Category: Basic Training

When it comes to the quality of your friendships, does diversity matter? In this next post for my year-long series, New Year; New Types of Friends, I explain the benefits of having a wide variety of people among your circle of friends. Diversity helps deepen your friendships so you can enjoy deeper, authentic, and impactful conversations. It also helps you gain different perspectives that help you better support your friends and family.  What Do I Mean by Diversity? As you pondered the topic of diversity among your friends, did your immediate thoughts go to racial diversity? But do you have friends with different religious beliefs? What about different socioeconomic or educational statuses?  How about friends with a different gender or sexual orientation? Nationality or ethnicity? How about friends with an older man or a young buck? Would you ever consider having friends of differing political parties? It’s not unrealistic to

My next post in this series, New Year; New Types of Friends describes how much time it takes for men to make friends as an adult. I will reference a study about the amount of time needed to make a casual friend and how long it takes to move through the deepening stages of friendship. I also explain some differences between male and female friendships and provide guidelines for how to get started. You can catch up on my earlier posts in this series at these links:  The Philosophy of Friendship about how brotherly love (philia) adds emotional depth to your friendships, which makes it a “friendship for the good.”  The History of Friendship explains that friends served utilitarian, companionship, erotic, and spiritual purposes over time. Knowing these differences helps you determine the value of a small group of deeper, authentic friendships.  The Psychology of Friendship describes why many men