Transcript for accessibility purposes:
"It's easy to gravitate toward the idea of having lots of friends, but you'll probably benefit more from strengthening your "inner circle" friendships than from simply gaining more friends.
Who belongs in your inner circle? Can you reach out to one of them right now?"
James Clear
This is a very interesting quote/question posed by James Clear on one of his recent newsletters.
It really got me thinking.
Some years ago, I had a lot of friends, especially during my school and college years. I didn't fit the "popular kid" stereotype by any means but my ability to connect with people from all the different groups was enough to ensure that I was always surrounded by friends.
Nowadays, things are much different. I have changed a lot as a person and made some life choices that reduced my free time to a much slower standard than the average person, which, I'm not gonna lie, took a bit of a hit on the social aspect of my life.
Now, I don't walk around may different social circles anymore so my number of "friends" also took a major hit.
That may sound like a bummer and even sad at first but the few friends that "stuck around" are people I've known and loved for around 15 years. In fact, except for maybe 2 or 3 new people that came into my life recently, I don't think I have a lot of real friends that I haven't known for at least a decade.
My social cycle may have retracted in numbers, but it expanded exponentially in strength because I know I can rely on these people. I'm not closed to meeting new people by any means, but I don't put a lot of energy into that either. I much prefer to focus what little time and energy I have on the few people that I'm honored to have in my Inner Circle.