 Well, hello, Midlife Love Mastery members. I'm your host, Jonathan Asley, and I'm so excited to be doing this short video for you today. It's a morning cup of Jonathan and today we have, I don't want to work anymore. I just want to be put up on a pedestal and taken care of. A friend gave me that my favorite cup and our topic, a conversation about what is dating. So I've been thinking about this a lot. I'm going to talk about this. Quite a bit going forward, both in my YouTube channel and in our conversations, because I think there's a lot of misconception about what is dating. And particularly today, because we, you know, if we look back hundreds of years ago, it was, you know, actually, there was no such thing as dating. There was basically, if two people wanted, you know, felt excitement for one another and they wanted to have sex, they got married right away. I mean, think of the movie, The Pride and Prejudice. You know, I mean, he meets her once, he then professes her love and then despite some of the shenanigans that went on between them, they literally got married in a nanosecond. There was no dating each other. So, and that's a story, but it might have been true. I don't know what it was like a couple hundred years ago, but I know what it's like today and today we're in a whole different environment because of our devices. I don't have my phone with me. Online dating has changed the dating landscape in a way that we never experienced before because we have all these perceived options, perceived prospects that didn't used to exist before the internet. Before the internet, we used to have to meet people face to face before we ever felt a desire to want to go out and spend some time with them. So, let's lean into this conversation today from the online dating perspective, because roughly, I think in the future within the next few years, 80% of all first or second dates, first dates, excuse me, are going to happen through an online connection. So, let's establish first that the online dating is a prospecting tool. It's simply a prospecting tool, just like a salesperson has a role, a dex of, or a list of names to call to say, Hi, my name is Jonathan Asley. I work for such and such insurance broker and I'd like to quote on your insurance. Oh, that's what online dating, the initial stage is prospecting. You're just prospecting. Swiping, that's the prospecting. Then when you have a prospect, you get on the phone with them. And the next role is pre-qualifying your prospect, basically to see if you're a fit for one another, you know, possibly for a fit for one, just if you connect over the phone. Then you plan a meeting, a meeting. It's not a date. The problem is, there's such expectation around how it's supposed to be, instead of what it is. I'll repeat that. There's so much expectation on what it's supposed to be than what it is. A lot of entitled people expect it to be an extravagant dinner or something fancy. When it's really just meeting the person, it's the sniff test. Just to see if you like each other. That's why coffee dates are okay. But that's just a meeting. And then if you decide to see each other again, that's a date. But it's not a promise for the future. It's just a date. Okay. It's just a, just to see if we get along better than we did the time before. And then if you see each other again in a relatively short period of time, that's a second date, even though it's the third time you've met this person. And at that point, you make a decision. Do you want to date this person? In other words, do you want to be dating this person? In other words, do you want to make a commitment to get to know this person at a deeper level to explore a relationship? That's what dating is. So, folks, when I say the words dating one person at a time, you've met them, you've met them, you've gone on a date, you've gone to another date, and then you reach a point of an agreement that you want to actually get to know each other at a deeper level. Now, you can do that on the first meeting. That might be premature. But certainly, if you've met each other three times, then then you say you want to date each other or be dating. That's an agreement. That's, by the way, everything is my perspective. I'm not saying that's what's out there. That's what, this is what I believe should be done. So, with that said, and I said about dating one person at a time, it's because, first off, it's hard to date multiple people at the same time. And really, what is dating? Dating is a vetting process to decide if you want to be in a relationship with someone. If you want to explore something deeper, that's what I think this is all about. And it's really a process of getting to know someone at a deeper level. But most people hyper-focus on chemistry, they hyper-focus on romance, and then they wonder why five, six, seven, ten dates later after you've just had sex with someone, they disappear. Because there's no level of intentionality, and that's what I'm trying to do as a coach is bring some awareness at this, at a deeper level, because most everybody is doing at a surface level, and that's wondering why it's such a mess out there. Alright, I think you get to just where I'm going. This is going to be a short video. I'd like to hear your thoughts and list. Let's have a real discussion about what does dating mean to you? What does it look like for you? And go a little bit deeper by posting a comment below. Alright, we're going to wrap up this video as I always do first off. If you find value in the group, please tell your friends about Midlife Love Mastery. Send them to my website, jonathanasley.com. Have them click the group coaching button so they can join our fantastic group. And I'm going to sign up this video as I always do. First off, giving myself a big gigantic Jonathan Barrett of self love. I'm going to reach into the camera and give you a hug of look. That's okay. I'm going to ask you to turn to someone. Pat, a teddy bear pillow and give Iter them a hug of love, because hugs are a great source of love. And let's face it, we can all use more love in our lives. Thanks a bunch. Bye bye now. Bye bye.