3..2..1…Happy New Year! Except maybe there wasn’t a New Years kiss at the end of that countdown for you. Maybe there wasn’t even a prospect. Despite what Hallmark movies, rom-coms, and popular music tell us, that’s okay.
There’s nothing luckier or better about starting a new year with a relationship. It’s challenging to start another year alone, especially if that feeling is caused by comparison and social pressure. But being single is okay! Yes, we were created to live in some sort of community, but being single is okay, too. It’s part of the journey.
Read more: New Year’s Resolutions To Make (Or Not Make!) As A Single Catholic
While you’re mulling over how your year is going to shape out now, keep these following ten things in mind. Rest assured that starting the new year as a single Catholic man or woman can actually be beneficial.
1. You’re starting the year with a clean slate and clear head
Starting the new year as a single Catholic gives you a chance to leave old, useless baggage behind and start the year fresh and strong. You’ll be ready to pick up any new, healthy habits and opportunities that may come along. When you learn to reconcile and let go of the past, you’ll have a clearer mind and better ability to see people as they are. It may even make you a little bolder than you were before!
2. Being single gives you a chance to re-evaluate your goals
What do you want out of life? Do you have a degree you want to finish? Is there family issues you need to resolve? Are there faraway places you’ve always wanted to see? How do you want you and your future partner to communicate? Do you handle your finances well? Where do you want to live and what will it take to make that happen?
All of these questions and more are good to go through to re-evaluate your goals. Why is it important to re-evaluate goals? Because we grow and change and we need to make sure what we’ve said we want aligns with who we are now and where we want to go.
This will also help you in sorting out potential partners while Catholic online dating. You’re more apt to find what you’re looking for if you actually know what you’re looking for!
3. You have time to pursue your own interests
Learn that language you always wanted to. Get that degree you never thought you’d be able to finish. Start a whole new career! Learn to weave or paint or horseback ride or skateboard. Get out there and do it!
Read more: Blessed Carlo Acutis: Holiness In An Ordinary Lay Life
Having your own interests and pursuing them not only enriches your life now but will enrich your life when you’re in a relationship or marriage. It’s also easier to pursue new interests while single. It’s not impossible during marriage but it does add new obstacles. Right now, this year, you have time. So what will you do with it?
4. You won’t be putting all of your eggs in one basket
While single, you have the opportunity to look at and assess the future you have on your current trajectory, the future you want, and what various versions of your future might look like depending on a relationship, career, if you remain single, and so many other variations. This is good because it affords you the chance to sort your life out. Which eggs are in your current basket that should stay and which should go? Does the egg you want belong in the basket you’re holding? Do you need different baskets or different eggs?
These considerations get much more complex when you enter a relationship and while they can, and should, be re-evaluated every so often even when in a relationship (or married), having the foundational work done first will save you and your significant other a ton of legwork.
5. Being single right now gives you time to strengthen friendships
Invest in the friendships you already have while you’re single! This ensures that you have a support system as you travel through life and people to share time and life experiences with.
Friendships teach you how to be in a relationship, which will obviously be beneficial for any future relationship you may find yourself in. Also, friends are people, and knowing people is never a waste of time. Friendships will benefit you in so many ways and ensure that you’re always in community, just like we were meant to live.
6. Now you have the ability to meet different people
See who you mesh with and who you don’t, what kinds of personalities you’re likely and able to form attachments with. You’ll be able to remember, recognize, and rejoice in that there are many different kinds of people in this world. We’re are all beloved by God, even if we don’t get along. Meeting different people is also beneficial in teaching you what red flags to watch out for in a relationship.
Ready to meet someone who shares your values and interests? Check out the new Catholic Singles dating app!
7. Take the time to spice up your dating profile!
This is the perfect time to do that! New year, new profile! This will help you renew your focus, boost your confidence, and stand out to potential partners. Want to know our best tips and practices for 2022? Check out this resource.
8. You can define who you are
If you want to do a certain diet, you can do it without taking anyone else into consideration. If you want to spend money on a new wardrobe, same deal. Want to train for a marathon? Do it at whatever time of day works for you! If you want to eat spaghetti for breakfast and nachos for dinner, no one is going to be counting on you for balanced nutritional sustenance.
Being single is a great time to remember that you are good as who you are right now, in the (moral and amoral) choices you make, and you are worthy just as you are. In the long run, this will help you not “lose yourself” in a relationship and, down the line, parenthood. It will remind you that God made you as you are and that He made you good.
There will be times in the future when you will doubt that, so get a jumpstart now and set a good foundation for yourself. As a bonus, confidence and self-awareness tends to attract possible dates.
9. You can spend more time in prayer
Pray for your future spouse. Pray for your vocation. But also just pray. Get to know God in a new way and see what He has in store for you. Revel in who He is.
Learn about Jesus, the saints, and the teachings of the Church.
Read more: 3 Reasons You Should Develop A Devotion To The Holy Family (And How!)
Learn how to meditate well. This will help you more than spiritually, too, as meditation has been proven to have great positive mental health, physical, and emotional effects. Get yourself a spiritual director and really take your spiritual well-being seriously.
Prayer will always, always benefit you and the more you do it and learn various ways of praying, the better you’ll be in the long-run, especially when life demands you be flexible.
10. Actively discern your vocation
Starting the new year single gives you a great chance to truly discern your vocation. Discerning priesthood or religious life can be very difficult while in a relationship with another person, not to mention, you shouldn’t. If you’re in a semi-serious to serious relationship, you should be actively focused on the possibility of marriage with this person and that vocation. You should not also be discerning a different vocation at the same time.
Take this time to go on a discernment retreat with your diocese, talk to priests and seminarians, visit different religious orders, and, of course, pray.
If you’re going to get into Catholic dating, you want to know that there is a reasonably good possibility that marriage is the vocation to which you’re called. Do that work now and it will keep the waters of a relationship clear later.
Are you ready to look into online Catholic dating in 2022? Download the new Catholic Singles dating app. We match you with other single Catholics who share your values and then help you message them for FREE!
