Dating Tips: Are You Ready to Settle Down?

Loneliness is unbearable, exhausting, and scathing. In this state, people often plunge into dissipation: go to clubs and bars with friends, have affairs with toxic partners, and do everything to dull the pain. But time passes, and things change. One day, a person realizes that loneliness has its advantages. They begin to devote more and more time to their career and self-development, learn to listen to their needs and desires, and find new hobbies. And this time, it seems them that no one is needed for happiness. But the next stage is on the threshold – the realization that they are ready for a serious, deep, and real relationship. Let's look at the signs that this moment has come, and you are ready to settle down.

Sings You Are Ready to Settle Down

After a hard breakup or a long period spent alone, the beginning of a new relationship seems difficult. Are you ready for this step? When to settle down? Here are 10 signs that will help you understand that you are ready to settle down.

1. The past does not cause negative emotions

You do not faint or tremble with fear anymore when coming across your ex-girlfriend or look at her photos in the ladies gallery. Now, you are thankful for your past because it has given you a lot of good things and a learning experience. Such calmness about the ex-partner means that you will not drag the past relationship along and try to correct the mistakes made, but you will build something radically new. You recognize the settle down meaning and thing about “I'm ready to settle down.”

2. Club parties faded into insignificance

You are no longer interested in wandering around the night streets aimlessly, discussing bad relationships with friends, and talking with unfamiliar people to the loud music. You meet with a close friend at breakfast with great pleasure or visit your parents outside the city. You've managed to learn by own experience that people seeking serious relationships cannot be found in night clubs. Now, you want warm intimacy, heart-to-heart talks, and discussions of common plans and goals, but not the idle talk at the bar counter.

Are you ready to put noisy clubs and vibrant parties on the back burner? Then it is time to revise your life values and search for a person with whom you can build long-term serious relationships. However, it does not mean that you need to give up entertainment and communication with friends. Just at one moment, you can feel that amusements are not the primary tasks of your leisure time, and you need a person for a quieter and more interesting recreation. This is one of the signs that it is time to settle down.

3. Hookups no longer appeal to you

A while ago, you have felt comfortable, communicating with a person who is not ready for a serious relationship with you. Love affairs and attempts to meet girl online were just a way to have fun or find solace in the arms of a stranger. But now, even the mere thought of starting a no strings attached relationship is unbearable to you. You no longer have the slightest desire to give up your precious time and energy to someone who is not interested in your life, personality, and thoughts. You’d better focus on yourself than spend time on a hopeless relationship with a person who is not ready to invest efforts to make your life happy.

4. You feel the need for love

You have done a great job and have learned enough life lessons to call yourself a full-fledged person. You feel comfortable alone, and this is enough to be proud of yourself. But when you look at your friends who have managed to build happy families, you get an unpleasant feeling. This is not sadness or envy. It is a kind of jealousy. You are happy for your friends, but you want to love too. You are tired of being single. You have accumulated so much warmth and tenderness that you are ready to share them. It means you should find a girl to settle down.

5. You have the qualities necessary to build a relationship

What age do men want to settle down? People become ready for relationships at different periods of their lives, depending on maturity. But some scientists prove that the best age to settle down for a man is 25-30 years. To create a healthy romantic relationship, you need to realize what qualities you should have to build a happy relationship with the opposite sex. You are ready to settle down if there are:

• The comfort of expressing thoughts, feelings, opinions, or dreams;
• Attentiveness to the thoughts, feelings, and opinions of each other;
• Respect for each other;
• Support and care;
• No violence;
• Ability to resolve conflicts together;
• Trust in each other;
• Ability to rely on each other;
• Direct and open communication;
• Promoting the presence of friends in a partner;
• Honesty about ex-partners and sexual relationships.

6. You are ready to sacrifice your interests for a loved one

In every relationship, there comes a time when you need to compromise and even sacrifice something for your loved one. Sometimes, it’s about trifles when you spend an evening watching a movie that you are not particularly interested in. Sometimes the changes are more significant: to move to a new city or even change your country. In a healthy and happy relationship, the happiness of a loved one is just as important to you as your own.

