Too Busy for Love? 3 Tips to Help You Find Your Soulmate in a Hectic World

If our culture is guilty of anything when it comes to the subject of love, it’s sending mixed messages. Don’t settle for less than your soul mate…but don’t be too picky, or you’ll spend your life single. You should look for someone whose interests match your own…but opposites attract. You must make sure to create time for love and a family…but you must also work 80-hour weeks if you want to build a career. It’s enough to make your head spin.

With our increasingly busy lives and shrinking personal time, one of the biggest issues on the love front these days can be simply finding someone at all. As much as we crave love and affection and feel the need to share our lives with someone, it’s all too easy to just get frustrated and give up. Or chalk it all up as too much work and settle for a less than fulfilling series of one-night stands, superficial friendships and online connections.

And yet, finding that special someone doesn’t have to be that hard. Here are a few ideas you may not have considered.

Special interest groups.

One of the keys to a happy relationship is a shared interest in something that’s meaningful and that you can do together. Where better to find someone who shares your deepest joys than a group specifically designed to bring those types together? If you have a hobby or passion, chances are good that others share your enthusiasm. Consider joining a group or club that caters to the things you love to do. If you’re the outdoorsy type, join a hiking club or conservancy group. Love video games? Find yourself a gaming meet-up or enthusiast group. It doesn’t matter where your fancy lies, someone somewhere has a group devoted to it. If you can’t find anything nearby, consider starting one yourself; chances are, you aren’t the only one looking to get together with like minds.

Niche dating sites.

Online dating sites have gotten a bit of a skeevy reputation, partly because the majority of them are pretty much indiscriminate when it comes to who joins up. But there’s a new market booming in niche dating sites that cater to very specific - and very narrow - groups of people. FarmersOnly.com (www.farmersonly.com) helps rural lonely hearts beat the isolation of farm life by helping them hook up with people who are not only looking for love, but looking for someone who understands (and is interested in) living on and running a working farm. CyclingSingles.com (www.cyclingsingles.com) connects people with a love for bikes and the open road. There are sites that connect people who share ethnicities, religions, philosophical mindsets, pet ownership, hobbies - pretty much anything you can think of. A quick Google search will turn up all sorts of options for the lonely single.

Volunteering.

This idea mixes doing the right thing with the potential to meet Mr. or Ms. Right - how can you beat that? Not only is volunteering a great way to meet people who share your values and your love of giving, but since you’re already doing something good when you meet them you have a better chance of making a good impression from the get-go. Anyone can find a way to volunteer that fits both their schedule and abilities, whether it’s stuffing envelopes for a political action group, driving elderly patients to hospital visits or swinging a hammer at a Habitat for Humanity BuildAThon. Check your local paper or contact a non-profit that appeals to you for more information.

Falling in love is a wonderful and exciting experience. And sharing your life with someone you love, and who loves you, is one of life’s greatest pleasures. Don’t shortchange yourself on the love front because you’re too busy or worried about finding someone who will understand and appreciate your little quirks. The ideas above provide fun and easy ways to start meeting people who share the same goals, loves and desires for life as you do.

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