Making the most of over 60 dating

No matter your life stage or age, getting back into dating can be a little daunting. Putting yourself out there and meeting new people is exciting but also, at times, intimidating! Dating is not strictly the domain of young lovers, and getting back into the dating game when you’re a little older and wiser has its own set of advantages. To help you rediscover your best single self, EliteSingles put together a guide to making the most of over 60 dating…

Older dating: dating over 60 is about approach and attitude

Life isn’t always predictable, and sometimes you land in a position you never predicted. And if you find yourself single and in your sixties, you may be considering how best to take the step and put yourself in the position to meet a new partner. The good news is that senior dating websites are growing fast, and the chances of finding love at 60 are just as high as you hope, if not higher. As a starting point, our dating over 60 advice is to get back into dating with an open approach and positive attitude. Let’s look at how best to do that…

10 useful pieces of dating over 60 advice

EliteSingles has compiled 10 basic guidelines for making the most of over 60 dating. Modern life has changed, and with it, relationships. If you’re looking to start dating again, if you’re looking for love after a divorce or loss, or if you’re trying to build healthy relationships, here’s what you should know about older dating today.

1. Age is just a number

You can be 65 years old or 65 years young. Age is a number, but more so, it is a mindset. Keep an open mind, retain curiosity and practice flexibility. Keep your mind sharp and it will keep your heart young, ready to fall in love again.

2. Confidence is the most attractive quality

As we age, some people lose some of the body confidence of their youth. Some people never had it! But it’s important to remember – everyone ages and confidence is a frame of mind! Choose to embrace yourself – research has shown consistently that confidence is one of the most attractive qualities in a partner. Focus on all you have to offer, not only how it’s presented.

3. Authenticity is key

One of the great benefits of dating in your 60s is that by this stage in life you feel comfortable in your own skin. You know who you are and what you want. The chances of finding love at 60 and beyond go up greatly when you interact with people from an authentic disposition. It saves the time of pointless posturing, and allows you to connect with the right kind of person from the get-go.

4. Define your goals

Before you get back into dating, define your goals. When stepping out into the senior dating world, not everyone wants marriage or shares the same goals. Going into it, define what’s important to you in a partner – maybe it’s companionship, long-term commitment or marriage. Defining what you want makes it easier to meet a suitable partner matched with your preferences.

5. Connect with your community

Find your tribe. To meet your kind of partner, you need to surround yourself with your kind of people. A key element in older dating is finding the right environment. The setting varies from person to person, circumstance to circumstance, but the convenience of online dating is that senior dating websites allow you to specify your preferences and connect directly with suited singles.

For example, EliteSingles uses an extensive personality test and important personal preferences such as lifestyle and location to send you 3-7 selected matches per day.

6. Have some fun

Dating should be fun. It’s dating and not rocket science at the end of the day. In the stress and excitement of over 60 dating, people can take the experience a little too seriously and undermine their own enjoyment. Remind yourself, you and your date are here to enjoy yourselves, and if you don’t connect on that level, appreciate the opportunity to have met someone new and move on. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

7. Step outside your comfort zone

One of the hazards of getting older is that over the years it becomes easier to get stuck in a rut. We simply get used to our way of doing things and seeing things. Exposing yourself to new environments with new people and experiences brings in a breath of fresh air to clear all the cobwebs away and is a great way to revitalize yourself and open up some space in your heart and life for someone new!

8. Equal playing field

A great feature of dating in your 60s is that you’re largely on a level playing field. You have life experience, accrued wisdom and learned your life lessons on the way. Often you’re looking for second love, and have the resilience that knows you can recover from loss and rebuild your life and relationships.

Meeting a partner who has also lived and loved, and is now ready to open their hearts again, means that you share a launch pad of experience, not always the case with young love. When you start, perhaps a little older, dating this time around, the experience and wisdom give you a strong foundation for your future relationship.

9. Patience is a virtue

When you start dating again, it’s very exciting and one can get caught up in the possibilities and opportunities. It’s helpful to be mindful that the benefits of being a little older and wiser and knowing what you want can also make it harder to meet the right fit. Good things are worth waiting for, and in the process, patience goes a long way.

You may fall in love with the first person you meet, but it also might be the third or fourth person. Don’t settle for less than you deserve. At EliteSingles we aim to match you with compatible profiles to make this process smoother and more pleasurable. Older dating, whether over 50, 60 or 70, isn’t a race to the finish line: enjoy the experiences along the way.

10. Love doesn’t have an age

Love is an ageless and timeless entity. You are loved and can love from birth until death, and age is irreverent to where you are on the timeline. If love doesn’t care how old you are, why should you! Dive in head first and open your heart to the full experience. Nothing can make you feel quite like a giggling teenager all over again than a new love.

Over 60 dating: online vs offline options

So if you’ve been going it alone at 60 and ready to take the leap and meet someone new, where do you go about meeting a suitable single? In the modern world of dating, there are two basic options – meeting online or offline. There are pros and cons to both.

In terms of meeting offline in your everyday reality, there are different ways to go about meeting someone new. If you haven’t met someone in your social circle just yet, that means you probably need to explore a new environment and activities. Some ideas include volunteering at a local charity, taking up a new sport, or a hobby. Joining different clubs or groups is a great way to meet new people who share your interests and lifestyle. However, the challenge is that you don’t know if you will meet someone who is also single and if they too will be looking for a partner or friends.

Online dating over 60 has the benefit of bringing you into a community of people who share the same goals – to meet a compatible companion. Meeting someone online provides the convenience of filtering through people that may not share your ideals and preferences and connect you directly with the right singles. One of the quickest growing demographics in online dating is single people over 55, which has more than doubled over recent years¹. Today, online dating has been accepted and embraced as the new norm. With advances in technology, dating apps and senior dating websites are easy-to-use and allow you to discover a whole new world of dating at the tip of your fingers! So what are you waiting for?

Take the first step and register on EliteSingles today

About the author: Zoe Coetzee

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