7. You are not obsessed with trifles

Having created own style of life, you need to change it a bit and learn to solve problems in a new way when you start a romantic relationship with someone. It is not only a matter of how to raise children. The fact is that now, absolutely everything will be a little different – from the second toothbrush in the bathroom to the choice of new furniture. You will need to make some efforts to allow a new person to live according to their (and not yours) life rules and principles. Be a wise person and do not fall out over the trifles. They are not worth it!

Healthy relationships are two unique people who love each other, despite their differences. A new relationship is a chance to prove to yourself that you have become more respectful and tolerant of the views of another person, and you are ready to accept them. Also, this is an opportunity to see good qualities of a person, and not to focus on your differences.

8. You have your hobbies and friends

When people are in a relationship, they unwittingly adopt the interests of a partner. And these hobbies remain after the break-up of relationships. After a while, you realize that row sport is not your cup of tea at all, but the grandfather’s camera, which is gathering dust on the shelf, is finally can be used. You begin to do what you really like or what you have long wanted to try. Among other things, you have your friends with whom you communicate not because it is good to do so but because it is really interesting.

9. You do not want to change another person

Firstly, it is impossible. Secondly, why start a relationship with a person in whom you already don’t like something? Especially if you don’t like it so much that you create a plan of action “to improve” a person. Thirdly, your "non-ideality" can also become a cause for someone else's worries. But do you want to change yourself?

A healthy relationship allows both partners to gain new strength to become a little better. But the ultimatum demand for change can destroy any relationship. Happiness comes up from the opportunity to be as honest as possible with ourselves and with a loved one. And such honesty is born at the moment when a person you are dating is ready to accept you without any condemnation, with all your flaws and weaknesses.

10. Relationships are not a necessity for you but the result of your desires

The best sign that you are ready for serious relationships is your desire to start and build such a relationship. However, you do not feel that this is a vital necessity. You are not looking for a relationship so that someone can fill in the missing part of you. You are already a complete person, even when you are alone. You do not need anyone to make your life truly interesting and full of bright emotions. Relationships are joy and happiness, but this is not the only factor that makes your life complete.

How to Settle Down without Screwing Your Life

Everyone wants to find true love, but it is not always possible to achieve the desired. Do you often say, “I wanna settle down,” but personal experience brings only disappointment? Then it's time to change the tactics! These useful tips will help you settle down without screwing your life.

Get rid of high expectations

Being absorbed in active search of a loved one on dating applications, it is easy to feel that you are already sick because of such a great number of unfamiliar faces. You look at the photo, read the brief information that a person has invented for themselves, and decide whether the user is cute enough to swipe to the right. Then, if your interests match, you start the correspondence, and probably, arrange the first date that can either please or disappoint you.

Sooner or later, you feel tired from the long search of the perfect partner and wonder why you need these all and why you are wasting time on such meaningless stuff. The advice is: change your mindset. You should not build castles in the air, thinking whether this person will become the love of your life – focus on just getting to know them. Plan an acquaintance without being attached to the result. Behave naturally and be yourself, and then you will meet true love!

Do not look for an ideal person

The sooner you get rid of the idea that an ideal partner is somewhere around there, the faster you will meet a real person whose qualities you can appreciate with your own eyes. Do not believe in fairy tales that karma, god, or fate will send you a soul mate. The beginning of every healthy relationship comes down to the same thing: a conscious choice to be with a particular person, recognizing their traits, habits, shortcomings, and all those things. So turn off the mode of a romantic perception of reality at least temporarily and evaluate the situation soberly.

Be yourself

Dating is a way to get to know a person better but not to make a good impression on them. Loving couples usually try to understand how well they match each other. This is not an easy task, but it can become almost impossible if you are constantly trying to make a good impression on a partner. Moreover, outward behavior creates a false impression of you and can lead to many problems soon after you will show your true essence. Therefore, be yourself. A loved one should get interested in you, and not in the person you pretend to be.

Final Thoughts

It can sometimes be difficult to understand if you are ready for a real, serious relationship. This is even more difficult if you have recently broken up with someone or just start to go out on romantic dates. Therefore, you should make sure that you are truly ready to settle down before entering into a serious relationship. And so, if you notice in yourself these 10 above-mentioned signs, then be sure – you are ready to settle down. Follow our tips on how to start a romantic relationship and be happy!