I think that losing pickup skill can be common. I feel that going backward in your development is sometimes part of forward development. I think it is a common occurrence that no one wants to talk about. This has been on the back burner for a while but I want to finish writing it and get it out there so hopefully it can help some of you guys and I can make sense of it myself.

For a long time I was doing really well. I had a solid structure and a solid path and had it in my mind of what to do. It was almost as if I was climbing a mountain and had reached the first Peak. I looked out over all that I had accomplished and then went about undoing everything good I had just accomplished.

When I look back and think what went through my subconscious mind is, I don’t need to be working so hard anymore. Through out the first three months of writing about my experiences I was putting in tons of energy into changing myself. Lots of time and lots of energy. Then all of a sudden I started to get results. They started to become good results. I could get almost any girls phone number and I could open and get into a good conversation with almost anyone in the club. Many nights Edge and I pulled girls back to the house. Then something in me shifted. Looking back on it now I think my brain went look at all this good stuff you can do now. You don’t have to work so hard to change yourself anymore. Look its already working so chill out. Little did I realize that the very work I was doing was what was getting me the results. They had not become habit yet. I hadn’t fully changed.

My brain went this is silly “Let’s just be natural.” This marked the day of my descents back down the other side of the mountain. Slowly I stopped doing what worked and started being my old self. Needless to say I slowly digressed to a point where I could not approach.

My old self was the person that I had been conditioning myself to be over the last 10 years. The very person I wanted to fully change. A person that didn’t go after what he wanted. One that was a quiet shy person. So me being me is not something I wanted.

It is human nature to be lazy. It is something I feel that we should always monitor so we don’t slip backward. To evolve we always have to be pushing forward and upward. Never stopping until we are dead.

When we are trying to change ourselves I believe it takes tons of energy and time since we are changing years of conditioning. I don’t know if we can fully undo it but hopefully one day I can. I know one thing, I won’t stop trying. This snap back effect is something to be aware of and then it can be avoided. The solution I found to this problem is just to continue to actively put effort into trying new thing and continually remembering to do the things that work. They are all building blocks and you can’t stop doing them when they are working.

Legend

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My blog and Field audio:

www.pickupevolution.com

It's like working out, if you stop.. your results are going to suffer.

It's like swimming, that first dive into the cold water (1st set) is the worst. But once you dive in (mingle) your swim for that day will be enjoyable. But the next day, you have to go through it all over again. (quoted from mystery)

This is an over simplification, but one reason why naturals are the way they are is because they have a strong self image. True naturals tend to know who they are: they have know what they value in life, they have well established boundaries in terms of what is and isn't acceptable behavior from themselves and others, they can find fun and validation from within themselves and aren't relying on others, and they've learned to approach women and life in general from a mindset of abundance and not scarcity. You can learn all the PUA techniques in the world, but in the end, the self will always come through.

I love PUA stuff, but I also think that people tend to use it to put a patch over their personal idiosyncrasies, with the hope that if they get enough success or female validation, those idiosyncrasies will auto-correct themselves. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

Don't feel bad that you're hitting troubles, but do right action and keep pushing through it. We always hear about the success stories of famous people, who they started here and ended there, and they usually make it look like it was a streamlined transition from one thing to the next. What they usually leave out are all the setbacks and disappointments along the way. The shit is messy.

Without doing a huge product promotion, I'll say that the RSD Blueprint Decoded had a huge effect on me in this area. I borrowed it from a friend, but you could probably download a pirated version for free.

I don't have a unified message for this post, I just wanted to give you some ideas to think about and maybe plant some seeds.

i'm actually in this very stage right now. I was going thorugh some pretty positive gains, and learning alot, until one day, i magically became one-itis'd over my ex, and my game sucked to the point of which i could'nt even approach. this is extremley wierd..
i guess i'm just trying to find the right time to start building my confidence again and start sarging once more...

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rAFC. I'm on a good path.
16 yrs. old, and loving it.

im going through your stage at the moment, i feel that im not confident enough and nows, i feel like im a virgin when hugging them or kiss on the cheek, makes me blushed and froze.
well maybe because its the festival season and i feel lonely and desprate and try to hook up with the chick just for laid.

dont worry about it, you will come back stronger and better
and you will execute the moves.

I think this is one of the most common sticking points I have encountered. The way I have found to fix it is think of it not as loosing skill but shedding baggage.
I had a friend who never studied before exams and actually did pretty well, when I asked him about it he told me if something was important he would remember it. It is the same with PUA, you may loose some smoke and mirrors here and there but at the end of the day the good stuff, the real core beliefs will still be there.
Then it is just a case of immersion for an hour or two and any of the stuff you had forgotten will come back, just new and improved.

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Troll the trolls
free book http://www.4shared.com/file/123140320/b ... ndows.html

I think this is a common pattern when learning any new skill. You will usually hit a plateau/slight regression and then see a big spike shortly after. I have experienced this dramatically when learning a new language. For a few days I'll have trouble forming a sentence, and then suddenly I'll make a huge leap and be near-fluent.

I have been talking a lot to people about this lately. One thing that really clicked for me is a sports analogy. The star athlete doesn't stop training once he is a star. He practices just as hard now as the day he started. If we don't pracitce as hard as the day we started we won't break new levels and we won't maintain our game.

I think some of us hit a level of success and we think we don't have to work as hard to maintain it.

I definitly think that idea of shedding bagage is true. Once we start putting the effort back in there is a spike in skill. I just had one of my best nights ever out in NYC on newyears haha.

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My blog and Field audio:

www.pickupevolution.com

I understand how you feel, but here is the solution:

Go out anyway.

David D talks about this. He calls it a mastery curve. Its natural to backslide a little, then you work harder to push forward, then eventually you reach a higher level of understanding because of it. Keep studying, don't assume you're done learning because you've had success, and you'll end up being one of the greats one day.

It is human evolution. Our subconscious mind recognizes that we have enough food and water to live off of. It recognizes that we are at the moment, able to sustain ourselves. When you present a change, like going out to the mall and talking to strangers, a door in your subconscious mind is opened. Through that door, thoughts emerge, and these thoughts present doubt. There is a possiblility that changing your way of life could hinder your access to food and water, and your mind sees that as a huge risk. The challenge then becomes convincing your mind that you need more than just food and water to live, you need to accomplish your goals as well. You need to convince your mind that taking the risk is worth the reward, because the reward is vital to your living.

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"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

Yes it definitly is.

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My blog and Field audio:

www.pickupevolution.com