Maintain what feels like super high standards. Like, sky high. The reality is most women's standards are really damn low because we've learned that's all we can expect - I finally put my foot down after previous relationship breakup and decided to keep really high standards (which actually now I realise we're just bloody reasonable) , even if it meant I never met anyone who reached them and was alone forever.
Lo and behold, I met my amazing fiance. I met and went on a few dates (or "talked") with a few duds before him, men I could have continued wasting time with but didn't due to my "ridiculous standards" ... Which left me free to find my fiance at all. I'd have missed him if I were caught up in some other loser. It's so easy to get caught up.
I agree with above poster, give people who arnt your usual type physically a chance. My fiance also didn't seem my usual type at first . One date in and it was the best date I'd ever had, got on like a house on fire. By fourth date, chemistry was insane.
Also agree with other poster, keep first date short and sweet, and casual. Somewhere in the day time or earlier evening. Had a soft drink in a pub just after work and before going home for dinner (alone, of course!) with mine. Did end up going on an unplanned walk after the drink though, as we were having such a lovely time... Still got home early enough that dinner wasn't too late!
"If he wanted to, he would" is very true. Repeat it to yourself often. Men are not helpless babies who simply don't know how to have relationships and need us to teach or fix them - they know exactly what they're doing, so if he's not treating you right, it's cus he doesn't care to.
Be strong if you know a guy is no good for you. Stand your ground and leave him be. Don't be swayed by chancers who only seem to up their game when they know you're done.
If you're wondering if a guy is genuinely interested in you, he isn't. Men will make it clear when they value you.
Don't confuse love bombing with valuing you.. This can be hard when you're caught up in a guy, but is possible to tell the difference if you remain vigilant. Love bombing can be gifts, future faking with extravagant promises, declarations of deep feeling early on and flowery poetic words. Genuine interest and value is just keeping to their word, not being late to meeting you and not randomly cancelling last minute (within reason, life and traffic happens!) , texting you back, being transparent and clear with no game playing. No game playing and transparency are big ones.
And apply that to yourself too. Don't play games yourself either! It's really not the way. No worrying how long you should leave it to text back etc, just text back when you naturally would. No testing a guy or anything like that. Don't do it and don't accept it if he does.