Making social connections is important to your quality of life. When you meet new people you increase your chances for making friendships and connections that provide companionship, intellectual stimulation, humor, support, and joy. Meeting people will be a lot more enjoyable and easier when:

• You're fairly likeable and personable - when you meet new people you also don't have to worry about the 'Will they like me?' question.

• When you meet someone you like you're able to ask them to hang out with you. This is a super important point. You can meet all the people you want, but if you don't invite them to see you outside of the situation where you've met them, it might never amount to anything more lasting.


• A degree of patience and a tolerance for misses. You may make an attempt to meet people that turns out to be a bust. You could join a club and not have any friendships develop for two months. Sometimes these things take time.

• Having interests and hobbies that force you to leave the house is quite useful.

There are many ways and places to meet people, and listed below are just but some that have been sure of giving positive results.

1. Through your friends and other people you already know

This is obvious when you think about it. When you meet someone you like you're also potentially meeting all their friends down the road. It's more of a longer term and indirect way to meet people, but keep it on your radar. This general point can also work on a much smaller scale; like you could start a conversation with a guy in a bar and two minutes later be introduced to his friends.

2. A sports team or league

Joining the team gets you admission to a group of guys who you'll see for the next few weeks at least, who will develop some camaraderie from playing together, and for whom socializing after the game comes naturally.

3. Online
This method still has a bit of a stigma attached, but pretty much everyone does it at some point. If you're already there a lot you may as well take advantage of it to make some friends. As you probably know the biggest issue with meeting people online is their internet persona not meshing up with what they're like in real life. This cuts both ways. Sometimes you'll be disappointed in the person you meet. At other times it's you that other people are disappointed in. This can be quite the blow to your self-esteem. Be aware of this, especially if you tend to come of as awkward in real life, but are the man when you're behind a keyboard.

4. A solitary activity that you can make social

If you have an interest that you normally partake in on your own, you may be able to introduce a social element into it. If you think a certain type of group or club would help you but there isn't one around then try starting one yourself. This 'being the organizer' element of boosting your social life is something I've just recently started to appreciate myself more.

5. Crowded places (e.g., a small bar with music, comedy, or readings)
It is always often told in many public areas to "share a table, and win a friend". Often it's only natural that you chat to each other a bit next.

6. Work

If the circumstances allow, you may even want to consider switching jobs, or getting another one on the side. You could also volunteer somewhere. Like you could put in a few hours a week working with youths or manning a phone as a counselor and meet the other volunteers.

Meeting new people should be fun and easy, it doesn't require anything but a positive outlook and a smile. As long as you are comfortable of yourself and your situation, meeting new people will be easy as pie.