January Challenge: See a Friend in Person This Month
Improve your friendships by the end of the year (or sooner!)
Welcome to the 2025 Friendship Challenge, a monthly series here—and in the Dear Nina podcast—where I issue a “social wellness” challenge. Each challenge stands alone and every one of them WILL improve your friendships. Whenever you’re reading this, start today! All you need is a little bit of courage and a willingness to try more than once each month if you don’t get the results you want at first.
Why will these challenges improve your friendships?
Putting yourself in charge of your social life and your relationships is the key to healthy friendships. That is what each of these challenges aims to do—they will put you in charge.
In a healthy, robust social life, or at least a deeply fulfilling one where you feel like you can be yourself, there’s less keeping score, less keeping track, less waiting for invitations, less worrying about how you will be judged, and less moralizing about who should have included you. You, dear reader, are in charge. YOU, will do the including.
The January 2025 challenge: See a friend in person this month.
I challenge you to see a friend in person this month. Go for a walk, meet for a meal, see Wicked (heavy on the friendship themes) for the second time in the theater or invite a friend to watch it at home now that it’s streaming on several channels. Sign up for a cooking class with a friend; suggest attending an author reading at a bookstore; do a trial class at a new gym with a friend who likes group fitness.
It doesn’t matter what you do as long as it gets you OFF the text thread and out of the social media “like” and “heart” habit as a replacement for true connection.
If you reach out to a few people and they can’t coordinate their schedules this month, reach out to someone else. Onward and upward. No overthinking. No waiting around. No keeping track of who reached out first last time you got together.
We need to see our friends in person.
Texting all day is not the same. Sending memes back and forth is not the same. Yes, those things keep us connected, and I’m not saying they’re worthless. Both texting and meme sharing is a big part of how we stay in touch with friends these days and that’s the reality. I engage in both activities with local and long distance friends—often!
HOWEVER, you must see your local friends in person sometimes to maintain those friendships. And if you want to get closer with a casual friend, that’s only going to happen with some face-to-face time.
But Nina, what if I feel like I have no friends?
I know this is the case for some readers and that’s how you found me or my podcast. You feel like you have no close friends, or you recently moved and only have long distance friends, or you’re in a stage of life where the friendships you had aren’t working for you anymore. This challenge applies to you more than anyone because it’s how you’re going to restart your social life—one potential friend at a time.
I often say when making new friends you’re not looking for “a friend group.” You’re looking for one friend who lifts your spirits and whose spirits you can lift. One potential friend. Not even a close friend at first. One friend.
If you feel like you have no friends right now, identify three people in your orbit who you’d like to know better. I MEAN IT. Take the pressure down from “friend” to “someone I’d like to know.”
A colleague? A local person from a common Facebook group? Is there someone on another social media platform who always comments on the same posts where you find yourself commenting? Is it time to sign up for an in-person class, workshop, or support type of group where you can be around someone who you’d eventually ask to meet for coffee? Is it time to try a platonic meet-up app like Bumble Bff or Meetup? Could you sign up to volunteer regularly for an organization where you’re working alongside others?
Want some accountability for these challenges?
Over three years ago I started a Facebook group for the Dear Nina community, and it’s a wonderful, supportive place full of people who like talking about the good and the difficult of friendships. We also talk about books, shows, recipes, and more. I’ll have a thread for each month’s challenge so people can report on how it’s going. We’re here to support you. Let’s do this!
You can comment on this Substack post.
You can email me at ninabadzin@gmail.com to say, “I did it!”
#127: The Most Recent DEAR NINA Episode:
I recorded a short solo episode explaining the January challenge. I can’t believe I’m on episode #128 for the next one. That number is getting big!
FIND EPISODE #127 on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and anywhere you listen to podcasts!
Articles and Other Finds About Friendship
I see so many friendship-related things, either because I find them myself or listeners send them to me. I love hearing from listeners and readers!
“24 Ways to Supercharge Your Friendships” by previous Dear Nina guest and author of Modern Friendship,
“A Like Does Not a Friendship Make” by future Dear Nina guest,
.This is not an article, but in case you missed my 2024 year in review post where I reported on the top 5 episodes, top 5 anonymous letters, top 5 cities where listeners live, etc. that is here.
Books, Shows, etc. I’m Into These Days
Reading: I’m reading an advance copy of You Didn’t Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip by Kelsey McKinney. I’m listening to What I Ate in One Year by Stanley Tucci. My 2024 book reviews all in one place.
TV: My 2024 TV reviews all in one place. Currently I’m staying up to date on Outlander and finishing Three Women so I can cancel Starz as soon as the current season of Outlander ends.
Cooking: I picked out a few recipes from The Ambitious Kitchen by Monique Volz to try this week. I will report back next week.
Want to connect outside of this newsletter? You can find me most often in the Facebook group, Dear Nina: The Group, where we discuss books, shows, recipes, and of course, friendship. All the social media links are below.
Instagram | TikTok | YouTube | LinkedIn | Threads | Twitter | Bluesky |My Website
Two anonymous friendship advice questions you might have missed
Have an anonymous question for the newsletter or an episode? You can do that here, and I will never know it was from you.
A FAVOR: If you’re enjoying the podcast, please leave a review and 5 stars on Apple Podcasts. Scroll down after you arrive at the main page of Dear Nina on Apple Podcasts to highlight all 5 stars and press the “write a review” option. It can be one-sentence. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! If you listen on Spotify, you can leave stars there too!
Have a great week everyone! Links to bookshop.org and Amazon are affiliate links
Nina, I've had your podcast in my queue for so long now and keep meaning to check it out, so thank you for the reminder (I have an absolutely overwhelming podcast queue which I need to get a handle on). I have a plan to walk with a friend this week, so challenge: accepted! I love walking with a friend because it's the best way to have distraction-free, meaningful conversation, with the added bonus of getting some exercise. And I always feel better after.