How to Figure Out if Your Friend Is Worth Keeping
Reflect on the friendship over the past few days and weeks., Make a two-column list., Fill in your pros and cons., Review your pros and cons.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Reflect on the friendship over the past few days and weeks.
As you try to decide if you friendship is worth keeping it can help to think back on your interactions with the friend recently.
Has something happened lately that totally changed the dynamic of the friendship? Was this a one-time occurrence or are you noticing a pattern? Is your friend acting normally or are there certain circumstances affecting his or her behavior?, Now that you have taken some time to reflect on how the friendship has been going, it’s time to write it down.
Grab a piece of paper and draw a line straight down the center.
At the top, write “Continue the Friendship?” which is the decision you are trying to make.
Beneath that write “Pros” on the left and “Cons” on the right.
Making a pros and cons lists is a quick and simple way to help you see the benefits and disadvantages of possible decisions before you make them., Use the reflections you had in the first step to fill in each side of your list.
For pros, you will want to list all the reasons it’s a good idea to continue the friendship.
For cons, you will write out all the reasons continuing the friendship is a bad decision.For example, you might write “Loyalty,” “5-year friendship,” and “Knows all my secrets” under the Pros side.
Meanwhile, you might add things like “Not trustworthy” or “Not reliable” under the Cons side. , Once you have exhausted your brainpower writing out both sides of the list, you should go back over what you wrote.
Immediately, you will want to see if one side of the list is much longer than the other.
If so, this may mean that either the pros or cons outweigh the other.
You will also want to look at the content of the individual items on the list.
See if anything sticks out to you.
For instance, you might consider “Not reliable” to be much more unfavorable than having a “5-year friendship.” Judge the pros and cons against one another to determine which are most important to you.
If you have majors pros that mean more to you than the minor cons, then you might decide to continue the friendship.
However, if the cons are major and the pros seem minor, then you may have made the decision to end the friendship. -
Step 2: Make a two-column list.
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Step 3: Fill in your pros and cons.
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Step 4: Review your pros and cons.
Detailed Guide
As you try to decide if you friendship is worth keeping it can help to think back on your interactions with the friend recently.
Has something happened lately that totally changed the dynamic of the friendship? Was this a one-time occurrence or are you noticing a pattern? Is your friend acting normally or are there certain circumstances affecting his or her behavior?, Now that you have taken some time to reflect on how the friendship has been going, it’s time to write it down.
Grab a piece of paper and draw a line straight down the center.
At the top, write “Continue the Friendship?” which is the decision you are trying to make.
Beneath that write “Pros” on the left and “Cons” on the right.
Making a pros and cons lists is a quick and simple way to help you see the benefits and disadvantages of possible decisions before you make them., Use the reflections you had in the first step to fill in each side of your list.
For pros, you will want to list all the reasons it’s a good idea to continue the friendship.
For cons, you will write out all the reasons continuing the friendship is a bad decision.For example, you might write “Loyalty,” “5-year friendship,” and “Knows all my secrets” under the Pros side.
Meanwhile, you might add things like “Not trustworthy” or “Not reliable” under the Cons side. , Once you have exhausted your brainpower writing out both sides of the list, you should go back over what you wrote.
Immediately, you will want to see if one side of the list is much longer than the other.
If so, this may mean that either the pros or cons outweigh the other.
You will also want to look at the content of the individual items on the list.
See if anything sticks out to you.
For instance, you might consider “Not reliable” to be much more unfavorable than having a “5-year friendship.” Judge the pros and cons against one another to determine which are most important to you.
If you have majors pros that mean more to you than the minor cons, then you might decide to continue the friendship.
However, if the cons are major and the pros seem minor, then you may have made the decision to end the friendship.
About the Author
Christopher Martin
Experienced content creator specializing in crafts guides and tutorials.
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