Well! What a rampage of a weekend! 4 days off work, 4 days on PU.

But this weekend has been a hugely frustrating time for me. I feel that I've slipped back into my shell. Hardly any approaches and the approaches that I did do were border line pathetic! No really approaches Friday bar the one's that were 'wildcarded' to me by Hustler (nice one for Friday by the way dude - soz for being such a wet blanket).

Saturday and Sunday were pretty awful too... Saturday I didn't approach all night bar a 2 set at the end that 1. couldn't really hear me 2. were fed up by all the chodes that talked to them previously... Sunday was just as bad cos I'd complete lost my balls... and actually approached nobody! ARGH!

I've been trying to think today about how the hell I can counter this. I know that I have a disproportionate fear of approaching. So if anything, I need to concentrate on tactics that help me SMASH the brick wall that stands between me and meeting people I don't know.

So my plans are to stick to one or two routines and run them into oblivion when I'm out... I mean like for the next month!! I don't care if people know me as the Hot or Cold Custard guy... or the guy that can't organise a fancy dress party for shit... I just need to approach, approach approach. I want to be accepted, rejected, ignored, been told to fuck off because I know the more I hear that, the more approaches I'm doing. The point here is, not to practice technique, but to destroy my fear of approach.

I'm also going to set aside one week every month that I call 'Approach Week'; this week I will dedicate to overcoming my fear and ultimately feeling comfortable with the discomfort of my feelings for approach (I know the fear will never go away). Basically, I'm going to seek out women / situations that scare the living shit out of me and just approach.

In martial arts, there's this guy, called Geoff Thompson, who was seeking out the best way to learn self defence... I mean, real self defence... the sort of skills required to fight your way out of a middle of a brawl outside the Fish 'n' Chip shop on a Saturday night. Blood. Snot. And broken bones. Through his journey, he discovered that just going to a martial arts class wasn't enough. So he became a Doorman on the door on the roughest place in town (1980's Coventry)! He learnt very quickly how to defend himself against the scum of the street. Ultimately, this guy was scared of fighting... so scared that he would do anything to become comfortable with the fear of confrontation. (Check him out... Watch My Back is a great read!).

I'm taking inspiration from this (and actually Darood! You rock man! So god damn fearless when it comes to approach) I'm wondering if this will help become desensitised and free me so I can concentrate moving further into my game.

The other way is Wildcards... Hustler and I went out Friday... we were 'talking' game. It's great that we conversing over the various elements. But I also started to get annoyed with myself (this is not directed at you Hustler – just me venting). We were letting sets slip by, sitting around doing nothing but talking. But we both knew that we wanted to get up and get stuck in. I can talk good game... but that's bullshit... I want to DO good game. So I told Hustler. He suggested Wildcards (he said Kowalski inspired him to do this when he was in Manchester – he had him clucking like a chicken as an opener). We did it. We approached. We forced each other to open various sets... sometimes they were the sets that we initial didn't want to do due to AA... other times it was opening a set with stupid openers (Mine was to ask a group of girls tips on Bum Sex – actually they took it very well... my opener that is!). We are going to be doing this even more when go out. If you're new to the game or have an AA monkey on your back... then get your mates to set you Wildcards. It's amazing what you'll do when pride / face is involved! Haha!

To (re-)quote Covert...

Wise words! It's time for me to man up, shut the fuck up and get out and do some approaches.