Stop and think for a second.
You’ve probably got a whole plethora of different friends, acquaintances, connections, and colleagues. You’ve likely been moving through life collecting them as you go without giving it much of a thought… and now, looking around you, there’s a whole weave of different kinds of friendships that have been carrying you through life for years.
But not all friendships are the same… and nor should they be! Life and love are, in fact, all the more colorful when you embrace the difference in your friendships and the fun, ridiculous, earthy, affectionate and downright crazy energy they each bring to your life.
And you need them all!
Here are the 11 main types of friend that you need in your life.. how many have you got?
1. The BFF (Best Friend Forever)
Everyone needs one of these. Someone you can call up at any time of the day or night, someone to share the good, the bad and the oh so ugly with, knowing that you’ll only ever be met with love and acceptance.
Maybe your best friend has been with you since the wee days of childhood, or maybe you met in your teen years… maybe even later. But one thing is for sure, you and this truest of true friends share your hearts with each other. And minds, your souls, your shoes, your holidays… and anything else that can be shared (though you’ll probably – wisely – draw the line at wives and hubbies)
2. The Truthteller
This friend is your human reality-checker. Often unsympathetic but brimming with ruthless compassion for your highest good, the truthteller won’t take any prisoners. And won’t let you either.
So if you’ve been bungee-ing in and out of the same relationship for the last 6 months, this is the buddy who will call you out on your destructive patterns.
And if you’ve just come back from the hairdressers with one helluva disastrous bob, yup, this is the friend who’ll tell it to you uncensored (so may want to avoid them for a week or two til it grows out…)
3. The Party Head
We all need a party head in our lives! This is the friendship to call on when you’re feeling in need of a little fun and reckless entertainment. Even on a school night.
This is the friend you’re probably least likely to extend an invitation to, to say your baby shower or your parent’s 50th wedding anniversary (unless you’re well prepped to contain the inevitable damage) but for spontaneous get-togethers, festival weekends and a much-needed blowout, the party head’s the one to call.
4. The Fearless One
A brave and fearless friend is a priceless piece in the friendship armory. Not only will this person always be a beacon of possibility for you (as someone who always rises to a challenge themselves, they’re a living example to the awesomeness that can happen in life when you face your fears!) But they’re also perpetually encouraging. Close friends like this are gold dust – they force us to feel the fear and live it, stepping outside of our comfort zones and stretching ourselves up, into our highest selves.
Also likely to say yes to any random request you launch at them, these folk are great sounding boards for any outlandish new ideas you’ve come up with, and make even better companions for trying out a weird new hobby.
5. The Sensible One
…And the antidote to the fearless friend is the sensible one. Just as vital in the friendship fold, this type of person is the eternal realist who has the knack of bringing you (gently) back down to earth when you’re spending too long in the clouds.
Also, this person is an invaluable type of friend when it comes to planning, formulating, budgeting and basically figuring out how best to divvy up your time and attention to get where you want to go in life.
6. The Huge Success
Everyone needs a friend who’s just a little bit (ok, maybe a lot more) ‘successful’ than you are. It’s not to say your definition of successful needs to stay static – during one phase of life, this friend could be a mentor in a professional field you want to break into. In another, it could be the breastfeeding mother of three who’s racked up the experience you crave in the parenting game.
The point is, this good friend keeps you climbing, working on yourself and what’ possible, by being a living, breathing example of the next level of life.
7. The Oddball
You’ve probably got a few of these in your various friendship groups as they tend to flit in and out of social circles like dragonflies. These wildly different types never quite fit in (and nor do they want to) so they’re great friends to spend time with when you need a different perspective or a welcome distraction from the humdrum of day-to-day existence.
8. The Spiritual Seeker
Ahhh, the spiritual seeker. More and more of these woke folk are popping up in our friendship circles these days – the deep, metaphysically-minded men and mavens who seek nothing more than to awaken the rest of humankind. Maybe you picked up one of these guys when you were ‘finding yourself’ in an ashram in India? Or maybe you bonded over a bonfire at a Full Moon festival gathering?
These friends are your companions on your spiritual journey, they’ll give you the lyrics when you need to explain your existential angst in astral terms and give you a Goddess ritual to ease the pain.
9. The Family Friend
Unless you come from a family of hermits (in which case, hey, nothing wrong with that!) you’ll have a family friend that’s been on your radar since the day dot. It’s not unusual to come to a point in this friendship when you drifted apart (maybe when you realised you could choose your own friends and this wasn’t the exclusive domain of your parents) but in many cases, these types of friends DO stay strong and significant players in your life.
The downside lays in the fact that they’ve witnessed most of your most embarrassing moments as a child, and will likely never let you forget that time your mother cut your hair into the classic bowl, or that you kissed the weird next door neighbors’ kid when you were 7.
10. The Nomad
Is this person still in your sphere of friends? You probably ever quite know as they’re more often on the other side of the globe, trotting their way across yet another undiscovered territory.
These are the friends you get a postcard from once in a while, but more often keep a track of their whereabouts on their draw-droppingly epic Instagram feed, where they can be seen sharing Yak milk with a remote tribe in the Himalayas one month, and sea see diving off the Indonesian coast the next.
These are the friendships that keep the world wide open, and provide a window into the possibility of adventure that we all secretly crave. How do they do it? Nobody quite knows… But we sure enjoy the views.
11. The Work Pal
An ally at work is an absolute must in your friendship folder. Whether you need to moan about how a certain someone always leaves the coffee machine in a mess, or share your win about finally understanding how some obscure piece of computer software works, these are the friends who ‘get’ a huge part of your life, that the peeps making up the rest of your friendship simply don’t.
Sure, you may not actually ever see them outside of the office but that’s not the point – you both know your boundaries, and when you’re inside them, you’re inseparable!
So, did you recognize any of these kinds of friendships in your own life? Or even in yourself!?
Share with us in the comments below (and tell us how much you love them!)
