I am who I am with or without you. It is your choice to be or not be in my life, and I have the same choice to either be or not be dealing with you. With or without you is my philosophy on all relationships. It is a practice.
Logically speaking, relationships can only last as long as they are beneficial to both partners. When one no longer benefits, or if there are better opportunities elsewhere, they have every right to go. None of us can stop their growth or destroy their desire for what is better for them.
Years ago in my job I chose to be a contractor rather than a full-time employee because it allowed me much more flexibility, The freedom I got was better suited to my personality. I don’t have a boss, there is no one to micromanage me, no one tells me what to do nor how to do it. Instead, I do my best, and if my skills meet the project requirements, I am on the job, and when other skills are needed, I am not. Nobody whines to me that I need more technical skills, because my skills are financial, a totally different skill set. You can hire me for any sort of financial institution: lending, credit cards, investment, forecasting, analysis, but you cannot expect me to manage your computer network- I never signed up for that, and it is not me.
I am a contractor in all my relationships as well. I am a happy person who is very self-satisfied, regardless of who my friends are and what they expect of me. It is not my job to meet their expectations, it is only to give them what I have as long as they have a friendship that is of value to me too.
Isn’t it silly that we expect people to be what we need them to be, instead of finding people we actually need? In romantic relationships especially, women tend to find a man who is willing to engage with them for a while, and then they proceed to negotiate his behavior. I need you to… I want you to… I expect…
We all have multiple friends, and each friend has different needs, personalities and interests. A year ago when a friend asked me to go golfing with her, I said no thanks because I don’t like golfing. What did she do? What any intelligent woman would do. She went golfing anyway, without me, and as she started golfing, she met a wonderful group of ladies who also love to golf. She never accused me of not being a good friend, of not meeting her needs, nor did she hold any resentment because I didn’t want what she wants.
I love art and culture. But I have always had trouble inspiring my closest friends to visit museums, see exhibits and explore the region for hidden gems. Then I found Jane, who has multiple museum memberships, loves history, books and I have a car so I am willing to drive out into the country looking for new places to see. It’s a match made in heaven. Do I whine to my other friends, “You never take me to a museum!” No, I am perfectly capable of going to one with or without them. It’s not their job to be interested in art, just like it is not my job to go golfing when I have the attention span of a gnat.
In our friendship circle we are all independent contractors. We are happy with each other, and we are happy without. We all have different friends who fit different interests and meet different needs. Does it make sense to be angry or disappointed when one friend doesn’t feel like traveling to Timbuktu with me? I am going to go with or without them, and I will be satisfied with the experience anyway.
So why do we expect romantic relationships to be more than that? Why do we insist that this person we just met, show us signs of conformity and eagerness to be and do what we like, and develop skills that will fulfill our needs. Surely, he will evolve to eventually be more fulfilling, and we will grow in the same direction to always be enough to each other for the rest of our lives. Surely if he loves me, he will want to do that, right? And then we embark on measuring his performance, marking the calendar for relationship milestones and taking it to the next level. And finally when we think we have progressed enough, women are ready for the ring, while he is ready to bail out. Why?
This strategy of building people and relationships to eventually conform to our expectations is wrong. It worked for our parents but they are a different generation, had drastically different needs than we do, and they had no choice to be all there is to be for each other because growing with other men or women, or exploring with other members of the opposite sex was unthinkable!
So today, single, accomplished women have money, independence, freedom, and the ability to make all their own dreams come true. We get into situations with a guy who just wants to hang out, but we want to explore Timbuktu. So some of us give up that dream of exploring in order to have him, or we push him to be more adventuresome, and when he can’t pay to go to Timbuktu, we buy him a ticket because we want him to go with us. We need him there so we can feel like a couple. What would have happened if my friend who wanted to learn golfing, just signed me up for lessons and bought me a membership, then just drove me to the golf course? Do you think I would have enjoyed it? I have the same chance in enjoying golf as your disinterested BF has in enjoying Timbuktu. You’re pushing the relationship forward, and you are buying his participation, and then all that can happen is he will feign enjoyment or go along with it until his own needs are met. But will you have an enthusiastic partner with whom you’re truly compatible with? No, you will have a temporary participant who will bow out of this relationship as soon as your needs outweigh his own.
