Dating in the modern world can feel like a full-time job with no HR department, but it doesn’t have to. Whether you're freshly single, feeling lost in the sea of dating apps, or simply wondering how to flirt without blacking out from anxiety, this guide is your quick-hit playbook for dating with confidence and clarity.

Dating doesn't have to be nerve-wracking, but it does require preparation. You must do some up-front soul searching to make sure you're ready to be honest, open, and attentive. You need a strong sense of your dating expectations so you can clearly communicate what you're looking for without setting the bar so high that no one can clear it.

Love. Amour. Amore. In popular fiction, the signs of true love tend toward the melodramatic: heart palpitations, loss of sleep, loss of appetite, blowing curtains, fireworks. If you feel these things, however, you're not so much in love as in lust. So lust aside, here's a sampling of the undeniable signs of true love — and good (emotional) health.

You may have experienced one or two (or ten) dating disasters, when you wished you could have crawled under the table to hide for the next decade or so. Well, you can breathe a huge sigh of relief as soon as you master the perfect remedy for the following dating disasters.The first rule: No matter what the problem, fess up immediately.

Sex and relationships expert Dr. Ruth has some solid opinions on how swiping within dating apps comes into play — or should we say, foreplay?

Meeting that special someone often happens by accident, but can increase the odds of meeting someone you like by frequenting the right kinds of places. A place you enjoy, where you feel comfortable and safe, solves the problem of what to talk about. Here are eight good places to meet people. The halls of academia: Find something you’ve always wanted to learn about and take a course.

If you subscribe to a mainstream online dating site, the site won't ask you overtly sexual questions for your profile, but that doesn't mean you won't have ample opportunity to lace sexual innuendo into your answers. We aren't just talking about essay questions, like "What do you think is sexy?" or "Define sexy," but multiple-choice questions with available answers that run the gamut from sexually neutral to unmistakably sexually provocative.

Dating can be scary and fun and challenging, but you want it to be that way for all the right reasons — not because you haven't taken reasonable precautions about your own safety. Just as you look both ways before you cross the street, you should be wise enough to look both ways before you venture forth on a date.