Next Monday you'll feel more confident. After the gym you'll feel more confident. After one more drink you'll feel more confident. After you get a better haircut, a better jacket, a better job.
You've been "getting ready" for two years.
She's standing ten feet away right now. She'll be gone in four minutes. No amount of preparation will manufacture the courage that only comes from moving your feet.
Walk over. Stumble through the first sentence. Let it be clumsy. Let it be imperfect. You will feel more alive in those ten seconds than you have all month.
She calls you when her car breaks down. When she needs help moving. When some guy she's actually dating treats her badly.
You're the listener. The reliable one. The guy who would treat her so much better, if she'd just open her eyes.
She won't. You trained her to see you as the low-effort option — the friend who requires zero risk and zero investment. Every favor dug the hole deeper.
The "22 Rules" break the pattern. You'll stop auditioning for a role she already cast and become the man she chases instead. It starts with Rule 1.
I really should read the book!Originally posted by unclebob
You should read the book "Fight Club" by Chuck Phalinuk
it will open your mind to a whole new view on life.
You're no different than anyone else...you have more in common with most people than you think. You think you're the only one going through this?Originally posted by chancer357
Nothing has changed really. If anything I've lost any shread of hope I had left. The only reason I'm even posting this is because I don't seem to be able to sleep for more than 4 hours on a good night.
I've a full time professional career. I'm not going to be going back to school, getting jobs bagging grocieries or waiting tables in a bar.
Working out, bulking up, etc. isn't happening. Having an eating disorder makes that a whole other problem.
I'm not interested in spirtuality. I don't believe there is any kind of God despite years of parochial school.
I pretty much just give up. Theres nothing worth saving anyway. There is no reason for any girl to ever be interested in me.
Its ironic when you think about it.. it is a problem with life overall not just problems meeting people. Supposedly just enjoying your own life and doing own thing is supposed to be the key to meeting girls (or so one of the theories goes) But its the lack of any kind of relationship that completely destroyed whatever was left of this "life".
Feeling good about anything I do, smiling at girl without being ashamed, smiling at all - its a fairy tale to me now. Even if I could get to that point, its so far away, so impossible that it seems pointless. The time it would take, the struggle to get there. And where would I be? I wouldn't even be at step 1. Just doing that is nothing, its not even scratching the surface of meeting a person or begining anything.
With any luck I'll be killed in a car accident or something soon. Too afraid and ashamed to find help, or to actually end it myself. Otherwise I probably would have killed myself by now.
That's crazy dude...I don't care what you look like..you have a right to smile at anyone, let alone some girl...Girls like attention dude....doesn't matter who they are, they like it...Just force yourself to smile and keep walking past...do that often.Feeling good about anything I do, smiling at girl without being ashamed, smiling at all - its a fairy tale to me now.
That sentence contains at least five follow-up questions she WANTS you to ask. Where in Florida? What brought you here? How long have you been in the area? What do you miss? How does it compare to here?
She handed them to you on a silver platter. And you said, "Oh cool. I come here every week. I love this band. Ummm... pretty crowded tonight."
She smiled politely. Nodded. And never texted you back.
I was that guy for years. Talking too much. Listening too little. Panicking about my next sentence while she was literally feeding me the answers.
Then I found 22 rules that fixed the whole thing. Rule number one: shut up and listen. She'll tell you exactly what to say.
OK man, trust me when I say that I was exactly where you are at not too long ago. When you contemplate life down to that level, you are faced with only 2 options:I'm not interested in spirtuality. I don't believe there is any kind of God despite years of parochial school.
Your buddy Dave has been single for three years and thinks "hey u up" is a valid strategy. Your other buddy Mike just got dumped and told you to "just be yourself."
You showed them her text. You asked them to decode the emoji. You drafted four responses and sent the screenshot to the group chat for a vote.
She's been waiting forty minutes.
Put the phone down. Stop crowdsourcing your love life. Type something that sounds like you. Hit send. Then go do literally anything else with your evening.
"looks"? You're worried about your looks?Originally posted by chancer357
There aren't any people around here who have been in this situation. I don't know anyone who never had a relationship of any kind, with any girl who is anywhere near my age.
As long as there are more attractive (which is essentially everyone) people around who are more comfortable in thier own skin who have any level of confidence (also anyone else) then I'm just screwed. I would need to have some girl talk me, and because someone put them up to it. I just don't have any confidence to do anything on my own at this point. I'm well past the point of being able to help myself have anything that would resemble a normal life
Dinner ran three hours. She laughed at everything. You walked her to her car thinking this one's locked in.
Then: nothing. Two texts. No reply. What happened?
You did what most men do on a great date. You filled every silence, answered every question, and left her with nothing to wonder about. No mystery. Nothing to sit with when she got home.
Rule 3 of the "22 Rules" changes the ending: tell her a little, hold back the rest, and let her imagination do the chasing. The ghosting stops too.
If I could have just done it, I would have. The truth is the hard I try to do it, the further away I ever get from being able to do it.And quit saying you have no confidence. Just do it anyway. Confidence comes from doing something over and over. Are you confident that you can tie your shoelaces? Of course because you have done it millions of times. Same with talking to women.
She calls you when her car breaks down. When she needs help moving. When some guy she's actually dating treats her badly.
You're the listener. The reliable one. The guy who would treat her so much better, if she'd just open her eyes.
She won't. You trained her to see you as the low-effort option — the friend who requires zero risk and zero investment. Every favor dug the hole deeper.
The "22 Rules" break the pattern. You'll stop auditioning for a role she already cast and become the man she chases instead. It starts with Rule 1.