All of us who are active on the dating scene have many questions in our mind. What kind of person should I date? How do I behave during a date? What is the result of my date? Did my date like me? Is he/she honest in what they say or I should be careful? The mind gets bombarded with questions. The situation becomes so trouble some for some of us that we get tired and say- no more dating for me.

We date a person because we are looking for a partner. Many of us may not marry the partner but we still look for long-term relationship. For that we must begin with asking about the kind of person who will be right for us. Otherwise the whole purpose is lost. Let us look at the qualities we must look for in our prospective partner.

Similarities in thinking, attraction towards each other, common values and political views and same approach towards various life situations are some of the areas we must investigate before we zero upon a person.

Attraction towards each other- if you are not attracted to the other person, nothing will work. Attraction can be of much types- physical attraction, attraction towards intellectual ability, attraction to the personality and so on. Analyze your attraction and decide if that will last for at least five years. If you think that you will no more be attracted to the person after some months, do not go ahead. Many times we are very much attracted towards a person. But after sometime the attraction wanes. This happens with physical attraction most often. You like somebody's features and body build. After some moths, you find nothing new or attractive in that body. Why that happens is a subject for psychiatrists and psychologists to decide.

In this part, we have looked at attraction. In the second part we will look more at attraction and other aspects of a long-term relationship.