So there I am, six months after ingesting the Red Pill and following my MAP. This will be my first progress report. As I'm writing this I'm on a beautiful Mediteranean island, sitting outside my tent and hearing the sea in the background. I came here alone, something I would never have done before RP. I would have been so sensitive to other peoples needs, that going away alone would have seem incredibly egotistical. Now I'm totally at peace and see this as an investment in myself.

One of the reasons I came here was for hiking the mountains. I love exercise, the outdoors, hiking and mountains. A colleague gave me this guidebook with some tracks on the island. These tracks come in three categories: blue, red and black, indicating their level of difficulty. Blue is easiest and black is hardest, where you really need some climbing experience to safely do these. So, first day, I set my alarm early at dawn just to get an early start. Before RP I would probably have been too tired because of the stresses of life and would also probably have felt entitled to some sleeping in. It was beautiful! I started in the most beautiful valley and climbed up through pine strewn forest on a 'red' track. After some hours I reached the top and enjoyed the view of the valley and the surrounding mountains. Feeling pretty good about myself I went down again. About halfway I encountered an older couple. He was aparantly not enjoying himself and had this big frown and was puffing away. He asked me how far it was till the top, on which I answered that it was probably an hour. His response was bitching and whining (not that I really understood his language) and his wife was standing there silently with a melancholic smile on her face. She was probably used to his whining and had accepted here fate, probably because he is a good provider.

Why am I telling you all this? That guy on the mountain used to be me. I would whine about my life and selfinduced fate (he did go up that mountain voluntarily I presume) and would never have the energy to actually reach one of my peaks/goals. I would also have been oblivious to the acceptant nature of my SO.

There is also a nice paralel to the track, the guidebook and RP. The book was given bij someone else, so here you have the RP-community. In this book are some tracks listed, which according to difficulty will make sure you can reach a certain goal. Here you have the sidebar. Once you are on the track its hard to miss where you are going. You just have to notice that some rocks and trees are marked with a red paint. Once you see this, there is no way you can get lost. The path is so consistently marked, that once you miss a mark for 50 metres, you have to double down, because you surely missed a bend. This has been RP for me, once you see it, there is no unseeing it. I work as a healthcare provider and since then have seen numerous guys caught in the whining of the AFC. I have also found that you can't RP another guy. It's something they have to figure out or come upon once they are ready.

Whilst on the track there is always loose rock. This is the shit-test of the path. If you take it easy and keep your balance then no loose rock can throw you of the path. If you go too fast however, i.e you want to Rambo the path, the chances are very high that you would seriously hurt yourself or even die from a fall in the ravine.

Enough of the paralels. I just wanted to share my progress, which comes down to one important decision of putting myself first. This resulted in taking responsibility for my own actions and being my own judge. Tools I use are STFU and Acta Non Verba.

What I see ahead of me is progression through my dreadlevels. I'm just now entering DL5 and see some serious hard work ahead of me. Apart from doing some great hikes I also took the time to plan my future and reflect on what I had to do to ensure succes. What became aparant is that up until now I have only concentrated on being intellectual. I have neglected developing my social domain, so flirting and being the centre of a group (being alpha) is still very unnatural to me.

I will close with my new motto that I am sure will propel me to my success:

1. Be honest to yourself and others
2. Face your fears
3. Smile to people
4. Have fun
5. Do it better every day
6. Learn something new every day
7. Take care of your body
8. Be curious of your mind
9. Contribute to the world around you