Retracting your "Nice Guy" Image

by Jim
(USA)

I am/was a member of the "Nice Guy" club and it cost me my last relationship. I would do everything for my girlfriend and rarely spoke up with my opinion because I did not want to rock the boat. My now ex said that 99% of our relationship was great but 1% was missing. I believe that 1% was me not showing the 'man' side of me and showing her that my world did not revolve around her. Because of this she said she lost respect for me though she said she still was in love with me.

We ended our relationship over 4 months ago and since that time I have regained my "man-hood" and gotten back to the person I was at the beginning of our relationship. I really do love this woman. My question is, now that I have found myself again and realized what killed our relationship, how do I demonstrate to her that I am a "man" again? I have not initiated contact with her since the holidays, but she has contacted me a couple of times to say hello the last couple of months. In response to her first email, I did ask if she wanted to get together for lunch but she said at this point it would probably be to awkward.