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Ultimate Inner Game is Now Availble!

January 16th, 2009

Sneak Preview of Ultimate Inner Game

January 14th, 2009

Video 3 - Ultimate Inner Game

January 14th, 2009

Thoughts on the victim mentality…

January 14th, 2009
The Victim Mentality (How to Rewrite Our Stories & Change Our Roles)
- by Fader

At long last, my post on the victim mentality & and letting go of our roles. I have been waiting a long time to write this because in a way it is a tribute to how far I have come and how much I have had to overcome to be here with you right now as the author.
Part of the reason this took me so long was because this was very emotional for me and I had to determine how much I was going to share with the internet. As I have become more comfortable with my past I have begun to be able to talk more about it and I actually tell students on my bootcamps pretty intimate details about who I am and how I got here. I want them to know if I could overcome all the adversity that destroyed my childhood, and a good part of my identity, to be a success they can do it also.

I would like to start with some definitions. People often ask me why I put definitions in my posts; I do this because I think if we are going to discuss something like mature adults we all need to agree on the important terms. I want what we talk about to be definitive, not subjective. So without further ado let’s get started. These are all definitions found on Wikipedia.

What is a victim?

An unfortunate person who suffers from some adverse circumstance.

What does it mean to have a mentality? A habitual or characteristic mental attitude that determines how you will interpret and respond to situations.

What is a role?

A role or a social role is a set of connected behaviors, rights and obligations as conceptualized by actors in a social situation. It is mostly defined as an expected behavior in a given individual social status and social position. Roles and mentalities are very similar and they often walk hand in hand (ie you will have certain mentalities based on the roles you play).

What does it mean to be a hero?

The main character in a story, who drives the plot, or around whom plot is structured. Often, but not always the protagonist.

What is the ego?

In Psychoanalysis the conscious mind, self: your consciousness of your own identity

What is an archtype? An originally Jungian term referring to the primordial and universal images that he believed underlie and are manifested in myth, symbol, religion, art, and personal understandings of the world, and "evoke deep and sometimes unconscious responses".

Now that we have our definitions straight let’s get started shall we? We have a dictionary definition of what it means to be a hero but I would like to reframe that. I believe the hero is the person who is the author of his own story and reframes his wounds into a source of power. At one point or another in our lives we have all been emotionally hurt. I am not here to judge who had it better or worse. What I am here to say is that by looking at the traumas you experienced you can find both strength from within yourself and compassion for others who have either experienced the same situation, or who are also victims (remember the definition is “some form of adverse circumstances, it doesn’t specifically say what”).

A lot of times I get asked via private messages (or in the original thread) well how do I accomplish xyz (whatever the subject of the article is). I will try to make this point over and over about how to accomplish the reframing of your stories and thus the roles you play in them. I believe this will be by far my most important contribution to the community. This is really important guys so please take it in doses if need be.

You begin this process by shedding your metaphorical skin (much like a snake does because the body has outgrown it). The former stories are part of you yes, they always will be, but they don’t have to define you, you don’t have to be limited by the roles of your previous story (more on this later). Once you release yourself from these roles (which are limitations by the very fact that they are definitions), you become empowered to weave a new yarn. The new story in which you are no longer the guy who doesn’t get girls, the high school loser, the child whose life was destroyed by his parents, etc.

These roles you have decided to play are merely arbitrary labels that you have created to explain who you are and what happened to you. These personal tales are just stories you have created, they ARE NOT YOU. Whether the stories are a byproduct of your own creation or someone else created them for you, you confuse them with reality. This is where suffering begins.

Buddha said attachment is the root of all suffering. I am not going to get into a philosophical debate about Buddhism (though I think it is super interesting and have made a study of both it and Zen). In this case we are attached to labels, roles, (whatever), that affix to our story. These characters are like demons who will never go away and constantly want to be fed and nurtured. We MUST exorcise them.

See here is the issue; because we really believe this (remember our definition of mentality), the demons will not go away. They literally hover over us, the guy who wishes he had done something different and wonders why he is alone, the haunting of a relationship that destroyed us (this actually leads people into the community; at least it led me and many of my students).

Side note, I believe if someone were to ever conduct a survey on what drives people into the community I believe it would be the haunting by the great love they once had and how they are unable to duplicate that. They are scared they will forever be alone, that they got “lucky” that one time. That’s just a guess based on talking to 100’s of students. These demons manifest as voices in your head and no matter how hard you try you can’t silence them. They just won’t leave you alone.

There is an old riddle that says what eats and eats and eats until there is nothing left to eat? The answer is a fire. The problem with our stories, these roles, and the demons is we are more than willing to feed them. There is ALWAYS more to eat. There are plenty of people in their 50’s who wish they had been a better parent, people in their 20’s who want to do high school over again, and the ghost of the love that we lost and will not stop haunting us.

We are our own worst enemy.
We sit there and think and think and beat ourselves up. We are way too hard on ourselves. One think I teach in the inner game portion of my bootcamps is the power of forgiveness; the power of forgiving yourself and others. I might write an article on that. Two of my next topics that people will vote on are gratitude and forgiveness (along with the other 3 that never seem to go away lol).

All these stories are logical rationalizations for why we act the way we do. It’s not my fault… It was my parents, I didn’t go to a good enough school, I was born too short, not pretty enough, not rich enough, etc. Now here comes the mindfuck #1. As long as we cling to these stories and believe they are real all we are doing is feeding the ghosts and we are not really healing. At first glance this might appear counterintuitive… It might seem like we are healing because we are dealing with our emotions but we are not. We are stuck in repetitive cycle of self abuse that does not help us change anything.

