be a good friend

There’s always room for improvement with a goal like this but I’m prepared call it done for now.

Had a chat for almost an hour yesterday with a very close friend who happens to live on another continent. Great to catch up.

And due to the wonders of skype it cost us nothing! Very liberating to be able to talk without that constant background thought: how much is this costing?

... to a very good friend who lives overseas.

I enjoyed catching up with a couple of friends for lunch today. One had lots to talk about because he is about to leave a big company after many years and join a small company (less than 20 people).

So I listened for most of the time, which was fine. I think part of being a good friend is knowing when to listen.

The telephone is a wonderful thing. In these days of IM, SMS and email it is easy to overlook the importance of actually sharing a verbal conversation with a friend.

Having said that, it’s about time I started calling a few of my friends to see how they’re going. I often think of a friend and say to myself: “I should give so and so a call”, sometimes even writing a reminder to myself to do so.

It’s a bit late this evening. But tomorrow I’m going to start rectifying this.

I’m about to write a thank you note to a friend who kindly invited me to play golf at his club last weekend. This is the sort of small gesture I need to make more often.

I think I too often fall into the trap of being selfish about my friends. In other words I tend to think about what they can do for me without realising it.

If I can make a conscious effort to find opportunities to do things for my friends, I’m sure I’ll get more in return.

As I write this it sounds corny and trite but, nevertheless, I think it’s true.