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@Slade Awesome! Keep leaning into those edges.

It's been a while since I've seen it, but from what I remember that video is really misguided. The problem with making a black and white critique of the PUA community is that there is no definitive way to do pickup. Every guy gets in it for their own reasons and leaves with different results. I've seen tons of guys come through PUA at this point. It's true that the majority are not really using it as a tool to grow. They just learn a bit theory, go out, and get wasted at the local dive bar. I was the same way. I was a 21 year old college student who just wanted to get laid when I found the community. I didn't give a shit about "self-actualization" or "spiritual growth". So does that mean there's a problem with PUA? Or is the tool being misused by people who don't really have an intention to grow in the first place? Anyone who argues that you can't grow spiritual doing pickup is wrong. But you have use it the right way. The other argument I remember from that video is that pickup = manipulation. This is such a limiting belief for guys who are trying to learn this stuff. Any guy who thinks they can manipulate women against their will into sleeping with them using pickup, come visit me in Miami and we'll go out together. It never works that way. How do I know? Because I know all the lines, all the strategies, all the tactics. They're useful, but not nearly as important as most guys think. When I'm doing game, I'm constantly asking myself WHAT DOES SHE WANT. Because if what she wants and what I want don't align, you're fucked. It's not going to work. Oh, and sometimes what the girl wants is something we would judge as "low consciousness", like alcohol or status. Guess what, it's not your job to be Captain Save A Ho and save the poor little princess. She's human being that's allowed to live her life the way she wants, even if we might judge it as a "mistake". I could keep ranting but I think you get the point. There's so many misconceptions about PUA it's crazy. And it holds guys back tremendously.

@SaltyMeatballs What do you do with your dick? Do you just not have a sex drive?

@Applejuice For me at 17 it was all about friends in high school. If you don't have friends, it's fine if you want to learn some general pickup theory. It will help you with your social skills. But you're not going to have many options in terms of meeting girls. Make do with whatever you can.

@Applejuice We don't know if it's a good idea and neither do you. That's life. Don't buy into the hype that everyone has it all "figured out", they don't.

@shapeshifter This may not apply to you because you're in engineering, but I'd say anyone who cares about professional success in the modern age needs to be on IG. It's not uncommon when I'm networking that people don't even ask for a business card anymore. They just ask for my IG. If you're an employee looking to get hired, you can guarantee that your employer is googling your social media before they decide to call you in for an interview or hire you. It's such a fantastic opportunity. Let's say you wanted to get hired by some engineering firm when you graduate. You have two options: 1) Go around submitting your boring resume, just like everyone else. Get lost in the noise. 2) Create an amazing IG page called I<3Engineering with you doing 60 second videos talking about engineering or maybe building some shit. Post pictures of your accomplishments and your personal life, which humanizes you. Option 2 is so much better. A resume only existed because we didn't yet live a world with social media. It's going to die fast. And that's only for professional success. Don't even get me started on all the benefits it can have on your dating life. It's seriously changing the game and I love it.

This is you right now: You can't reconcile these ideas because they're both true and false at the same time. Contradiction is not the problem. In fact it's inevitable. The problem is that you're failing to see that these ideas are true in a certain CONTEXT. They're models, approximations.

@Deepu You need the ability to self-reflect, but you don't want to turn that into self-attack where you hate yourself. Meditate.

You're only 19 and I'm assuming the opportunity for these kind of things is not great in Egypt. However, it also sounds like there's a part of you that still wants it. So if you're telling yourself that you don't care because you're already happy, I would definitely question that.

From what I've seen, yes. It's always about a wound. But be careful. It's tempting when you here that to think "wow that's fucked up" or believe that something has "gone wrong" with you or anyone else. No. You chose for that to happen. That wound is ironically your way to waking up. The dark energy builds until you decide to let it go.

You're welcome brotha

@WildeChilde McKenna is a bit of an enigma. On the one hand, he seems like a very caring man who has had some deep existential insights and is passionate about his work. On the other hand, he seems likes a grumpy old man that wants to sit on his porch and yell at the kids for playing on his lawn. Is it marketing? It is a genius enlightened master's trick? Is he so far beyond us that we can't even understand him? I don't know and I don't really care to know. Speculation beyond a limit is pointless. What really matters is your own journey and how you choose to live your life.

