• Play it cool. The first months after the end of a relationship is spent deconstructing, overanalyzing and explaining to every one you ever met what went wrong. Instead of jumping straight to the trash talk about how he/she wasn’t good to you, try keeping mum on the subject. This doesn’t mean you need to praise him/her or avoid the topic altogether, but talking it to death will bore your friends and scare new potential partners.
• Take some responsibility. We tend to either blame the breakup on ourselves or entirely on him, and neither really gets us anywhere. There’s a big different between wanting someone and needing someone, and if it’s the latter (which is often the case) taking some credit for the breakup will help you realize why the breakup was for the best.
• Don’t play the victim.  Don’t get me wrong, the sympathy is nice when we feel lost and lonely, but it only makes us that much more vulnerable. Be strong and positive. Easier said than done of course, but the stronger-willed we are, the less likely we are to make bad decisions and be taken advantage of by the hard-to-resist rebound.
• Work on you. One of the worst mistakes we make after a bad breakup is letting ourselves go physically, mentally, emotionally—or all the above. We tend to break down and spend too much time in our sweatpants wallowing. And wallowing is good—even needed—for a certain period of time. But after the initial breakup shock has worn off, we need to get off the couch and take care of ourselves.
• Refocus your life. This step is the hardest because it forces us to admit the relationship is completely over. Sit down and make a new list of priorities—sans ex—and figure out what is important to you. Give precedence to your family, friends, career and yourself. Find ways to fill that time left void by him/her and try new things. Push for that promotion, reconnect with old friends and take a mini-vacation with your family or friends.

(Source: yourtango.com)