Did you know that this week is National Singles Week? Go ahead and celebrate the wild ride that is known as dating in this day and age... and, if you’re so inclined, read on to get some tips on how to adjust your attitude to help you move through your single days a little more smoothly and swiftly. It all begins with understanding this: Your beliefs influence your actions, and your actions determine your results. So if you’re holding onto a negative world view or even some bad feelings about yourself (romantically speaking), you’re probably not going to get great results. But if you identify your less-than-productive feelings and evolve them into a more positive outlook, you can really turn your love life around. Attitude adjustment 101Having a great attitude about dating doesn’t mean you have to be happy all the time. Sometimes it’s OK to be unhappy. But the key is, when you’re not feeling good, ask yourself what value you get from feeling bad. Most of the time, there is no value to being unhappy. “And if feeling bad isn’t serving you, then figure out how you can change it,” counsels Beverly Hills — and Washington, D.C. — based psychotherapist and life coach Jim Weinstein. “Maybe you can learn a lesson from that feeling. If not, ask yourself, ‘How might I want to react differently to make this less uncomfortable or painful?’” Get to know your feelingsThe best way to get clear on your beliefs is to become more aware of them. Alexander Kerr of Santa Fe spent a couple of weeks observing his feelings as part of a mindfulness class. How exactly? “I tried to spend a few minutes each day looking at why I reacted the way I did, why I felt the way I did,” he reports. “I wrote down my observations and some patterns emerged. It sounds really new age-y, but it actually helped me realize some self-defeating behaviors.” The experience allowed Kerr to make choices about how he would act in certain situations. “I was jumping to a lot of conclusions about people I was dating and I realized I was expecting them to be like others who’d hurt me. That wasn’t fair, so I worked hard at stopping that way of thinking before it got started.” Make it happenOnce you’ve figured out your beliefs and how to change them, it’s time to act. “Start thinking, ‘I want to do this’ and then think about how you could,” says Weinstein. “Even if you’re not successful, the effort is worth it. You might learn something really valuable from trying." Some specifics: Take a few minutes to write down what you want—then stick it to your bathroom mirror, put it in your wallet, or tape it to your dashboard. Or do what Tara Boney did. Tired of relationships that didn’t work out, Boney, an Oakland resident, started dreaming about the kind of union she really wanted. “Each morning before I got out of bed, I visualized an aspect of my life with a partner,” she explains. “I thought about how I wanted to be treated, how I wanted to feel.” A few months later, she met a guy who’s giving her all the good things that she wanted. “It sounds crazy, but as soon as I believed I could have that kind of a relationship, I got it,” she says. “Who knew?” Why not try out the power of attitude adjustment and positive thinking for yourself? It will help you be happier when dating... and just may move you to couple-hood that much sooner.