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Thanks. The thing is that I fear rejection. I hate to fail, it's built in my nature and is harder for me than most other guys (at least that's what I think)
As it is reported by some of the PUA gurus and "regular" self-help authors, one of the purposes of the ego is to protect yourself from getting hurt. So from the sounds of it, you may on some level think that being stuck in the friend zone is better than being rejected as a potential lover. This would explain why you have trouble flirting, because in the general sense flirting means speaking about things of a sexual nature without really intending on going through with it (although we often use it as a means to an end, but think of it in the general sense-here is how dictionary.com defines it:
to court triflingly or act amorously without serious intentions).If you think there will be a negative consequence, even if you're only flirting, your ego may be the thing that is stopping you.
Everyone deals with rejection. Personally, I think it's better to work toward what you want and deal with the occasional rejection than it is to never try to excel at all. With the former, you tend to become a better man for it. With the latter, you never become a man at all.
In terms of technique and the attraction code/escalation map, whatever they call it, many things can get you stuck in the friend zone, such as skipping the rapport stage, failing to escalate/kino, not expressing sexual intentions or not creating sexual tension, etc. But you may have to work out a couple of internal things first.
If you live in a big city, go to a mall or someplace on the other side of town where you'll never see these people again (which drastically lowers the social cost of failure) and set a goal to open X number of good sets a day, and tell yourself that you are going to deliberately blow yourself out of one set each day (don't do anything to get arrested). The good sets will be for practice, the blow out set should not be perceived as a threat by your ego because you are setting the terms: YOU decide to get blown out once per day, not them. If you do it playfully and not simply act like a jerk, you might discover that you don't get blown out at all. Once you get the vibe and timing of what you say down, you can get away with almost anything.
But that it unlikely to happen the first time out. With practice, you can really push the boundaries and do it in a way that at times seems unbelievable. Last week I asked a checkout girl at a clothes store to slap me and she loved it (being asked that is, she didn't really do it). The other customers in line also got a big kick out of it. Yes, I asked a beautiful young woman to slap me while standing among a bunch of strangers, and it was probably the best moment of everyone's day (it certainly was for me). This never would have happened if I hadn't discovered pickup and starting working on it, daily.
As far as going out with "the girls," it seems like there might be something emasculating about that. If they bring along any new friends, they will likely put you in the friend zone of the new friend's mind before you ever meet her. She would be unlikely to accept a move from you because she will have to justify it to all of her friends who do not treat you as a sexual being.