be realistic with what you expect from your friends.
You are in your 30s now, so things are different. The stuff that you’d expect from your friends is not going to be the same as back in your 20s.
To start, you know that time is precious in your 30s. You may have work and family commitments that priority. So do your friends. So you can’t expect your friends to come hangout with you at a moment’s notice like you did back then. You more than likely will have to plan things out in advance and give them a heads up.
In my opinion, you should definitely be more grateful for when friends have time for you in your 30s. When you were younger, both you and your friends had lots of time to spare. But that’s probably not the case in your 30s. So if they can hangout with you, be grateful for that.
On the flip side, you can also expect things from your friends now in your 30s that you couldn’t back then. For example, you can expect them to respect your time, now that you’re busier. And that your tolerance for BS is a lot lower.
2. Don’t be afraid to go back to the past.
Everyone loves nostalgia! And when we are in our 30s dealing with everyday life, a little blast to the past is always fun.
When it comes to hanging out with friends, you can maintain the friendship by doing stuff that you did when you were younger. Here are some examples:
- Playing video games that you enjoyed during your childhoods (e.g. Mario Kart!)
- Going to old restaurants that you all loved back then, and they’re still around
- Taking part in recreational sports such as basketball or soccer
You don’t have to do the typical stuff that people in their 30s do. You can do whatever is fun for you guys!
3. Embrace the changes happening in your 30s.
I think one thing that is important with friendships in your 30s; embracing the changes happening. Life is a journey to be shared with others, and this is especially true with your friends! If you working an exciting career or plan to start a family, why not share these experiences with friends? Maybe they’re going through the same process.
Rather than try to keep things the same, it’s important to allow your friends to see how your life is in their 30s. Not only does it make it easier to relate to them (click here to learn on how to better relate to others), it also can strengthen the bonds between you and your friends.
4. Stay in touch.
This is definitely important when it comes to maintaining friendships in your 30s. Staying in touch with friends can be difficult because again, you and your friends have a lot more responsibilities than in your 20s. After a long day, staying in contact can feel like an afterthought. And without keeping in touch, friends can slowly drift apart.
Fortunately, it’s easier these days to stay in touch with social media and the Internet. I myself find it easy to keep talking with my friends using social media. Of course, nothing beats meeting up in-person, so don’t forget to try to hangout once in a while.
5. Be okay with gaining and losing friends.
Last but not least, I wanted to talk about being okay with the fact that despite your efforts to maintain a friendship, it may be out of your control. There are so many variables and things that can really influence a friendship.
I talk about this in an article I wrote; click here to read why friendships can end. But in short, personalities change. You can change and so can your friends. And when this happens, it can cause the friendships to become strained to the point where it will end. Logistical reasons can also end a friendship, such as one of you moving out of the city.
So while you may end up losing some friendships in your 30s, don’t feel bad about it. Sometimes it’s out of your control. However, don’t forget that you can always make new friends as well. Just because you are in your 30s, it doesn’t mean you can’t make new friends anymore. In fact, your 30s is a wonderful time to make new friends. 🙂
Summary
To summarize, here are the 5 things you should know about how to maintain friendships in your 30s:
- Be realistic with what you expect from your friends.
- Don’t be afraid to go back to the past.
- Embrace the changes happening in your 30s.
- Stay in touch.
- Be okay with gaining and losing friends.
And there you have it; 5 things you should know about how to maintain friendships in your 30s. I hope you found this post informative.
If you have any questions or feedback, leave them in the comments below!