@Widdle Puppy Any sort of healing practice will help here. Look into meditation, yoga, breathwork, reiki etc. I'd especially focus on opening up your heart and solar plexus chakra. Beyond that, I have no blueprint. You want an engineering solution to an emotional problem. You'll let go when you're ready to let go.

@BobbyLowell More accurate to say you'll be giving up your emotional attachment to being understood. Being authentic means some people will not understand you, ever. You don't have to like it but you do at some point need to accept it.

@Solvinden I've gotten professional coaching before. It can definitely be a great investment given that you found the right coach. I don't know anything about the program you're talking about so it's hard for me to say if it's a good deal.

@Viking I'd say just the opposite. We'd probably develop the empathy, compassion and understanding to stop killing each other and even live in harmony.

@7thLetter Meditation, yoga, healthy eating, gym, sun gazing, affirmations, visualization, life purpose, pickup, reading.

It doesn't matter what normal is. Normal is bullshit, there is no normal. The question is, what do you want? You're free to do whatever you want. Maybe you really do just need to focus on yourself for awhile. But don't use that as an excuse to not take action. No, the universe will not do that. If I wanted a successful business, but never actually took action on starting a business, what are the odds that I'd have a successful business?

@SuchIsLife I got this from Jason Capital. I don't always use it but when I do, it works well. Split your note taking paper into to columns. Label one column "insights" and the other "action steps". Whenever you read something that you like and sticks out, put it down in the "insights" column. And then IMMEDIATELY write an action step for how you will implement that insight in the "action steps" column. Pretty simple, but it forces you to think action and not just theory. Very useful.

@Growf It's something you'll want to drop eventually, alcohol is really poor for you energetically. Plenty of ways to feel good and have without it.

It has two roles. One is that it can get you out of the system. That's mostly what MJ talks about in Unscripted as you know. The second is that entrepreneurship can be a vehicle for your life purpose. Maybe you're going to start something similar to Actualized.org or maybe you'll open meditation studio. Who knows. Even if your life purpose is to be something like a musician, you're still in many ways an entrepreneur. Because you're building the brand of your music. The spiritual path will make you a better entrepreneur IF it's authentic to you and that's your intention. If you choose to go live in a cave for 30 years, you may be very spiritually evolved but you'll probably be a shit entrepreneur. Assuming it is authentic, here's why it can help. Let's look at some of the characteristics of a good entrepreneur: 1) Highly driven and on purpose 2) High levels of energy 3) Charismatic and influential. High degree of people skills 4) Decisive 5) Willing to take risks and disrupt social norms 6) Accepts 100% responsibility for the companies success 7) Not attached to wins or loses ALL of these things can come from being on some sort of spiritual path. You don't have to apply it in that way, but the point is you could.

It can be done in a way that's Win/Win and leads to personal / spiritual growth. Really what it comes down to is what is your intention? Think of pickup as a tool, like a hammer. You can hit yourself in the head with it or you can use it to build something amazing. That's up to you. But this idea that pickup is inherently bad and selfish is totally misguided.

I went through this as well. I freaked out for a long time thinking I was going to go to hell when I stopped following my religion because "omg but what if they're right???". The thing that really helped me was just time. Anytime you go through a major shift in beliefs like you have, usually the old way of thinking sticks around for awhile before it falls away. Probably because they did have some non-physical experience. Spiritual truths aren't necessarily wrong, they're just not what you were taught in church.

Look, I did some coke too in college, it's not the end of the world. But you definitely don't want to keep doing if you're serious about self-actualization. It's a really low-vibration activity. The reason you don't feel like you have control of it is because you kind of don't. These decisions are all made by the subconscious mind, you're basically just along for the ride. At this point, probably yes. Environment is the quickest way to change any habit. It's just too easy to slip up otherwise.

@Ross You can but it's going to take work. Start doing things like meditation, yoga and eating healthy. Get as much social experience as you can, even if it's terrifying.