About myself briefly (just so you know the angle I am taking): I’m a dad, I run my own business, life is absolutely flat out. Like most people in my cohort, I have about 10 million things competing for my attention. But if anything, that’s made me realise how important it is to intentionally make time for my mates. I’ve become painfully aware of something as I get older: a lot of men are terrible at maintaining friendships, and I think it is actually causing us harm. Why? I am not convinced it is because most of us blokes are bad people or don’t care. We just tell ourselves, “Life’s busy,” “I’m exhausted.” We mean to reply later. We assume our mates just know we care. We wait for someone to organise a catch-up. Before you know it, weeks, months have gone by… Half a year disappears… and we didn’t mean any of it… The thing I have learnt, friendships don’t just happen. They’re relationships. They need intention and consistency. Sending a message. Picking up the phone. Locking in a catch-up. Following through when you say you will. There’s a lot of discussion these days about “male loneliness,” and I think part of the solution starts with us. I actually think a simple and semi-regular “How’ve you been, mate?” might mean more than you realise. I’d be interested to hear if other blokes have noticed the same thing, or if you’ve found ways to keep your friendships strong as life gets more hectic. Afterall, friendships are freaking awesome and I know I personally wanna keep them around! submitted by /u/BloodhoundSkeptic
Originally posted by u/BloodhoundSkeptic on r/AskMen
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