How to Stay in Touch with the People You Care About

As we grow older, it sometimes seems that we lose touch with the people we care about. Old friends become distant memories and family members drift away into their own lives. The longer you go when you lose touch, the harder it seems to get back into contact with the ones you care about and sometimes it can even be nearly impossible, short of hiring a private investigator, if they have moved and changed addresses and telephone numbers.

Here are some great tips to help you stay in contact with the people that you care about:

Type Letters Instead of Hand Writing Them

If you have a hard time sitting down to write a traditional letter, you can type it instead. While it may not seem as personal as a handwritten letter, it's certainly better than not writing the person at all. You can also get personalized or decorative stationary to print your letter on.

Use Technology

Advances in technology have made it so much easier to keep in contact with people that you care about. Email and instant messaging tools make it easy and inexpensive to send frequent communication. Many cell phone and digital phone plans make it nearly free to call the people you love and you don't have to worry as much about high phone bills. Take advantage of the many growing technological advances that help you keep in touch.

Send Holiday Cards

When you send cards on holidays and birthdays it shows that you remember the person and are thinking of them. It can also be a good icebreaker if you have not talked in some time. You can also get some "just because" cards and send them out randomly in between holidays to say hello.

Make it a Habit

Staying in contact with people shouldn't be a burden or a hassle. Most people only find the task tedious because they go so long in between contact that they feel nervous and getting in touch again, they don't know where to begin or because they feel like they need to "catch up" and they don't have the time to do so. Take some time in your daily routine to devote to staying in contact and it won't be so hard for you.

Don't Try to Catch Up

If you go some time without contacting a person and you keep thinking you want to call them or send them a letter but you procrastinate because you feel like you need to "catch up" on all that has happened, you are only making it harder to get in touch. Just give them a call anyway or write a short note and say, "I'm sorry I haven't been in touch. I'd love to catch up when we have time but I just wanted to say hello and see how you are." Something to this effect will show that you are thinking of the person and want to say hello. Don't get trapped into thinking you have to make excuses for not writing sooner or over-explain everything that has happened since your last contact.

Here are some additional tips:

Make quick calls - Even if you can't talk for a long time, a quick call to say hello will keep you in touch. Don't be afraid to say "I only have 10 minutes; I just want to say hi".

Use video messaging - You can see and speak to each other live via computer.

Create a blog- You can use an individual blog to talk about your life so friends and family members can keep track of you or you can create a family blog and allow different members of the family to use it to share photos, updates and more.

Hold family reunions - Attend existing family reunions or start them if your family is not doing it already.

Attend high school/college reunions- This will allow you to see long-lost friends and peers.

Create a list- Make lists of all the people you want to stay in contact with and then refer to your list when you are sending out emails, cards or letters.

Use an email template- You can create an email template or even a regular letter template and then when you want to contact people on your list, change the specifics to update what you are currently doing. This saves you time and hassle of starting from scratch each time. Always remember the importance of staying in touch with the people you care about. Try not to get so wrapped up in your daily lives, jobs and other responsibilities that you forget parents, siblings, close friends and other people that are important to you.