After I left college 2 years ago, I suddenly realized that aside from the friends which I had already made, it wasn’t so easy to find my perfect peer group. I was fortunate to walk into a job once I finished my education but there is just something missing from this environment that was there when I was in college with my frat boys running around wearing our greek shirts. I was never expecting work life to be like college life, but I have had to work hard on finding a new peer group. I like to think that I am in a great place in terms of my peer group and if you want to find one that suits you, here’s how.
Clubs
The best place to start when it comes to finding new peers is to join and be active in clubs that are about things that you like. It doesn’t matter whether you are playing sports or reading books, if you are looking for like-minded people, clubs are a great place to start.
Online Forums
You don’t have to know people inside out to class them as a peer and online forums are a great place to meet people who think like you and can show you a thing or two. Start thinking about what you like to do, what your dreams and ideas are and then search for forums in those categories. Make sure that you do more than read, interact with people too online, you can meet some great people.
Challenging Yourself
I have always held the belief that your peers should be people who have elements of themselves that you aspire to have. For this reason I have always tried to surround myself with more successful people than me, in an effort to stoke a fire inside me and strive to be more like them. It can be easy to pick peers who offer an easy way out when it comes to how you think or act but if you want success, search for peers who already have some.
Social Media Groups
Much like online forums, social media groups like you will find on Facebook have the power to bring people together that have a similar interest to one another. You can join these groups and be instantly connected with people just like you, be sure to engage and you could find some inspirational peers through this medium.
Being Ruthless
I always feel that ruthlessness is the only way that you can ensure that you have friends and peers around you who are helping you to better yourself. There are so many people who have friends and peers that are dragging them down and not helping them to achieve things and the only way out of that is ruthless pragmatism. I think it is important that you regularly audit your peer group to see whether or not you have made the right choice with your selections.
The key to finding a peer group that works for you is to put yourself out there, communicate, engage and regularly check to ensure that you have made smart choices.