When you meet the person you think is right, you will know.
One comforting piece of advice is that you'll miraculously know when the right person shows up. Maybe you will experience love at first sight. Unfortunately for the romantics, there is no evidence of magic. In a series of studies, Paul Eastwick and his colleagues tracked people's memories of various relationship experience, both short-term and long-term, over the course of a relationship. They found that early in a relationship, the timing of relationship milestones (such as the first kiss, the first sexual encounter) and the intensity of people's feelings for their partners were the same in both short-time and long-term relationships. Only later dod researchers discover the difference between lasting relationships and those that ultimately failed.
But what about love at first sight? Research shows that many people believe they have. But in fact, research shows that this feeling of "love" is really just a strong sense of physical attraction - closer to desire. Many people say they "fell in love" with their current partner at first sight, simply projecting their current feelings onto their first meeting with that person.
If you're attracted to someone, play hard to get.
Many tranny date relationship advice books tell transgender women that they should play hard to get if they want to attract a man. According to this strategy, men like things they can't have, so a trans woman should act like she's not interested in the man she wants. She should ignore his calls and pretend be busy when he asks for a date. Studies show that we are more attracted to people who choose to date us. But that doesn't mean we're more attracted to people who act like they don't like us. As a matter of fact, research on reciprocity shows that we like people who like us. We're also less likely to go after people we don't think belong to us.
The best strategy might be to let the people you're interested in know that you have high standards, but let them know that they meet those standards as well. You don't want to appear desperate, but you should show interest. Essentially, you want to send message, "I'm picky, but I like you." To capture a friend is to send the message, "I don't like you." Do you really want to date someone like that? Will they continue to pursue those who signal that they are not interested?