Friendship….

Samuel Johnson once said, “There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity”.

The fundamental building block to friendship is personal integrity…. it starts with you and it ends with you!

How many times have you had conflicts with those whose lives you share? Be it your family, your friends, your co-workers, your other business or social associates…. it is strange that you should have issues with those that supposedly care for you…. the same ones that you care for as well!

Now I am not talking about major conflicts… just those minor disagreements or arguments, that end up causing injury to otherwise lovely relationships…. and then leave those scars that for ever keep taunting you….

You might make it back up with that person, but the re-built relationship invariably has a very subtle seething of uncertainty and latent doubt that leaves it forever different from what it was….

Ever wondered why all of this happened… where it started???

If you are honest with yourself, it is a result of lost confidence… and confidence is lost with mismatched expectations… and this is a result, more than likely, of a lack of empathy at a minimum… or coming up short on personal integrity….

Ask yourself this one question as you deal with people…. “Is what I am about to say or do, in line with the expectations of the ones that I love… that I care for?”…. If it is not, you are risking that relationship!

It is more practical and noble to give yourself completely to a small set of like-minded, trusted individuals that nature has placed in your path, than to toil for pleasing the heterogenous masses that surround you everywhere….

Keep your friendships true…. It is those few that you work on and stick with over the long haul, that will probably stay with you….

It is those few that you can demonstrably and naturally submit yourself to, that will end up being your best of friends!!!