Good & Healthy Relationship Advice & Tips

Being single can be extremely fun and extremely frustrating—sometimes on the same day. So what words would you use to describe your dating life right now? Delighted? Discouraged?

The fact is, everyone can use some fresh ideas and fresh inspiration to reinvigorate the dating process. Start with these:

• Reach out to a relationship role model: If you admire the long-term relationship of a family member or friend, get in contact and seek input.

Ask for advice about essential ingredients for lasting love.

• Come up with a list of your best personal stories: Every date you go on will be energised and enriched by the anecdotes you tell about your life—whether they are funny, touching, or intriguing.

Of everything you tell your date over the course of an evening, your stories will be most memorable.

• Contact a former dating partner you’ve never forgotten: Sometimes promising relationships end because the timing or circumstances weren’t right.

It might be worth circling back around to see if a former partner is available and interested in reconnecting.

• Spruce up your online profile: Invest some time in updating your information, adding pizzazz to your descriptions, and perhaps including new and improved photos.

• Take inventory of your strengths: Think about the things you do well and traits you consider to be your biggest assets. These are things you can use to put yourself in the strongest possible position for romantic success.

• Re-assess your must-have and can’t-stand lists: Those lists you made to evaluate your potential partners are a good place to evaluate your own attractiveness.

• Clarify the kind of partner you want to be: Now make a list of all the things you’d like to be as a partner. Be honest about the qualities you presently lack or which are underdeveloped.

 Looking forward, think of ways to improve the impression your future partner will form the first time he or she meets you.

• Evaluate what’s working and what’s not about your dating approach: Think through the dates you’ve had over the past year and pinpoint the things you’d like to continue doing and what areas need improvement.

• Let your imagination run free and come up with an outside-the-box date idea: You’ve probably got your go-to, tried-and-true dates. Tap your creativity to come up with something remarkable for your next outing.

• Shed what should be left behind: These include wounds and disappointments of the past year, as well as unhelpful attitudes and habits.

• Identify what is keeping you stuck: Are old habits keeping you stuck? Pledge to overcome them. Relationships that hold you back? Say goodbye.

• Help yourself feel more attractive: sign up for a self-improvement course, buy a new outfit, start an exercise regimen, change your hairstyle—when you feel attractive, others will find you more attractive, too.

• Start a growth spurt: You will be far more captivating to the opposite sex by continually growing, developing, and moving your life toward a grand goal.

• Forgive someone: If you’ve been hurt by a former lover, let it go.

The magic of forgiveness lies more in what it will do for you, not the one who wounded you. Healing happens within you as you release any festering anger and resentment.

• Vow to make one big change: Nothing refreshes us like something new in our lives.

It doesn’t need to be monumental or expensive.

Look around and see what facets of your life have become dull and worn out.

Shake up your life by focusing on one area that needs to be transformed—then go for it.