After an evening of fruitless dating app swiping, have you ever wondered to yourself how other guys meet women?

In those moments, it can feel like a frustrating mystery. The good news is, meeting awesome women that share a lot in common with you is both surprisingly easy and fun.

Start From Common Interests

Meetup.com meetups, or any social event centered around a common interest, are THE best way to meet new people. You’ll be relaxed and enjoying yourself whether or not you meet someone who could be a potential partner. If you do meet someone you’re interested in, you’ll already have something in common!

Maybe you’re worried that Meetup.com isn’t big where you live. Or, maybe you went to Meetup.com and didn’t find any group that captured your interest.

Not to worry. There’s a simple approach you can take to seeking venues to meet new people.

What Do You Actually Enjoy?

When you start meeting new people in social spaces that you actually, genuinely like (regardless of whether a date results or not), you get a massive assist by taking the pressure off. You’re freed up to enjoy the event regardless of outcome.

Here’s how to implement this approach:

1. Make a list of 5-10 things you truly love doing
2. Of those things, highlight the ones that are inherently social or could be made social
3. Pick 3 interests, hobbies, or other activities that light you up from your highlighted options
4. Fire up your search engine of choice, and type in [ACTIVITY NAME] in [YOUR CITY]
5. Pick one event, register, and put it in your calendar
6. Go have fun!

If you meet someone interesting, ask for their phone number and set up a date. And if you don’t, you’re still about to meet a bunch of new people and have an epic experience. Win-win!

10 Ideas for Social Events & Meetups

Stuck for inspiration as to the kind of social events out there? Here’s a quick list of 10 different ideas. Do any of these sound enticing to you?

• University discussion groups or clubs
• Science meetups or presentations followed by drinks and snacks
• Sports clubs (running, swimming, ultimate frisbee, indoor hockey, dodge ball, CrossFit, etc.) that are open to more than one gender
• Book clubs
• Classes – cooking, dancing, writing, foreign language, photography, yoga, etc.
• IKEA Hide-And-Seek groups (these are real things)
• Zombie walks
• Hiking clubs
• BDSM munches, sex positive meetup groups
• Small town gatherings: bingo, pot lucks, club socials, library community days, store openings, etc.

All of these ideas for social events are in addition to classic locations like bars and clubs, which are only great if you actually like going to such places.

What else can you think of? What have you always wanted to try doing? What’s stopping you from going out and trying it now?