Week 8 – Reflection

What did I learn?
- Concreted the persona/style that will work for me
- Further reinforced the idea that it's okay to get blown out… it should happen
- Learned a thing or two about home, and the effects of it
- Learned a thing or two about my inner game, and how it can be affected
- Developed a deeper understanding of qualification and how it works, and other ways of making it work (statement-based SOIs coupled with sexual SOIs, statements that tell something special about the two of you together, and force-framing statements)
- Learned more ways of opening: from a distance, and a moving girl
- Saw Mr. M's direct opener, and thus cleaned up mine (he delivers them differently from Braddock & Co.)
- Picked up subcommunication things from Mr. M from seeing him in set (how he positions himself, how he moves him/her)
- Learned about the idea of disqualification + DHV as a way of splitting up attraction
- Picked up on the non-neediness of Mr. M in the field
- Learned about how Mr. M calibrates his physical escalation based on how the girl is reaction. I've seen two cases. In Oslo, when the girl was really into him, he escalated quickly, and here in Hollywood, the girl wasn't into it, so he focused more on moving her and gaining compliance, without really physically escalating.
- Saw how Mr. M delivers attraction material. Even though they're teases/role-plays etc… they're not done in a crazy high-impact/high-energy manner the way some of the other more state-based instructors do it. There's a calmer way to how it's done.

Learning tools for the week:
- Mr. M & The Don Los Angeles Bootcamp
- Mr. M, Braddock & Sphinx: Issues in Qualification IVS
- Mr. M & Braddock: 9&10 Game IVS

Meet anyone new?
- Prestige & Helicase

Where/When did I go out?
Count – Don't know how to quantify it.. not entirely sure what should count as a full night out and what shouldn't.

Tuesday: Rotated around Guys and Dolls and college bars (doesn't count)
Wednesday: Moscow
Thursdsay: College Party
Friday: Bootcamp In-field
Saturday: Bootcamp In-field
Sunday: Saddle Ranch (1 set)

Things to do differently Week 9?
I learned a lot but I still need to be opening sets… I've fallen out of that path and need to get back on it.

I took zoom-out of everything this week. I was able to look at the bigger picture and I think doing this really helped me get out of the inner game dip I took from my trip home. I started to realize that I was putting too much pressure on myself and setting too many expectations. I should be viewing this as a barrier that I constantly push against. If I don't reach a certain point by a certain time, then so be it, but I should just push and do whatever I can.

Moreover, I realized that my life has already been changed. Be in 1 month or 1 year from now, there will be a time where all this clicks... it's already so far embedded into my sense of being. There will definitely be a point where I am amazing with women, because beyond it all, many of the deep-seeded changes have already taken place. Now, it's just a matter of time and practice before I hit the glory land.

That's the mentality I picked up and it's what brought me back to sanity. The pressures of needing to do x by a certain time frame or needing to achieve y had started to get to me. Along with the crack in my inner game, I started to question myself and my confidence took a hit. Looking back on the week, I realized I just needed to take a step back... a proverbial deep breath of sorts.

So the view on everything now is shifting towards a bigger picture view, with a bit more sense of humanity, rather than a machine striving towards achieving a certain goal. That said, I'll still be pushing the barrier hard, and doing whatever I can to improve, I'll just be cogniscent not to get in my head, because well... that'd just be counter-productive.

More than anything, I'm going to focus on enjoying the process, and enjoying my last 2 1/2 months of being a free being... someone not tied to a job and all the pressures and responsibilities that come with it. 2 1/2 months... a lot can change in 2/12 months... I was much different 3 months ago, looking forward to see what happens in the next few months. :)

A lot can change, I can make massive strides and become the person I want to become. I just can't trip myself up in my own head. It's becoming more and more clear that this is a battle that is 50% in the field and 50% in my own head.