A Year Later: Tables Turn For 1 AFC

[Roderick Rage]

Post Song: Gavin Rossdale - Love Remains The Same

A lot changes in a year. Last night was "all that and a bag of chips" as I've been referring to it.

All throughout 2007 I was surprised at how 2007 stomped all over my 2006. In 2008, I really haven't taken the time until now... August, 8 months in 2008 to reflect on the previous year. In 2007, my goal was to get out on a regular basis. In 2008, I've maintained my outings and now focusing on getting the most out of them.

In one year, I realized one must just stop caring about results. Good or bad. Screw results. Simply focus on taking action, putting yourself in the right place to seize the night. Most importantly, with or without a girl, did you have fun? In the end, isn't that all it takes?

Is the grass greener on the other side? What's it like to think outside the box? I decided to seek out these answers throughout 2008. What if I accepted failure? What if I did things to see if I'd fail or not? Who cares if I fail? Everytime, I fail I always seem to take something from it. I experience tremendous and helpful growth.

So failure's my friend. It teaches you. It shows you where you went wrong. If you keep seeking to learn, you stop reflecting and dwelling on the past. Reason being, you're so busy focusing on the next step and not focused on the previous one.

In August 2007, I went to a "hot spot in the city" that comes only but once a year. I got my first taste of the waterfire/dancing event. This was truly my first outing as a man in the world. I saw other PUAs out and about, I saw plently of women. I danced with only the girls I had come with. I had a great and successful night for what it was for who I was at the time. The night would impact me for about the following 300 days.

On this night, I met a new girl in my social group. She was into me, she asked me out to wedding dates in the following weeks. I worked for her Dad briefly that October and that December I asked her out. Due to my the holidays (lesson noted) and work schedule, I took her out in January.

Two days later, I lost my job, two days later she turned me down for a 2nd date (taking the intentional hit of rejection) and 3 days later my beloved Patriots lost the Super Bowl. It was the worst week of my life (in recent memory). I felt like Tom Brady getting sacked by Michael Strahan in the final drive of the game. I could win the game, I had done it all to get where I am... I'd knocked had down a job, I was on my way to a GF and my team was 18-0, only somewhere along the line... my ass got sacked... I lost it all and I had a bad day x3.

I felt myself reflecting on the GTA4 trailer where the main guy says "Perhaps here things will be different.". A man seeking opportunity and out to turn things around for himself. I kept sticking to that quote and used it. I had learned through it that life is all about opportunity. So keep taking them and taking them. Jobs will be lost, girls will turn you down and your team will always lose games here and there. However, you've gotta play ball... hard ball in order to get what you want. #99 Wayne Gretzty said it best "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take!".

The main struggle over her was my battle with her going onward with some other guy. She'll find happiness with someone else and not me. I changed my inner frame from seeing her going onward and reversed it. I told myself "Think of how you go on, and you find happiness without her". The results have been scary and surreal. A wedding two weeks ago, showcased several of my female friends literally yelling at me from a distance to join them for slow-dances and quietly um... etc. Meanwhile, the girl who rejected me, stands alone in the corner, throwing a pity party as no guys would ask her to dance. During regular fun dancing, I was dancing with three girls also very impressed with not only me but my dance moves, of all people she gravitates over giving me attention and talking my moves up. Inside I recall thinking "One frame of thought can change everything. This girl who rejected me several months ago now gives me approval. I'm with three girls. She's got no guys interested in her. I had somehow realized the power to turn the tables."

Last night, I returned to where it all began at the "Hot Spot In The City" with a more solid/structered group of friends, new clothes, natural maturity, learned maturity, more lessons learned, which games lost, many experiences past. The girl I met last year being elsewhere in life now. I had only a few simple goals 1) enjoy myself and have fun 2) if I don't make a shot, it's cool 3) take the night as it comes and 4) chart my personal growth as a man.

Post Song: Juelz Santana - Second Coming

It was last night where I had realized where I had come in one year. Seeing everything around me completely different. Less fear, less anxiety, stronger character, larger frame, higher confidence and zero intimidation. I had crossed the line and the grass on the other side... was greener. I had witnessed opportunity after opportunity fall on my lap... simply because I seeked. I danced with many of my friend girls... and then danced with two other women I had met. A 30+ yr old (HB8) and a 19 yr old (HB7). I'm 25. At one point I had pondered dancing with this hot professional dancer from Mexico and knew I had come full circle when a female friend of me said to me "You might as well, the way you're roll tonight ghees, Mark!". Perhaps, my ultimate goal was always to obtain the respect of the females in my inner circle. I suppose this mission has been accomplished with a comment like that.

My inner game and inner frame had changed in one year. I was no know longer out for revenge on the women who rejected me. I had conquered my past failures and women. I stopped taking shit personally. I wasn't out to best women. I was simply out to enjoy my time and spent it with the beings from venus. I didn't beat myself up over little tid bit crap. I meshed with the night and didn't feel like the party went on without me. My night was fun and "was all that and a bag of chips".