Hi guys,

I am struggling just to keep my head above water. I turn 31 in a week. It's been eleven months with TRP and I feel like the process is slower than wading through molasses with old-school prison ball-chains on each ankle.

I'm grasping for straws. I don't even know how to share this post and I'm sorry if it's a mess. If you read through, you're a saint.

A little context on who I am and what I've done with TRP in the last eleven months:

I've read the sidebar, I lift 1.5 hours/day, 6 days a week. I've tried to build a lifestyle that I'd like to believe is attractive (I play guitar/sing/tell stories at open mics three nights a week; I hike and snowboard, etc).

I'm making 41K/year, living in a one-bedroom apartment while saving up for a condo, and I don't think this can change until I finish saving up. I paid off my college loans and credit card debt since finding the TRP. I've published an audiobook on audible.com.

Most of all, in the last year I've struggled-- REALLY struggled-- to get "abundance with women" handled.

Again, some context on what I'm working with: I'm 5'7, bald (shaved head) with a full, well-maintained beard, now somewhere between fit and muscular (180 lbs with 17% bf-- I can flex and see abs). I dress cool, wear one pair of shoes that raises my height to 5'9 (and another pair that gets me to 5'11). I use the best body language I know how, speak in my lowest voice register, make good eye contact, exercise kino, etc. I try to implement everything I've learned from The Rational Male, to Chateau, to select old school dating advice (David D., RSD, etc).

I try to open women at every Open Mic that I go to. While I've had some good conversations, I've never been able to get a number. I've had my friend take pictures of me with her $400 camera and I have a lot of apps (Tinder, Bumble, OKCupid, Plenty of Fish). I've had frustrating results-- especially since January. Most frustrating of all are the nurses I've talked to and dated on these apps. One interaction escalated really quickly to txts, which led to some pretty explicit sexts, to her arranging to hang out that week, to a typical girl-flake. The other nurse was 3 weeks ago. I kept things a little cooler, still ended up txting/sexting a little bit, went on a date, she whispered that she was extremely attracted to me, couldn't keep her hands off of me, kissed me, and later that night she sent me a text asking to come to my apartment and "play" the next day. She ended up as a flake as well! Since then I've been mining hard and have struggled to get so much as a number close.

These are the kind of experiences that make me think abundance is impossible with women. There is only one woman in my life who is attracted/ends up chasing me to the degree I think is needed to "spin plates".....she is my ex-gf, my ONLY current fwb, an HB8 and ironically the most attractive woman I've ever been with. There are girls as much as 2 SMV levels below her who don't give me the time of day.

I don't understand. If one HB8 is willing to booze me up, buy me things and bring food to my apartment just for a ride on my baloney pony, why can't I pull an average HB6 anywhere else?

I don't want to go MGTOW and I want to stay unemotional through all of this, but I just feel so beat down and defeated.

I am not getting the kind of responses from women that I got, even 3-4 years ago, before I discovered TRP. Back then, it was possible for me to date 2-3 girls at a time (though I REALLY struggled to keep my "plates" up in the air). Is dating just getting harder, and will it continue to be this way?

Is spinning plates even possible/sustainable for me, or most men in general? Is settling for monogamy the only suitable strategy, even though it feels like surrendered frame? Should I just give up/readjust my expectations? Is there something about the economics of dating that I'm missing? Do I just need to lift harder, bro?

If anyone has a beacon in this dark spot I'm in, it'd be greatly appreciated.

I apologize in advance for the frustrated tone of this post. I'm not trying to sound like I'm feeling sorry for myself. Reserve judgement if you can, and post if you've got a lifeline for me.

Thanks in advance, -HumbleRedPillStudent