by Jay Hurt
As a relationship strategist, I want to touch on something you won’t hear many relationship experts discuss. Let’s talk about being single. In many of my articles, I talk about self-improvement and self-evaluation which creates “a better you” that builds “a better relationship.” My direction here is quite simple…enjoy being single. I know far too many people who want a relationship, but aren’t happy where they are right now. There are advantages to being in a relationship and there are advantages to being married. Single people, there are quite a few advantages to being a “solo artist” as well, it’s simply a question of whether or not you are choosing to take advantage of them. Here are some of the options to enjoy while you are enjoying life as a party of one!
Travel
Ok, so when you are single, it’s easier to travel in many ways. It’s definitely less expensive (than planning for two) to take a day trip to a city close by or a weekend getaway to a city of your choosing. Also, you can explore international destinations at your leisure. Financially, we want to set realistic goals for what we would like to do, save toward those goals and then go do it. There is truly no time like the present, so what are you waiting for? Go enjoy shopping in New York or Parasailing in Hawaii…whatever your heart desires. Sitting at home thinking about not having a relationship is not getting you closer to your relationship destination and it’s not enjoying life either…go have fun!
I know some singles are concerned about traveling alone. There are travel groups out there, as well as friends to hook up with. Ladies, get your girls together and go to South Beach or Vail, Colorado…whatever the destination, get out of the house—out of the city for that matter—and kick it! Gentlemen, you can get the guys together to check out a NFL game in one of the new incredible stadiums in Phoenix, Dallas or Seattle. You might want to go to Chicago for their summer festival. If you like the idea of driving with no speed limit, visit the autobahn in Germany, where you can also see the Porsche, BMW and Mercedes factories. There are so many things in our country and around the world we can enjoy while we are single, we must simply make the choice to actually do some of these things.
Designing…You!
There are many times in our lives where we need discipline. I think discipline is one of the greatest factors toward getting what we want out of our lives. For example, often we must learn to have delayed gratification, which is a form of discipline. While being single, we can develop this trait, as well as others, in our lives. We can work on things such as our spirituality, generosity, being supportive for friends and family. We have many things we can develop…or as I like to put it…design while we are single.
I have found I like to have a lot of fun and laugh quite a bit. Laughter is definitely good for the soul. You can design your life to do the things that make you happy and taking that one step further, things that make you laugh. There is a show on T.V. called “Too Cute.” The show is basically a reality show for kittens and puppies. I’m not running home to catch it, but if it’s on TV, my family and I watch it and we laugh hysterically at the animals. It’s nothing we all haven’t seen before, but it’s something simple that we enjoy. I may have had a challenging day at work, but this silly show will make me forget about it. Learn to laugh. Learn to appreciate your surroundings and environment. All of these things combined are working together to design who you are on a daily basis. There should never be time in the life of a single woman or man to be down on their “singleness” because they are designing a better life for themselves and adding to everyone’s lives around them in the process.
Active
This ties to your design and travel, but it’s very important to be active. Try taking up gardening. Volunteer at Habitat for Humanities. Always be creating, driving, moving forward and doing something! You could choose to decorate your living room or work to drill wells in Africa. The level of activity is not the issue…the issue is to do something! Age, race, gender is irrelevant. None of that matters. What matters is that we are all productive members in society. If you feel you are having a problem finding something to do, look to local charities to assist– that’s a great place to start. You would be surprised how many places would be grateful for you to help them with an event for kids or a fund-raiser, or any number of events. We all have a responsibility to be active in our communities, so take advantage of it during this beautiful time of singleness in your life.
There’s a great chance you won’t be single forever. Enjoy every waking second of it! Singleness has an air of freedom and adventure everyone in this position should take advantage of. The only thing left to do is to go make it happen!!!