I've come from a long way. Got into the community exactly a year and half ago. Back then, I'd rather get beaten up than approach a woman. It was a hard thing to do. I've mastered that pretty quickly, but the next six months were hard. I talked many to girls I didn't really like and nothing went any where. I barely got a phone number.
I couldn't take it anymore. Day gamed for 30 days straight but with no luck. The frustration in me grew, day by day and I finally decided to go and take a bootcamp. Back then, I didn't have that much money and Charisma Arts offered a bootcamp. I took it.Had a decent experience in the bootcamp. Couldn't really do any thing Friday night. I was too confused. The worst part was opening with a friendly vibe because I didn't know how to smile and on top of that, I had a shitty voice. I didn't speak from the diaphragm. I spoke from my mouth and my voice wasn't loud in certain areas of the venue. Did a little better Saturday at the bookstore. I was barely starting to understand what relate/reward is (I didn't fully understand what this is until a year later). Saturday however, I did good. Ended up with a kiss close and 2 numbers. All of them flaked on me :)
For the next few months, I would go out and practice certain techniques such as DQs and Push Pulls. Slowly but surely, every thing was coming into place. I learned how to drop SOIs and how to smile but still no success in terms of a lot of lays from cold approach. Luckily for me, I've got decent at gaming on myspace so I knew if I wanted to, I could find some one to fuck.
I was still unhappy with my success. I saw newbies coming in and getting a lay after a month. I still couldn't really do it and I've been at this for 10 months now. Finally I said "FUCK IT. I had it with the game. I'm wont be in there anymore". So now when I went out, I didn't try to relate/reward. I didn't try to push pull or do any of that crap. Only thing I did was to get drunk with my friends and have fun. But some thing amazing happened. Every thing started to go right for me. I was talking to women non stop and I was having really fun interactions with them. On top of that, I was loosing a lot of weight and started to dress better. I became a happier person and that really reflected in the way I was communicating to people. I had too much fun now and when I have too much fun, I have no approach anxiety. Not even a little bit. I could see big groups of girls and wouldn't even hesitate to approach them. It was easy. I started to be myself. I didn't give a shit if I got blown out of set because deep down, I knew that if some one spoke to me long enough, they would like me. In community jargon, this is know as Assuming Attraction.
Also, by this time I was pulling irregular day2s and I realized that the community was not for me. I started to call my normal friends up and hang out with them more. But even then, I still had one major sticking point and it was getting the phone number but this was an easy cure. I told myself, the worse thing she can do is say "no" when I ask and started asking every girl for her number. Two weeks later, I was getting about 3 numbers every time I went out and I was able to pull one day2 a week. This is also the point where I realized that I didn't have any problem with meeting women anymore. I have become quote on quotes, a "PUA". Of course, I don't really subscribe to community language anymore, so I still see myself as a guy who goes out and haves fun but at the same time, it is easy to describe things using community terms, so I still use them.