Friendship is one of the things that we as human beings cannot run away from, for it has so much in it to determine so many things about us (Positive and Negative).
Don’t be surprised that circumstances or location can make anybody your friend but situation and time would reveal if they are genuine or just friends for the sake of circumstance or location.
The question is not about how to identify your friends but how to know the genuine one among the people that claimed they are your friends or those you choose as friends.
It is not difficult to know; you only need to pay attention to details and check out these five signs.
5 Signs Of Genuine Friendship
- Genuine friendship goes beyond selfish interest
Friendship is an avenue for parties involved to gain something and not for just one party to Lord over the other.
It is rather unfortunate that these days, there are people who only care about themselves and what they stand to gain from the other person when they don’t even bother to bring anything tangible to the table for the so-called friendship to be of value to those involved.
If you observe that the person you choose as your friend only care about things that will benefit him or her and carefree about you or your growth, that is a parasitic type of friendship.
He is only taking advantage of your presence, a real friend wants you to grow as much he/she do
2. Genuine friendship has trust as its Identity
There is no point in calling someone your friend if you guys can’t trust each other, although different happenings these days have made it difficult to trust people wholeheartedly.
However, it is fundamental that, there should be a reasonable amount of trust between you guys, you should trust that he or she gets your back and will do everything possible to make sure that you get things right.
If you can’t trust him or her with some secrets, ideas or even money, then it’s either the foundation of your friendship is shaky, or you need to rewire it to make it achieve its goals.
3. Genuine friendship takes time to build
It surprises me how some people find it so easy to meet someone in a few hours or days and use a different adjective to qualify him or her as a friend.
Don’t get me wrong, as I said in the introductory part, circumstances or location could bring people your way. Still, the best is to allow situation and time-proof them as a real friend.
Don’t make the mistake of calling someone your friend in quote “Real Friend” until time and situations have made you realised that indeed they are worth keeping as friends, so you don’t join the league of those who talk about Fake friends every time.
4. Genuine friends engage in constructive criticism
One of the mistakes people often make when it comes to friendship is the fact that they always expect positive comments from their so-called friend.
Fine, your friend should be that person that encourage you to grow and even support your dreams and aspirations, but that doesn’t mean they are your enemies when they constructively criticise your decisions or actions.
It doesn’t mean that they or you are wrong, it means you have someone who supports you and at the same time have the courage to let you know when you goofed just like every other human.
Friendship can’t be all day Rossy and argument free; there are times when you need to see things from different perspectives to achieve something meaningful, beware of friends that always applaud all your decisions.
5. Genuine friends respect your standard and family
Respect is another important thing in friendship, by this, I don’t mean calling yourself brother or sister, I mean, your friend must know you enough to know what you stand for or against and see how to respect your standards.
For instance, if you are someone who doesn’t like people to play on your intelligence or fool you, he or she must know and respect that about you.
Beyond having regards for you and your standards, there is the need for your friend to respect your family.
In a situation whereby you are married, and some things concern your wife or husband, your friend has no right to disrespect your family for any reason or reasons.
In the meantime, the fact that you guys met at relaxation centre does not mean he or she will be a lousy friend and the fact that you link up at church or mosque does not guarantee that he will be of value to your life like I said earlier, time and situations will tell.
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