I'm interested in dating and haven't had a gf yet. I see couples everywhere and I can't help but feel slightly jealous. I'm happy for them, don't get me wrong, but I feel jealous as well. Now, I've hit it off with women before, and things start off great, but I always find myself a full time resident of the friend zone, at which point I break everything off for my self respect.

Here's the problem. All that time in the friend zone has turned me cold. All my friends and family say that I'm colder now and less accomodating. I still yearn for that love only a SO can give, but every time I pass a woman, I end up ignoring her and moving on. Even in the rare circumstances where a woman approaches me, I end up keeping my distance and remaining icy because I don't want to give myself hope that we could have been something and then end up in the friend zone again.

Fuel to the fire, online videos about women don't help. There are too many cringy pickup artists who would literally lick a girl's shoes just to get her attention, and too many hardened men who say to keep women at spear-point, six feet away from you. These videos don't help. I'm no bootlicker, but I don't want to be an incel either.

Can someone help. I really don't know what to do. How to get out of the friend zone? Is it even possible? How to warm up to women? I'm pretty confident, and have no problem starting a conversation. I don't like being cold, and I don't want to become manipulative.