I've been reading up about PUA on and off for a very long time now and it has made very little improvement to my social life - if anything I've probably gone backwards since I discovered the arts (although the two are probably mostly unrelated).

I have massive self-esteem issues and serious approach anxiety, I usually come across as relatively confident and sometimes even a little cocky with friends (i.e. a normal guy) but it's an overcompensation for my insecurities and when I'm out of my comfort zone I don't know what to do and usually bail on the situation, promising myself next time I'll be prepared.

I'm a massive inner game junkie now, just reading material and never putting it to good or any use because I'm afraid to interact with strangers.

I've tried to motivate myself but I haven't found something to work yet - I read about these newbie drills but I'm too goddamn insecure to make it work, I tried to smile at someone but my mouth didn't move and it just looked like I was staring at them!

Suprisingly, despite all this, as I said I have no problem interacting with people I know but my fear of the unknown and people I don't know is crippling me and ruining any chance I'm having of finding success with this!

If you are reading this and have any idea on how I could solve this please please do post because it's killing me but I can't seem to do anything about it!

give yourself a good grab by the nuts and just do it
other ways to help improve your self esteeme isues is to other stuff you dont like or are afraid to do. i had the same thing with calling people i diddn't know to get something fixed it maybe sucks 2 seconds and then you find out that its not at all that bad as you had though

just put yourself to the test, its hard but very rewarding

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don't take life to serious and enjoy what's comming to you,
you're never alone, love those who deserve to be,
and at last never judge and be your own unique self

You are not an "inner game junkie." The community already has a term for what you are being right now, and that is a "Keyboard Jockey," or KJ for short.

Unfortunately for you, it's probably the most derogatory term within the PUA lingo. A KJ is someone who posts on forums and reads a lot of material but never actually does anything in-field. He's all about mental masturbation and ego validation.

I know that, since you've studied so much, you don't feel like a newbie. However, go back to square one anyway and do the Newbie Mission.

Chief - I don't think it's fair to call me a KJ - my point is I am without doubt still a massive newbie to all this despite knowing about the community and attempting to become involved with it for a long time.

I don't think I'm above doing any newbie missions, or being too good for them or ANYTHING like that - my problem is I am too nervous to do any and was looking for some help that might be geared towards the cripplingly shy here.

I call myself an inner game junkie because I thought that was the correct term for someone who just reads and reads about inner game etc. without having the nerve to go out out and apply anything they have read.

There's plenty of material and courses out there claiming to have the magic solution to get rid of various forms of anxiety preventing you from approaching, conversing, and sexually escalating.

However, if there's one thing I've learned in my several years of doing this stuff, it's that you must do the thing you fear, and then the fear goes away. It doesn't work the other way around.

What I teach people wanting to learn pickup is mainly focused around the attitude of self-destruction. Self-destruction of your ego, your comfort zone, your preconceived notions that hold you back, and generally just doing what you feel is risky, such as approaching in the face of approach anxiety.

We could go round and round in circles with several methods of easing your "crippling" shyness that are essentially mental masturbation, but the only real option you have is to man up and do what you are scared of doing.

Just think about the definition of courage.

evryone are nervous in the begining, but remmember you cannot become a MPUA in a sec, or even a PUA..

just go there and say "HI.."... just freaking do something

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"StreetLight!! Stop seeing every problem in life like it's a chick you didn't hit on!"

Dude get a wing man. A really big guy and tell him he has permission to slap you upside the head if you don't do an approach in the newbie mission. If you don't like getting hit over the head go to an SPAM withdraw a hundred bucks and ask your wingman to hold the 20's. Have him point out potential targets that you have to approach or he gets to keep 20 bucks. I lost 40 bucks myself before I said fuck it i'm going broke and went up to a girl and said "Hi if I didn't come over here and say hi to you i was going to lose 20 dollars so yeah." try it out.

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*new to the game but looking for fame*