013 Friend zoned - what to do when chasing unrequited love

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ahhhh, the friendzone. That lonely yet connected, comforting yet terrorising, familiar yet frustrating place.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Of course, the friend zone isn’t the only place we might end up chasing unrequited love - sometimes it’s in a relationship that stutters and two people seem to be misaligned. Either way, finding ourselves in the place of wanting someone and them not wanting us back, or them being unavailable to us, can be heart-aching and life-consuming.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That’s the subject of this week's podcast episode in a revamped version of a listener Q&A. I have had</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">tonnes</span></em> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">of questions from guys in and around this area. Usually from ‘</span><span style= "text-decoration: underline;"><span style= "color: #080c4d;"><a style="color: #080c4d;" href= "http://mikecampbell.com.au/nice-guy-quiz"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Nice Guys</span></a></span></span><span style= "font-weight: 400;">’ - guys that are so terrified of rejection, who so desperately need to be liked or their inner world will fall over, so they end up just playing the good nice guy in the hope that people will see them as this and like them.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">These guys - of which I am a recovering Nice Guy myself - often end up in glorified friendships, essentially one-sided faux-relationships, with women/people they have feelings for because they were too unsure about themselves early on to say how they felt combined with an almost unbearable fear of rejection, that they just hover in the space of “If I am around enough and nice enough, maybe they’ll notice/like/love me.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">(It doesn’t work).</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Previously across three different #AskMike Q&A videos on my social media channels, I have addressed similar questions in t