So I had a 1st date with a beautiful woman last night, honestly the most beautiful woman I've taken out so far, so that was a milestone in itself. I learned a lot about myself and where my weak points are with dating, so I'm proud of myself for that. We both had fun, like all of my dates, but also, like almost all 5 of my 1st dates (excluding hookups and 1 or 2), I don't think she'll want to go out again even though she texted back enthusiastically at night afterwards.

The first issue I ran into, is I noticed I talked about myself a little bit too much. I do this to try and break away from the interview feeling, I feel like I ask good questions and genuinely want to learn more about them but for some reason last night I kind of hit a wall. And normally can hold a conversation pretty well as that's part of my job but when it comes to a date for some reason it seems harder.

This leads me to my next point, for some reason I've been getting buzzed too easily lately, most people would say it helps them with dating but for me it makes everything harder I can't focus and my brain gets lazy, should I just do coffee dates from now on or is it acceptable to get a mocktail or non-alcoholic beer?

Now on to the biggest point, I can be dominant and masculine naturally, I'm normally a somewhat serious person with a good sense of humor. My issue is on dates or with women I'm into my voice for some reason gets a little higher pitched than natural, even though I keep it downward inflection naturally. I also have trouble being flirty/playful while still maintaining the masculinity, like the male to female interaction vibes. It's not that I get feminine but for some reason I get almost childlike, hard to describe but if you've been there you'll know. I know I need to get more comfortable just being myself, trick myself into not liking them as much, and just not try so hard I guess but it's a tough thing to reframe.

Overall, I'm glad I went on this date, she was literally like a damn supermodel so I know a lot of guys would have had some trouble, and it went better than I expected. I'm glad I was able to learn more about myself and what I need to fix about myself, this was probably the most productive date for that as well.

Disclaimer I've only been dating for about a month since my 7 year relationship ended, this was my fourth 1st date in about a week, one was a hookup, so I'm still pretty new. I've already gotten much better at texting for online dating and have plenty of matches I'm attracted to that I could take out, but I'm wondering if I should just work on myself, or keep taking women out since I'm learning fast on these dates even if I'm not getting the results I want.

If anyone has advice, comments, or just cares to share their own experience or relate feel free, I appreciate the interaction on here I know once I get these few roadblocks out of the way I'll start doing much better.