If you’re always the one who starts the conversation, stop for a week and see who notices.

Effort in a friendship can be invisible when it only ever runs one way. If every plan, message and check in comes from you, you never find out whether anyone else would reach for the phone, and you are left guessing whether the closeness is mutual or merely maintained. A week of quiet is a cheap way to get the answer.

Try it with no announcement and no sulking about the result. Some people will surprise you and some will confirm what you suspected. Either way you learn where to spend your effort next month.