So! A little bit of background first. I’m Noisy, I’m 21, and I discovered seduction/game/pick-up about a month ago on reddit, looking for porn (irony!). I’m smart, interesting, good-looking, and pretty funny (please excuse the ego-stroking, I don’t mean to brag), but I’ve had only two serious girlfriends, and three non-serious dating situations with three non-serious girls, in my whole wittle wife. WHY?! ‘Cause I’m shy as fuck. Or, I used to be, before high school happened and I lost a bunch of weight and my virginity with it (correlated?), and became one of the popular kids. I’d been a nice guy all my life, too shy at first to even approach girls and then best friends with the ones I did approach, until I stepped up to the plate. Then college happened, and I went right back to being socially withdrawn. So fast-forward to now. I’ve been nose-deep in material for weeks, working on my inner game and re-learning the basics of being cool in social situations, but not approaching girls in the field. But something Mystery said once struck a chord with me: you’re either an AFC or a PUA. You have to commit to this shit, there’s no in-between, no such thing as an rAFC. So as of today, I am a PUA-in-the-making. PUA-ITM? A complete noob, for now, but committed nonetheless. It’s high time for some dirty work in the field, and I’m going to keep track of it all here. I’d much appreciate your feedback, smiles, camaraderie, sarcasm, jokes, empathy, and congratulations when I do things right and constructive criticism when I do things wrong. So here goes.

Day One: 07/22/12
FU: Sunday Pickup, didn’t do shit!

So I wake up this morning (read: noon) with the full intent to dedicate today to sarging. I decide to call it Sunday Pickup ‘cause I’m a sucker for naming shit. I shower, get dressed, and head out to Barnes & Noble. I arrive, and after browsing the store for a bit, it occurs to me that there are no women in this entire establishment under the age of 40. Cute college bookworm girls have apparently sworn off retail bookstores. Whatever, I take this opportunity to read the first couple pages of a book I’ve been wanting, then remember that today’s for pickup, not sci-fi, and decide to bail for some food.

After chowing down, I head to the mall, my old stomping grounds. As soon as I walk in the doors, an HB8 turns the corner and walks right past me with her little sister or niece or some other miniaturized form of girl. It throws me off – I guess I wasn’t expecting a sucker punch right out of the gate. I make eye contact and we both smile, but I don’t say anything, and she walks right on out the door. I try and rationalize my non-approach, annnnd…

Drum roll please; cue up a “what the fuck,” because hereafter I wander around the mall for almost two hours and don’t approach a single set. I look at watches, sunglasses, say hi to a few employees, compliment some dude on his Metallica shirt... but nothing else. Whenever I see a girl I think’s attractive, I just keep walking. I don’t know why. There’s no inner monologue going on, I’m not internally spouting off “what if’s” or trash-talking myself – I just don’t approach. For no reason. Eventually, I walk outside to leave the mall, but go back in once I realize what a mistake I’m making by pussying out. And…

I proceed to not approach anyone, again. Fuck. After a while I decide to head home. Fuckin’ defeated, but by what?

---

After thinking about it for a while, I’ve come to the conclusion that I didn’t approach anyone because I had a very vague goal going out today, which was simply: pickup. I didn’t have any specific guidelines for myself and didn’t even think about what I’d say to people, what openers I’d use, etc. So, because my criteria for success were non-specific, my motivation to succeed was correspondingly ambiguous.

After absorbing so much information about game in the last weeks, I’m really tempted to jump right in and go for numbers and dates right off the bat, mostly because I’ve had success with cold, direct-opening and number-closing in the past. However… I think it’s best to take baby steps so I can deal with sticking points and problems as they occur, rather than having to backtrack and figure out what the fuck. So, in order to do this right, I’m going to set my goal for tomorrow right now. And it is:

Head to the mall again after work, and open 5 sets. You don’t have to get their numbers, you just have to make conversation with them.

In order to do this, I will:

Use direct openers on girls by themselves. Ex: “Hi, I know this is a bit random, but I saw you walking over there and I thought you looked absolutely gorgeous. – And I wanted to meet you. What’s your name?”

