Don't wait for Valentine's Day. If you're not good at being romantic, or thoughtful, or loving, sure, take a note from all the influence towards love during this season, and add some of that sauce into your love life.
Dating is simple. Relationships are hard work. Well, they can be hard work, or they can be temporarily effortless. I think that's what we're imagining when we jump back into the dating pool again. We remember the highs of love crushes, the sex, the joy, the "hi, I am soooo glad to see you" feelings that are bantered back and forth when you are establishing a new love relationship.
Is your dating profile authentic? Are there parts of your presentation that need work? Are you asking for the right things in your future partner? And if these things are good, how are we going to filter through the chaff and find each other, online?
Without a solid self-awareness and a good road map of what you're looking for in a relationship, you might begin to feel dating (or online dating) is crap. That might be the case, but it's also a reality that tons of people move on from bad relationships, and find healthy relationships all the time. It takes work.
What are some ways you can nurture your loving relationship every single day of this month? And then, continue next month. And forever.
I am convinced that through active participation and a cooperative approach to love, I can establish and maintain a loving partnership on into my later years. To be walking on a beach somewhere, with my partner, and doting on our grandkids and our kids, together.
What does it look like when you are happy? What are you doing? If your best case scenario involves continuing to do that (play tennis, in my case) then perhaps you need to look into participating more. The apps are okay for spreading your reach and resetting your ambition, but you need to be doing your dream first, then the right person might come along beside you on a bike ride and say, "Hello."
How you define your boundaries early in the relationship is how you will relate to each other for the duration. If you cross boundaries and violate minor issues of trust, you will break the fragile bond that is forming between the two of you, even before the first fibers of love have begun to form and enmesh.