I have very little problem getting dates from the dating apps these days, or even cold approach / daygame although during summer of COVID I haven't done as much daygame but in my "career" i've done hundreds of daygame approaches. I've also done hundreds of nightclub approaches as well. So I'm putting forth the effort to meet and approach and get opportunities in the batters box. I've studied hundreds of hours of seduction material - mystery method, david deangelo, Julien Blanc, Todd V, etc. etc.

That said, I almost never go on second dates. I would estimate less than 10% of the time i go on a first date is the girl interested in meeting up again. Girls are excited to meet me when we chat online, pretty easy to schedule dates with for the most part, but upon meeting me whatever I am doing is completely killing the attraction.

I've tried eliminating the following bad habits:

  • Talking about myself too much
  • Talking too much in general - i try to get the girl to do the talking 80% of the time
  • Asking dry/logical questions rather than ones that drill into motivation/emotion/etc.
  • Having a different game plan for every date - now I pretty much take them to the exact same place so I can eliminate that as a variable
  • Kissing too much. I go for the kiss now, get it maybe 25% of the time, but I disengage first and I don't try to make out with them as in the past i think it has come across as thirsty
  • This one might be a big one. I recently quit smoking pot after a particular bad episode where a girl essentially booty texted me on Sunday, I wasn't available, we went on a date Monday and she ghosted me afterwards. this was from a street approach. I was a chronic pot smoker and it's a struggle to stay clean. But i've gone on 4-5 dates since quitting and it's still happening

My game plan is generally:

  • Keep her talking about herself and try to focus on things that elicit positive emotion. E.g. asking what her favorite part about her dad is, talking about happy memories, etc.
  • Avoid boring topics and RAPE topics (religion/abortion/politics/economics). Engage FORD topics (family/occupation/recreation/dreams)
  • Call out the situation if it gets awkward, but in a playful way. E.g. the other day one of these dates the girl starts talking about the weather so i teased her about it "are we really talking about weather?"
  • Light touching if appropriate like if she's laughing i'll try to touch her on the arm
  • I run the cube test, which is an old Style routine that I learned from his Anhelation series. To be honest this is the only thing that I'm confident I'm doing right as it's usually the highlight of the date
  • Go for the kiss if I'm feeling it even if I'm not sure if she is, just to show that I'm not there to make friends and that I'm bold and go for what i want
  • Keep it loose and joke with waiters/waitresses/service personnel. Trust me when I say that I'm never the guy that is a dick to service staff

My hypothesis on why this keeps happening, and some of these are kind of vague I realize

  • My attitude. At this point it's very hard for me not to anticipate failure - ie not getting a second date - going into these dates. Last Monday I felt this attitude creeping in when I was on my way to a date and I willed myself to think positive and the date went well I thought, we kept texting afterwards, and were supposed to go on a date tonight and she flaked this morning
  • They can feel that I'm overly invested in the outcome
  • The date isn't fun enough, even though I can make them laugh pretty consistently
  • I don't come across as masculine, even though I'm in great shape, dress well, run my own business, and in some cases was bold enough to cold approach them, my behavior on the date must be supplicating

Apologies for the wall of text here, but I just cannot seem to figure this out even after years of this phenomena occurring. I will admit for a while I wasn't adjusting my approach but at this point I know I've instituted enough changes that there should be some difference in outcome but there just isn't

I could use some feedback. What does this community recommend I do?