Knowing what your own intentions are first and foremost takes precedence.

Not everyone knows what they want when they are online dating.

Having a nonchalant attitude about online dating is never a good idea.

You should know what you want, whether it resides in seeking out a romance or a fling.

When you are nonchalant about the reasoning behind getting into online dating, you leave your own intentions up in the air.

This means that those vague intentions can be effortlessly influenced by someone you meet.

When you don’t know what your intentions are, someone else shapes those intentions for you.

Unfortunately, the guy shapes those intentions based off of what he wants.

In liking this guy, you end up unconsciously permitting him to determine where this is going.

Basically, he dictates what happens between you.

Weeks or months later, you wake up realizing that you have conflicting feelings.

Having gotten to know this guy and possibly slept with him in that time, you are conflicted on what his intentions are.

Deep down, you know that feelings are developing within you, although you do everything in your power to deny them.

Meanwhile, you have no idea what he is feeling and where he wants to go with whatever you two have going on.

This is where you are lost and vulnerable.

From here, he has the power to play with your emotions, giving you hopeful moments where you think this is moving somewhere substantive, and debilitating moments where you feel stuck in a friends with benefits relationship.

This is why you must be clear about what your own intentions are when you are online dating.

With this knowledge, it’s imperative that you ask any guy you are interested in about what his intentions are.

Once you are this self-assured about what your intentions are, you keep yourself from the danger of a guy’s influence.

A nonchalant approach to online dating leaves you open to suggestion and influence from a guy you meet online.

This isn’t beneficial to you.

It sets you up for failure as you enter a relationship where nothing has been defined beforehand.

As the weeks and months go by, it only gets worse, with your emotions deepening.

Now you are in too deep, leaving this guy as your puppet master, with the power to manipulate or maneuver his puppet in whatever direction he cares to influence it.

Keep yourself from ever arriving at this undesirable predicament in the future.

Don’t worry about whether asking him about his intentions is alright or not.

Getting too entangled in what he thinks is a trap you are setting for yourself.

Look out for yourself before anyone else.

No, this isn’t selfish.

The sooner you know what his intentions are, the less likely you fall into the trap of letting him dictate where this goes.

Without a mutual agreement on intentions, what ensues is fraught with confusion and emotional imbalance.

Nothing good comes out of this.

Look out for yourself before anyone else.