Life is busy. It can be hard to go through it all alone. When moving to a new area or when people don’t know where to look for singles, they often venture to online dating. These are perfectly good reasons for venturing into the digital dating world, but make sure you are wise in your decisions.

Online dating aspires to emulate a real life dating experience via the internet. What this means for you as a consumer is the same rules that apply in real life – apply online. If you’re too picky, too forward or have some other characteristic that has ruined relationships in the past, they will ruin you when dating online.

As an example: In a park a young women sits reading a book. A man comes along and sees her. He has read the book before and the two strike up a friendly conversation. At that moment, the two know nothing about each other. They start dating. The man discovers the women likes the craziest T.V. shows and isn’t very good at sports. The woman sees the man is always out playing basketball with his friends and eats a ton of food at every meal. The two are very different from one another. It’s possible they may never work out.

In so many cases, a couple like this will grow together. The man will discover some of those T.V. shows are actually pretty entertaining. The woman will gain a new affinity for basketball and even develops a huge fandom for an NBA team. They are different, but they have learned more about themselves through being together.

Online Dating Let’s You Be Picky

With online dating, you can seek out whoever you want. You can find someone who is exactly like you, perfect in every way, but is that really what you want? Sure, it’s fun to share some interests, but maybe not all. How will you grow together? What will you get out of a relationship with yourself? Being too picky will kill your relationships before they start – even online. The second you find one thing wrong with someone, you abandon all hope.

Enjoy yourself, dating should be fun. Maybe you found someone who’s a few inches too short or likes horror movies. Don’t dismiss them; you may be missing out on a great opportunity.

When you are deciding who to reach out to online, think only about a few important qualities. Obviously things like age, location and relationship status are important, but there are other, more personal characteristics to look for. You may want to wait until you are in love before you have sex, or you may want to have five kids later on in life. Go ahead and judge potential matches on those terms, but don’t hate on them for liking horrible movies or something else relatively unimportant.

When you approach online dating with an open mind and open heart. You will find someone to love, but remember not to be too picky. No one is perfect, not even you.

Good luck in love and best wishes for a successful relationship.