 Psychologist and professor at Stanford University, Dr. Susan Edelman said, dating can feel like walking a tightrope. One wrong move and you plummet. Unfortunately, subtle actions can sometimes send the wrong messages and make potential partners run. Fortunately, psychology has taken a lot of the guesswork out of dating for us. So to avoid falling into this trap of pushing your crush away without even realizing it, here are five of the most common subconscious behaviors you need to look out for. Number one, putting them on a pedestal. According to clinical psychologist Dr. Carla Mary Manley, having unrealistic expectations of your crush can do a lot more harm than help your chances with them. And while there's nothing wrong with having high standards for your potential partners, you need to be careful not to overwhelm them with too much pressure to live up to an idealized version you have of them in your head. In some cases, the inability to find a suitable partner is due to overly high expectations, Dr. Manley says, but if the bar is set too high in the hopes of finding the perfect partner, the right partner may be overlooked. Clinging too much. In her book, Relationship Sautures, overcoming the 10 behaviors that undermine love. Clinical psychologist Dr. Randy Gunther wrote, Insecurity is the emotional experience of anticipated loss. People who are driven by it often feel vulnerable, unstable, and uncertain of their worth, which drives them to desperation. In order to soothe this terrible fear of being discarded, people often act in ways that rob them of their self-respect and destroy the love they want so much to give and receive. Simply put, constantly seeking attention and validation from your crush will likely drive them away rather than pull you too closer together. Too little space We can all adressed that having someone pursue us by not giving us enough space is a quick turn off. And according to Sylvia Smith, expert blogger at marriage.com, giving someone enough space to fall in love with you is key. Neuroscientists have proven that seeking things and people activates the reward centers in our brain. So if you're always around and trying to spend all of your time with your crush, it's more likely to cause them to distance themselves from you, because appearing too available can actually make you less attractive to them. Not more. Not being yourself. In his article, Five Ways We Push Away Love, psychiatrist Dr. Vinay Saranga says that, Many times, people in a relationship let their fear of intimacy change who they are to their partner. This is a form of pushing away love because you're withholding who you really are. So by not being yourself and trying too hard to be someone you think they might like, you're actually subconsciously pushing your crush away. They might get the sense that you're not being genuine with them. And like most people, they can't fall in love with someone they don't even know. Miscommunicating interest Miscommunication ruins chances with your crush in two ways. First is when you don't communicate enough interest in them. While it might seem scary to let your crush know you have feelings for them, not being clear enough may cause them to feel uncertain about you and your relationship. Playing too hard to get might be miscontrude as rejection. The second type of miscommunication is communicating too much interest in other people. Acting too close with certain people, such as friends of the opposite sex, might make your crush mistake them for a romantic rival, and back off altogether unless you clear things up for them. As marriage and family therapist Weena Cullen states, what we can interpret from mixed signals is that the other person hasn't officially chosen to be consistent or commit to you. If you decide that consistency or commitment is what you need, then it will be easier to determine how to move forward in the relationship. In the words of famous psychologist Carl Jung, until we learn to make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate. Hopefully learning about these common mistakes will also help you stop sabotaging your chances at romance and invite more love into your life instead. Did going through this list make you realize you might be unconsciously pushing your crush away? No matter your answer, it's ultimately a good idea to try to be more open and honest with the other person about how you really feel. Especially if you suspect they may feel the same way but are too hesitant to act on it. As always, if you enjoyed this, we'd appreciate it if you liked the video and subscribed to Psych2Go to support our creation of more psychology content.