Love Puzzle: How to Get to Know Your Partner Better in the Initial Stages of Dating?

By Miranda Davis

Introduction

When you start dating someone, it’s only natural that you’re filled with so many questions! Did you two start dating too soon? Perhaps you feel the opposite – that you start dating late, and that you missed out on the magic of getting to know the person you have an interest in earlier.

Regardless the status of your courtship, or whether you’re not even in one and you’re just in the “start dating relationship” process, we’re here to help you with getting to know your partner better in the very early stages of you two meeting, and evaluate whether you’ve found a suitable match!

Go Online

First, allow us to take some time to look into the possibility of you just getting into dating, and how that can be made easier during the current global pandemic. If you’re looking to start dating during COVID, you likely have trouble meeting up new people and going out on dates due to the generalized lockdowns in many areas.

To start dating someone during quarantine can be far from ideal, but this should be nothing to worry about!

You can always start dating online and find potential matches by applying search filters about your residence area. This way, when quarantine restrictions are lifted, you’ll waste no time getting to meet your crush in person, should you two hit it off on the web!

If you’re curious about where to start online dating, fret not! Be sure to check out the best dating sites 2020, and you’ll find one that meets your criteria.

Practice how to start dating chat

Many find small talk boring, while some can go as far as calling it an excruciating process!

No matter how adept you are at chit-chatting with friends and strangers alike, it’s certain that those first conversations with your date can be very awkward.

As with all skills, making small talk is something you can develop with a little practice.

Start by chatting with your partner about how your day went and ask more details as the conversation goes on to find out more about their routine.

When you start dating in the internet era, you don’t have to have all these awkward conversations in person – oh no!

Make the most out of messaging apps to keep an open communication line with your partner throughout the day.

It will help make things easier for the both of you, and your heart will flutter each time you hear those notification sounds coming off your phone!

Ask poignant questions

We’ve covered how to go about with casual chit-chatting, but let’s face it: this won’t go a long way towards actually getting to know your partner better.

Now, asking those hard-hitting questions may be difficult, especially if you start dating after long term relationships, where you’ve spent a long, long time getting to know your partner. So, keep that in mind and don’t stress about how long it may take to get to know your new partner – it may not be as fast as you think!

However, some ways can help you learn crucial information about your new love interest without much effort.

For example, you two could organize a fun night during which you play a game where you ask each other things you would like to find out about one another like your favorite color or your most treasured childhood memory.

You’d be surprised how easy it is to open up when you don’t feel the pressure to “answer right”!

If that sounds difficult, you could try finding a list of questions that resonate most with you.

A few years ago, the New York Times published an article that became an instant sensation. It was called The 36 Questions That Lead to Love, and it contained – you guessed it – 36 questions that can foster intimacy even between strangers.

If all else fails, just go through the 36 questions and see how it will work for you!

Enjoy outdoor activities together.

An “outdoor activity” can be anything ranging from a stroll around your neighborhood to hiking, canoeing, or any kind of extreme sport you may both enjoy!

Why invest time in outdoor activities when you start dating, you ask?

Well, it’s an exceptional opportunity to see how relaxed or adventurous your partner can be. They may be bold and risky, drag their feet, and spend time curled up on the couch.

You should pay close attention to how they react, and evaluate whether this is a person that you want to have a lasting relationship with.

It’s easy to get carried away when you’ve just started dating, but it’s also just as easy to keep an open eye for things you may not tolerate down the road, so be vigilant.

Show each other the places you love

Is there a place that has special meaning for you? Your hometown? Your favorite beach or vacation spot?

Whether it’s a short distance from where you live, or far enough to present an opportunity for travel, it’s important that, when you start dating, you feel compelled to share those special places with your new partner.

Visiting those areas together will allow you to tell each other stories about yourselves and how your time spent there helped shape who you are. This will help you get to know each other better and bring emotional bonding and depth to your budding relationship, seeing as you will begin to understand more about what’s important to your significant other and why.

Meet their friends

Finally, the best way to get to know your partner when you start dating is, well, by meeting the people who sometimes know them even better than their parents: their friends!

You can tell a lot about someone from the company they choose to keep. Do their friends appear trustworthy? Do they have their lives together? Are they negative or gossipy?

Go out with them, relax, and make sure to take “mental notes” of how they treat you and others, and how your partner acts around them. You’ll be able to garner invaluable information about what your partner values in a friend, and, well, in a person in general – and that will speak volumes about their character.

Conclusion

Life is full of excitement – and, sometimes, anxiety – when you start dating. Chances are you stumbled across this article to make the early stages of your new relationship smoother, and we hope that our tips will allow you to succeed at that!

Let us know in the comments: do you have any tips on starting dating your crush? Which one of our suggestions do you find most useful, and why?

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