When it comes to a first date, everyone is a little nervous. But is your nervousness taking over? Does it make you act weird and scare your date away?

Okay, you’ve scared off too many people in that case and you need to take charge of your life, starting now!

Here are some tips on how to overcome first date nerves!

Practice Makes Perfect

If the thought of a date makes you nervous, you need to practice more. Go out on practice dates with someone who’s willing to help you get rid of your nervousness. Practice everything about the date, from beginning to end. The point is to get comfortable with all aspects of dating so when you go on a real date, you’re comfortable and you know what you’re doing. If you’re comfortable with the process, you’re automatically less nervous.

Prepare Yourself

Apart from practising dates, you need to prepare yourself for the date coming up. If you think you’ll luck out with conversation, try to keep a few conversation ideas up your sleeve. Instead of making feeble attempts at discussing the weather, you could plan to ask your date more questions. Encourage them to talk while you control your nervousness.

Forget About The Past

Bad dates in the past and rejection can make us very nervous about the current date. So if you don’t want this date to go as badly as the last one, forget the past. Instead of obsessing over what went wrong…concentrate on enjoying this date. Learn to accept rejection as part of the dating process, and move on.

Relax And Take It Easy

Don’t worry so much! It’s a date not an exam. Stressing about what to wear, where to go, how to impress, what to say etc can unnecessarily make you more nervous than you need to be. Also, not everyone you meet is “The One” so slow down a little and don’t put so much pressure on yourself. Just take one step at a time and go for a date only to meet a new person. when you take the pressure off, a lot of the nervousness comes off too.

Choose Comfort

If you haven’t figured it out by now – I’m stressing on the importance of being comfortable. Dressing comfortably means you can concentrate on the date instead of worrying about what you’re wearing. But most importantly, go someplace that makes you comfortable. Go somewhere familiar if you think the familiarity will create a comfort level for you and make you less nervous.

However, some of us would prefer not to run into anyone we know on a date. In that case, choose a place where you’re comfortable knowing you won’t run into someone. The bottom line is to be comfortable because that can curb the nervousness.

It’s normal to be nervous and to want to impress your date but don’t let the nervousness take over and ruin your date instead. Concentrate on comfort and prepare yourself well…and pretty soon that nervousness will start to disappear.