If you look for dating advice online you’ll find the common sentiment is to…

“Work on yourself bro” or “Become someone worth dating”

and I think there’s a lot of truth to this. I’m not a pick-up artist and I’m a strong believer that you can’t convince a girl to like you, you meet her standards or you don’t. So working on meeting more girl’s standards logically makes sense.

As discussed in my previous article though, you will have the most dating success in your 20s so wasting your entire 20s grinding “working on yourself” isn’t a good strategy either.

So… what should you do?

The Diminishing Returns Of SMV Improvement

SMV(Sexual Market Value) is essentially how desirable of a partner you are on average to single people. SMV improvement is the process of trying to raise your SMV.

The thing about SMV improvement as a concept is the results aren’t linear, they follow the diminishing returns pattern.

Diminishing returns are when as you continue to put effort into something the results you get with each additional unit of effort decrease.

After completing the basics, which shouldn’t take more than 3 months for most men, and no more than 2 years no matter who you are, any improvement will be marginal(Except for achieving outlier, top 0.01%, wealth or fame).

The Minimum SMV Checklist

This leads me to my recommendation. Complete the basics, then go all in on dating.

After completing the basics you’ll be within at least half a point of your maximum potential SMV on the 1 to 10 SMV scale. At this point continuing to grind your SMV higher won’t be worth the opportunity cost you pay not prioritizing meeting women.

Essentially, meeting women will become a better use of your time than grinding for a higher SMV after completing the basics.

So what are the basics?

Here is the checklist of the 8 things I would aim to achieve before going all in on meeting women/finding a partner or as I refer to it…

The SMV Checklist:

1. Get below 15% body fat

2. Get 1 year of lifting with good technique, programming, and diet in

3. Dress reasonably fashionably with good-fitting clothes

4. Whiten and straighten your teeth

5. Get a fashionable haircut that fits your face

6. Build a basic hygiene routine(deodorant, brush teeth, & shower daily)

7. Get clear skin(doesn’t need to be glowing just relatively acne free)

8. Get a job with room for career growth - If younger than 24, being in university for a bachelor’s or college for a marketable skill(film, trades, etc.) is fine. If younger than 28 being in med/law school or other higher education options are fine as well.

That’s it.

If you can check off every item on this checklist you’ll be 90+ percent of the way to your maximum SMV.

Conclusion

Unless you are severely overweight or have seriously crooked teeth it should not take more than a year to check this entire list off. I estimate for most of you it’ll take less than 3 months.

After that, you do have to just put yourself out there and start meeting women. You can read about the best places to meet women here for those who have completed the checklist.

Don’t waste your entire youth grinding for an unachievable SMV before you start dating and don’t waste years meeting girls while not even being close to your maximum potential SMV.

Both are sub-optimal ways to utilize your limited time on this earth.

I’m not saying you should turn down women who give you signals before you complete the checklist, and I’m not saying you shouldn’t keep improving your SMV after you complete the checklist.

I’m just saying you should prioritize SMV improvement until you complete the checklist, then prioritize meeting women after it’s complete.

Get the basics done, then go find the one. You got this.