Consider his personality style before you begin laying out your strategy and plans. While there are various kinds of slack arsed boyfriends who have yet to pop the question we are only going to cover a couple here. Is your man one of these?

* The Career Man. This guy has a career plan in place. He has his promotions all planned, and probably a 5 year plan. It's unlikely he'll be distracted if he's concentrating on his career. Do you know how many more years he has before he feels secure enough to slow down and contemplate matrimony and the white picket fence? The time frame may not be convenient for you.

If you have plenty of years left you may be happy to wait. If you are in a rush and this guy is nowhere near the top of the corporate ladder you may have to look elsewhere for your rock. You may well be in this guy's plans for down the track. Ask him tactfully where his plans for the future lie and if you're included. No point supporting him through every career crisis if he is not planning on rewarding you at the end.

* Damaged Goods. This guy is still getting over is last ex. Nasty relationships could bea thing of the past and who knows, there may be a string of them or maybe not. The question of trust can be a matter of years (so we're told)? This guy may be so mistrustful of females that he will never want to commit to anyone ever again. If you have given it your best shot, you can either wait a bit longer or tell him you don't want to wait forever. Alarm bells should ring if he's saying things like I'm not quite ready yet..and he's been saying that for years. If his healing is taking longer than the previous relationship lasted there is something wrong.

There are endless ways to get a man to marry you. If your boyfriend's personality type was not one of the above, then you will need to do a little research. In the end it's worth it.