Like most others, my sticking point at the beginning was the approach. I remember doing my first day game approach crystal clear.

I had already done a bunch of therapy to deal with my crippling anxiety, worked up a baseline of confidence by starting conversations with strangers on the street, and read the book "Models" by Mark Manson.

Before I actually brought myself to do it I wrote affirmations on a piece of paper for 5 minutes to psych myself up and kept telling myself that this was a pivotal moment in my life that I needed to take action on.

Needless to say the actual approach was an absolute trainwreck because I was so nervous. Thankfully the girl seemed to think it was cute and just went along with it lol.

The more approaches I did however the easier it got. I also found that doing day game approaches made doing night game approaches much easier as I thought they were expecting it at the club.

I am continuing to push my approach skills. In the fall I did a few in the corridor of the mall and on the sidewalk in the middle of the day. These are areas that I used to find prohibitively difficult to approach in.

After getting past the blowout phase while I was still getting over approach anxiety I started to make actual progress with conversation. I tried the "free association" method at this point which didn't work well for me. I would always run out of things to say and the conversation topics were often too bizarre for the girl to follow.

After more experimentation I developed a series of statements and questions that would reliably keep the conversation going for 5 minutes or so. I now do a combination of free association and canned phrases. Basically the idea is just to whip out the canned phrases when there's a lull in the conversation to keep it going.

After the blowout phase I also started experimenting with physicality. This began with simply touching the girl as I introduced myself. I've also tried opening groups of girls by physically creating space for myself.

I've also tried being physical during the attraction stage. This could be just gently pushing her away when you tease, putting your hands out to see if she puts hers on them, or putting her hands on your shoulders.

I'm looking to try actually picking the girl up more. I've only done this once in a club and it went really well!

In terms of social circle I've made solid progress. When I started this whole journey around 18 months ago I had no friends. My phone was completely dead. I've since made some friends from going to clubs, through meetup groups, dance classes and Facebook groups. I am still no social butterfly by any means but I regularly talk to people and have social activities to attend. Still working on how to get girls from social circle 😅

My online presence has changed a lot. It's probably the most clear representation of the identity shift I've had to make in order to be successful socially. When I started out I had no pictures online and my FB profile didn't even show my face. I've since become more more comfortable posting and had other people tag me in events we attended together.

I also didn't have IG when I started. Even after I did make an IG for the first time I had to delete everything after a year because I realized I was being a total weirdo LOL. I've since found my stride and am getting positive feedback on my posts. I even post to my story occasionally now 🙂

18 months ago my attempts at online dating were abysmal. I couldn't get any matches on Tinder and girls wouldn't respond to me on other sites. I can now get matches with decent looking girls on Tinder and actually take the conversation somewhere. Still working on how to actually get them to meet up haha.

Personality wise I was coming out of an extended depression before all this. Basically going to clubs over and over again slowly rewired my brain and I started to pick up on different attitudes that didn't even register in my head before.

The main one I'm talking about is the "I'm awesome" attitude. There used to be a really good video of Brad from RSD demonstrating this but it has since been deleted. This personality trait really can be developed over time and it is socially infectious. People love it and they want to be around it. It is also tied closely with self esteem so you feel really good when you're in it!

I also credit my progress in game to the level of mindfulness I've been able to achieve. Not only does picking up on subtle social cues require a lot of presence but the destruction of my identity removed basically all the attachments I had in life. Because of this I've been able to complete multiple extended meditation retreats which revealed a different world to me that was previously hidden completely. This aspect of my development may be even more important than the social aspects 😂

I also attribute game with the development of entrepreneurial spirit. I never once thought about selling a product until a year ago. Starting a business didn't even cross my mind. After practicing game though and "selling myself" to an extent, the idea of entrepreneurship became much more appealing. I have since started my own business and am making money using a skill I never thought I would be able to monetize.

Right now I'm not going to clubs or doing day game. I'm still figuring what I'm actually trying to get out of all this and am using the cold weather as an excuse to reflect on this 😋. I do plan on going to clubs again in the spring. In fact I would like to move to a larger city so I can go out every night of the week. I would like to go out every night for a year straight. The way I view it these are skills that will have an enormous impact on the enjoyment of the rest of my life and I might as well just do it as quickly as possibly before I get too old LOL.