I am in New York City for a few days. I saw a great sign yesterday here that said, “Don’t Honk — $350.00 Penalty.”
Now, how would they know who honked? What if four people honked all at once? Is that an instant $1,400.00 for the City of New York?
You got to love New York City. It’s the loudest city in the United States, and they think that one less car honking its horn will help.
Speaking of travel, let’s talk about traveling and dating . . .
So, you are dating somebody brand new, and you are really excited about them. You decide you are going to plan a weekend trip for the two of you to take together.
A weekend trip is so much fun, but do you know what is the most interesting thing about taking a weekend trip together? You are going to get to know this person better.
Let me tell you something. When you travel with someone, all the wrappers are taken off the candy.
You get to know all sorts of things about the other person you would not probably get to see at this point in your dating relationship. You get to know their bathroom habits. You get to know how long they spend in the bathroom. You get to see how they really look and act first thing in the morning.
Let me tell you something. People can’t pack all the stuff they protect themselves with at home. So on a trip, they expose themselves.
You get to know if they are grumpier in the morning than they’ve acted on those few nights you’ve spent together so far. You get to know more about what they are really like.
Traveling with somebody is the best way to get to know them. It is something that I tell people to do all the time.
If you are dating for a month, then go away for a night. Get them out of their home element. Get them to put their BlackBerry down. Take them out somewhere away from home.
After you’ve been dating someone for two months, go away for a weekend with them. Really get to know them more.
After three or four months of dating themsomeone, go away together for four or five days. Let me tell you, it is when you are away for this many days that all the shit really hits the fan.
You get to see them in all situations. You get to see them when they get frustrated at the airport. You get to see them when they’ve had a long and exhausting day. You get to see how they deal with all of those various “travel mishaps” that inevitably occur.
Traveling with somebody strips them down to their core, and gives you the opportunity to get to know them in all ways. I have had relationships in the past end after I took someone away for the weekend. Things would be great and then, all of a sudden, I’d be away for the weekend wondering who this monster was with whom I was spending the weekend.
So, one of the greatest things to do when you’re dating someone is to follow my travel schedule. If you follow my travel schedule, you are going to get to know somebody very, very quickly.
So often in dating, a lot of your time is spent figuring out the “right” place or the “right” restaurant to take your date. Here is a little advice for guys out there who want to impress women when they take them out on a date.
Go to www.yelp.com. It has reviews on restaurants. When you’re on that third or fourth date trying to impress that date, you want to find a cute cafe or a great restaurant. So look at the reviews. Look not only at the reviews about the food, but also the reviews about the service.
The reason to do this is something I realized while I was in France. Waiters in France and the United Kingdom (and actually all throughout Europe) are professional waiters. In Los Angeles and New York waiters are struggling actors, so you are not getting great service a lot of times.
In Europe, however, you are getting waiters whose career is being a waiter. Also, in Europe they pay their waiter a respectable wage. It’s a career, not just a job. They even get health benefits and so forth. Restaurants here barely pay you, and they expect the customers to tip you 30% so you can earn respectable wages.
We’ve already talked about tipping in a previous blog, so that’s not what we’re going to talk about today. What is really important about this, though, is to avoid having bad service when you’re on a date.
You don’t want bad service when you’re on a date because, if you think about it, you are not your nicest self when you’re faced with bad service at a restaurant.
Things may come out of your mouth that wouldn’t otherwise say, and on a date you are always trying to make a good impression.
Your surroundings are really important on a date. So the next time you’re planning a date, check out yelp.com and the restaurant reviews on there . . . especially the reviews of the service at each place. When you’re out there, you better make sure that everything is in your favor, and bad service can quickly turn a good date into a bad one.
So you’ve finally got the date for which you’ve been waiting. This is it. This is the woman you’ve been waiting to date for six months. This is the woman you think is going to be with you on the road to boyfriendhood. This is the one you’ve had your eye on, and you don’t want to screw it up. You want to impress her so much that she want a second date, a third date — and much more — with you.
I’m about to give you six easy things you can (and should) do to impress a woman on a date. As you will see, none of these six things involve picking out the right food or the right restaurant.
1.What Do You Know About Her?: So what do you know about this woman you want to impress? What are her likes and dislikes? In order to plan a great date, it has to be something that really interests her. A lot of guys do the standard “take her out to dinner” thing and just hope for the best. In reality, though, that’s just not the right way to do it. You need to think outside the dinner box, and think about something that will show her you thought about her when you planned this date. Picking something that relates to something she likes or in which she’s interested goes a long way.
2.Have A Plan: There’s nothing that turns a woman off more than when you call her and ask her what she wants to do on a date. It’s called listening. It’s about knowing what she likes. If you like her, you will do things that resonate with her, and you will know what (at least some) of those things are because you’ve been listening to what she’s had to say when you’ve talked to her. Also, women like strong, confident men. Women like men who have a plan.
3.Activity Dates Are Great: When you plan your date, do something where you can challenge each other and have fun. Go bowling. Play miniature golf. Go to one of those pottery places where you can paint a mug. Take your dogs for a walk. Go get some ice cream. Instead of just having dinner, take a walk around a lake. Do something that’s casual, fun and no pressure. The problem with going to dinner on a date is that is can feel very high pressure. You are sitting across from each other with nothing to do but watch each other chew and resume swap. Do something more fun than that, and the more child-like the activity the better. Plus activity dates give you lots of easy conversation topics.
