So, I'm a lurker on here and after meeting a girl a couple months ago and getting bad oneitis, I decided to start going out more, etc...

I guess a little about me? I'm 20 years old. 5'10, pretty good looking. I am a virgin, but I've been with girls and had girlfriends. I can be outgoing, I know how to Kino and stuff. I just can't approach people.

Anyway, so today was payday, and I've been wanting to go buy some new books. I left around noon and went to Barnes and noble which is connected into the local mall where I live at. Nothing exciting happened in here, I got my books, and only saw one chick while I was standing in line. She knocked over a few books, and I chuckled. I was thinking of making a joke about it, but just didn't. I wasn't nervous or anything, I just didn't do it. I pay for my books, and leave to go to the foodcourt.

As I get there, I go to get some Japanese food. No one is in line (surprisingly), so I pay for my food and turn around to find a place to sit. Immediately I see this really cute girl sitting by herself and eating chik-fil-a. I told myself "go ask her if she minds if you sit there." I was decently confident up to that point. Suddenly as I'm walking toward her, this feeling of absolute dread washed over me, and I just took an empty seat adjacent to her table. Then just came the frustration with myself. Anyway, I took out my sketchbook and drew while I ate.

That's when it hit me. I'm sitting there looking around while I chew food, and realize how many people in here are eating alone, especially cute girls. Cute girls I could introduce myself to. Cute girls who might also be an awesome person. The cute girl eating alone did just that. Ate alone the whole time, which made me hate my guts even more. I threw away my food and headed back to my car.

After getting some new art supplies, I went to Starbucks to draw more and get a coffee. I walk in, order my coffee. When I walk over to the pick up I survey the area. Mostly middle aged. There's a group of four people talking about staging some intervention. What caught my eye was this Filipino chick working on this massive watercolor painting with some pan watercolors. Fuck man, I so wanted to ask her the brand of watercolors, and talk art. She was right up my alley, and I didn't say a single word to her the whole hour and a half I was in the coffee shop.

After I got my coffee, i sat down and took out my sketchbook and new colored pencils. This girl walked past my line of sight and sat at a table by the window. She had orange red hair, an okay face. She was petite, not that curvy, but cute. I didn't say a word to her either.

Anyway, I obviously was unsuccessful today since I made 0 approaches. I want to change this, but I'm more of a direct person who likes to improvise. I just can't seem to get up the approach. It didn't feel hard, and I didn't have anxiety in (most of) these situations. I just couldnt speak...

How do I get over the mental hurdle of speaking to strangers that I want to talk to? I dont have trouble talking to people when I need something, just when I want to meet new people.

tl;dr how do I speak to people? I want to, I just can't seem to make myself do it. I don't have anxiety at the thought of talking to people, I just don't do it.