Here's an exert from Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert that really hits home and explains me to a "T":

I have a history of making decisions very quickly about men.  I have always fallen in love fast without measuring risks.  I have a tendency not only to see the best in everyone, but to assume that everyone is emotionally capable of reaching his highest potential.  I have fallen in love more times than I care to count with the highest potential of a man, rather than with the man himself, and then I have hung on to the relationship for a long time (sometimes far too long) waiting for the man to ascend to his own greatness.  Many times in romance I have been a victim of my own optimism.    (pg. 285)