Personally, I travel a lot, so I keep meeting new people during my international trips and these people become my growing social circle. If you like traveling the world and meeting people, you can also expand your social circle. Of course, there are many other ways to grow your social circle as well.
- Say yes to everything!
Whenever you receive an invite, just say yes. Attend every party, every conference and every networking event. You will meet many people and some of them will become your friends.
Earlier this year, I had an international trip in Europe. When I walked into a boutique to buy some nice European clothes, I saw someone familiar there – Another customer in the boutique was someone that I met a few years ago when I attended a professional conference in the United States. We had lunch together after the conference and kept in touch online. Interestingly, we ran into each other in a beautiful boutique in Europe! Obviously, both of us were traveling in Europe, so it was simply a coincidence. She invited me to a happy hour organized by a friend of hers & I said yes. I went to a bar with her later that day for the happy hour and met some really cool people there. Indeed, my social circle just keeps growing.
Now you may wonder how you can find time for so many things if you say yes to everything. However, according to Parkinson’s Law, a project at work will expand to fill the time that is given for its completion. In other words, deadlines might cause procrastination and make people fill their time with small details that don’t even matter. Indeed, I’ve experienced that first-hand: Whenever I give myself 1 hour only to finish writing a blog article, I definitely finish writing it within one hour. Nevertheless, if I give myself the entire evening to write a blog post, I tend to spend at least 3 or 4 hours writing it!
Therefore, instead of giving yourself 14 days to complete a work project, why not give yourself 10 days only? See what happens!
- Become a resourceful connector!
If you don’t receive enough invites, you should be a connector. That means you organize a monthly happy hour and invite everyone you know to the happy hour. You can also ask everyone to bring their friends to the happy hour!
There is another way to become a connector. When I was in New Zealand, I met a guy at a networking event. We had a really good chat and exchanged phone numbers. A few months later, a friend of mine told me that he was going to New Zealand for a new job which is actually in that New Zealand guy’s industry. As a result, I introduced these two people to each other. One year later, these two individuals set up a business as a team. Last month when I went to New Zealand for an international trip, these two guys invited me to their work event. We had an amazing time together, and I met some new friends who gave me some eye-opening inspiration. That is to say, introducing people that I know to each other is an excellent way to be an effective connector. This approach creates a win-win situation for everybody.
Do you meet and connect with people? Are you a connector?
