I had the most fun and progress when I approached dating curiously and without attaching too many hopes to it. Not that I didn't pay attention to warning signs, didn't do some filtering, always had the "best" experiences, etc. And I definitely had a long game, so to speak. But for a long time I had certain expectations and predetermined notions of how things should go and where they should end up, and that stifled me.

I think there's a balance between being too open and getting hurt or taken advantage of (or murdered) and being too closed where you miss out on everything.