My name's Chris (late twenties, male, Canada) and I write everything on this site. In terms of my social success I'm an average, contented dude. That doesn't sound like much, but it's a million times better than where I was before.
People generally think of me as likable and personable, though I'm not oozing charisma and I make my mistakes like everyone else. I probably don't have as strong an inborn drive to have a ton of friends as some people, but whatever happens with my social life is by choice. I know from experience I don't have any issues anymore with making or keeping friends. I'm not a lady's man, but I feel pretty on top of things when it comes to dating and relationships. Improving my social skills got me into an awesome long-term relationship.
I used to be a huge dork. I spent most of my time in high-school trying to level up my characters in Super Nintendo RPG's. In university I ran up some amazing streaks of consecutive days spent sitting around alone playing on the computer . I was painfully lonely. I looked like a typical nerd. I was a bit of a weirdo. I was a quivering mass of neuroses, shyness, insecurity, and negativity. I had my good traits too of course, but my bad ones strongly hindered them when it came to social or romantic situations.
Naturally my condition occupied a lot of my time and I was constantly reading Self-Help books and websites trying to pull myself out of my rut. I started making the most progress when I started focusing on being an all-around more personable and well-rounded guy and working on my basic social skills. Before I was looking for tricks to make people like me and magical motivational insights that would solve my problems instantly.
When I did that things just started clicking into place. Nothing miraculously happened overnight but through a slow, steady process I started to become more of a normal guy. It was easier to make friends and get along with people I'd just met. I actually had plans on the weekend. My life was more fun and interesting.
That's where I stand now and I'm still improving. I'm not the coolest guy in the club and my life hasn't reached some perfect sunny plateau either. But I hope the things I learned along the way can help people who are in a similar situation to the one I was in.
And these days I'm leveling up my characters in games like Final Fantasy XII, but I'm not as single-minded or obsessive about it... and no one really cares that you play video games on the side when you seem like an otherwise solid person.
