When women first begin dating a new man they tend to make mistakes that will eventually cause the relationship to end. These mistakes can easily be avoided if women will take the time and make the effort to avoid them. Staying in a relationship with someone that you are not honest with, who you will cancel all of your plans for, who you expect to change at some future point in time, who you think is just saying one thing when he really means another, who has bad behavior that you keep excusing – is not a good idea.

Here are 5 mistakes that women make when dating a man:

1. Not telling him your likes and dislikes – People only know what we tell them. If you are a vegetarian and you tell him you love to barbeque steaks every night this will eventually become a problem. Tell him about yourself so that he can get to know the real you. If you continue to do things you don’t like or enjoy you will soon resent him for not reading your mind.

2. Changing your life completely for him – Do not change or cancel plans that you have already made with other people. It is nice to show a man that you are interested and want to spend lots of time with him, but if you drop everything and everyone to only be with him he will get nervous and back away from you.

3. Believing that he will change over time -Grown folks do not change too much as they get older. If your man is habitually late he will probably continue to do it. If he is a smoker he will probably smoke for as long as you know him. If he has too many things that you would like for him to change, perhaps you just need to change to another man.

4. Not believing what he says – People tell us who they are. We are notorious for thinking that men are saying one thing and mean another. That’s us. Women do that but men usually do not. If your man tells you he doesn’t like the beach don’t keep talking about taking a trip to Hawaii. By believing what he says you show him that you are intelligent and trusting.

5. Making excuses for his behavior – There is no excuse for bad behavior. If he drinks too much and belittles you, do not make excuses for him. If he is unkind to you and says it is because he had a bad day at work do not make excuses for him. If you make plans to go out with another couple and he cancels at the last minute because he had something more important to do, don’t make excuses for him. You get it now. Don’t make excuses for his bad behavior. That is who he is and you need to find someone else.