Friendships are more fragile than family and need more care. While nobody likes to lose friends, you can expect to lose a good friend about every two years.

You have to be deliberate with your friendships. Friendships need regular face-to-face contact if you want to keep them.

Studies show that people said thanks 5.5% of the time to friends and family. We simply expect family and friends to accept our request as a matter of course. We show more gratitude to strangers.

A little gratitude can go a long way in maintaining relationships. If you messed up, apologize.

The depth of friendships is more important than frequency. Sharing emotional experiences and events with one another is a critical element.

When people share intense ups and downs, it creates a bond that cannot be easily broken. So, be vulnerable. Open up. Ask for advice. Share what you're going through emotionally.

We have something like a fixed "friendship budget." Extroverts may have more friends, but their friendships are not as close as those of introverts. We spend about 3,5 hours a day on social interaction. Your closest 5 friends get 40%, the other 10 in the group of 15 get the next 20%. And the last 135 friends get about 37 seconds a day.

The lesson is that you can't add time; you can only distribute it differently. Know who is important to you and prioritise them.

Research indicates the common factors that predict how satisfied people are with the gathering:

• The number of people (more is better)
• The frequency of laughter
• Reminisching about the past
• The consumption of alcohol

The biggest point to note is to limit the small talk and open up and communicate meaningful stuff.

A study showed that our behaviour is most influenced by those we are close to.

If you improve, it is likely that you both will improve. So help them become a better person by working on yourself.