When you’ve found someone online, you want to shout it from the rooftops. You’re happy, you’re dating, and you can finally stop saying that you’re the ‘single friend’ whom everyone pities.

Feels good, doesn’t it?

However, once you get to this point, you might find it difficult to take down that online profile. After all, this relationship might not work, so why not keep your options open?

You aren’t alone. You want to make sure the next Mr. or Mrs. Right can still find you, but isn’t this taking away from your confidence in your current relationship? Absolutely.

You need to give the relationship you have right now the best shot possible – and that means taking down that online profile (yes, all of them) or turning it to an ‘inactive’ mode. This way, you aren’t going to get distracted by all of the potential dates out there. You know, the ones that only seem to pop up when you’re already taken?

If your current partner found you online, they’re not going to think you’re too serious if they can still find your active profile. And if they still have their profile up, you know you’d be suspicious of your long term success too.

Focus on what you have now. If it doesn’t work out, at least you know your profile is effective – and you can always put it back and put yourself back out

Dating Essentials Personal Profiles, Relationship

If you’re in a relationship right now that’s not making you happy, maybe it’s time to take some advice from the current economic crisis and FIRE your significant other.

That’s right. If they’re not doing their job and you’re not interested in waiting for them to learn to change, it’s time to give them the boot, a pink slip, a kick in the behind.

It’s time to get fired up to do some firing.

• Make a list of their offenses – Before you talk to your soon to be ex, it’s time to sit and think about what you don’t like about them or about the way they are in the relationship.
• Make a list of their good qualities – But if you’re going to at least give your significant other a chance of saying with you, you need to think about the redeeming qualities they have too. You might be surprised at how much you do like.
• Think about a trial run – Just like a poor performance review, you might want to give your significant other a second chance to improve within a certain time frame. If they don’t improve, they’re gone.

Firing your significant other sounds harsh, and maybe it is. But if you’re not happy, it’s time to downsize your relationship.

Breaking Up Breaking Up, Rejection, Relationship

From coast to coast, people are looking for one thing – someone to love. And whether they choose to use online dating options or they go the old-fashioned route, there are a few lessons you can learn from the mistakes (and the successes) of others just like you.

Geography doesn’t matter in the land of love – only how you travel to your final destination.

First of all, being yourself is the main lesson that all of us could learn. We often believe that in order to impress someone else, we need to become someone else, but this is far from the truth. What we do need to do is to learn to accept who we are, even with our flaws, and flaunt the positive.

This means – women, don’t spackle on makeup to look ‘perfect’ and men, don’t fluff up your credentials or your achievements to seem successful.

Secondly, you want to make sure that you are clear about what you want from your relationship from the very start. Just want to date someone for fun? Tell your new partner that.

Looking for a long term relationship? Tell them that too.

This way, you can both be on the same page, and no one can ever say, “Oh I didn’t know that you wanted….”

Finally, if there’s any tip that works for both genders in every dating scenario, it’s this one – realize that it might not work. You shouldn’t put all of your hope and your energy into one person because it’s probably fairly reasonable to assume that they might not be the ‘one’ you’ve been looking for.

Go into each date and each relationship as though you could fall in love, but if it doesn’t happen, that’s okay too.

Move onto the next lucky date!

Dating Essentials, Diary Love, Relationship, Singles, Travel