Tracy McMillan
All of us, consciously or unconsciously, set out to have the best possible love life. Valentine's Day simply shines a light on the degree to which that didn't - or hasn't yet - materialized.Collection: Valentines
Women with low self-esteem love bad boys. Women who have work to do love bad boys. Women who love themselves love good men.Collection: Women
Because I was a television writer for many years, I write very conversationally. I put things straight, and with a lot of humor.Collection: Humor
Caring - about people, about things, about life - is an act of maturity.
I'm a blunt person, not mean-spirited. I come from a place of love, but I'm interested in being real.
When relationships don't work out, it doesn't mean you're a bad person, it just means you weren't meant to be together.
If I had an office job, I'd probably be doing the exact same thing I'm doing on television: hanging out by the water cooler and talking to co-workers about their relationships.
We have this false idea in our culture that if you haven't made it by 30, then you're never going to do anything interesting. My 40s have been the most incredible time of my life.
Women blame men for their own singlehood.
Work is a different type of pursuit than relationships. You can't take the skills that you know that have gotten you into that great school or into that great job and apply them to your relationships.
Relationships are like the world's most intense yoga! It's a daily practice.
I've been standing at water coolers for the past thirty years talking to women about their love lives, and here's what I've learned: Eventually, most women I know want to be partnered.
There is no such thing as 'getting' a guy, house and kids. There is only surrendering to them.
I feel that as long as you're honest, you have the opportunity to grow. It's when you shut down, go into denial, and try to start hiding things from yourself and others, that's when you lock in certain behaviors and attitudes that keep you stuck.
Though it's safe to say there are a whole lotta American gals who agree with the core ideals of feminism, they are somehow nevertheless watching 'Say Yes to the Dress' by the millions.
Rather than diminishing the idea of 'truly needing' a relationship - and trying to deny it, shame it, or talk ourselves out of it - why not just celebrate it? It's exactly what the world needs.
One of the beautiful things about men is that they're very in the moment. That's why they don't want to have an argument about what happened six months ago.
Being all about me is not a good thing - I don't care what 1978 tried to say - because as long as you mostly think about yourself, you're not going to be a wonderful person. You're just not.
If you're not married, chances are you think a lot about you.
I talk to women for a living. It's pretty much what I do with my day.
The deal is: most men just want to marry someone who is nice to them.
For every year past the age of 27, you need to take another step toward commitment somewhere in your life. Instead of freelancing, you get a staff job. Instead of renting, you buy. Fine, instead of couch-surfing, you rent.
Yes, I have 'failed' at marriage - a lot.
I'm the straight-talking woman in your life who is going to be really honest with you, but come from a place of love. I'm not talking down to you; I do this from my heart.
Somehow, married or single, we'd rather anesthetize ourselves with love substitutes than go for the real thing, because let's face it: The real thing is pretty scary.
I think every woman has this point in her life where she's like, 'I have a great job, great outfits and great friends, but something's missing.'
Without really trying to, I've become a sort of jailhouse lawyer of relationships - someone who's had to do so much work on her own case that I can now help you with yours.
Here's the thing: you're not really ready for love until you have enough self-respect that if you met your exact self, but in a guy, you would totally, completely, absolutely want to be with him.
Lots of people feel more alive when they're riding a roller-coaster relationship. But while this might be fun for a while, it can't possibly last.
People who find that they have a lot of drama in their relationships need to allow themselves to get 'bored'. At first, it will feel excruciating, and they may find themselves confronting a very real fear underneath all that drama: being truly close and therefore vulnerable to another human being.
Sometime between when the Summer of Love ended and the Summer of Sam began, America became a nation of cynics about love.
The thing is, relationships never work out... until they do. You learn a lot from relationships that don't work out.
A sure-fire way to know you're crazy is if more than one person has told you you'd be great on a reality show - and you agree with them.
I think of masculine and feminine energy like two sides to a battery. There's a plus side and a minus side, and in order to make something turn on, you need to have opposites touching. It's the same in relationships.
Putting my words piece online was an important part of my plan to help women learn how to love themselves and have a better life.
You can't trick The Universe - it's like Santa Claus that way.
Is our desire for partnership just an evolutionary remainder, a Togetherness Delusion, where millions of women only think they need a relationship to be truly happy? Maybe. But you know what? That's fine with me.
I was, for some reason, born knowing how to get married.
Ask anyone who has been in a love relationship for a while: nothing is perfect.
Being in a relationship is a hard, painful slog at least once a week, maybe more often - especially if you have a lot of defenses to let down, or if your parents didn't know how to love you very well.
When you ask for patience, what you get is a line at the bank. In other words, life gives you the people, places, and situations that are going to allow you to once and for all develop what it is you need.Collection: Life
Loving myself exactly where I am is the only way to get where I'm goingCollection: Way
People act on the outside the way they feel on the inside.Collection: People
Here's the thing, you're not really ready for love until you have enough self-respect that if you met your exact self but in a guy you would totally, completely, absolutely want to be with him.Collection: Self
I think of 'crazy' as what happens when we love the other person more than we love ourselves.Collection: Crazy
I think of masculine and feminine energy like two sides to a battery. Theres a plus side and a minus side, and in order to make something turn on, you need to have opposites touching. Its the same in relationships.Collection: Thinking
Lots of people feel more alive when theyre riding a roller-coaster relationship. But while this might be fun for a while, it cant possibly last.Collection: Fun