How do we craft new stories? We can start by recognizing how experiences in our childhood helped mold us while we were malleable. A lot of these experiences are via by our parents, peer group, location and our culture. It is time to outlive that story and to craft a new one that is more aligned with a Hero’s journey. You can let go of the guy who was not successful with women, the parent who made errors while parenting or the child who was victimized because his parents were unable to parent. It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day.

I am not trying to trivialize how hard this is. These stories are so engrained and internalized in us that when we rethink them we might actually regress. This is because we falsely believe that these stories are who we are. While thinking about his story of victimization the confident CEO might actually slump his shoulders and walk with his head down as he recalls tales of abuse at his parent’s hand. This is one of the reasons we focus so much on body language in bootcamps Her words (yours also), can lie, but here body never can (unless she’s a stripper and then we are talking about very specific exceptions not the general rule.)

Whatever view you have of your role in your story you will embody and people will respond to you in kind. Especially women who are much better at reading non verbal information then men. They have to… it’s a survival skill. Don’t believe me? Test it out, wait till some guy hits on one of your female friends and creeps her out. Ask about if she felt the guy was creepy and if so why?

Most of the times you will get a response like, ”I don’t why I feel that way… he just was.” What is really happening is that he is inadvertently tripping off the creepy alarm by a combination of things. She doesn’t even know why but in her mind she has enough data to come back with that judgment, it’s an unconscious process which is why she is unaware of it.

Ready for our second mindfuck? Let’s talk about why we cling to our stories. Why why why? We cling to our stories because we actually benefit from them all the while they are also causing us suffering. Huh? Usually the main payoff is the lack of need to change and the ego’s glory of being a victim. People are creatures are inherently lazy, most people do what they do because they HAVE TO DO IT. Not because they want to.

Pop psyche 101 says humans align with pleasure and move away from pain. Humans are also creatures of habit and most fear change (a great book to read if you have this problem is who moved my cheese). In Buddhism they say the only constant is change (this goes along with why we suffer because we are attached to things; situations, roles, events, people, etc).

It is easier to stay bad with girls (for a variety reasons, one is how close this skillset is to the gender role of being a man. Another is how much honesty it takes to fix all the different parts of your life to be successful with women. To get really high quality girls so much has to be right… I really believe pickup is the pinnacle of self-improvement.)

See, to admit we need to be better with girls we first have to admit some kind of deficiency. That would mean work and new patterns and the shattering of our ego’s little notion of comfort. Also it is way easier to blame everything and everyone under the sun then it is to man up and say no mas.

Finally another reason is you would have to release the ego’s need to be in charge of telling the story. Hang tight we are about to go for a ride. The ego is the very self itself (weird saying self twice in a row but alas I digress). The ego has a super powerful drive to stay alive… it will just about do anything to ensure its survival. In this case it will even fight off the very healing you are trying to accomplish when you feed the demons. It needs to be right. Let me provide an example.

Ever argue with someone and in your heart of hearts you wanted to stop fighting and find common ground? Why didn’t you stop fighting? Probably because your ego insisted that you were right (had more knowledge, had the better argument, whatever) and thus you felt you needed to be right. You HAD TO HAVE that validation. Your ego has played a big trick on you, it has tricked you into thinking that if you let go of your stories you will lose your identity. Well if I am not the victim, the xyz, then who am I? Who am I???

What’s scary is that our stories are really the equivalent to a death sentence for the hero within us. They demand that we fit into very narrow boxes and whatever doesn’t fit in that box we scrap. Am I pickup artist? God , I hate that term. I am a guy who is pretty social and good with girls yes but that doesn’t define me. I am also, a son, a friend, a lover, a teacher, a student and so many other things. What / who I am is an enigma and with each day (and each bootcamp weirdly enough) I learn more and more about what and who that is.

Most roles have to end, if you define yourself as a pickup artist will you really be doing pickup at 60, 70, 80? If you are a teacher won’t you eventually retire, if you are a parent wont your kids grow up and eventually leave home? How will your roles shift then? You will have to create a new identity and this can be so scary for some. People really fear change.

Mindfuck #3 (not that we are counting or anything lol); every character in your story presents false evidence of who you are. When you insist in seeing others in only the role you feel they play in your story (parent, employer, student, sibling,) you lose out on the opportunity of seeing who they truly are. This is one of the reasons I get so many good reviews. I don’t just see a student, I see a human being who I can find good things about and who I can learn from and bond with.

It is not a mistake that more than once people have written about me they feel that they have made a lifelong friend. That’s because they have. That’s because I don’t see just see limit myself t seeing them in the student role and nothing else.

Every story has characters that play roles. Assuming the role of the hero means to drop the roles that limit us and that we identity with and the beliefs they hold to be true (especially limiting beliefs if nothing else but better to drop the entire role).

I saw someone with a quote on another messageboard I am on that said this: Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny. This is a classic example of the true self is always coming through and why roles that we identify with that our negative are toxic to our very existence.

What defines a role? A role is a hodpodge of beliefs and expectations (this could also be called a mentality). When these expectations are not met by others we have a strong emotional reaction (usually a negative one). When we scrap our roles we can just do and just be (the power of now). We no longer take things personally because we transcend our ego’s incessant need for both validation and attention (easier said than done I know).

