Many people have a slow and unproductive dating life. They make an active effort to meet new people and date them, but they struggle to start a serious relationship and they frequently feel weighed down with worries about their dating situation.

If you can relate to this there is a chance that you are subconsciously ruining your dating life. No-one wants to do this, but past events and how you deal with things could be affecting your chances of finding love.

If you want to find your soulmate soon, you may want to drop your bad dating habits. Here are five ways you may be ruining your dating life.

1. You Read Into Things Too Much

You are constantly overthinking and reading into things too much. You analyse their messages to you and start to worry if they haven’t included an emoji or a kiss, and you stress out when they don’t open your message straight away or reply quickly.

Your mind quickly jumps to the worst case scenario, and you assume that they no longer have feelings for you. Even if you don’t express these feelings to your date it is likely that they realise when you are stressed or worried, and this could make you seem neurotic. It could even cause fights if you express your feelings of upset and disappointment.

2. You Worry About Making An Effort

You don’t want to seem too keen, so you are never the first person to say “we should date”, “we should be exclusive” or “I love you.” Instead you are constantly waiting for the other person to make the first move, but this can make you seem disinterested. In reality you just don’t want to get hurt, but sometimes you have to put yourself out there to find a great relationship.

3. You Struggle To Communicate

You don’t want to fight with your date or make a big deal out of things, so you often supress your emotions to avoid drama. This is because you don’t want to seem irrational or controlling, but in reality this can make you seem like a closed book – and over time you may find yourself getting more and more annoyed, so there may eventually be a big blow up argument that could have been avoided.

4. You Put Up Walls

You have been hurt in the past and now you are dating again, but you have put up walls because you don’t want to go through the same pain again. The problem with this is that you need to be willing to open yourself up again if you meet someone you like; it is unreasonable to expect another person to put themselves in a vulnerable position if you’re not willing to do the same thing.

5. You Doubt The Relationship

You often doubt your relationships. Maybe you think that you are not good enough, or your date should make more of an effort – but either way you are prepared for failure. This means that whenever you and your date disagree you immediately think about breaking up, and this can be exhausting for the other person.