So I'm in my first semester at college. Things are going okay... I've made several friends, but no solid groups of friends, and girls still avoid me like the plague. A couple of weeks ago I subscribed to r/seduction and I've been hooked ever since. What I like about it is that it's not all about sex, it's about boosting your confidence and level of comfort around people in general. So here's some things I've been working on in the meantime. NOTE: These are just about boosting my confidence around people; girls will come later.

  • Standing up straight – My parents have always told me to stand up straight when walking, but I've never listened. But recently I've been noticing my reflection in windows as I'm walking, or looking at myself in pictures and videos. It's pretty damn obvious that I'm constantly hunched over (in fact, as I was typing this, I realized that I was sitting hunched over at my computer chair). I'm 6 feet tall and girls apparently love tall guys, so I should take advantage of that and make myself look as tall as possible. Plus, there's this kid that works at my campus dining hall and he's always hunched over when he's walking, and...he just looks so depressed. I'd avoid him, too. The posture's pretty uncomfortable and I feel really weird when walking like it, but to be honest I'm sure it looks perfectly normal to other people.

One more thing: It's probably just in my head, but it seems like people notice me more when I stand up straight. Well, at least it did the first time I tried it out.

  • Making eye contact and holding it – I generally look down at the ground when I'm walking, and if I happen to make eye contact with a person, I immediately look away. Let me tell you when things changed. Last week I was pretty high and I was walking along in my friend's dorm when I made eye contact with a girl. I don't remember why I kept eye contact with her (like I said, I was high), but I did, and after 2-3 seconds SHE SMILED AT ME. HOLY SHIT. The next morning I started making eye contact with everyone I passed while walking. Things I noticed: 1) Guys immediately look away. In this way, I'm subconsciously exerting my dominance over that person. I don't really see how this is significant – maybe it'll subconsciously boost my confidence too, who knows – but it's pretty cool to think about; 2) Most girls keep the eye contact, perhaps waiting for me to smile. That's my problem – I can't force myself to smile on command. However, if a girl smiles at me first, I'll automatically smile back without even thinking about it. Maybe if I keep doing this I'll develop that ability to smile on command; 3) Most people are also looking at the ground. Either that or they're deliberately looking off in the distance so as to NOT meet peoples' eyes. That's my theory, anyway.

Another thing I noticed: that guy in the dining hall I mentioned? He always looks at the ground, and man, he looks so depressed.

  • Saying “hi” to random people – I'm not expecting myself to start a conversation with a random person. At this point, that's not gonna happen. But this article helped me realize that I don't have to be shy. I only agree with the author of that article to a certain extent, but I definitely see what he's saying. So if I manage to keep eye contact with a person in passing, I'll try to say “hello.” Not gonna lie, I've found this to be a lot harder than standing up straight and making eye contact.

  • Speaking louder – This one's a necessity for me, because I constantly mumble, and, to be honest, that's not very attractive to girls (or potential guy friends, for that matter). I find this hard because I have a natural low voice so when I speak louder, it sounds like I'm yelling/shouting, but everybody tells me it just sounds normal, so who knows.

I've found most of these tasks pretty difficult but I'm gonna work on them for a while and hopefully I'll gain some confidence in the process. Also, I'm not trying to get ahead of myself by writing this post, because I've only been working on these to little success after all; I just want to see what people on here think. Remember, guys, I'm just working on general confidence at this point. Sorry for that long ramble, and if you read all of this, thank you! :-)