If you couldn't find "The One," would you consider dating one of your best friends?
That's what Jessica Walsh and Tim Goodman, both designers based in New York, did. The duo, who have been friends for four years, decided to embark on a relationship "experiment" after finding themselves single at the same time. They settled on a 40-day timeline, and agreed on six rules: seeing each other every day, going on three dates a week, completing a daily questionnaire, visiting a couples' therapist every week, going on a weekend trip together and abstaining from dating, kissing or having sex with anyone else.
It’s been said that it takes 40 days to change a bad habit. In an attempt to explore and hopefully overcome their fears and inadequacies, Tim and Jessica will go through the motions of a relationship for the next 40 days: the commitment, time, companionship, joys and frustrations. Can they help each other, or will they fall into their same habits? Will they damage their friendship? What if they fall in love?
Walsh and Goodman have very different approaches to relationships -- she tends to "jump right in," whereas he is more wary of commitment.
"In an attempt to explore our habits and fears in relationships, we decided that 'dating' each other for 40 days could be a way to explore this," they told the New York Daily News. "Having the boundaries of a project allowed us to take on that challenge."
The experiment started in March 2013, and the pair began uploading their daily questionnaires to the project's website on July 10th. They will release one new entry a day -- the most recent entry is marked "Day 16." After an argument on the fifteenth day that seemed like the end of the project, Timothy's friend is finding the the tension of the experiment so stressful that he says it's making him go bald. Curious readers will have to keep checking back to see what happens next.
"We have no idea if [the project] will inspire other people, but we would highly recommend it," the duo said in an email to the Huffington Post. "The experiment and the self-examination was very insightful. We went into the project thinking we'd just learn about love and relationships, but came out learning an incredible amount about ourselves, and have both made positive changes in our lives. It's important that we all find some time to work or reflect on our habits and fears."
Click over to the 40 Days Of Dating site to read more about the experiment and see how it all pans out come August 18th.