(09-24-2014 03:28 AM)Noir Wrote: Why do you have approach anxiety? Why are you still reading?
You can put bandaids all day over your wound but you're ignoring why it exists in the first place.
Take the positives out of this. The psychological barrier of being a virgin no longer applies. Stop comparing yourself to others at 24 and compare yourself to where you want to be. Be real with yourself.
Stop placing expectations on moments. Get out of this 'instant gratification' mentality you have brainwashed into your head.
Well then, let's get real.
'This above all, to thine own self be true' - Hamlet Act 1 Scene 3
Why do I have approach anxiety?
I'd have to say that nurture contributed more than nature.
An journey through the education system that was exclusively all-male thus limiting my exposure to women. However I did have opportunities to learn and experience in the last few years which I squandered.
Why did I squander them? Because I didn't know how to use them efficiently. I was so focused on my studies and earning qualifications that I thought I needed for people I thought I needed to please that I didn't take them time to learn the lessons of life. There were some, but nowhere near as many as I could have.
Add to that maternal betrayal and incredible naivety and that about sums up why I have trouble approaching women.
Why am I still reading?
Because it's safe.
I try to set aside my pride, but damn near every time I go out the memories of humiliation come back to me and I stubbornly refuse to take a chance.
The worst part is that a significant number of them were my own fault because I didn't know any better.
A wise man once said that life is an adventure in forgiveness.
But who's the hardest person of all to forgive? Oneself.
The demons inside, they laugh at the thought.
When you forgive someone else, they're not likely to turn you down and say "fuck that."
Trying to forgive myself though, it's "fuck that" all the time.
Maybe instead of forgive and forget it should be forgive and remember. Remember that tomorrow I'll have to wake up and try to forgive myself all over again and again, they way the heart keeps beating like a drum.
Be real with myself.
Well, things are comfortable at the moment. I don't have much to worry about, but unfortunately I have no direction.
There was an article on ROK not too long ago about how every man should have a primary mission.
Well I've lost mine.
I had career plans, a foundation to build on, a vision of what kind of man I wanted to be and how to achieve it. And I was told that I didn't make the cut.
It's harsh, but it's reality. And those that fortune would build up would just as easily destroy.
So now that I've lost sight of one dream I have to replace it with another.
That's all well and good except that I don't know how. I have to prioritize my happiness above others' but I don't know what will make me happy.
That's a lie. The one thing I could do right now that would make me happy would be to conquer a woman. And so the reason for my starting this thread comes full circle.
I've always been more of a thinker of a doer.
I'm doing the best I can do reverse it, but it's a gradual process and there's a lot of indoctrination to overcome.
The worst part of it is that I shouldn't be comparing myself to faceless words on the internet and yet here I am picturing what an inferior specimen I am compared to other users of this forum.
No, that's wrong. I am not inferior. I may not have wielded success yet but I've made a conscious effort to better myself and that's more than I've done in the past.
I feel like I'm a walking, typing contradiction. Or maybe I just embody the duality of man.
But I do know 1 thing.
Just over a month from now I'll be reunited with people that I used to think of as friends before purging unnecessary baggage from my life.
And in those 3 days I want to prove myself in every way that I can - physically, emotionally, psychologically.
They're not machines, they're men. And I have to be more man than them.
That is my immediate goal. That is what I'm working towards right now.
But doesn't that just mean that I'm comparing myself to others again?
ARGH THIS IS INFURIATING!
It feels like I'm constantly trying to reconcile all the different imaginings of how I should be.
I don't know how I should be. I don't even know what I know. I don't know what I don't know.
Okay, I'm drawing a line under this post.
I'm going to leave it and come back again in a week.
That's why I hate self-examination. I lose what little sense of certainty I have.