Thanks, Motu.
I'm a widower. When my wife got sick I made a choice as to the kind of life I was going to live once she was gone. It took a few years to do it all, but I did it. I run 25-30 miles a week. I got my teeth whitened. I lost about 30 lbs. I went back to school at night and got my MBA. I got a full makeover and had all my clothes tailored. I quit my job and started my own business, using contacts I'd already made but was too chicken to ever use. I remodeled my house into a bachelor pad -- turned our bedroom into an office and turned the family room into a spacious master bedroom with a fireplace, a deck, and wood floors. I sold the SUV and the sedan and bought a Porsche. I got a commission in the reserves and went from being a senior NCO to an officer. I got involved in my local veterans' organization and became an officer this year, and now they're backing me for city council. I finished a book I'd been planning to write for nearly 15 years, got an agent, and got it published.
I just came back from a speaking tour at several colleges and universities where my book is under consideration for inclusion in business courses. I bagged more young tail in the past month than any man my age deserves. My phone, my Facebook, and my Kik are blowing up. Thank God for Facebook, because otherwise I'd have to start a spreadsheet as to who's who.
Five years ago I was just another guy doing spreadsheets 8 hours a day in a cubicle; going gray, getting soft, going home every night and watching TV with my dog and my wife. No woman would have looked twice at me. There was nothing exceptional about me.
Women make the first move, now. I have three plates / FB's here at home -- well, two in my town and one in the next town over -- not including the honeys I bagged on the road. All of them approached me, first.
On the book tour, girls would ask me to sign my book and then they'd ask me out. They'd ask what I was doing later, or recommend a restaurant -- one of them went right for it and asked if I'd like to have a drink later and talk about the book. She recommended my hotel bar. It was that easy.
This runs counter to a lot of the advice given on this site -- I know this site exists to give people tips on how to pick up women easily -- but my experience has been that there is no "one trick" to remember. There is no secret move that I read on the internet that instantly made me into the ass-getting juggernaut that I am right now. It took years of busting my hump to reach this point, and now it takes effort: staying fit, staying well-dressed, staying involved in my community and in my hobbies, keeping the business running, promoting the book. It takes work. It takes constant effort and constant improvement. But what I've done is nothing that you can't do. You just can't do it between now and Friday night.
If you're not improving yourself, every waking moment, you're wasting your life.