You may be wondering why a website dedicated to business discussions suddenly puts up an article titled Why Date? It’s because we understand our humanity, which makes us have needs that are not business-related. And while we know you can get this from other sources, we figured: Why not just put it here within reach, so you, the reader, wouldn’t have to be dancing around and up all over the internet in search?
Thank us later.
Now we’ve gotten that out of the way, let us get into it. Why date, indeed?
I’m sure we would have several and varying answers to that question; several different dynamics come into play when it comes to a relationship with another person, romantic or otherwise. Now slow down. When I say “date”, I’m actually talking about hanging out to get drinks or catch a movie – the kind of time you invest in someone you just met and are trying to get to know. I don’t mean the relationship. Not just yet.
First off, if you’re old enough to visit this site unsupervised, you’re old enough to make sense of all the things you read, and you can connect and glean meaningful lessons from them, then you’re old enough to date.
Personally, dating is that getting-to-know-if-we-really-connect-or-it’s-just-my-imagination exercise that I subject myself to with the hopes that somewhere along the line, I will find that which will put an end to my searching. It’s always something I look forward to, and then I try not to be disappointed when things don’t work out the way I imagined.
In one of my favourite movies (I’m not going to share the title; get your movie game up!), widower Tom Hanks tells his son: “…that is why I am dating her… I’m not living with her. I’m not marrying her… Can you appreciate the difference? This is what single people do. They try other people on and see how they fit.”
For me, that’s what dating is: getting to know the other person and understanding if they are to be a part of your life – and in what capacity. But sometimes, because we’re in such a hurry, we put the cart before the horse.
Chris Rocksaid: “You cannot trust someone on your first date with them, because you’re not actually meeting them. You’re actually meeting their representative.” There’s a lot of sense in that. Now, everybody thinks first impressions last. Actually, to me, first impressions don’t mean anything.
Anyways, because we all think first impressions are all that matter, we put on our best behaviour and talk softly and kindly and are nicer than normal, all because there’s an endgame in sight. Sometimes, people never see the true person till it’s too late to do anything about it.
It’s important to keep an open mind and be clear to the other person what the plan is, if any. I tend to keep that part of things undefined. I don’t have long-term plans – not at first. Of course, if someone introduces you both because they think you’d make a great husband/wife team, it’s a different matter entirely. If you go around telling people you’re looking for a wife/husband, you deserve whatever you get.
But I digress.
There are loads of people who still think it’s impossible for a man and woman to be strictly platonic friends – and I wonder how many people were dropped on their heads at birth. I mean, how narrow-minded do you have to be to reduce the importance of one gender in the life of the other to just sex?
Life is an adventure, and dating is just a chapter in it.
So, why date?
Because it’s fun. Because it’s a way of learning about life through other perspectives. Because we all need friends. Because your own company sucks.
Who knows? Maybe you will find your “happily-ever-after” while you’re at it.
I’m still looking, though.
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