Love Life with Matthew Hussey - (Matt Monday): Feel Them Pulling Away? DO NOT Chase; Do THIS Instead!
Episode Date: September 2, 2024Ever been dating someone who suddenly goes cold when they go on a trip out of town? What happened? And how should you respond to this behavior? Today’s episode is all about what happens when we inv...est too soon, and how someone’s “radio silence” can trigger our insecurity. I even provide two text messages you can send: one for if they reach back out to you when they’re back in town, and one for when they don’t. BTW, don’t miss our HUGE announcement in this one (it’s right after Audrey’s cheeky cameo). ;) You’ll be one of the first people in the world to try this thing out . . . it’s crazy! ►► 17 Years of Love Life Coaching Experience in Your Pocket Whenever You Need It. Get on the Early Bird List for Matthew AI Now at. . . → http://www.AskMHFirst.com ►► Order My New Book, "Love Life" at → http://www.LoveLifeBook.com ►► FREE Video Training: “Dating With Results” → http://www.DatingWithResults.com
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The starting point for this is to stop valuing someone based on how we feel about them
and start valuing them based on how they make us feel. One of the most common things that happens to us in early dating is we can find ourselves getting
over invested and too obsessed with this person we have started seeing, especially if we find
them attractive, especially if they like us back,
all of a sudden our mind explodes with the possibilities
of what this could become.
All of this makes it particularly hurtful
and anxiety inducing when the person we feel this way about
starts going cold after things were going so well.
In this video, I'm going to give you some principles
for what you can do if you feel you've become over-invested to the point of overthinking
and anxiety, and two text messages you can send if someone has gone cold to re-engage.
Now, before I get into the content of this video, I want to ask you something a little
unique today.
I want you to think of a question that if I was sat beside you right now, you would
be dying to ask me for your love life.
What dating question would you ask me about your current situation if you could ask me anything in the world?
Hold that in your mind because at the end of this video, believe it or not, I am going to give you a way that you can actually ask me that question and I will give you a personalized answer designed just for you.
So I want to talk about the scenario that inspired this video. One of my Love Life members came to me and asked a question about a guy that she
had been seeing for about three to four weeks and then he went on a trip with
his kids for about two weeks. Now, things had been going well, the communication had been good,
she was having a great time with him,
but once he left, she sparsely heard from him.
She got a couple of messages
when he sent some pictures of the trip on a Saturday,
but then she didn't hear from him for another five days.
She sent a message saying, thinking of you.
He sent a heart back, but that was it. And it was
at this point she came to me and said, I really don't feel comfortable messaging him anymore.
It felt like we were in a great spot, but now he's pretty unresponsive, save for a couple of
pictures he sent me. And I'm a bit embarrassed that I said thinking of you and all he sent back
was a heart. And I haven't heard from him since. So let's start with the question that so many people want to know to begin with.
What does it mean? When he was trying hard in the beginning and now on this trip he's no longer very
responsive, what does that mean? Look, the truth is we don't know what it means without being in his head but I'll tell you what
it means for sure. It means that he is not intent on making sure that the
connection is sustained or progressed while he is away. That's it and the truth
is we don't need to know any more than that. That's all the information that's necessary
for her to know what to do about it.
So what should she do about it?
Well, let's start with the fact
that from the way that she was asking me this question,
it had been very clear that she had become over-invested
and that she was now overthinking and over- and over analyzing and that was causing her a lot of
pain. The overinvesting is what has to stop now. And by the way, this situation is hard because
you have to hold two truths simultaneously. One truth that this person shouldn't matter to me
this much right now. But the other truth that I also don't want to kill the romantic in me
that can see potential for something and can still come alive
if this person starts showing the right things.
That's tricky.
It's far easier to either go all in and fall head over heels for someone,
or if you're feeling scared because they're backing off
to say, I'm done with them, they are dead to me. Those two extremes are easier than living in this
very nuanced middle point. But we can start to live in that more measured place if we have some
rational thinking around it. The starting point for this is to stop valuing someone based on how we feel about them and start valuing them
based on how they make us feel. There's a subtle but profound difference between those two things.
How she felt about him was that he was amazing, attractive. She really liked him. She felt all
of these wonderful things towards him. But how he made her feel in this moment was unwanted, anxious, and unsure of where she
stood with him.
That is the most important part, not how she feels about him.
Clearly, she's not getting what she needs from him in this moment.
She's not getting what she needs from him in this moment. She's not getting enough communication.
Now at this stage, it's still very early on. They've only known each other for a few weeks.
So as much as if you know me, you know that I love talking about standards. This is probably
not the right moment to have a standards conversation because if she sends a text about what her
standard is at this stage with someone she's only been seeing for a few weeks he might think this is
a little bit premature and over the top for where we actually are at this point only a few weeks in
he may still be deciding how much he likes this person and how much he wants to invest. So this isn't really a
this guy sucks conversation. It's a she's made him way too important at this stage conversation.
