
You wouldn’t buy new makeup without checking out reviews online first, so why do differently with a date?
I’m a busy woman with a thriving career, so I prefer to screen men before I ever go out on a date with them. Some days I barely have time for me, so why should I give my time to a stranger I barely know?
I wasn’t always this picky with dating. I used to willingly accept dates with every man who I swiped right to on Tinder. I felt pretty chuffed with myself if our conversation made it to 10 minutes long, and the ridiculously handsome stranger I’d just met on Tinder said he wanted to go out and get a drink with me.
Are you using these first date exit strategies? Post continues after video.
I’d hype the date up in my mind before it had even started, thinking of exciting scenarios. I’d already (and stupidly) invested myself in the potential of what could be, all over a few exchanged sentences, six carefully picked photos, and a hundred-word Tinder bio. But then my fantasy was inevitably crushed when I met him and learned he was someone I wouldn’t give two minutes of my precious time talking general chit-chat to while waiting for a drink at the bar.
That’s the downside of meeting someone online, they can seem good on paper, but on meeting, the spark just isn’t there. So after a few dismal dates (50 first dates, to be exact) that left me feeling like flat champagne, I decided I needed a formula for screening men before I actually went on a date again. It made so much sense I didn’t know why I hadn’t thought of it earlier. I mean, I’d never expect to get a job interview if someone hadn’t even read my CV and checked my references out first, and yet here I was giving potential applicants the job before I even knew anything meaningful about them. So I started to get really clear on the qualities I wanted in a man and the values that were important to me.