Be Interesting by Being Interested

Its the time of year when New Year's resolutions abound. My resolution has usually revolved around the number of pounds I resolved to lose or the strategy I would employ to lose weight. This year I resolved to stop making those kinds of resolutions. I'm speaking about the kind of resolutions that I can never seem to achieve. Don't get me wrong, I still think its a good idea for me to lose 10 or 15 pounds. It's just that I'd like to try to do something that I can achieve. So, I going to try to do something that I'm already pretty good at -- making friends.

My wife, Mary Ann and I have been blessed with lots of friends. Making friends is mostly about being a friend. It is something you have to be conscious about doing, about placing yourself in the fertile situations, about sacrificing and being interested in people and what they do. The reason I'm making this New Year's resolution about making a new friend is because, I'm at an age (71) where the number of friends start to dwindle. I lost one friend this year and a few more are faced with serious illnesses.

I like to think of a friend as someone with whom you have a mutual regard and affection. That differs from acquaintances, who are people you know, but don't necessarily like. A friend is someone with whom you are ready to stand by and defend, but also one with whom you can be honest and forthright when your friend is taking a wrong "fork in the road." Friends are good to have because they can expand your horizons and elevate your way of thinking about things. Mainly, they are good because a friend will be there for you when times are tough.

In addition to developing a new friend, I want to strengthen current friendships and that begins with Mary Ann, my best friend and wife of, ummm, somewhere between 45 and 46 years, or thereabouts. She is already my friend on Facebook as are many others, but most of those people are not the kind of friends I'm talking about. However, Facebook could be a "fertile field" to develop friends as is church and Rotary.

I read a book a long time ago that taught me one thing about making friends. It's Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. What I remember about that book was this, "You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you." We all like to talk about what we do and are doing, but I think you'll find it better to talk about that subject if someone inquires and seems interested in you. Think about it, don't you tend to have an affinity for those who seem interested in you? What would happen if you became interested in someone else. Try to find someone you can be interested in. That's what I'm going to try to do. And, in that way I might become interesting.

GO FORTH and DO GOOD