Are you proud of your mistakes? Chances are good you’d rather forget them. Who wants to think about the four times you changed your college major, or the day you accidentally called your uptight boss “dude” in a meeting? Mistakes in your love life are probably a whole other can of cringe-worthy worms. But what if these missteps were really a good thing? Maybe you should embrace your romantic pratfalls and make a few more of them.

“Mistakes in relationships represent one of the best ways we can learn what we like and don’t like, and what others like and don’t like,” explains Maryanne Fisher, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Canada and coauthor of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Chemistry of Love. “They also help us push our boundaries. Mistakes represent fantastic opportunities for growth — but you have to have some time to see it that way.”

So, if comedy equals tragedy plus time…perhaps a successful love life equals mistakes plus time, too. With that in mind, go ahead and commit these five dating sins, knowing that wisdom can come of it:

• [spoiler=Go the distance]When you tell your friends she’s moving away but you’re staying together, there might be a few raised eyebrows. After all, conventional wisdom says long-distance relationships are hard to sustain. And, for the most part, the conventional wisdom is correct. When you’re in different time zones, it can be really tough — and expensive — to connect. Laura Stafford, Ph.D., a communication professor at the University of Kentucky-Lexington who studies long-distance courting, elaborates: “When it comes to figuring out compatibilities, [long-distance relationships] deserve a bad rap. A huge number of people who think they will live happily ever after break up when they become proximal to each other.”

  But long-distance love doesn’t have to be all bad. Stafford says that a major advantage to the LDR is that you can spend all of your time together like it’s a honeymoon. You tend to be on your best behavior when you get together, and when you’re not in the same city, you can focus completely on work and other obligations. Some people, in fact, prefer dating this way for this very reason. It can be a good fit for the ultra-independent soul, or for young people working to establish themselves in a demanding career. Stafford advises that if you want your LDR to last, you have to get past the honeymoon behavior and make an effort to stay current with your partner — not just on the big things, but on all the little things, too.[/spoiler]