by April May Maple

Created on: August 17, 2010   Last Updated: August 18, 2010

When it comes to female professionals, it seems like they are living the good life. They have it all, the fancy job with good benefits, nice clothes, cars and homes. Their schedules are filled with conference calls, dinners with clients and business trips, while their Blackberry is constantly vibrating, demanding their time. The problem arises when trying to share such a life with someone else.

When you are constantly on the go, meeting anyone is a challenge, let alone Mr. Right. If you have down time, you don’t want to spend it at crowded bars filled with strangers, you want to relax. A lot of times friends set you up on blind dates. They turn out to be horrible and you spend the night thinking about all the work you could be getting done.

The increased availability in dating sites provides an outlet to meet men. However, those can be just as disastrous. You never know when people are being honest and the charming twenty something that you have been chatting up with turns out to be a 50 year old married man.

Once you do find someone you are compatible with and truly feel connected to, your relationship is going to have to survive several hurdles. He must be willing to work around your hectic life. He has to be acceptable of the fact that you may have to cancel dinner when an impromptu conference call comes in to hash out some last minute details of a contract or your phone goes off and you have to drop everything to email a file to your boss. It can be hard to have a relationship when one of the parties does not feel like a priority to the other.

It can be hard to find a person that is confident enough to trust you when you have to fly across the country for business. Even if a person has given their partner no reason to worry, a mind is likely to wander. All those what ifs just keep popping up. This is a double edged sword, because no one wants to come home from a trip with jet lag and a pile of work, only to be interrogated about every minute detail of their time away.

Another common issue that arises is an unequal level of success in partners. Sometimes between two business professionals, things naturally become a competition. This can cloud up an otherwise healthy relationship. If the woman in the relationship is more successful or has a greater income, it can have an emasculating effect. A man who wants to fill the roll of provider will have a hard time accepting a relationship where they feel less successful and unable to provide.

As a relationship progresses and becomes more serious, you and your partner may end up in many situations where you two must decide whether your relationship is really worth it. If you get offered an amazing promotion at your company’s newest office 300 miles away, will he be willing to drop everything to be with you?  Of course you could attempt a long distance relationship, but because of hectic schedules it would almost be impossible.

When talks of having a future together arise, you may not see eye to eye on important issues. Relationships can end if he wants a bunch of children and a stay at home mom and you want one or two kids later down the road and then to return to the fabulous career you have worked so hard for. There are many decisions like this that carry a heavy weight and can end a good relationship.

Sometimes a love life is a temporary sacrifice a career woman has to make in order to achieve the level of success they wish to achieve. It is important to try to find a partner that is understanding of your lifestyle, confident enough to trust you and has a similar plan for the future. Alas, it isn’t hopeless and eventually you will meet that person.

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