stop trying to be their type

The second that you try to edit yourself into something that you think the other person wants, that moment you lost the relationship. Laughing at things that you don't find funny. Getting very interested in a topic that never interested you before. Deeming parts of yourself because they would take it as too much.

You've already lost it. Even if it might work temporarily. Because let's say that it works, and let's say that you got into that relationship and you successfully performed the version of yourself that they really, really enjoy spending time with. Now what?

You have to maintain that version forever. And if you start breaking it, then there's a big chance they won't like you anymore. You have to remember constantly which options and thoughts are yours and which ones you borrowed from them. You have to keep track of the performance, and as the relationship grows, you will start forgetting, or you will be extremely exhausted.

And eventually you will slip, and slip, and slip. And they will know. You will say the real thing, and you will get the real reaction. And they will look at you as someone that they do not recognize.

And they don't because they don't know that version of you. They've been dating a character, not a real person. And chances are you've been also dating a character and not a real person. The right person for you will make shapeshifting, changing your personality, feel very pointless and useless because they already like the shape that you came in.