Yes, I do know the first rule of fight club!

I'm 37 Years old, and most of my friends my same age are all married with kids and such, and I'm the only single guy in my group. Therefore; lately I've been hanging out with another group of friends that are much younger than I am, and seeing some of the stuff they do makes me cringe sometimes, specially in the women category.

I took a Surf trip to Panama over Thanksgiving, and when I came back I got together with my younger group of friends for a night out in the bar... just beers with the boys. They were all asking me about the trip, and I was telling them the life lessons that I had learned from going away to another country by myself.

1) setting goals and keeping them 2) setting a plan to achieve those goals 3) the only person that could make ME happy was ME! 4) be specific with what I wanted, when do I wanted it and with who I wanted it (in my case, the trip was alone) 5) not giving a FUCK about what people thought about me, my older friends were giving me a ton of shit (playfully) because I came up with this trip out of nowehere, and they were roasting me about having a mid life crisis, blah blah blah - it was fun and games, but I didn't give a shit, I wanted to go surfing, so I just packed up and went. And in fact, most if the guys that were roasting me, actually showed some amazement when I came back.

So, needless to say, I got into a "personal development" conversation with my younger friends and all of a sudden, it got contagious.

In the conversation, we made a pact... all of us were going to chase our dreams for 2018, and we were going to meet, same time, same place next year to touch base on our projects and if we completed it or not.

I started, so my goal was to make another surf trip, this time I want to go to Nicaragua for another surf camp.

I was able to encourage Mario to plan a trip to France, without his 22 y/o wife, just because that's been his dream since forever, and just because "he wants to" - we set up a specific plan, I told him to talk to his wife and TELL her that's what he's going to do, and plan how the hell he's going to get the money to travel. We are soccer referees, so I told him I could hook him up with a few extra games during the season so he can save money for his trip. He agreed, and went home and talked to his wife... surprisingly for him, she was excited to hear Mario talk about it and fully supported him. Now, Mario has a goal for 2018!

My friend Raul was bitching because he wanted to be in better shape - so, that was an easy one for me to encourage him. We set up a fitness plan, and today (Monday) Raul started working out at the UFC gym close to his house. He has a commitment to the group, he has to be in the 14% to 15% body fat range, and gain muscle by this time next year (he's a little chubby, so it's a huge step for him)

My buddy Luis(the older of the 3), is a fabulous break dancer, the dude is in great physical shape, got divorced a few months ago, and he's been struggling in the women dept. Luis is your stereotypical "Nice guy" with women, and I told him I was going to help him troubleshoot his nice guy syndrome, because I was that guy a few months ago when I broke up with my most recent LTR. To which he agreed, and he started reading NMMNG yesterday.

So, I kinda became the grandfather of these guys while in a bar conversation... and the funniest thing happened. The bartender, a HB7 who I had been teasing and bantering for a while, picked up on what I was doing with my younger friends, and slipped her phone number with my bar tab... I went out with her for Sunday Funday drinks last night, it was fucking great, I had a blast with her, I K-closed and left it at that, it was late and I had to be at work today. I didn't ask for a second date, but it's OK, I'm spinning a couple of other plates and will contact her in a couple of days to see what's up. I'm sure she'll be up for a second round :-)

So now, to my question - do you find that after swallowing the red pill, other BP guys start noticing? do you take the time to help them if they ask? I don't want to give unwanted advice either, but in this case it turned out great. I never told them about this sub, but I did notice the wheels turning in their brains, and the "this guy is onto something here" attitude towards me.

Figured I'd share....this is new to me, and quite frankly, kinda feels good to influence others too.