So what to do? The world has changed. We no longer see wives as full-time employees whose job of raising children and managing a household. That job used to be clearly defined and came with quantifiable benefits such as a house, assets, health insurance and a retirement plan. Today none of us want to be fully employed in a household, while being full time employees of a corporation as well. Yet we are managing our romantic relationships the way our parents did, then complaining that we are not happy. My mother did not have a right to be happy. She didn’t think so, my father didn’t think so, and she never tried to be. She had a job to do, she did it for 45 years, and never complained about it. And when he died, she got a nice benefits package. Can I do that? Oh hell no!
I think that modern day relationship are more of a contractor position rather than full-time employment. My personal goal in life is to always be thrilled, to fill my life with beautiful experiences, to always be learning, exploring, expanding, and to surround myself with people who have a similar plan. It makes no difference to me if they are here for a minute, a month or a few years. We can only be together as long as we both enjoy each other’s company and as long as we are both satisfied. Rather than think of relationships like these as inadequate “Oh but I still don’t have a marriage contract”, why not think of them as ideal? Both of us are open to independent growth, and we stay together as long as we are both satisfied. I don’t have to try to fit your unreasonable needs, nor do you have to conform to my unreasonable expectations. I can go to Timbuktu with or without you regardless of relationship status, and I will continue to thrive whether you’re in my life or not.
I’m sure many of you have a problem with this scenario. But, in our current environment how could any other scenario work? Most women I know are not willing to play house with a man who cannot afford to provide a house. I don’t blame them. Housewives do 100% of childcare, 100% of the house work, 100% of the emotional work, and today’s men are asking us to have jobs to help pay 50% of total household expenses. Which one of you would like that scenario? I get to do all the labor, I get to have a full time job, and I have to pay 50% for the privilege to do extra work, while he gets a 50% discount for participation? I understand why that doesn’t work today and why women are dropping out of marriage.
A lot of women are quietly supporting a husband 100%. We have discussed this many times in our private group about how many women we know are supporting a husband who does not work at all, and still submitting to his masculinity. I’m sorry, but if I am paying close to a 100% or even 55%, then I am the provider! Why would a successful capable woman submit to a man who does not provide for her, and cannot lead her?
We are trying to be happy, and we are trying to get into traditional relationships even though power has completely shifted. Men are no longer powerful, they are dependent on us now, yet we are doing our best to treat them as providers and leaders that they cannot be. And this ambition to make them into traditional husbands is not working because they cannot do and they refuse to be like our dads. They don’t want to work to support an entire family financially, it is too much of a burden to carry.
I think we are deluding ourselves expecting that men be what our fathers were, and trying to get them to be all that we need them to be. Today we want a more enlightened, self-aware, totally secure man. We want just one man because I understand, we all hate dating. We want him to never cheat, father beautiful children, and some women are willing to pay 50% of his expenses to help him be that. But most of all, we all want to be happy, fulfilled, continue to grow and enjoy beautiful life experiences. How? How can anyone do all that?
Wouldn’t it make more sense to treat men like independent contractors? If we did that, we wouldn’t have to pay them anything, we wouldn’t have to provide, and we would not have to deal with cheating, violence, their mental health issues -there would be no pressure on them to be anything at all. They can simply participate in what is needed at the time. More self-developed women would have fewer needs they could satisfy. And women with greater needs would benefit from men who are willing to do more to be with a woman.
In a way we are all already independent contractors. None of us need everything, and none of us want to serve every male need. We are all capable of creating worlds that we enjoy, instead of conforming to meeting one man’s expectations for the rest of our lives. We already have so much more than our mothers had, and we are getting it because the marriage institution is failing or because the marriage institution no longer meets our needs. And that’s a good thing. If the institution worked, we would all be pushing vacuum cleaners and fixing dinner for somebody. I have the luxury of not vacuuming more than once a month, my bathroom is always spotless, and my fridge only has a bottle of bubbly in it.
We all have the luxury to live on our own terms today, and it is all okay. Some women have a cozy hut with a few furry cats, others have awesome girlfriends, some have global adventures, some have high-powered careers. Do you realize what we have?
We actually have more than our fathers had. It recently dawned on me that I outpaced my father, whom I always thought of having this great career, a globe-trotting lifestyle, prestige and freedom to do whatever he wants. Only we women complain about it. We are raised to think that all that is nothing because we have not figured out how to keep one man happy for the rest of his life. We just have to wake up and see that we have more than our fathers had, and more than our married parents had. But we are not enjoying it because we are told that all that is worthless, but a household with a man is the ideal.
