Navigating friendships at 30 is a challenge that most adults deal with.
Unlike in the 20s, when most young adults have lesser responsibilities and plenty of time to meet and connect, life becomes busier in the 30s.
Career commitments and raising families alone are enough to occupy you with zero or little time to spare for friendships.
More importantly, some friends may relocate for career-related reasons, affecting the proximity needed in friendships.
For that reason, most friendships die a natural death in their 30s if those involved do not try to keep the fire burning.
You start canceling or bailing out of meet-ups due to busy schedules, and by the time you realize it, you hardly call, video call, or text each other. Learn more here: Here Are 10 Reasons Why 30 Is the Decade Friends Disappear (& What to Do about It)
However, you can maintain a strong friendship after clocking 30 with the right mindset and strategy.
The primary strategy for keeping friendships alive is seeing or meeting your friends often, which may seem unachievable depending on the prevailing commitments.
Before delving into how often you should meet your acquaintances, how about familiarizing yourself with the upsides of nurturing friendships at 30?
Top Benefits of Maintaining Friendships at 30
Most adults have a lot going on in their 30s. It is also the decade when most people experience difficult times as they try to streamline different aspects of their lives; finances, families, and everything in between.
Friendships can help a great deal in your 30s in the following way:
1. Emotional Support
Friends play a critical role in offering a listening ear when you want to pour your heart out when overwhelmed by different predicaments.
Even when in a marriage or relationship and having a partner to offer you a shoulder to cry on, friends can offer additional support when dealing with traumatic events such as the death of a loved one, battling an illness, unemployment, etc.
2. Less Lonely Days
Keeping active friendships helps you avoid loneliness.
A great company is good for mental health as it prevents your mind from wandering and overthinking about small issues.
With friends around, you are guaranteed jokes, hearty laughs, and deep conversations.
3. It Boosts Happiness and Reduces Stress
Stress is common among adults in their 30s. The stress may come from workplaces, financial issues, problematic kids, relationships or marriages, and other contributing factors.
Investing in reliable friendships can help you reduce stress and forget your challenges for a while.
Your friends can also help you manage stressful situations.
There are several activities friends can take part in to relieve stress, such as camping, hiking, trying out new restaurants, going to movies, etc.
How Often Should You Meet Your Friends in Your 30s?
So, here comes 30 with a load of responsibilities, and you need more time for weekend getaways, night outs, spa visits, or road trips.
What next?
As much as life throws so much your way in your 30s, you must figure out how to avoid growing apart from the people you care about.
Away from staying in touch with your friends through social media, you need physical meetups.
Distance may play a part in determining how often the meetings should happen, especially if a friend or several others have relocated somewhere far.
For close friends within proximity, friendship, and sociology, experts recommend meeting them at least once and, if possible, twice a week.
For far-away friends, you can organize monthly or holiday visitations depending on availability and the distance between.
You can also rely on technology to keep in touch with long-distance friends while planning physical meetings.
Bear in mind that maintaining friendships should be a shared effort.
If you notice that you are the only one putting more work into making friendships work, it is a sign of a train already leaving the station.
Understanding that some friendships are not meant to last forever will help you let go of the draining ones once you spot the signs.
What About Making New Friends at 30?
Are you in your 30s or heading into the third decade without friends and wondering if you can successfully make new friends?
Not everyone is lucky to create quality or lasting friendships in their 20s, hence losing friends by the time they hit 30.
Additionally, some people love their privacy or are introverted to the extent of not valuing friendships in their 20s, and on hitting 30, they start seeing the value of having friends.
In such scenarios, how do you approach making new friends?
Is it harder to make friends in the 30s compared to the 20s?
If you would like to create new friendships, understand that you need to take the initiative of finding them rather than wait for them to show up.
While at it, you must also understand that not every person you meet qualifies for friendship.
Some proven ways to create friendships include picking up a hobby like registering in a nearby gym or library, walking your pets or kids in the park, joining community clubs, and accepting and sending out invitations for lunch or birthdays.
In finding new friends, look for signs of unhealthy connections to avoid baggage.
Watch out for toxicity in the initial stages of the friendship, such as unkind gestures, outright rudeness, manipulation, and other traits that reek of toxicity.
If you succeed in making new friends, remember that you have a role in nurturing and maintaining those friendships.
For example, be someone who can be trusted, avoid bailing out of planned meetings and show up, be kind and attentive, and above all, open up.
