Last week I read the article ‘7 Types of Friends, and Which Is Most Essential for Our Happiness’. Realizing I have friends in each of the 7 categories in the author’s list I wondered how and why each of these made a difference in my life. The key factor to each is that I feel like I ‘matter’ and I feel like I help others know they ‘matter’. Even, as the author suggested, “less-intimate friendships may matter more than I thought.”
Below are the friendship types the author explored.
**Lifelong Friends
**Best Friends
**Close Friends
**Social Group Friends
**Activity Friends
**Friends of Convenience
**Acquaintance Friends
“Friendships are a key to our happiness and health. Most people have connections that reflect varying degrees of closeness—and that’s healthy. “There’s value in having a variety of social interactions in the course of your week: This will invite opportunities to engage in different ways with different people, which brings novelty into your life,” explains Degges-White. “Engaging with others and establishing a connection, no matter how seemingly inconsequential, can make a positive difference.”
Do you recognize any of these friendship categories from your own life?
Expanding on the idea of the importance of mattering I found an article ‘People Know They Matter When…’ Maiers discusses the Choose2Matter initiative. The foundation of the Choose2Matter platform are the following concepts:
**You are enough.
**You have influence.
**You are a genius.
**You have a contribution to make.
**You have a gift that others need.
**You are the change.
**Your actions define your impact.
**You matter.
Understanding that “you” matter and that “you” can make a difference hopefully empowers you to act in others’ lives.
Duckworth’s sketchnote graphically depicts the 9 premises of the Choose2Matter movement (discussed in Maiers’ article). Think about how each of these connect to the relationships (7 types of friendships) you have with others.
I MATTER…YOU MATTER!!!