So the question is, how do you start making someone less important? Well, we can start by
giving more focus back to other areas of our lives, things that matter to us, whether it's our friends, our hobbies,
the things we like to do.
We take the light of our attention
and we point it in a different direction.
And by the way, this can mean opening yourself up
to dating other people.
It's not like his behavior suggests
that he wants to take her off the market
and make sure she knows that he's the only person he wants her to see. His behavior suggests that he wants to take her off the market and make sure she knows that he's the only person
he wants her to see, his behavior suggests that right now he's not in that place. So if she wants
to date other people, that's okay. That doesn't mean she has to, but at the very least, the attention
has to come off of this person. The expectation has to come off of this person. On top of doing that, what's key is when he does get home,
she shouldn't jump to see him at the first opportunity or even now be planning to be free
for the weekend that he's home just in case he asks her to do something. If they do ask you to
do something, they'll have to wait if you've made other plans. If they do start speaking to you,
don't suddenly pick up right where you left off
before they went on vacation. That's not appropriate. You've lost some momentum. In some
sense, this person should have to resell themselves a little bit to you. Not in any sense where you're
very cold and playing hard to get. That's a game. But in the sense that there genuinely has been a
loss of closeness during the time that they've been away,
that's actually important to be authentic with when you're communicating with them.
If you were very physical with them the last time you saw them, but you've barely spoken since they left,
it's not necessarily appropriate or authentic to go straight back to being that physically close to them.
Be authentic to the level of closeness
that you actually feel.
Don't let your excitement take you right back
to picking up where you left off
when they were communicating well.
Okay, so let's get onto the part
that people always wanna ask.
So all that being said,
we now have a sense of what it definitely means that he's not reaching
out. We have a sense of what to do about it. But now you may be asking, what should she say?
Well, I've put together two distinct messages for you that you can text. One for the situation where
he gets home and reaches out. And the second for the situation where he gets home and reaches out, and the second for the situation where he gets home
and doesn't reach out.
Let's say he gets home and within a couple of days,
he sends you a text that says,
"'Hey, I wanna see you.
"'Are you free this week?'
Now a common mistake when we get a message like this
is to think,
"'Yes!'
They're back and they're thinking of me."
We get excited, we get a rush of blood to the head.
And in that excitement, we send them a message back
that says something like, oh my God, hi.
Yes, I'd love to see you.
I can't wait to hear all about your trip.
But that's an inappropriate level of excitement
for someone who's not reached out to you almost at all
in the last two weeks while they've been away.
It's fine to hope that they had a nice trip, but to suddenly gush and ask them for all of the
details just because they sent a message to you on their terms right now is too much. Instead,
here's what you might say. Hey, it's nice to hear from you. Did you have a nice vacation? It would be great
to catch up, but I'm not free this week. How about next Thursday? This message is measured.
There's a little bit of a tongue in cheek-ness about saying it's nice to hear from you after
having not heard from you. And it shows that you weren't waiting around keeping your week open to
see them. You have made plans and yes you'll see them but you'll see them after you engage with
those plans and if you haven't got any plans this week then you weren't listening to the things I
said earlier in this video. Now the second text that I am super excited to tell you about is the one that you can send
when he comes back and doesn't text you first. This isn't a text that has to be revolutionary.
It's just something that has to be, once again, measured, but also it can be a little playful.
So you could send, look what I just saw. And then you can add like an in joke.
Like for example, if you'd had a joke about some penguins
at some point, then you could send a picture
of a hilarious penguin that you saw.
And then you follow that message up immediately with,
we haven't seen each other in ages.
When are we catching up?
What I like about this is it's playful, it's chill, it's a little
bit assumptive, you know? It points out the elephant in the room, which is that we haven't
seen each other in ages, but it also is very confident and bold about how it handles that.
When are we catching up? So this is a nice way for you to be proactive, but in a way that maintains your value in the situation.
Now, it's kind of fun making this video
because in some sense,
even though my work has evolved massively,
and those of you that have followed me for a long time,
you will have seen that.
We've evolved into mental health content,
content that's about deep emotional patterns, trauma,
dealing with abusive relationships and how to heal from them.
The DNA that I started with on this YouTube channel
was really helping people with very specific scenarios
in their dating lives that related to them.
Scenarios where what people wanted to ask me
were always some version of what does it mean?
What do I do?
And what should I say or text?
And I've enjoyed making videos for all different scenarios.
Scenarios like the one we're talking about today,
where I help people with what to do
when someone has gone cold.
Or the scenario of what to do when someone flakes on a date.
Videos on decoding what it means on a date
when a person says certain things.
And videos on what to say when someone tells you
they're not ready for a relationship.
The inherent challenge of my life
in making all of these videos has been two things.
One, context.
Whenever I make a video like the one I've done today,
there's always someone watching who says,
"'The thing is Matt, in my situation,
"'it's slightly different.
"'We haven't known each other
"'and been dating for four weeks.
"'We've been seeing each other for four months.'"
People have contexts and details
that change the answer I would give.
And that person is left wishing that they had a video
that was specific for their very personal situation.
