Often times in basketball, coaches call timeouts to make corrections, stop another team’s momentum or because they are generally upset with how their team is playing. In dating, however, I think it’s sometimes alright to call a timeout even when things are going well for you.

I had been active with online dating through emailing and going out on first dates for a while before I met someone who I ended up dating for about two and a half months. Our relationship ended about two weeks ago and at that point in time I realized that I had to decide between a) diving right back into emailing with people and going out on dates, or b) taking a little time before slowly becoming active again with online dating.

After thinking about it for a few days I settled into option “b” since I thought I needed to gradually re-enter the world of online dating. I decided on this approach because I think that you need to be fully committed to dating and be completely emotionally available in order to really make the experience worth your while.

In the end, I would have loved to jump right back into things and keep being an active dater, but I knew that I couldn’t do that right away and that I was better off calling a quick timeout before getting back into the flow of things at my own pace.