This Is How To Make Friends As An Adult: 5 Secrets Backed By Research - Barking Up The Wrong Tree

Maybe your grandparents lived to 100 and you take good care of yourself. You're healthy. But if you want those years to be full of smiles, you need to invest in friendship. 70% of your happiness comes from relationships.

Via The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People :

Contrary to the belief that happiness is hard to explain, or that it depends on having great wealth, researchers have identified the core factors in a happy life. The primary components are number of friends, closeness of friends, closeness of family, and relationships with co-workers and neighbors. Together these features explain about 70 percent of personal happiness. - Murray and Peacock 1996

Doing this is easy, it's not scary, they're people you already have history with, and it doesn't take a lot of time or work to get to know them. Go to Facebook or LinkedIn for ideas and then send some texts. Boom. You already have more friends.

If you're going to be strategic, who should you prioritize? You probably met a disproportionate number of your friends through just a handful of people. Those are your " superconnectors ."

Rekindle those relationships. And then ask them if there's anyone you should meet. Next time you get together, see if that new person can come along. Not. Hard. At. All.