Ask yourself why you are 25 years old and not had a boyfriend yet.

Has it been a dedication to a goal that has kept you from having a boyfriend, or something else that you are deliberately not considering?

In a case where you have been primarily focused on a goal, such as success in your studies or career, that isn’t enough to keep you from having a boyfriend when the time is right.

That’s good news.

After all, there is only so much studying and working you can do before the looming shadow of loneliness kicks in.

Once you have accomplished what you have been striving for in your studies and career, a void sets in.

A void that is no longer being filled by said goal.

At such a point, it’s natural that you make more of an effort to find a boyfriend, given that your life and purpose is no longer being hijacked by this goal.

As long as you have no hiccups about relationships in general, and you are open to navigating into the world of dating, it won’t take long before you meet a future boyfriend.

Being behind in this circumstance was merely about priorities.

Your priority was to reach and achieve whatever goal you had set.

That was more vital to you than having a boyfriend.

That’s alright.

Even though your friends were in relationships with boyfriends, that doesn’t mean that you had to be in one too.

They had their priorities, and you had yours.

That said, there is a much more worrisome reason why it’s possible you don’t have a boyfriend yet.

This is when it has nothing to do with priorities, and more to do with internal trauma.

In a case such as this, it isn’t that you are behind in not having a boyfriend due to more pressing goals, but that you are behind on purpose, out of anxiety and fear.

The internal trauma has given you a reason to stay away from romantic relationships.

At 25 years old, you have lived long enough that any form of intense childhood trauma has crystalized within you.

Did you see your parents being verbally and physically abusive towards each other growing up?

Did you grow up in a family where there was a lot of divorce?

It’s conceivable that the trauma in seeing so many failed relationships within your immediate and extended family growing up, has resulted in you developing an internalized defense system.

This creates a buffer zone in your mind, which compels you to avoid romantic relationships altogether in your own life, so that you never have to endure the same torturous ordeal in relationships as your family members have.

Many a time, this internalized defense system is not at the forefront of your consciousness, making you less aware of it.

This isn’t about being behind.

This is about a latent, yet, adverse reaction to being in a romantic relationship in general.

Now that you are 25 years of age, it’s feasible you are becoming more conscious of the fact that you have avoided relationships your entire life.

As you become more conscious of this, and harbor a newfound craving for a romantic relationship, it’s critical you work on freeing yourself of your internal trauma first.

Without doing that, you are bound to jeopardize any romantic relationship you venture into in the future.

Freeing yourself of internal trauma starts with you acknowledging that you aren’t your parents.

You aren’t any one of the people in your immediate or extended family that went through a horrific ordeal and separation from their lover or spouse.

You are your own person.

To this end, you accept that you are the one who has the power to cultivate healthy romantic relationships with prospective partners.

You are not condemned to be in failed relationships.

Once you acknowledge this, take your time navigating the world of dating.

Being 25 years old and never having had a boyfriend, it’s tempting to commit a common error in rushing right into finding a boyfriend, so as to quell that relationship discrepancy, and catch up with your peers.

Avoid doing that.

Take your time.

Build friendships with men first, so that you get a better understanding of who they are and how they think.

This has an added benefit in helping you learn to trust in the notion that there are good men in the world.

It is through this unforced and intentional process that you organically make a romantic connection with the right guy, and he eventually becomes your boyfriend.