4.Have No Expectations: Even though you are so excited to be out with this woman, you really don’t know who she is yet so why have expectations? When you have expectations, you have pressure to make things work. By remaining present on the date and by not thinking ahead to other dates, you’ll actually have more fun (which will give the date a much better chance of being successful). The reason why so many dates go south is because you’re thinking ahead during the date. In reality, though, all a woman wants is the real you. She wants you being present and being engaged in the moment with her. She wants the real you, not the “playing it safe” version of you.
5.Don’t Worry About The Goodnight Kiss: If you both have a good time on a date, then don’t worry about the goodnight kiss. So many times, guys feel like they have to “seal it with a kiss.” So many times, guys will start thinking about the goodnight kiss the entire last part of the date. It’s like it’s the 4th quarter of a football game and they’re planning their comeback, when what they should be doing is just enjoying the play-by-play. When you walk her to her car, just give her a hug or a little kiss on the lips. Don’t worry about the full-blown makeout session. Women love foreplay, and they love to be left wondering about that passionate kiss they will have with you.
6.Follow Up With A Second Date: If you had a good time and she had a good time, then why leave her in suspended animation? Ask her out for a second at the end of the first date, and ask her to do something you both talked about enjoying on the first date. That way, when she goes home and does the play-by-play with her friends, she’s going to say that you’re one of the few guys who didn’t leave her wondering what she did right or wrong on that first date. You will stand out among all the “other guys” she’s met.
As a man, you want to be a leader. You need to remember that women love romantic comedies. They are always looking for that serendipitous moment where a man just knows things about her and takes her to her favorite coffee shop without even having to ask her which one that is. You want to be the leader, not the follower. You want to lead her on a romantic journey. So taking her to a restaurant and watching each other chew just isn’t going to cut it. It’s time to get creative.
Dating is a process a lot of us really can live without. It’s an emotional roller coaster that can drive you to drink four year-old bottles of Mike’s Hard Lemonade from the back of your refrigerator. There are so many ups and downs of dating.
Here is my top 10 list of the most frustrating dating ups and downs and how to feel better about them:
1.We made out in the parking lot and they never called again. Making out is fun! You needed it. They needed it. Don’t beat yourself up that you did it, just realize you did it. You needed some tonsil hockey and to cop a feel. Be OK with it. It was a great date. You were in the moment, and you experienced something that you wanted to do.
2. I texted them the next morning to say “I had a great time last night,” and they never texted back. So what? You had a great time last night. So did they. They just woke up, and their post-date recap was different from yours. Yes, they probably had a good time but when they thought about it, the chemistry and the “it” factor wasn’t there. It’s not about you. At least you were honest. You lobbed in an honest text. So you did all you can do.
3. Stop the mental post-date recap abuse. You went out with somebody with whom you thought you had a connection, and it turns out you didn’t. So now you’re going to mentally torture yourself for the next four days trying to figure out what you said wrong. You’ll even torture all your friends asking them what you could have done differently to have a different outcome. There is nothing you can do differently after a date is over. It wasn’t the conversation about your drunken uncle that you now think made him think you’re a budding alcoholic. The post-date recap is a form of mental torture. You will never know what that other person is thinking unless they call you. If they don’t call, it really does mean that he or she is just not that into you (which is about the only good advice from that ridiculously stupid book).
4. Should I have said something different in my voicemail message? You left a voicemail message, and now you’re replaying it in your head a thousand times. “Was the way I said ‘Last night was fun’ not with enough enthusiasm? Is that what is making the person not call me back?” When it comes down to voicemail messages, the shorter the message the better it is. From an old sales technique, I always prefer to say “Last night was fun. I have something really funny to share with you the next time we speak.” That’s it . . . it creates a little bit of intrigue, a little bit of mystery and no mental torture.
5. Who cares what they think? You left the above voicemail message without knowing if you’ll ever see them again, and they don’t call you back. You start to think “Now they know that I like them … and they don’t like me.” So what? Is it better just not to do anything? Is it better to just sit there and hope and pray that they call? I always believe in being honest. If you’re the one who left the voicemail message and the other person doesn’t call back, again so what?? You’ve got to do what feels right for you.
6. Stop giving your power away to one person. If a two hour date can cause you to give away all your power and confidence, then you need to learn to embrace yourself and love yourself even more. This is just one person you went out with that you knew for two hours. They don’t know what an amazing person you are. The only thing they know is the person they sat across from at the table. Whether they choose to hang with you again isn’t the issue. The issue is that one person does not determine your worthiness. This is just a person that you went out with, and they’re not calling you back. You’ve got toughen your skin. Rejection is what dating is all about. You just can’t take it personally. If I go out with someone and I had a great time, but they never want to see me again, I’m still a great person the next day.
7. In order to feel better about dating, you need to think abundance. Just because you think you like somebody and they don’t call you back, this is not the last person in the world you’re going to meet. In order to be a successful dater, you need to practice abundance. The power of abundance is training your mind that if it doesn’t work out with one person (or ten people), that there are plenty of other people out there that want to meet you and hang out with a fantastic person like yourself.
So, forget about #8, #9 and #10. I think seven is a lucky number in Las Vegas and if you’re vacationing this summer in Las Vegas you want lucky sevens to come up. So these “lucky seven” are enough here too.
The next thing you need to do is repeat seven times “There really are plenty of fish in the sea.” You just need to be willing to put your pole out there every single day until you hook the one you’re supposed to be with.
