I'm an awesome catch who'd be better off alone than just settling for some guy who hopes my expectations will be low.

It can definitely remove alot of tension; some rely on these(expectations) to motivate themselves yet the point is flexibility to bond enough to GROW ( mutually) in the relationships.
Thanks for the post..

It depends what areas of expectations you are talking about. I don't have high or medium expectations, for example, on how many of my interests they share, as long as they share some of them. I don't expect them to have above average health, since mine isn't either. Same with looks. I don't expect them to have a successful, high status career, either now or before they retired, since I didn't have one. And at my age and being retired, that stuff shouldn't matter at all, (but sure as hell seems to when I encounter educated career professional women on dating sites!) as long as they are well-educated, either formally or by self, and they have enough money to be financially secure and afford the same kind of travel and entertainment as me. Beyond that, the "successful" career history is simply all about status-seeking and impressing others, nothing to do with how well two people would get along or grow a relationship, and much more to do with how important it is to fit into the woman's circle of friends and family in a way that gets their approval and support for the relationship. Too bad so many women seem to still really need and seek that at my age.

I still have high expectations for what kind of heart, personality, mental health, and relationship skills the woman has, as those things are really crucial to having a good, lasting relationship, no matter who it is, and I will not settle on those things if there is any way to avoid it and still find a partner. I already went thru several hard years of doing all the emotional work while my wife had dementia, so why would I want to choose someone who I knew already was really lacking in one or more of these areas and set myself up to have to struggle extra hard from the git go to make it work with them?

THere are great women out there but generally that's exactly the problem. Women don't have low expectations, they have high expectations. The man must be taller, make more money, have a bigger house, be good looking, have a better job..... while they can be short, less educated or not finished college, not have a good job, have fake long hair, fake eye lashes, eye brows, hide real age... but the man must be better and.... they are equal partners in rights. I have never understood this. Why men must be taller than women? Why not the same height at the least? Genetically we may be, but why a dating condition?

OKC has a question... "If your partner is content with a minimum wage job..." Among available options many women pick... "I won't be able to tolerate that." Why? He is a partner, right? Can you talk, work together to build a better life? Can it be a partnership?

Yup helps

I had set my expectations waaaaay too low with my last boyfriend. Wasn't surprised when he disappointed me, sad, but not surprised. My new strategy is simply not to date at all, or do just group dates with friends only, so no expectations. No disappointments!

Trouble is women have the same philosophy, so I don't get dated.

Keep your standards low.