Pickup, it seems, like ANY other worthwhile endeavour, is going to require quite a bit of discipline. Going out when I don't feel like going out, approaching sets 2 and 3 after set 1 embarrasses me, monitoring my body language, tonality, choice of words, etc. -- all of it is going to require discipline.

If pickup could be the endeavour that finally helps me to develop discipline, that would be icing on the cake. It would certainly help me out in other areas of my life. I know that I have difficulty making tough decisions and following through on them. What techniques do you use to overcome stagnation, laziness, and comfort when the rational knowledge that you'll be a better person as a result isn't enough? What exercises do you do to build and condition your discipline?

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Some vices miss what is right because they are deficient, others because they are excessive, in feelings or in actions, while virtue finds and chooses the mean.
Aristotle, Ethica Nichomachea

great question and i can't wait to hear what the answers are.

here's my 2 cents. there are things that most everyone is very disciplined and consistent at (ie eating, sleeping, going to work, paying for rent/mortgage). my belief is they are this way because they realize the consequence of not being disciplined in these behaviors have extremely negative consequences (starving, going crazy from insomnia, being broke and homeless). with so much leverage, your brain almost automatically takes on these tasks. think about it, you don't have to convince yourself to be disciplined and consistent in eating on a daily basis.

so here's the trick. you have to get your brain to automatically link up extreme pain to not taking on certain tasks and pleasure to taking on certain tasks. for more info on this look up Tony Robbins, but here's an example.

take pickup. what are the long term consequences of not learning pickup or at least the skills in successfully dealing with women. wife that is not ideal or who wows you. the stress of a less than perfect relationship. the nagging of always wondering if you could have gotten a better woman. the self loathing of knowing you sold yourself out for a comfort rather than testing your potential and facing your fears head on. adopting a pattern of settling in life and not going for all your dreams.

so now, what are the long term benifits of learning pickup. better social skills. higher confidence. lots of choices for beautiful women. higher potential for a great wife.

the key is in the pain part for most people. we will do more to escape pain than we will do to gain pleasure. if you can come up with as many reasons for how fucking painful it will be not to do something, you will in just writing want to start changing your behavior.

the second key is to review this list everyday. i do it on my computer, make a cd and listen to the cd every morning on the way to work. the key is to review those reasons everyday and when you need motivation to change your behavior.

PM me if you want more info. i've developed some additional features to this technique to make changing one's behavior within a month. also i'd suggest checking out Tony Robbins stuff.

To be perfectly candid, I struggle with discipline in all of those areas, too. I don't fail at them entirely, but I could eat better, get more consistent sleep, get more done at work, and pay my bills more consistently.

Maybe that sounds stupid to somebody who is already disciplined in those basic areas or moreso than that. For some reason, though, normal positive and negative reinforcements don't impel me to action as effectively as they do some other people. In any case, my real objective is to become completely self motivated. I want to be able to set my mind to a task and complete it not because of a particular reward that I'll obtain if I do or a punishment I'll suffer if I don't, but simply and solely because I willed myself to do so.

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Some vices miss what is right because they are deficient, others because they are excessive, in feelings or in actions, while virtue finds and chooses the mean.
Aristotle, Ethica Nichomachea