I should preface this first: I'm in a LDR, so I'm not looking for PU techniques. I've been reading Seddit for the self-improvement aspect of it -- gaining confidence, becoming a more interesting person, etc. Of course, a bit of shameless flirting here and there is always fun.

One of the areas I've never been good at in talking to people is eye contact. For whatever reason, I always feel like I'm too intense. Still, after reading about the importance of eye contact in every day situations, I decided to give it a try.

Here in Vietnam, things are pretty quiet right now. It's still in the midst of the Lunar New Year celebration, so most shops are closed. I've spent most of my day inside working, but was beginning to feel a bit bummed out with all the parties going on outside. I went to take a walk, maybe try to see if anything interesting was happening somewhere, and I saw that a little corner cafe I like to go to was open. I stopped in, and immediately noticed the waitress. She was really cute, but as I said, I'm in a relationship, so I wasn't going to try anything -- except eye contact.

When she came over, I slapped a confident smirk on my face, ensured I had good eye contact, and began talking to her about the different items on the menu. She could speak very good English, which is a surprise -- I'm in a small town that has very, very few English speakers. After a few moments, she blushed, turned away, and started giggling.

When she turned back to face me, I raised an eyebrow in question. She blushed again, then said, "I'm sorry, you're just really handsome."

The eye contact thing works. Whether it's to demonstrate yourself as a confident man or to build attraction, holding the right sort of eye contact can have an amazing effect on the conversation. I was in a good mood for the rest of the evening from that little ego boost, but also because it didn't feel awkward. Eye contact just felt natural.

Since starting to read here at Seddit, I've begun to take notes on myself. I've discovered weaknesses I'd missed before, but I've also found strengths I didn't know I had -- and ways to grow from those weaknesses.