Why should we shed our stories? It seems like it is a lot of work (it is!!) The best reason to let go of your stories is because in your stories you can never truly heal. You are too attached. Your terrible siblings will continue to be terrible, you will continue to be bad with girls, you will continue down the path of negativity because that is what the story is built around. It is a self fulfilling prophecy.

However what you can do is create an epic tale of a hero’s journey because if you are going to write a story it might as well be grandiose (go big or go home). Let them be empowering tales. My old story was one of mistrust, hate, of having my childhood ruined, of thinking I was black while I was white to going back to black to white. A story of getting beaten up, of parents throwing me away, of people who I loved and trusted destroying me. I use to think God had it in for me man. My new story is one of triumphing adversity of hitting rock bottom to rise from my ashes like a phoenix (which is why I identity with the symbolism so much). A story of how some kid 5 7 165 at grey hair has become a MM / Lovesystems Instructor (and a pretty good one based on my reviews, sorry ego moment lol). My story is one of hope, of love, of seeing the best in my students and the best that life has to offer. I was never a victim, I see that now. These new stories are way better than the old ones. The ones where I was so damaged that I thought I could never trust people again.

I want to say again that NONE OF THE STORIES ARE TRUE. They are just tales you have created to explain reality from an egocentric point of view. They live on (as do the demons) because you continue to live in the past (in the present, living in the past in the present, sounds weird but very true). You continue to be the guy who was hurt by his parents, who was cheated on by his ex, is an underappreciated employee, etc. Even the new empowering stories are not really true. They will help you navigate the path of life but they are not the path itself. (The map is not the territory NLP heads make some noise!!!)

It’s only when we create these new empowering stories that we can truly begin to heal. We can drop the story of how our mom was selfish and how things could have turned out differently if only if. If only if is a virus IMO (along with cocky funny but alas I digress). Maybe a new positive story is one of how our mother taught us the value of being independent (does anyone see the reframing going on here?) We can think about our stepfather who was cruel and judgmental and script a new story of how when we are judgmental and cruel we will hurt people. How in a twisted way this person taught us to value tolerance.

You know if more people put together these stories we probably could just dump most psychotherapy. I suggest you try Anthony Robin’s 10 positivity challenge. Sinn told me about this. For 10 days you have to reframe every negative thought that comes into your mind within 2 minutes. If at any point you can’t do it (say 9.75 days in) you start at day 1 again. Mad hard but an amazing experience, I just reframe reframes now if that makes any sense. If you look at my field report from Atlanta where I had the first shit test that was just me being me. I didn’t think “how am I going to past this test”. I don’t have to try to pass tests. I just exist and pass them. Kind of zen I guess.

Now we are about go even deeper. Let’s talk about the 3 archetypal characters in our stories. Before we can begin healing, (and really that is why I wrote this article, to help others heal, I constantly have students who will benefit from this), we need to be aware of these stories that we are telling ourselves. Most people don’t even know that these stories exist (you do because you are reading this but to the average person they are destination clueless).

You might, even though you are reading this, not be aware of just how tightly your ego will cling to the stories. You might get defensive and think you have a right to hold on to your “truths”. You might think thoughts like that you truly have been abandoned, or victimized, betrayed, hurt, destroyed, etc. If you can do what it takes to let go of these limiting roles you can change your life man. You can reinvent yourself and create a story that is empowering, one of hope, overcoming of negativity one that will not only change you but how people react to you.

There are 3 main archetypes that show up again and again as reoccuring roles in victimizing / disempowering stories. These 3 characters form what is called the triangle of disempowerment. These characters are the victim, the perpetrator (bully) and the rescuer. A classic example would be a child who needs to be taken into child services, that is the victim. The bully is the parents and the rescuer is the child service worker.

As I said earlier people work in patterns. When we play the role of victim in the triangle we create bonds with both other characters but we are creating bonds over trauma. In classic literature on victimization these are commonly referred to as trauma bonds . We are due to act out these roles over and over again because in a sense it is easier to do this then change. It is the same reason that you talk to people in dysfunctional marriages or relationships and ask why they don’t just leave and they sigh and look at you with this look of the walking dead and go they just can’t. Bullshit, they just won’t. The best odds of healing are when people step out of these roles but that is way easier said than done. We are more comfortable defining ourselves by what has happened in the past.

When we retell (reframe) our stories we can begin to uncover the powerful and empowering messages that these stories have for us. It is then that we begin to forgive and begin our journey of healing. Unfortunately as we change people will not necessarily change with us and may drift out of our lives. This has come up time and time again on the forum, whether it is afc friends who don’t like the idea of you doing approaches and not drinking as much. Or friends who use to belittle that don’t like the idea that you are no longer engaging in self deprecating humor to the girl who has been treating you poorly and now does not like that you are no longer accepting her second class behavior.

If you look to others to foster this and encourage you to explore your new self you might find yourself disappointed. This is why you have to align yourself with likeminded people (like people found in lairs although some of those people need to heal also). I have met 2 people from this board via the wing forum and I can say that both are still my friends and one of them is a best friend now. That being said I have heard mixed results about lairs and the wing forum (I can’t comment on lairs because I am not associated with one).

We may have issues with a school teacher who is a nympho or likes BDSM or dj / promoter who is also a volunteer at a hostile or any other polarity of roles. However once we begin to pass less judgment and see people for beyond their roles we can truly love and experience who these people are. When you walk the way of the hero you get past your and other people’s roles.

