Do you get the nagging, sinking feeling that your life is dull, or something seems to be missing? Do you go straight home after work or school feeling just a little bit left out of life, like the sad kid in the corner of the playground? Perhaps the following scenario is familiar to you: the weekend arrives and your coworkers or classmates are meeting up with their friends, and having a good time, but routinely, you end up spending the weekend alone. Or maybe you have friends, but only a few. Perhaps they’re rather distant and you rarely speak to or hang out with them.
If any of the above describes your life, you might be suffering from a most elusive thing called loneliness. If so, you’re not alone, ironically!
Social life is a need that often goes unfulfilled. That, however, can change. Despite the demands of the modern world, it’s possible to carve out a little time in your life for improving your social prospects. In fact, you can supercharge your social life in just a matter of weeks or months!
“Know thyself.”
There’s something to be said for self-assessment. Knowing yourself means being in touch with the things you like and don’t like. It means to know your interests and inclinations, to know your personality and the things you are really passionate about — the things that light a fire in you.
When you’re fully self-aware, you’re empowered and inspired to seek out people you uniquely relate to. Once you know what activities really get you going, you’ll have an easier time joining social groups of interest and putting yourself in touch with like-minded people.
Here’s a little self-discovery homework. Take out a sheet of paper and a pen (or open up your computer’s word processor), and make two columns labeled “My Personality” and “My Interests“. Your goal is to list a minimum of 20 things under each column. Do some brainstorming and see what you come up with. Don’t worry about forming whole sentences or being grammatically consistent — just let your thoughts flow. List whatever comes to mind.