Balancing Friendships With Your Career
What is life without good friends? Friendships are what make the world go round and make life worth living. However, once reaching adulthood, it can be hard to maintain friendships while dealing with responsibilities and creating a successful career.
But making time for friends is what helps you experience a high quality of life. Read on to learn more about the importance of maintaining friendships, as well as some tips on how to balance your friendships with your career.
The Importance Of Friendships
Friendships give life meaning and therefore deserve the energy and time required to maintain them. No matter what life throws at you–job loss, breakups, health issues, or just typical daily stress– your friends will always have your back. That’s why it is so crucial to keep your friends close. They literally determine your quality of life.
There are numerous benefits to maintaining friendships. The most obvious benefit is that friends stave off any feelings of loneliness or isolation. No matter what you are going through or experiencing, with plenty of friends, you know that you belong somewhere and are loved for who you are.
Good friends also give you a great sense of purpose. They give you a great reason to get up in the morning and spark motivation even if other areas of your life are falling apart.
Friends also encourage you to be your best and reach for the stars. They may motivate you to make healthy habits like exercising more or creating a healthier diet, or they can be your cheerleaders while you build up your business or pursue your career goals.
They are also there during the tough times, such as dealing with breakup and divorce, job loss, or the death of a loved one.
So as you can see, friendships are absolutely critical for a happy life. So no matter how big you get in your career or where your life takes you, you need to take the time and energy to maintain your friendships.
How To Balance Friendships And Career
So maybe you already know the importance of maintaining good friends. But how do you actually go about doing that while also working on your career? Below are a few tips that can help you balance your friendships and career.
Make Time For Them
The most obvious thing you should do is simply make time for them. That means carving out time in your schedule just for fun and outings and not letting your work interfere during those times. Of course, this is much easier if you have a clear-cut schedule at your job. But if your work schedule changes frequently or you have your own business, it can be all too easy to let your work infiltrate your fun time.
Furthermore, once you are out with your friends, you should get in the habit of silencing or turning off your phone so that you can make time just for them. Nothing is more disrespectful than spending most of your outing responding to emails on your phone.
But Also Create Boundaries With Your Work Schedule
However, that doesn’t mean that you should chuck all your responsibilities once your friends want to get together. Though you should make every effort to keep your friends in your life, you also need to make time to progress in your career.
This is especially crucial if you are a freelancer or have your own business. It can be all too easy to procrastinate your responsibilities or ignore them in order to have a good time. Therefore, create a schedule to block off time for your business and don’t let leisure time bleed into it.
Check In On Them
No matter how close you are, life still gets in the way sometimes, and it can be difficult to hang out often. However, you should still have time to at least check in often to make sure they are doing okay. By checking in often (maybe every few days or weeks), you are signaling to your friend that although your life is crazy, you are still thinking about them and want to make time for them.
Don’t Wait To Respond
When a friend contacts you to talk or meet up, try not to take too long to respond. Not only can this be disrespectful, but you also risk the chance of forgetting they contacted you in the first place. Though you obviously can’t respond if you are busy or in a meeting, don’t wait days to respond to their request. If your friends are important, you need to show it through your actions, including responding to them promptly.
Final Thoughts On Friendship
No matter how busy or important your career or business gets, you can’t let your friendships fall to the wayside. Though a career can give you a sense of confidence and accomplishment, friends are what give you a great quality of life. So no matter where you are in life, make sure to make time to create and maintain high-quality friendships. You will find yourself to be much happier and more motivated throughout your challenges.
If you want more tips on how to create and maintain friendships throughout adulthood, check out more resources and advice here.
This article was developed via a partnership with BetterHelp.
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