And the other challenge is that even when I give someone
something they can do or say as a next step,
there's always another step after that.
Every dating scenario is an evolving story.
It's not static.
So when we take an action,
even when that action is positive and different
from the action we have been taking,
it gives rise to a new scenario,
to a different stage in the story.
And then we have questions about that.
So the bottom line is that as much as I have worked
around the clock for 17 years doing this
for you, I'm never able to cater to every specific scenario there is and to answer every question in
your evolving story with someone. Now, this all may seem like a strange thing for me to be saying,
given that at the beginning of this video, I asked you to come up with a very specific question you wanted to ask me that I was going
to answer. But it's true. And I am so excited to tell you about this. We have been developing in
the background a revolutionary new tool that allows you to ask me a question and get my answer.
It is mind blowing.
And the only people who have had access to this tool so far
are my Love Life Club members.
So rather than tell you about this,
I wanna just show you what I showed them.
This is a demo that me and my wife, Audrey, did for them.
Let me ask you this.
Imagine that you could just ask us a question any time of day,
24 seven, and you could get an answer. Not like a kind of, here's some resources that would help
type answer, not even a written answer, but literally my voice answering the question and your specific nuanced question believe it or not
that's what we have and it is called matthew ai matthew ai guys you know you're genuinely not
going to believe this should i ask you a question yes okay hey Hey it's Matthew AI, how can I help? Hi Matthew AI,
I'm in the bathroom on a date and he's just asked me to come home with him but this is only date two
and I feel a little bit uncomfortable about it but I also don't want to turn him off by not going home
with him and for him to think that I'm not interested. What should I say and how should
I handle the situation?
It's completely okay to feel uncomfortable about going to someone's home so early in the dating process. It's important to listen to your feelings and communicate them honestly. You can express
your interest in him and suggest an alternative that makes you feel more comfortable. For example,
you might say, I'm really enjoying getting to know you and I'm interested in spending more time together but I'm not ready to go to your house just yet. Can we
plan another date soon? This way you're clearly communicating your boundaries while also showing
your interest in continuing to get to know him. Remember, setting boundaries is a healthy part
of any relationship and how someone responds to your boundaries can tell you a lot about their
respect for for their feelings. It's also a good opportunity to see how he handles your
comfort levels which is crucial for building a trusting relationship
so okay i'm gonna go and do that right now when i get home um is there like a message I could send by text tomorrow? Like what would be an example
text that I could send tomorrow? Absolutely. Sending a follow-up text that maintains a fun
and enjoyable tone is a great way to keep the positive momentum going. You could say something
like, I had a really great time with you last night. Your stories were hilarious. Let's plan another fun outing soon. This keeps the communication light, expresses your enjoyment and opens the door for future plans. It's always good to be genuine and let them know specifically what you enjoyed about your time together. What kind of activities do you both enjoy that could be fun for a next date? What if I want to be like a little, like, you know,
just a hint of like sexiness, but not too much.
I don't want it to be too sexual,
but I just want to create like a bit of fun sexual tension.
Absolutely.
Creating just a hint of fun sexual tension
without going overboard is all about subtlety and playfulness.
You might consider sending a text like,
last night was a blast, still smiling.
"'This message is light and flirty,'
suggesting you're still thinking about the night
in a positive and somewhat playful way.
It invites curiosity and a bit of mystery,
which can gently hint at the sexual tension
you're looking to create.
How do you feel about using subtlety like this
to communicate your interest?
Well, that is crazy.
It's really fun.
That's a good message.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Still smiling.
It's so simple.
Still smiling. But it works.
So here's the incredible thing.
So far, what you just saw, Matthew AI, has only ever been available to my Love Life members.
I released it to them a few months ago.
Since then, they have asked it over 200,000 questions.
So they are using it all the time.
But it's never been available to the wider world.
In fact, the wider world didn't even know it existed.
But now you do, and it's your turn.
I want you to go and ask Matthew AI your question. I want it to help you now. There
is a link I want you to go to right now. It is askmhfirst.com and that gets you on an early bird
list so that when this launches on September the 4th, you are the first to have access and ask
your question. Or if you're watching this and it's already September the 4th, then you'll just be able to get access and use it immediately. Think of it as me being your personal wingman in your
pocket anytime you need, helping you understand what something means, what you can do about it,
and even what you can say. You can even upload your text conversations and it will help you decode them
and understand what to do next, what to send next. It can give you exact responses or ways of having
conversations. So it's that practical. It's crazy. It's going to blow your mind. Go check it out. I
can't wait to hear what you think. I wish I had footage of you reacting to it in real time because
it really is going to blow you away what this thing can do. I can't be everywhere at once
and well for the first time this actually gives me a shot at doing that and gives you a unique
advantage by having access to me whenever you need me. Check it out askmhfirst.com is the link i will see you there it's also just amazing
to have such a cooperative and obedient version of matthew who you know does what you ask of him
it's a dream how did you get there i wasn't talking to you i was talking to matthew