Here are my top ten dating dos and don’ts!
1. Do Be Yourself: Everyone puts on their best face when meeting new people, but don’t lie about yourself or pretend to be someone you are not. The person is going to eventually find out about the real you anyway and don’t think that they will be too “in love” to break it off with you for being dishonest and fake.
2. Don’t Talk About Your Ex: It’s okay to have a two-sided conversation about your past relationships, but whatever you do, don’t keep mentioning them and don’t go on and on raving about how great they were or complaining about how awful they were.
3. Do Ask For What you Want/Need: Don’t settle for less than you deserve. Don’t be afraid to ask for the best treatment and never allow anyone to mistreat or harm you emotionally or physically.
4. Don’t Air Your Dirty Laundry: It is important to be yourself, but the person you are dating doesn’t need to know or hear about every skeleton you have hiding in your closet. You don’t have to confess every dirty deed you did while on a drunken binge—it affects the way people see you. Especially if you have changed a lot, let them get to know the “you” of today—not yesterday.
5. Do Pick Your Battles: You aren’t going to agree on everything and you can’t afford to fight about everything that you can’t agree on. Decide what things are really important to you and let the other stuff go. You will win some battles, and your partner will win some.
6. Don’t Give it Away: Don’t act desperate and give “all” of yourself too soon. Sometimes people are quick to want to settle down and be in a relationship and jump in the bed and give their heart away too fast. Take it slow and give the other person a chance to earn your trust and love.
7. Do Follow the Golden Rule: Treat your partner the way you want to be treated (and then work on treating them the way they want to be treated). This sounds obvious but people often ask their partner to do things for them that they are not willing to do for their partner!
8. Don’t Go to Bed Angry: It isn’t worth allowing something that you are angry about to carry over into the next day. Try to reach some sense of resolution before bed and if it isn’t possible to resolve the disagreement, try to at least be on civil terms with your partner. You might not ever agree, but you don’t want to allow that stress and anger to stay with you all night and on into the following day.
9. Do Take a Risk: In the interest of keeping your relationship strong and exciting, be willing to go outside of your comfort zone both in bed and in love. Sometimes taking a risk means trusting your partner, apologizing when you don’t want to or confiding something that is hard to admit.
10. Don’t Blow it Off: Don’t take your partner’s needs or requests lightly. That doesn’t mean that you have to do everything that they ask, but try to accommodate them because ultimately if they want or need what they asked for badly enough, they might think they need to get it from someone else.
I write a blog for single folks. I will definitely be linking to this entry!!