Summary: maintained frame against drunk neanderthal and avoided physical escalation.

Body To me, TRP has a lot to do with self-betterment. For months now, I have focused on building a self-assured aura. I don't need to be the loudest, biggest, or flashiest guy in the room. I've worked instead to cultivate a quiet but compelling presence. Last night, this facet of my personality was put to the test.

I went out to a club with a friend last night. We ended up on the dance floor looking around. As we're talking to a pair of girls, this hulk of a man tries pushing through us. I've been training in combat arts for a few months, so I instinctively parried Meathead's hulking mass at a 90 degree angle away from us with my forearm.

This required little physical exertion on my part and I barely broke eye contact with the HB8 I was talking to (probably looked cool doing it, but not the point). And it effectively threw Meathead off his path so that I could see him fighting to regain balance out the corner of my eye.

Now here's where things got challenging. Meathead immediately turned around and pushed his face directly into mine. I could literally feel the air from his bellowing nostrils on my face. He then did the exact things I've grown to associate with fragile men with fragile egos. He puffed his chest out, stood up extra straight so he could be an inch taller, and started shouting in my face like a fucking WWE star before a fight.

"You just push me bro?! You wanna fuck with me?! I'll fuck you up! You don't know who I am! You don't know what I'll do! You don't know who I am!"

A year ago, this would have resulted in one of two reactions from me. I would either have started swinging fists or apologized profusely and walked away with my tail between my legs. But the words "maintain frame" flashed in my brain, and I did the following instead:

I side-stepped slightly so he was left yelling at the pillar behind me. Then I leaned into his ear and very calmly spoke "You don't know who I am either. I have no intention of fighting you. I'm talking to people here. Go away."

I pulled my head away and stared him down for a few seconds. I wasn't sure how he would react, so on the inside I was sizing him up, noting how he held himself, which fist he'd throw first, how I could take him down quickly if he attacked. After about five seconds of just glaring at me, with me calmly looking back, arms relaxed, leaning casually to the side, he turned around and walked away. He actually climbed the stairs and went to a different level of the bar.

tl;dr: Drunk meathead got in my face. Instead of backing down or fighting him, I made him leave simply by being assertive.