This sounds like a weird question, and definitely one that I never thought I'd ask, but I'm on Day 2 of the Stress Redux Challenge and I realized - it's really hard to make non-work friends.
I'm in my early twenties and went from a difficult degree, then to a cut-throat consulting world, and now I work remotely in a MCOL. I had work friends/university friends, but it was very competitive/toxic and I never fully trusted them (I have stories for days).
I only meet people when I'm at work or if someone else is at work, and I'm finding it really hard to make new friends, since the priority is always work/relationships and I never end up meeting up with people I meet.
I reallly don't want to be friends from anyone from my industry, so I will say, maybe I'm too picky. I'm an extrovert and good at networking/other things to get ahead, but when I'm at home, I literally have no interest in leaving the house and just want to watch TV and eat.
Even when I go to a HCOL area and meet people, it always turns into work (since they usually are in the same industry), and it's nearly impossible to view them as a friend, so maybe I do the same thing as well.
It's been really hard to stay in contact with my close-knit high school friends since they're in grad school and live pretty far away. They've been asking me for networking help/resume help, and I've had to take a break from those friendships. I just want a friendship where we never discuss work/career, but I think for my age, maybe that's the primary focus.
Even with work friends, sometimes they overstep their boundaries and start talking about their personal lives, in particular, their romantic lives, and I've had to always shut that down because I want a clear work-life balance.
I'm not sure if I'm the overly rigid person or just scarred from my prior job. But being remote has definitely made me realize that I want friends who have nothing to do with work, but I also realize that I'm a workaholic and all I do is work.
I'm not sure how to circumvent that and maybe I over-analyzed this to death, but fundamentally, I am completely lost as to how to make friends. I've tried going to social groups/sports, and I somehow ALWAYS find people from the same industry at those events, and so I stopped going.
How do you make friends as an adult?
This sounds like a weird question, and definitely one that I never thought I'd ask, but I'm on Day 2 of the Stress Redux Challenge and I realized - it's really hard to make non-work friends.
I'm in my early twenties and went from a difficult degree, then to a cut-throat consulting world, and now I work remotely in a MCOL. I had work friends/university friends, but it was very competitive/toxic and I never fully trusted them (I have stories for days).
I only meet people when I'm at work or if someone else is at work, and I'm finding it really hard to make new friends, since the priority is always work/relationships and I never end up meeting up with people I meet.
I reallly don't want to be friends from anyone from my industry, so I will say, maybe I'm too picky. I'm an extrovert and good at networking/other things to get ahead, but when I'm at home, I literally have no interest in leaving the house and just want to watch TV and eat.
Even when I go to a HCOL area and meet people, it always turns into work (since they usually are in the same industry), and it's nearly impossible to view them as a friend, so maybe I do the same thing as well.
It's been really hard to stay in contact with my close-knit high school friends since they're in grad school and live pretty far away. They've been asking me for networking help/resume help, and I've had to take a break from those friendships. I just want a friendship where we never discuss work/career, but I think for my age, maybe that's the primary focus.
Even with work friends, sometimes they overstep their boundaries and start talking about their personal lives, in particular, their romantic lives, and I've had to always shut that down because I want a clear work-life balance.
I'm not sure if I'm the overly rigid person or just scarred from my prior job. But being remote has definitely made me realize that I want friends who have nothing to do with work, but I also realize that I'm a workaholic and all I do is work.
I'm not sure how to circumvent that and maybe I over-analyzed this to death, but fundamentally, I am completely lost as to how to make friends. I've tried going to social groups/sports, and I somehow ALWAYS find people from the same industry at those events, and so I stopped going.
I'd love any ideas !