I came into TRP out of a 3 year relationship that ended really badly. I was a complete beta towards the end. I won't go into details, but this was the third time an LTR has ended in the same fashion for me; I meet the woman being on top of my game (or so I think), keep it awesome for the first 2 years, then get complacent, boring, and stop doing be in the third.

Before this third one, I found the PUA scene, did that joke for a year or so with no real success. Some things helped, but any time I had success it wasn't from any lines, routines, or bullshit.. it was mainly due to just being a jackass at a party, usually drinking.

I knew I could not go back to just the PUA shit. Found TRP, started out. I am now 4 months in. I had already been lifting, but certainly not heavy or hard. My ligaments, joints, etc were all accustomed to lifting, so I increased the weight and started eating more. In four months, I've increased all of my lifts even more than when I started packing on the extra intensity and weight. Being 5'11", thin, and 145lbs, I still have a ways to go.

I have completely shut out porn, the news, and I'm trying my best to stop surfing the internet for stupid shit. It consumes time, time I could be sleeping, working out, or just resting. I've realized porn was a a factor contributor to my previous relationship ending. It would take me a super long time to climax, which I always thought was due to working out or just luck. Really, I was so desensitized anything I did with a girl wasn't enough really. I could only finish when the girl was doing down on me for a long time and was envisioning some ridiculous porn scene in my head. I was not in the moment.

I've also seen benefits from not masturbating outside the bedroom. Women at work are literally eying me up now. Probably from contributing my time to doing other things. I can now hold eye contact with everyone - I was never able to do this. I used to get really anxious and socially awkward - most of that is gone and I probably feel the same was normal people feel now in social situations. From middle school until just a few months ago, I was living life through this numb lens to the world.

I started taking a much more authoritative stance at work. Being a financial analyst, I'm naturally introverted and just stick to my work. I'm very productive, but get walked on. cmiovino, do this, cmiovino do that. He's productive, he can get it done. Other slackers don't get assigned extra work.

In addition, many account managers, clients, etc tended to take advantage of my docile nature. For me, I good taste of 'being an asshole' (in my head at least), actually took my completeness to a firm, middle ground of respect from my colleagues.

Second at work, I started going to happy hour and other social events. In the past I've been known as the quiet one. Although I'm still mostly stoic, I've really come out of my shell. At our last happy hour.. or shall I say hours, we went until 3am, ending up at a gay bar for the girls and the strip club for the guys. We all went to both places, just joked around, drank, and I ended up staying at a female co-worker's house (with her husband) with another girl who transferred to corporate. Nothing went down, but but we really got to vent, shoot the shit, and lay out what we thought of the department. This brought us closer together. I sobered up by then, but was completely able to engaged in conversation, say exactly what I thought, and didn't care what others thought (within reason).

At another happy hour, I had a very attractive co-worker literally hanging onto me with her boyfriend even there. We were engaged in some bantering conversation and I kept hearing things like "Wow, I didn't know you were so cool like this".. and "We're totally going do change this department around, we should hang out more". I didn't let this go to my head, don't shit where you eat. But it was very cool to see the progress.

I started approaching and talking to women on my lunch break. This process has gone from complete approach anxiety, into a lull of apathy for women all together. I've found that most women I talk to have boring lives. I used to put them up on a pedestal, but now, I'm actually having trouble even relating to them. All in the process, but I believe I'll get to a point where I accept them for what they are.

There are many failures and botched approaches, numbers, all that, throughout the learning process. I've become almost immune to rejection. They're rejecting my approach, not me. I've had limited success, but I did have one girl over who literally flung her panties across the room. I've never had a girl do this within 1-2 times of meeting up. Slow progress, but progress none-the-less. I've always waited a solid 2-3 months before getting into that zone. Not anymore.

Traveling. I've never been to the beach. Never had vacations as an only child. Grew up kinda poor. We had money, but only for the essentials and a little more. I've driven solo and sometimes with a friend or two to a bunch of state parks and other places I've wanted to see. This has helped get my out of my comfort zone and have shit to talk about with people. I've always kept putting off trips saying I was saving money, but in reality, I was just comfortable and scared. I have a beach trip planned for an event in Ocean City, MD in June. Plenty of others to random 2-3 hour a way places. Nearly a trip every other week. I'm also working on joining a rally team racing against Ken Block and Travis Pastrana in about a month or two. It's 4-5 hours away and with people I've never met. I don't care anymore what people think because I'm excellent at my hobby - cars. I've also picked up a video camera and started a Youtube Channel for the local car scene and traveling. 17k views in 2 months. Not bad, but not viral. It's something I enjoy doing and always have, just never wanted to put myself out there for fear of judgement. Fuck that.

The biggest thing I will state is swallow the pill is slow and is a PROCESS of learning. I initially thought, just like with the PUA garbage, I'd run a few lines, do a few lifts, not care, and bingo, have success. I was so wrong. I see myself only getting decent and really internalizing the views here in a year's time with a lot of blood, sweat, and tears soaked in. This really isn't for the faint of heart and anyone who's not naturally alpha knows what I'm talking about.

I urge any newbies to keep sticking to your guns even is success is few and far between. It will come if you keep going. Don't expect changes overnight.