I had that, I divorced that, and I see now that I have so much more than I had than when I was married to a Chief Financial Officer of a big financial institution. Back then I spent most of my married life making sure he is happy, he is fed, he has everything he needs. I had a full time job, but I had to keep cutting my position, my title and my salary each year so he can take bigger jobs. I was shrinking while he was expanding. And yes, this is called marriage. Holy sh*t how far I have come! And not just since my divorce, I have grown after each relationship ended, and after each man I grew more independent to the point where there is very little anyone could do for me. And am I happy? Yes I am ecstatically happy, I see what I have. I am happy no matter who is in my life. I am grateful for everything. I am happy to let people be whoever they are, and I enjoy them as much or as little as needed. Life is a buffet. My friends are delicious deserts and candies that I get to enjoy as much or as little as I want.
In 2013 when I started this page and my blog, I was writing about how much I enjoy my singleness and all I have learned from it. But back then I was looking at it as a temporary place of freedom, that I expect to some day give up when I met the right man. Over the next decade, I dated a lot of men who expected me to give up this, give up that, and all our conversations were about what I plan to give up once I become a wife. Surely, you can’t expect to travel the world once you settle down and find a husband? And I would say exactly what other women say, for the right man, and for the right situations, I might give that up, thinking that I’d have a husband who also loves to travel.
Today, I still love being single, but I love it because it is the most uncompromising place to be. I actually have no plans to give anything up. I plan to keep all that I have built, thrive in it, and not share it at all. I don’t have to give up anything because being with someone is a downgrade. No only is having a husband and all those duties a trap, but even having a boyfriend has always been a downgrade, a slow-down, a compromise of me but no compromise of him.
Today I see all people as independent contractors. We are all free to grow as much as we want with no obligations. And the further I go, and the more I get, the less I need from anyone else. And yes my life is full, my cup is overflowing. And why do I have to share? “Oh, you’ll want to share once you meet the man that you love!” or maybe not. Maybe I’ll love him and let him have his own career and his own home and I’ll keep what I have anyway.
If there is one thing I have learned from being single and dating is how to be happy, grateful and in a state of permanent peace no matter what and no matter who is in my life. That balance has taught me that my inner peace is of utmost importance. I am a master of letting people go, cutting of what’s toxic, for me moving on is a spiritual experience!
If I have friends who are independent, content and know how to meet their own emotional, intellectual, and social needs, why do I have to reduce my life to sharing a household and meeting somebody else’s needs? I don’t need that, and a growing number of women no longer want that. Happiness is whatever I make it to be, it has nothing to do with what other people offer, and it absolutely cannot be taken away when somebody chooses to leave my life. I cannot be threatened that way.
And most of us single people already have all this. Some of us just don’t appreciate it. The advantage of being single is having the time to learn who we are, how to meet our own needs, how to grow into more balance, inner peace. Who in their right mind would give that up? It is what both our parents dreamed of but never had the luxury to pursue because both our mothers and some of our fathers had duties to live for and provide for the entire family. I don’t want that.
I know with 100% certainty that I cannot meet anyone’s expectations of me. I will never try, and I will never be satisfied trying. I have a solid circle of wonderful friends, and I love how all the women have their own unique pursuits, interests and everyone is growing in their own direction. This way I can learn even more from their vast array of experiences. And as for dating, I have reduced it to a minuscule part of my life because that is my current level of interest. I already wrote about how I date now (only on my own terms) so there is no need to write about it here.
So what do I want now? I would like to expand my business to a second country, buy a cute cottage, finish those flying lessons. I’d like to get back to my board work because I took a break from my non-profit work and I truly enjoyed it. While wonderful things always fall into my lap, I would like to become a more active participant in my life. I want more vivid color in my already satisfying life. I don’t want to slow down on my travels so I have to temporarily forgo my cat collection, but eventually I’ll fill my fairy tale cottage with fur balls and wildlife. I want to give more to my wonderful friends and figure out if there are other alternatives to the travel adventures I already have.
What we all want is already right under own own nose. We just forget to appreciate the fact that we have the freedoms our mothers would have died for.

