Every woman longs to be with that special someone. And many women hope for that special day when the man they love ask them to marry them. So how long should you wait for him to propose? How long to get engaged?

In this day and age some women are starting to take the initiative and pop the question themselves. But most women prefer to do it the traditional way, and wait and hope that their boyfriend will eventually move the relationship toward marriage.

Before getting engaged with someone, you should already know the person very well. Don’t fall for those romantic movies where people skip the engagement and just marry each other right away. Relationships in real life are much more complicated and they take time to nurture. If you don’t know your partner well enough then it’s not the right time to get engaged yet. Just like plants you need to nurture your relationship for it to grow.

Once you have gotten to know your partner, you will know if this is the person you want to spend your whole life with. If they aren’t, then break it off and look for the love of your life. Don’t waste your time or theirs. But if you really love him and he’s “the one” then marriage is the next logical step. After all, love doesn’t grow on trees, its unique and hard to find for most people.

But if you have been waiting for years for the love of your life to propose marriage, then you may need to figure out why he is not moving the relationship forward. You need to understand how to get him to WANT to move the relationship forward, before you get totally frustrated and do something that might make him pull away even further, or at worst, leave the relationship.

You’ve heard the horror stories about women who wait years for their man to propose, only for them to break it off and then marry the next woman they meet. It’s not that he loved her more then you, it’s most likely that she knew how to read his “traffic signals” and make him want to get married.

If you’re starting to feel that your man is stalling and you’ve been waiting a long, long time for him to be ready, then you may need some help in figuring out what is going on inside his heart. There are usually reasons why a man is stalling about marriage. And there are things you can do to get him to commit, in non-manipulating and non-threatening ways.

You just need to know how to read his “traffic signals”. What are those? It's the new term on the net that talks about the relationship stages a man is in. And there are only there. He's either green- and moving forward. Or he's yellow or red - he's stalling or on the verge of leaving.

There are lots of books and online ebooks that can help you figure out how to read your man's emotional state in your relationship and how to get him back in "green" mode. Find some that speak to you and start educating yourself about how to deal with men's non-commitment issues and you'll be doing yourself a huge favor.