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I am a person who gives a hundred percent to everything that I do and, that includes love. So, I’ve never been much of a ‘Dater’; only someone who invested time and energy into relationships, whether they lasted a month or five years, I believe in giving everything to avoid regret.

Unfortunately, most of the men that I have dated have not had the same mentality and when a person who gives a hundred percent is in a relationship with someone who gives fifty, it often leads to heartbreak.

Although I believe that heartbreak is necessary to learn a lesson, there is no point in learning the same lesson over and over. When a lesson is learnt, it is time to move on afterwards.

I believe that being in a relationship is way for you to grow to your maximum. Whether it is learning to accept that we can’t change people or whether it’s learning your boundaries, relationships are opportunities to grow.

Here are 4 sayings that I apply to relationships and dating to help the growth process:

1. Why spend your time forcing when it can feel so good to be at ease?

I’m a Type A personality. Which, has a negative connotation but it just means that when I want something, I go after it. I spent many years applying this mentality to relationships only to discover that people are not checklists. I can’t go after someone and force them to like me if they aren’t interested in me. Unlike goals, people have a choice if they want to be with you or not and I would prefer to be with someone who wants to be with me; as oppose to chase down someone in the beginning and throughout the relationship. Chasing down someone to love me says more about me than it does about them, it says that I don’t feel like I deserve someone who I don’t have to convince to love because I feel unworthy. So, if I choose to be with someone that I don’t have to fight to be with, it reminds me that I am worthy of love.

2. Let the person that love be.

I’ve come a long way with this. I used to be the kind of person who would look at what my partner lacked and how I could fix what I didn’t like about them. However, I have learnt and am still learning that I am not the one who can enforce change on another. I have to accept and love the person that I am with or not be in a relationship with them. There is a difference between encouragement and force. Encouragement says, ‘Here is a hint, take it or leave it.’ Force says, ‘Here is a hint, take it or else.’ The older that I get, I lose more energy forcing people to be who I want them to be. If God accepts them the way that they are then so do I.

3. You can love after heartbreak.

Last year, I was told by a few random psychics that I would end up with someone. It took me some time and some heartbreak to realize that this person is not where I want him to be to be in a relationship with. And, it’s okay. He is enough as he is. I had to put my feelings aside and accept that we are not meant to be together regardless of what some people might have said. And, as soon as I did that, I found myself in a romantic endeavour with someone else. With this other person, I get exactly what I have always wanted and feel like this is the real thing. So, there is definitely love after heartbreak.

4. Love doesn’t always go your way.

I’ve been shown this over and over again in my life. As someone who almost got married twice and asked another time but declined, I truly know that love doesn’t go how we expect it. There is no need to place expectations on love and people. Because expectations will only lead to disappointment and heartache. I have learnt to take things step-by-step and day-by-day because a year can look very different from today, it is supposed to.