The field report, the most important part of this place, aside from actions. I'm writing this because I learned it, and others are having trouble — or seem to be — and I've always thought of this place as take a penny, leave a penny. Here's my 0.02

Why write a field report?

The main reason is because writing and thinking act in synergy. My brain handwaves a lot of details away and offers me the feeling of completion. I can think and meditate and ponder and navel gaze all day and still not understand things any clearer. Writing makes it permanent, it removes my ego from the equation. There's a reason Roissy was considered one of the 3 guys who epitomize red pill, it's because he was talking to himself through his blog. Notice he didn't put his height and weight, he didn't put his girls age, his lifts or any of that in his posts, he put the things he did into writing.

You can't bullshit yourself when you write it down. Well you can, I did, others did; but it's obvious to anyone reading it that it's bullshit. Details that are important are missing, details that are insignificant are done with amazing detail. The protagonist in a field report is representative of who is wearing the pants, or who has the frame in whatever happened. This is why the mod team are adamant about I statements and she statements. It's because defining my thoughts through the I pronoun forces me to think about things from my perspective. The she pronoun is reactive, supplicative, validation seeking. Most guys miss the point, and thats ok. Long as they get there they get there. I got there and I ain't special, I'm sure others will eventually.

Then again, how many guys have I seen here that don't get it. Alpha As Wolf, that Will88 guy, the husband of vampiresquid, trudatness, and a hundred other names no one has ever heard of. They all have their stuff up here, and all made the same mistakes. They didn't focus on themselves, ignored the idea of rational egoism. I don't know why, maybe they love their wives and daughters so much that they refuse to let go of the obvious covert contract: If i do the right things, say the right things, then my family will love me and I'll have a problem free life.

Basic Glover. It's funny how there's almost 15 years of material on the redpill, from how to cheat to how to divorce well. From coming back from the brink of death to overcoming a drug addiction. From the 10 yard line of a suicide touchdown to Chad coming here because he can't brag about his exploits anywhere else. Still, the #1 thing guys cannot seem to internalize is the first book, first chapter on the sidebar.

I think a part of it is a misuse of the field reports. There's a reason whinemoreplease used to say it was the only part of these subreddits worth a damn, and I agree ... if it's used correctly. When I would write mine, it was past tense. I chose an end state I wanted, took what I learned and applied it in achieving that end state. I don't want to suggest I was switched on and figured it out early, I'd say it was mostly luck, back then there wasn't a roadmap to go with other than Athol Kay, and that wasn't exactly inspiring. My second field report was OK, and I remember whinemoreplease asked me

"so you knew this was useless, why even bother to write it?"
My response was:
"Everything's already done, I'm not looking for advice. If it's beneficial, take it as a roadmap, if it was bad, a cautionary tale."

The point was that it wasn't me seeking validation, I wasn't trying to brag about some alpha brah shit ... I wrote it down so I could see what I've done, and if my ego was hiding the obvious from me. I can think I'm awesome all fucking day, but when writing it down I can't polish a turd. After reading through hundreds of these field reports I've come to realize I was fairly quick, by MRP standards. I think 6 months, less than a year. I went hard, some would argue Rambo, but it worked for me. Could I have done it differently? Sure. I could have done it in a way that wasn't so jarring to my woman? I think that would be why it wouldn't have worked though. I was mad at the time, the military was my zero'ing out, and my only focus was on a expedient and profitable release (which they were) and to put myself into a position never to be taken advantage of or for granted again. Her feelings were secondary. I'm pretty sure I did have to be an asshole.

I was stubborn, self reflective and I wrote down a lot. when they boys here added me as a Mod, I saw their chit chat over it. /u/UeMcgil noticed that I wrote more stuff in here than anyone else, which flattered me. I wrote things down when I had something to reflect on, and it turns out you can remove childhood issues, codependent behavior, covert contracts and nice guy behavior after a lot of self reflection and action ... fast or slow.

My favorite MAP on here was /u/the_litz. It was 2 years of CSPAN level field reports. Boring, often misguided, a lot of mistakes, but always forward progress. If you're one of those guys (and most of you likely are) who have been doing this for a year and still have the same problems a brand new poster have, I suggest you go through his posting history, like a fucking school marm homework assignment. Because a simple statement like this:

The MRP tools gave me the courage to tell her, straight up in a calm and measured tone, ' I don't need you, I choose to have you in my life, you can stay, or go. Makes no difference to me'

And realize this isn't repeating some catchy MRP talking point, or saying the right things to get the bros online to give him an attaboy. It's a guy who went from codependent pussy to a man with a mental point of origin in two years I believe. It wasn't a line, it was a description of reality. I wish I could put him into a box and wrap it with a bow beacuse I could give it to men for Christmas and retire a multi-millionaire, but I can't. No one can give that to anyone, a man has to take it for himself. I took it, Litz took it, so many other guys don't want to take it. All the 'lift fagget' and 'stop being a bitch' and 'I feel your pain' can't change that.

I wrote this hoping I would be able to articulate why guys spin their wheels and get into ruts; ruts in marriage, ruts in MRP, ruts in life, etc. I still don't have an answer, other than they probably aren't thinking, are too attached to the comfortable things in their life (including wives and kids) and would rather be 'doing something, anything' than actually doing what is hard, but effective. There's no endorphins that come with Litz telling his wife she doesn't have a place in his new life. There's no dopamine with demoting your wife to plate. there's no rush when you realize that you married a dud. the Marriedredpill is like the marshmallow experiment, and everyone refuses to wait for the second marshmallow. I don't think it's fixable either. When this place was 5k members everyone was switched on, the good guys made progress and the piss poor guys were shown the door. there's 41k members now and the regression to the mean is real.

I think I have a way to articulate it. Most guys are meant to be fodder for the herd, a few are meant to succeed in the ways that matter. A small amount of the latter had the bad fortune of being put into a situation where they ended up being fodder. For those small section of men, this place has value. I suppose the best way ahead is to come up with a system to keep the groups separated because if there's one thing I know, it's to avoid the unhappy and the unlucky.

How to write a field report
  1. Make it past tense. Do something, then reflect on how it could have been done on the field reports
  2. Start with the goal. It does you no favors the brain dump your bullshit onto a post then ask 'did I Redpill right?'
  3. If you don't see the answer in your post once you've written the last word of it, you're not reflecting well.
  4. If you're not the protagonist to your own life story, you're the antagonist. Act accordingly
  5. The guys who do the best the fastest take their wife out of the equation early. She's dead to you, fix yourself and then let her worry about winning you back
  6. Seeking approval from this place is like asking the mentally handicapped to give you accolades for your calculus skills
  7. The books on the sidebar are actually important. You only fuck yourself over by not just reading them, but understanding what they are there to accomplish
  8. New posters put their lifts onto posts to show they are worth the time of day to help them as they get started. After a year, people know whether you are worth a damn or not.
  9. Personal note: being OCD about reading stuff in here pays off. There are only maybe 6 different types of guys in here, and they all have the same types of problems. Read enough and it's like you're able to predict the future
  10. Top 10 lists are gay.