Use indirect openers on girls in pairs and other mixed sets. Ex: “Are you guys shopping for my birthday present?” / “It’s crazy busy here!” / “That’s a great outfit, I almost wore that same exact thing this morning!” / More situational whatever blah blah blah

Gonna get some shit done and have some fun along the way. Fail faster! as they say.

_________________
But, pretty girl standing in line? Of course I'll make a joke because I like being funny, girls like to laugh, and I like pretty girls who laugh at me. What else is there to know? Indeed, there's nothing much to know.

Hey Noisy,

Nice write up, its good to see you already know where you went wrong:
You have the biggest objective of them all! - perhaps divide "pickup" into smaller chunks

Try the newbie challenge, thats helped me get to a good start.

Also, if you want tips where to start and what to learn next, i started as a complete noobie too, and made some surprising progress! Give it a read so you dont have to make the same mistakes as me

Regards,

Boyo

_________________
Limit Nothing. Achieve Everything.
My Journal: boyos-journal-vt137995.html

Thanks Boyo, the plan is exactly that! Divide pickup into manageable chunks and take it one step at a time. I'll check out your journal for sure, one of my favorite things about the community is the network of people helping each other through the same problems and successes alike.

So without further ado, I present...

Day 2: 07/23/12
FR: Fuck yeah! Talking to people.

So today after work, true to my word, I head to the mall to talk to people with vaginas. I'm mad tired and not feeling it at first, so I sit down in a nice comfy chair, doze for about 10 minutes, and then get up and decide to do this shit.

At first I'm in a bit of a funk, not projecting my voice and generally acting like I just woke up from a nap (surprise!). However, about 10 minutes in, I sit down in the food court and as I'm watching people walk by I start getting this feeling. I see these people walking, talking, doing the random things people do and I feel powerful, like I'm in my element - these people are exactly why I'm here. I have all the tools I need to interact with them. It's like, for a second, I can see the matrix. From here on out it's just too easy. I open 5 sets of girls (achievement unlocked), as well as other sets of guys and random unspecified humans, having random chit-chatty conversations with all of them about nothing in particular. I'm just out talking to people and they're talking to me, because we're people in a social setting and that's what people do. It's cool. It's really cool.

I decide to hit up Barnes and Noble again, craving more human interaction. As I'm walking through the aisles, I remember something else Mystery once said: "Living among [7.028] billion people, it's pretty fucking normal to go out every night." And as I talk to more and more people I get more excited, more fun, more clever and witty in my conversation. It IS normal to go out, to have fun, to tease girls and smile at strangers. I leave Barnes and Noble and head to Wal-Mart, for the fuck of it, and run into a couple more girls who I joke with, and an old co-worker whom I haven't seen in about a year. I meet his family and I'm charming and interested and loving it.

I head home, grinning from ear to ear. I can't believe typical dating advice is to "wait for love to find you." This is how you meet people.

I can't wait to go out again.

---

Things I did wrong today:
Not projecting my voice (corrected halfway through)
Not holding eye contact with strange girls (still needs work)
Disobeying the three-second rule (I know! I know!)

Things I did right today:
Being fun and interesting to talk to
Listening to people
Having conversations about things without resorting to lame personal inquiries ("what do you do for work? what are you studying? do you live around here?")

I know this wasn't much in the way of a field report - there weren't any transcriptions of dialogue or specific events - but my goal for today, which was just to open my mouth in the general direction of 5 different women, didn't really require specifics, I think. Today just felt really good, and I think it was the feeling, in this case, that was more important than the details. Plus, I promise I'll include specifics in future reports. Like tomorrow's! Because my goal for tomorrow is:

Head to the mall/bookstore/grocery store/street corner/wherever the fuck after work, open 5 more sets of women, and number-close at least one.

A number-close on the third day seems like a big step up from simple conversation, but what the hell. If I crash and burn, I'll crash and burn like a boss.

_________________
But, pretty girl standing in line? Of course I'll make a joke because I like being funny, girls like to laugh, and I like pretty girls who laugh at me. What else is there to know? Indeed, there's nothing much to know.