When you go on endless dates without finding “The One,” dating definitely feels like a huge time-waster. But just because it’s taking you a while to find what you’re looking for doesn’t mean you should give up. Although you haven’t found the relationship you crave yet, dating is still bringing other benefits into your life. And who knows? It could be only a matter of time before you find the relationship of your dreams! Check out these eight reasons why dating isn’t a waste of time even though it feels like it sometimes.
- It pushes you out of your comfort zone. If nothing else, dating pushes you out of your comfort zone. It takes some serious guts to maintain a dating life. You have to start by putting yourself out there to be judged and possibly rejected. Then you have to work up the courage to actually go on the dates and survive the horrible ones. In that way, dating can sometimes make a lot of other areas in life seem far less scary by comparison. It helps you to grow as a person, even if it never works out.
- You learn what you like. One of the best things about dating is that it teaches you what you like. Although many of us think we know what we like right off the bat, we don’t really. Sometimes, you have to get out there and actually experience life before you realize what you truly like, and what you truly want. For example, you might not realize that you want to date someone who is family-orientated until you date a guy who isn’t.
- You learn what you don’t like. By the same token, dating also teaches you what you don’t like. Often, our ideas about what we don’t want in a partner are different from the reality. If you never get out there and date, you might think you don’t want someone who doesn’t have a high-paying job. But once you date a doctor or a lawyer, you might realize that you actually don’t want someone with that type of job because they’re always at work.
- You develop a thick skin. Dating certainly gives you a thick skin. You risk being rejected at all stages of the dating process. Whether you’re first uploading your photo on a dating app or having dinner with someone for the third time, you could always get turned down. While that can mess with your self-esteem, it can alternatively teach you to build a thick skin and withstand rejection.
- You might meet people who can enhance your life in other ways. Just because you don’t end up marrying someone you date doesn’t mean they were a waste of time. Dating brings all sorts of people into your life. Some of them can enhance it in non-romantic ways. For example, one of your dates might know someone looking to hire in your field. Or you might even meet a future friend through a failed dating relationship. Even if you don’t end up in a relationship with someone you date, they could end up introducing you to someone you are compatible with. When your goal is to find love, the more people you meet, the better you’ll be. Don’t write anyone off!
- You get dating out of your system. As exhausting as it can be sometimes, dating is also a lot of fun. You get to meet a sea of people and flirt until your heart’s content. The good thing about persisting with it, even if it seems like a waste of time, is that you get it out of your system. You’re less likely to wake up with a sudden urge to go out flirting when you do finally enter a relationship.
- You learn about relationships. Since dating requires you to get to know someone, it’s a great way to learn about relationships and people in general. You’ll learn how to act and not act around people you like. You’ll also learn how people like to be treated and how to grow closer to them. Although dating someone is different from being in a relationship with them, you can also learn about what it takes to make a relationship work just through dating someone.
- The more people you date, the closer you get to finding the one. You’ve heard that saying about having to kiss lots of frogs before finding your prince. It’s clichéd, but it applies. Dating is never a waste of time because the more people you date, the closer you get to finding the one. Through learning about what you want and don’t want in a partner, learning how to interact with people at a romantic level, and meeting all sorts of people, you’ll move further along the path to true love.