One last thing I want to speak on is rewriting our story in regards to our parents. Only when we can make peace and no longer hold them responsible for our lives can we break the vicious cycle of behaviors we inherited from them (ever wonder why girls hate being told they are just like their mother lol). We let go out of stories such as I am bad with girls because my mother damaged me, or I am a failure because my father was too hard on me. We can make peace and no longer be a victim of what was done to us. We can be thankful and be grateful for all our gifts, experiences and opportunities no matter how painful it was to receive them.

I want to dedicate this article to 3 people. My father who didn’t live long enough to watch his boy become a man. Who didn’t know how to be parent and participated in destroying my childhood. To my mother who will never live down what she did to me no matter how much I tell her I have forgiven her. She will take our history to the grave and never forgive herself and that really makes me sad to the point of tears while I write this. Finally to my best friend someone who betrayed and hurt me so much that I never thought I would be able to trust someone again. He is back in my life and In a lot of ways he helped me become the person I am today and I will never be able to repay that debt no matter how hard I try.

I forgive them all for everything because it was not their fault. At the time they were victims also and just playing their part in my / their stories.

______________________

CARLOS XUMA COMMENTS:

WOW, thanks man… I'm always jazzed up when I find that someone I've collaborated with (Fader is in the new Ultimate Inner Game program) has the same understanding and perceptions regarding confidence with women.

I talk about this in the new program as well, as being our stories, and how we all have a hand in creating this story of our life.

But ultimately only one person will write that story down permanently, and that's YOU.

VERY soon, I'm going to show you how to re-write that story the way YOU want it to be read - and lived.

ULTIMATE INNER GAME…

Bulletproof Self-Confidence…

Total Social & Sexual Success.

Alpha Lifestyle Skills

The Inner Game of Approaching

January 14th, 2009

One of my contributors to the new Ultimate Inner Game just sent me this great article
on developing the habit of approach.

This is…

Forming the Approach Habit

- Keychain

‘We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.’ Aristotle

Most of us are awake and moving about the world during the day far more than at night.

We shop, we work, we eat and we travel. For those of us who live in or near a populated

area like a city, there are lots of opportunities to meet beautiful women in the daytime.

When I first arrived at university, I would go out at night with my friends to meet girls.

Perhaps three or four times a week we would hit the club and spend hours approaching

groups of women and hitting on them. Later, after finding the community and armed

with new knowledge, I would increase this practice and often go alone to bars and clubs

to meet new people and exercise my social muscle. I felt nervous at first but after a

couple of approaches in an evening this feeling would fade. After that, it was as if my

motor was running, I’d have a sense of flow, excitement and social lubrication. After

those initial nervous conversations, I felt acclimatised to approaching strangers and

could work on other aspects of my game beyond the opening.

Inevitably, the night would end, with all its various ups and downs. I’d go to sleep, wake

up in the morning. Lo and behold, the next time I went out to the bar, that fear of

approach was once again back to bother me.

Going out for a big session of ‘sarging’, as the community slang refers to it, is great for

practicing core aspects of your game but something we are not practicing as intensely is

overcoming that initial reluctance to approach, often referred to as ‘approach anxiety’.

This is simply because after a couple of interactions, this feeling fades. After that initial

warm-up period, we usually find the social motor is running, we’re having fun and

opening without too much worry. It doesn’t last. Every time we go out, this feeling tends

to crop up to be overcome once again.

It is generally accepted that this is just the way it must be. The oft-prescribed solution is

to ‘burn’ through some warm-up sets to get in the right mood. But what if it was

possible to greatly minimise that feeling of nervousness over time so that you could

generate the momentum to approach at any time to wish without the need to ‘warm

up’? What if there was a way to form a habit of approaching beautiful girls?

Picture the scene, you’re shopping for groceries, on public transport or walking down

the street and you see a beautiful girl. You don’t have the advantage of the mental run-

up from making a conscious decision to ‘go sarging’, you have no wingmen to spur you

on, you can’t just burn through two or three sets to get on a roll and then approach the

girl. You’re just going about your daily life and ‘bam!’, a hot girl appears! Do you

approach? Can you approach?

Forming the Approach Habit.

‘Approach the first hot girl you see every day. It will change your life.’ – Sasha

Begin an interaction with a stranger, preferably a beautiful woman, everyday. This

begins to form an approach habit – the daily habit of initiating conversation with

someone from cold. Over time, this habit can become so ingrained that it will actually

feel strange not to approach a hot girl. The energy that you previously experienced as

fear and panic will morph into excitement, playfulness and enjoyment.

This will not only help you greatly minimise approach anxiety, but the daily routine will

have you meeting more girls than ever before.

Training Your Eye

Forming the approach habit will also go a long way towards training your eye to become

aware of the opportunities already present in your surroundings. If you know you need

to approach at least one girl in your lunch break for instance, you get good at noticing

the attractive girls all around you.

It is not unusual, a week or so into this, for students to say things along the lines of, ‘I

never realised there were so many hot girls around here!’ Sometimes we can work and

live in an area for years without realising the opportunities all around us.

Don’t Run the Perfect Set

Don’t worry about running the perfect set in every one of these interactions. At first,

don’t even worry about continuing the conversation. If you are short on time, just make

your daily interaction a quick one. Remember, we are forming the approach habit. For

this purpose, it is more important at first to approach than to close. Don’t let the

pressure of ‘what do I say next’ and ‘what if…’ questions dissuade you from taking

action.

When you spot that girl, and you get that feeling of ‘I should/could/can/want to

approach her’ – go talk to her. If it lasts ten seconds or ten minutes, it doesn’t matter –

just approach. Form the approach habit.

