Ladies stop dating men for their potential. I did it. I'm guilty. You get caught putting up with who he is while seeing glimpses of who he could be.

You constantly see the good in him and then give him benefit of the doubt when he doesn't match up to the standards in your head. And at the end of it all, you get let down. Either in a breakup or worse, you marry him and continue to see him fall short of your expectations.

But the problem is - you made the choice. And you keep making the choice. The choice to blindly believe there's better, that he can love you more, treat you better, and fix his "issues". But to him, they aren't issues. That's how he is, that's WHO he is. And you have to be okay with that. But that doesn't mean you have to accept it in a relationship. You don't (and shouldn't) date potential.

You need to date the guy for exactly who he is at that exact moment.

The guy who meets all (or most, because no one is perfect) of your standards. Because if there's anything I learned from my previous relationship, it's that you can't change someone and shouldn't want to. Dating "potential" is like dating someone who doesn't exist yet and possibly never will.