4 Reasons Why Letting Go Of Your ‘Type’ Can Help You Find Love

1. You stop limiting yourself.

First, the most obvious reason to date outside of your usual type is that you expand your options. You open up your heart to different types of people you probably wouldn’t have considered before if you stuck to your usual list of criteria of what you think you want in a partner.

While you can (and should!) have your non-negotiables such as respect, compassion, and compatible values, you need to be more willing to be flexible on other traits such as what they do for work, their hobbies, and even their personality.

For example, maybe you thought you could only love the life of the party. But in going out with a shy wallflower, you discover your heart has room for all types of people.

You can’t know if you like something if you’ve never tried it, right?

2. Attraction sometimes just needs time to flourish.

Love at first sight? Not always. Sometimes, romantic attraction just needs a little extra time to grow. After all, we don’t actually know someone the first few weeks of dating. Certain traits take time to come to the surface. If you slow down and enjoy the process of getting to know someone new, you may also find yourself falling for them, too.

3. It’s great for personal growth.

Dating someone you normally wouldn’t go for is an amazing opportunity for personal growth. In fact, researchers have actually found that when some people look at their relationship, they see their partner for who they could be and support them in becoming that person.

If you only date people you consider “complete” and “perfect” and exactly what you want, there’s no room for growth. This doesn’t mean you both should try and change one another. It just means you help each other reach your highest potential, goals, and more.

4. You get out of the unhealthy relationship patterns or romantic ruts you’ve been stuck in.

If you’ve only dated people who you consider to be your type time and time again and it’s never worked out? Well, there might be a reason for that.

If you finally allow yourself to be more flexible in who you date, you automatically come into new dating experiences. It’s almost like a reset. You discover that there are so many types of people you can love (you just need to give them a chance).