Avoid Burnout

‘Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs

a step at a time.’ Mark Twain

It’s much like joining a gym. In the first flush of enthusiasm and novelty, the temptation

is to go very frequently and stay for hours, working really hard. But continue down this

road and it is very likely you’ll experience burn out. You lose your motivation and weeks

go by before you darken the gym door again (if at all!). It is much more sensible (and

healthy) to do shorter workouts and ration that drive for the long haul health benefits of

regular exercise.

Consider this point when embarking on your mission to form the approach habit. One a

day for a month is far better than ten in two days, burning out and flaking for the rest of

the month.

Find Your Window

Look at your lifestyle, find the window of time where you can make your daily approach

and stick to it. For me, I had a long commute, so I would use the train journey and

approach at least one girl on the way into London and one on the way out of London.

For you’re your lunch break might be and ideal time. Whatever it is, find your window.

Scale It Up

It can feel more challenging to approach during the day without a wing to encourage

you.

If you’re alone and feeling nervous, just take off some pressure. Scale the opener you

use – if you’re petrified, you don’t have to start direct and ballsy, start more situational

and low-key. For example, a functional opener such as, ‘Hey excuse me, do you know if

there’s a Starbucks around here?’ is much easier to muster the courage to deliver than ‘I

saw you from across the street and I just had to come say hi…because I think you’re

gorgeous!’ If you gradually scale up your material, just as you would add weight to your

bench press routine, you will be able to deliver the latter opener with ease and

enthusiasm.

Fashion

If you’re going to form this habit, be ready. Always leave the house dressed well,

whatever that means for your lifestyle. Throw out your bad clothes so you won’t be

tempted to wear them – don’t let the fact that you’re dressed badly be an excuse to not

approach. Dressing well has a positive impact on your interactions with everyone in your

life.

Wing/Mentor

Your daily approaches should be done solo for maximum growth, but it can help to have

a wing or accountability buddy who will check in with you every day to make sure

you’ve done your approach. This added motivation can give you the kickstart you need

to start forming the habit.

Conclusion

Does this mean no more sarging? No!

‘Sarging’ is great for getting your game tight – perhaps your attraction phase needs

tweaking or your comfort game lacks connection. Go out, hit the clubs and bars, do a

ton of sets. The trick is to combine this with daily approaching to build and sustain the

approach habit and you’ll go a long way towards achieving your relationship goals.

I often think of the ability to approach as a muscle. For every approach you make, you

grow that muscle. For every approach you back out of, you weaken it.

Make those approaches, build your courage. The results may very well astound you.

Good luck!

Keys

______________________

CARLOS XUMA COMMENTS:

Great stuff, man. (Keychain is one of the contributors to my new Ultimate Inner Game program.)

I know that a lot of guys think of approach anxiety first when they think about the whole "inner game" and confidence part of their life.

We'd like to think that it's having something cool to say that makes all the difference in approaching women, but it's actually meaningless.

I've had guys walk up to women and say random things like "I'm happier in the morning" or "I like pop tarts."

In fact, the more random the opener, the more you'll spike her curiosity.

It's all in the attitude that backs you up, and that's all part of ULTIMATE inner game.

Want to get your game Bulletproof?

Stay tuned…

Alpha Lifestyle Skills

Developing Inner Game - Special Guest Article - Cajun

January 12th, 2009

You guys might know Cajun from the guy that was on "Keys to the VIP."

Well, he's also participating in the new Ultimate Inner Game project, and he's recorded some new content for me. I thought I'd share this article he wrote for you…
______________________

Developing Inner Game by Cajun

Inner game is probably one of the most popular subjects in the community. It’s a major sticking point for nearly everyone who has trouble talking to women and it’s a problem that can be difficult to fix as well, since it tends to be rooted in a lifetime’s worth of negative beliefs that are based on things like fear and rejection. Inner game is also a topic that I think can only be discussed from a personal level, that is, I can’t convince you how to think or look at life differently, only you can, but I can tell you how I overcame the very same problems, and hope that you can learn from my experiences.

So what is it?

To me, inner game problems boils down to two things: your experience and your mindset. Every problem you run into with not just women, but life itself, can be attributed to one of these two areas. I’m going to get into both of these, and give some personal insights, so hopefully by the end of this article you’ll have a clearer understanding of what exactly it is that you need to work on to fix your own issues.

Experience:

When people ask me how I developed my “Rock solid confidence”, I always answer the same; “Practice”. When you think about what confidence actually is you realize that its simply doing something that you’ve done enough times to be comfortable with. It’s only when were thrown into situations that are unfamiliar to us that we start to lose confidence in ourselves. The sad and somewhat ironic reality is that most men are not comfortable talking to women simply because they don’t talk to women! It’s a negative feedback loop that’s perpetuated by a fear of “what might go wrong”. This is bullshit! To be scared of the possible negative outcomes is to be scared of the very thing that enables you to get better!

Think about it this way; when you were learning to ride a bike, were you too scared to get on because of a fear that you might fall down? Maybe, but you got on anyway because you saw how much fun all the other kids were having, even then you realized that the reward was worth the risk. Well this is the same thing, I remember when I first started out with this stuff I used to get drinks thrown in my face, told off, or simply ignored. The first few weeks were rough; it took me a while before I got used to rejection enough that I could understand where I went wrong. Getting used to rejection isn’t easy, but the best advice I can give you is to simply accept it, don’t get mad at her or yourself, don’t go home, just accept that it’s a completely normal, and necessary part of the learning process. You can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs. The sooner you realize that rejection is a necessary evil, the sooner you can come to terms with it and move past it.

