7 Ways to Make Love a Priority on Valentine’s Day [EXPERT]

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, instead of lamenting about your love life to your friends, let this be your wake up call. If you’re a smart, successful woman and haven’t found “the one”, it’s time to take your love life seriously. Make a commitment to love and yourself to take the once-and-for-all action needed to have your ideal love relationship.

It’s a well-known truth that single women in their mid-30s and older find it more difficult to have the love they desire. If you’re in your late 20s to early 30s and want to find a life partner, be proactive instead of waiting until it seems like it’s too late. (BTW, it’s never too late. It just becomes more challenging.)

Follow These 7 Practices to Make Love a Priority

Practice #1: Use Your Love Lessons to Move Forward
Instead of repeating the same unhealthy relationship habits, reflect on your role and contributions in love relationships that haven’t worked out. You’re the common denominator in all of your relationships. Determine the common characteristics and traits you tend to attract in men and relationships. Like attracts like, which means that if you tend to attract men who can’t express themselves openly, chances are, you have a difficult time fully expressing yourself. Take the time to uncover these non-supportive characteristics and traits in yourself and work through them to build healthy relationship habits.

Practice #2: Get Rid of Unrealistic Expectations
We tend to carry our youthful expectations into love. These expectations are misguided, based on fairy tales where the prince and princess live happily ever after. If you believe a potential partner needs to meet your list of “must haves” in order to be in a relationship with him, you’ll have a difficult time finding love. How many of the items on your list are nice to have that fall into the superficial category? Does your partner need to have a full head of hair, be at least 6-feet tall and have perfect teeth in order for you to find love? It’s important to hone your “must haves” down to a more meaningful level (i.e. kind, loving, thoughtful, trustworthy, etc.). Make your list as short and concise as possible. Try using an 80/20 ratio where 80% of your must haves are meaningful “must haves” and 20% are “nice to haves”. Base your decision mainly on the meaningful “must haves”.