How To Ensure A Strong Love/Friendship Balance

Love/Friendship Balance | June 27, 2016

It always happens. Your best friend meets somebody new and you become old news. People get so excited about the new romantic interests in their lives that they can tend to neglect all of the great people that they’ve had beside them for years.

Knowing how to evenly distribute your time so as to ensure that nobody feels left out is an important life skill and one that will not only help you build new relationships, but help you keep existing ones. Below are 5 tips to ensure a strong love/friendship balance.

Establish ground rules.

Let your friends know up front if you think you have met someone that will be a long-term relationship, perhaps even the one. By being up front and direct with your friends from the beginning, any absence, or decrease in time spent, will not come as an unpleasant surprise and you can avoid hurt feelings because people feel neglected.

Connect in new ways.

If a new relationship is getting in the way of old friendships, being physically there for both parties as much as you, or they want, may not be possible. Find new ways to connect. Have a coffee with a friend over Skype or facetime. Send each other funny pictures or links to articles or other Internet content you think they will find amusing.

Integrate your partner into your friend circle.

The best way to ensure that you are able to be all things to all people in your life is by bringing everyone together. Introduce your partner to your friends and make sure that they too can build a relationship with them so everyone can spend time together.

Let your partner know that you need friend time too.

Guys/girls nights are healthy to have in a relationship because it allows both people time to decompress and spend time living their own lives. Sharing a life is great, but sharing a life, while discarding your own, is not.

Double date.

If your friends are also involved romantically, invite them and their partner along on a double date. This is a great way to double up on the integrating because not only are you including both your friend and your partner in the same social setting, they are doing the same with you.

Time is a finite resource. As we get older, it’s what we all wish we had more of. This means we must make decisions about what to do with that time. Inevitably, especially if we have a large social circle, people are going to get left out. Knowing how to make sure that you are equitably distributing your time, going out of your way to include people and letting everyone in your life know your plans for managing your time is a surefire way to avoid resentment and keep friendships and relationships happy and healthy.