The Importance Of Friendships By Dale Carnegie

Dale Carnegie starts this book out with one of the biggest steps to making and keeping genuine friends. As a human being you want to have a group of people that you can call friends. These people will stick with you through the thin and thick and always have your back. You and your friends need to have a level of respect. Dale explains that you don’t want to bite the hand that has been there for you. This means that there are right times and wrong times to criticize someone. You don’t always want to be nagging at them for everything they do that’s not nice or that you don’t agree with. But there are times when you should be honest with your friends and tell them the truth and if that means that you have to disagree or criticize when there’s a need to, so be it. Your real friends will appreciate this honesty. Giving your friends sincere appreciation will build relationships to last a lifetime. Focusing on what your friends want instead of what you want, will only strengthen the relationship. Keeping your friends interested in what they want and what they like to do will creates an eagerness to want to be around you more and appreciate what you do for them. They will realize that you have become genuinely interested in them and what their goals and attractions are. Friends love when they know you care about them. Feeling
loved is one of the best gifts you can give a friend and also the best gift you can receive from a friend. Dale talks about smiling.
Always smile. This shows happiness and ultimately will rub off on someone else and they get a feeling of happiness. Personally I think that a smile is one of the most contiguous things in the world. Not too often do you smile and don’t receive smile or even make another individual smile by smiling yourself. Positive energy is key. Having positive energy can lead to a lot of great things. With having positive energy means that you have to not only showing it by your physical actions but by your vocal communication as well. Always keeping a positive attitude is a choice and it’s an easy choice if you choose to make
it. Being a good listener is a huge part is showing your interest in someone. Listening shows that you care for what that individual has to say and how they feel. It doesn’t take any energy to be a good listener. Being able to listen and relate or provide feedback is an important factor in maintaining a healthy relationship. Show respect for their opinions and avoid arguments. If you are wrong you should admit it right away and show empathy. Be caring for the other person’s dreams and desires. Don’t shoot them down and tell them they are no good. Help them achieve their dreams and be the best friend that you can be. You should have goals as friends and make them goals challenging and exciting at them same time. This will involve all parties participating. That means that all parties have to actively give interest and ideas to reach this objective. Making it challenging will bring out the best in friends and make it more worth the process. You need to enjoy the process to enjoy the success. Asking questions is a healthy way to communicate. Knowing this persons interests, their inspirations, and their way of thinking and feeling will bring you closer on relating to that individual. Doing this will provide interest. On the other hand if you’re not asking questions you tend to be more directive and authoritative. Being authoritative means that you like to have all the power in the relationship and instead of asking questions you will be giving direct orders and can cause anger and frustration. Instead try to make this person live up to their highest level reputation that they can. This can be create a bar that they see they need to maintain to ultimately not only be the best person they can be but the best friend they can be for you.