Sometimes I feel like I’m bad at dating. Some who read the previous statement might think that it is ridiculous for me to feel this way because so much of dating comes down to chance and timing; however, every once in a while that’s just how I feel. Perhaps I am just getting frustrated that I’ve been consistently going out on dates for about a year now and haven’t met someone with whom I’ve become seriously involved with, but ultimately I know that really isn’t necessarily because I am not doing anything wrong or am bad at dating.

I think sometimes, whether it’s dating, work, or picking horses at the track, you get on a roll, your confidence shoots through the roof and, as a result, you feel fantastic about that aspect of your life – but what really makes that happen? With picking horses you can do more research, and at the office you can stay later, but what can you do if you feel like you are in a dating slump?

For one, you can go out on more dates, which is what I’ve tried to do. However, I honestly think that has exacerbated the problem. The more dates you try to go out on the looser your standards become for who you go out with, which potentially opens you up to more issues because you are going out on dates with people you probably aren’t compatible with. There’s an analogy we use in basketball that you can practice free throw shooting all day but if you shoot them the wrong way every time you’ll never get any better, which is, unfortunately, how I feel with dating sometimes.

Ultimately I know that it’s not that I’m bad at dating, but that perhaps I’m replicating the same mistakes on each date. Whether this is true or not, short of videotaping my next date and then breaking down the film afterward to identify what the good and bad elements of my performance were, I guess all I can really do is try to go out on dates with women I truly believe I’m compatible with, be myself during our them and then hope it all works out in the end.