Mind Set:

Most of us grew up in a society that believed in a 2 concentric circle model of reality. That is, the outer circle being reality, or the world around us, and the inner circle being our consciousness. We experience the outer circle; reality, through our inner circle; our consciousness. This is how we believed reality worked; that our consciousness was independent of it…but recently this all changed.

We are now learning through quantum physics that reality is actually the inner circle, and that our consciousness is the outer circle. That is; reality exists inside our mind, we create our own reality with our thoughts (Or beliefs, if you’d rather).

What does this mean?

As far as any of us know, there may only be 1 reality; your own. Who’s to say I’m not a figment of your imagination, your reality, writing this entire article out to send a message to YOU, from your subconscious mind. It’s possible.

The truth is, whether any of us actually exist or not is irrelevant. Life is a game, and it’s a game that a lot of people are scared to play. Don’t be one of them.

I recently received an email from a student of mine asking about the power of beliefs, and how they work. I replied with the following:

“Think of it this way: what if, let’s say, 15 years from now programmers invent this computer game that is virtually identical to reality. The AI is so smart you can’t tell it’s not a real person. The five senses are so accurately programmed that there is no detectable difference to reality. Now, you get to play this game, but the programmer tells you some hints on how to play, he says this:

“This software is programmed to work intuitively with your brain. So, if you want to be, let’s say, a rich Casanova in the game, then all you have to do is believe that you ARE a rich Casanova, and you will become one. The trick is you have to actually believe it, and then the program takes care of the rest. In fact you can have, and be anything you want in this program as long as you ask for it using these “beliefs”. Think of it as your “console hack”"

I’m sure you saw this coming, but this “game” already exists and it’s called reality. You become who you believe you are.”

Sound a little like the matrix? Well that’s ok, like I said; I can only give advice on inner game from my own personal perspective and this is simply how I believe reality works.

I’ll end this article with something that I’ve never written about before:

I remember the very night that I became good at attracting women, I remember because I had an epiphany that night and it was so mind-blowing that I had to write it down as soon as I came home. It has since become my mantra, and I know that if down the road I ever forget everything that I’ve learned in the past few years, all I will have to do is read this piece of paper and it will all come back. What does the paper say?

“The secret to becoming amazing at attracting women is…to remember that you already are.”

- Cajun

Alpha Lifestyle Skills

The Silent Killer of Inner Game…

January 11th, 2009

The Silent Killer of Success with Women – and How to Stop It

Or

How to Get Rid of Shame

I love being in my garden in the backyard of my house in San Francisco… It's a classic hidden oasis in the middle of a bustling international city. On sunny days I'll go back there and chillax beneath my favorite tree.

However, for some time now, I've been noticing that my tree isn't doing so well. In fact, week after week, it's been looking sicker and weaker. Bark has started to peel off, and branches are becoming dead and brittle. WTF?!

So this week I decided to take a closer look and I finally found the culprit:

A weed. A really big, vine-like, monster-sized weed that looked like it was choking the life out of my tree.

When I saw it, it was like I had caught a criminal: "A-ha! GOTCHA!"

So I grasped the weed and gave it a sharp tug. Then I gasped. All around me, the whole back yard seemed to shake!

This f***ing weed had worked it's way through every tree in my back yard!

It must have been there for years… at first just a small sprout at the base of the huge trunk. But it began to grow, slowly and imperceptibly wrapping itself around the trunk of the tree, making its way toward the top, unnoticed. Eventually it was completely restricting the tree, sufficating its growth… and doing this to almost every other plant in the yard.

This is similar to one of the most crippling "inner game" sticking points - it's incredibly elusive and hard to catch. And even though I find it to be THE single most common sticking point, nobody talks about it for two very big reasons:

1) By its very nature, like a weed on a tree, it is designed to blend in. Because we don't notice it, it doesn't show up in our awareness. And…

2) Nobody wants to admit the grip that this insidious element has on them. And so it continues to OWN them…

This Inner Game "weed" that I'm referring to is…

SHAME.

Yep. Shame. We feel shame when there is any part of ourselves that we don't fully and completely accept, any part of ourselves that we think is "wrong" or "bad" or "not good enough."

Shame grows gradually, mostly unnoticed, purposefully ignored, throughout our lives. It doesn't seem very important… until one day you wake up and realize it has become a monstrous weed choking your vitality, energy, self-image and especially…your connecting with women.

And that's only if you're aware enough to notice it in the first place! Otherwise, it's just a nagging feeling and a growing sense of frustration about how your ability to create attraction and connection with women feels squelched and "choked off"… and you don't know why!

The Ultimate Weed Whacker of Shame

However, there is one thing that I know of that is the ultimate "weed whacker" of shame:

Presence.

See, the weeds of shame don't like to be seen. Shame is designed to make you think there is no separation between "it" (the weed) and "you" (the tree).

With Presence, however, you can finally see how this sneaky little organism has worked its way all through your life, and you can you start pulling it out by the roots. Without Presence, shame can choke the life out of you, and your interactions with women.


Bryan Bayer
CEO, Authentic Man Program

______________________

CARLOS XUMA COMMENTS:

Most guys are unaware of just how much shame is ruining their inner game.

Let's face it - in the last 20-30 years, men have been put in the position of having their inner game crushed because media and society (and yes, to some degree, women) have made us ashamed of who we are and what we are as MEN.

Men are sexual creatures that love the look and form of women.

From naked boobies to the nether regions, women are just a treat and delight to behold - clothed or unclothed.

Does this mean we don't appreciate and cherish the INNER elements of femininity?

Absolutely not… We love the parts of women that make them so wonderful to be around. When a woman knows how to be feminine, I find it the most erotically exciting kind of interaction.

Weeding out any shame in your life should be a top priority for you, and something that I'm targeting in the new "Ultimate Inner Game" stuff I've got for you…

Stay tuned for more from our guest speakers in the next couple days… and a new video coming VERY soon…

Alpha Lifestyle Skills

Here's the Inner Game of the "Jerk" - A little 'Shark Bite…'

January 9th, 2009

FJ SHARK: The Social Sales Pitch—Who’s Selling Who?

It’s been said that:

“The illusion that one woman differs

from another is called– love.”

Who would be crazy enough to pay an inflated premium price for a depreciating product that is selling at its all time high; sold to you from a manipulative salesperson who wanted you to sign a contract stating that if you ever decided to default, it would cost you half of you assets and a garnishment of your income for years in the future? The answer is: the thousands of men that marry women every day!

What if I was even willing to tell you that the person selling the product knew ahead of time that it was highly addictive, and that the cost of goods sold (“COGS” for you accounting majors) was equal to zero, which translates to any price being pure profit - - Now how do you feel about it?

Women are selling themselves with the same sales pitch that is used for cigarettes, alcohol and other drugs that have expensive prices, cheap highs and a monopoly on an increasing price –which is the result of addiction to the product. They use what I call their “sexual sales pitch” in order to get you emotionally involved with them, which eliminates any sense of logic your friends and family might try to pound into your head.

It’s true, in its natural form, the word illusion means: to deceive one’s intellect. When are men at their most vulnerable point in their life and really feel they need someone to believe in them? The answer is between the ages of 20 to 30 as they are just starting a new career that they have been preparing for years. Wow! What a coincidence! That is exactly the same time frame that women are pitching their “product” in order to get what I call the “Ultimate Sale” - - Marriage!

I’ve always said that:

“Women are the Best

Salespeople in the World!

A Salesperson’s Greatest Challenges,

Mental Satisfaction,

And Highest Emotional Highs

are Created from Making a Sale

to Those Who Were NEVER Interested

to Begin with.

This is Why the Customers

That Don’t Look ‘Hungry’

Will Always Be Fed.”

You wouldn’t ever be dumb enough to keep chasing a used car salesperson and do business only when they had nothing better to do would you? So why would you even consider running after another salesperson trying to sell you her over-priced, depreciating product in the Social Marketplace? Her product probably already has too many miles put on it from all the other drivers who managed to blow her engine by “putting it to the test” and “seeing what that baby can do!”

I’m not saying to only drive cars with no miles on them (i.e. virgins) because some products such as boats, airplanes and helicopters, are actually more valuable when they have a year or so of experience than when they were first built because it proves that they function properly. Not to mention classic antique cars that are worth 100’s of times more than they were the year they were first made. All I am suggesting is that she have her best times and most fun when she is with you, not through memories of somebody else.

If men get to “buy into” all that expensive, depreciating, addictive, legally binding good stuff–what are women getting in return? They are buying into men at their all time lowest point financially, with the security of a steady paycheck, which will add to the appreciation of his net-worth (and hopefully early retirement—for her because women usually out live men!).

So let’s get this straight. Men buy into a physically attractive, depreciating woman at their all time “beauty high” (20-30 years old) after they have had all their fun with Jerks and offered much lower prices for more, emotional, mental and sexual service in the past. Because it was at its all time high, it now has nowhere to go but down. Women buy into financially appreciating men at their all time “financial low” (20-30 years old) and because it’s usually at its all time low, has nowhere to go but up. What a great deal! Where do I sign? - - NOT!

Street smart beautiful women don’t have to go to school and study incredibly boring subjects with hopes of getting out in the real world and finding a job. All they have to do is keep themselves physically attractive and wait for some Nice-guy to complete college and find a well paying career or start a business. All the while they are dating she gets to play a game of cat and mouse with him by leading him around by the nose and making him believe he’s chasing her. Then you’ll see the meaning behind the old female phrase that says: “I’ll let him chase me, till I catch him.”

Hmmm.

Ask an older woman about this phrase, I’m sure they’ve heard it before. Surprisingly enough, it’s usually the guy that brings up the idea of marriage by this time, and women have all they can do to keep from laughing.

The reason I say they are laughing is because it is equivalent to the customer selling himself on the product and closing himself on the deal without any effort on the part of the salesperson. It’s as if the salesperson was running around chasing other sales from prospective buyers and then when they realize that their time is running out (i.e. biologically clock is ticking), they finally settle for the best qualified buyer (with a good credit score and predictable income) that is still around.

To top it off, they even act like you’re bothering them. Then they act like they are doing you a favor by letting you pay for their product. Then when they’re done laughing all the way to the bank, they’re laughing all the way to a tropical vacation that you paid for. And you probably couldn’t go on the tropical vacation because you were too busy working in order to pay for the tropical vacation. She’ll probably be forced to settle for going on the trip with her girlfriends who are busy doing the same thing to their husbands and boyfriends.

Hello?

Do you see a pattern here?

This is why it’s important for women to have their own career, their own business and their own money. If women earn their own money they can appreciate the value of a dollar and more importantly you can worry a little less about them taking and abusing your money. I believe women are better at business because they are better at relationships and that’s what good business is built on. It’s definitely a better choice to be partners with a woman and have the advantage of putting all of her networking ability to use for you, rather than trying to go up against it.

I highly encourage women to use their great selling skills, negotiating techniques and persuasion power to good use in the business and make the world a better place. If you’re with a woman who uses her skills to sell and influence others in the business world you’ll be able to see her techniques up close and personal without the harmful side effects. The other good news is that you’ll also be able to see it coming a mile away because you’ll know what to look for. That way you can easily and playfully call her on any B.S. she might throw your way.

If there is one point you remember from this entire book, remember that in the Social Marketplace men are not the sales people who should be focusing on selling the benefits they have to offer such as college, a business, and a career but rather - - Women are the salespeople, and they are the best!

Forget about impressing a woman’s parents with where you work and what your Father does for a living because women are the ones with their biological clocks ticking because they know they’re not getting any younger!

Women are the ones that need to find a buyer for their depreciating product because just like on the high school track team, it’s not only the runners against each other, it’s the runners against the clock.

My grandfather told me years ago never to get married until I was at least 30 years old. At the time, I had no idea why he was telling me to wait for what I thought was an eternity. He already knew that the prices of women drop substantially around that age because women are more open and willing to give you a great deal on their product, the same way a used car salesperson is trying to unload this year’s model because next year’s new and improved “models” with a more sleek look and sexier appeal will be in the showroom soon.

Every woman on the planet lives in fear of the idea that every day they grow older and things on their body are starting to droop, wrinkle and sag. If they didn’t, then the cosmetic industry wouldn’t exist and plastic surgeons would go broke. I remember when I heard a President from one of the world’s leading cosmetic company’s saying in a press conference that he believes that her company doesn’t sell cosmetics, they sell “hope”.

Women know that every day the competition in the Social Marketplace is flooded with women with their young, hot and tight bodies coming into the local nightclub to celebrate their 21st birthdays. That’s why women say things like: “Will you just look at that one over there with all the men around her, what a little slut.”

What she’s really saying is: “That young girl with the sexy body just increased the competition for every woman in here and decreased the attention I’ll be receiving from men. Now I’ll have to lower my expectations (i.e. price) to what man I can attract (i.e. sell my product to). As long as women are trying to sell us their product, we might as well respond and act like the smartest investors and consumers in the world:

Shop around. Play the field. The only thing that truly keeps prices down is competition. Keeping an uncommitted relationship helps keep you costs down because women are lowering their prices as they try desperately to plant themselves in your mind. Women already know men think about sex every 8 seconds, they just want to get enough air time for their product.

______________________

CARLOS XUMA COMMENTS:

Thanks to FJ for this…

I always feel like slamming my book shut and saying, "Thus endeth the lesson" after I read from the Book of Jerk. :)

Seriously, though…

One of the reasons I chose FJ to be a big contributor to my Ultimate Inner Game is that he really understands this key difference in how the "Jerk" thinks versus how the "Nice Guy" thinks. And when you get it, this usually solves a bunch of problems upping your game with women.

Neither FJ nor I want you to think this is some kind of "rant" against women, or that there's some hidden anger here against women.

Not so at all.

The only anger I've got is that guys aren't snapping out of their old mindsets quickly enough and getting this thinking under their control.

Winning the inner game of attraction is easy - when you know how to play the inner game to win.

Alpha Lifestyle Skills

Peacock Theory - and Inner Game

January 8th, 2009

QUESTION FROM A READER:

"hey what you think about peackcock theory of mystery, cause i like to use special hat even before to know about the pua, i think is veeery usefull to open, thats the sticking point of all the people."

______________________

CARLOS XUMA ANSWERS:

Well, believe it or not, this is an important INNER game question.

First of all, I always suggest that if something works for you - USE IT!

But always know WHY you're using it.

In other words, are you relying on your funny hat to do what you can be doing with your own personality? Or are you just in a situation where a little visual flair works to get people talking and interested?

I have my own peacocking items, too. But they're all personal to ME.

I have a pair of New Rock boots that are pretty cool, and I like to wear a special necklace when I go out. One or the other will eventually get attention.

But again, we Alpha Men are working towards the right goal - which is to be completely powered by our inner game, not slapping on some visual aids to make up for holes inside of us where we don't feel adequate.

I honestly feel like my personality is the craziest hat of all, and I wear that wherever I go. And often it's the silent knowledge that once I get going I'm going to have fun that gives me a calm sense of confidence in any situation.

Do you remember the kid at the playground that was always saying: "Look at me! Look at me!"

He got tiring. Pretty darn quick.

They say the empty can rattles the most, and this is so true.

So the two-prong advice I have for you is this:

1) If you need something to get you out there and opening women up for conversation, and it does the trick - then USE IT. Because being out there and talking to women is always better than NOT being out there.

2) Once you've evolved past this need, I suggest you get rid of the tricks. Because after a while, they become a crutch, and you'll find that your inner game will do much better when you are self-reliant and generating your Alpha Power from INSIDE.

What I see is that often times guys will use a quick gimmick - some outer game patch - to cover up the parts of them that they feel are inadequate or insecure about.

And that's a shame, because so many guys could be getting those areas TOTALLY fixed if they just do a few small things.

Most guys think that inner game work is the hardest, when in fact it's actually easier and more powerful than most of the routines out there.

Just remember, always ask yourself - WHY?

That's usually just as important as the WHAT.

Alpha Lifestyle Skills

New Video!

January 6th, 2009

My Secret 'Recipe' For Building BULLETPROOF Self-Confidence and Emotional Control With Women…

Alpha Lifestyle Skills