Now I want to start this off by saying I might be entirely separate in goals from everyone here and I'll explain why

All the time I spend talking to girls is qualifying them for me.

I've had enough terrible experiences with women in life that my only thought when I start talking to girls is how compatible we'll be and if they have any traits that might make them appreciate me as a person, a lot of girls don't, and a lot of girls I talk to is just me talking to someone staring and nodding, it's shitty for both of us and I don't like dealing with it.

With that said, I want to say that, for beginners, it might be a good idea to only approach girls you feel comfortable approaching, my main thing is, I smile and make eye contact, and if I get no response, I figure it's not worth getting worked up over. But again, there are people who get much more women who might disagree. I know most PUAs here will say to approach no matter what, but if you're just starting out and trying to get over the anxiety of the approach, might just be a better idea to go out with the intention of meeting nice people you get along with, which has a major effect on your comfort when you go up to random people on the street.

The other technique that might help you out that's made me entirely comfortable talking to just about anyone around me and ask for their number is intentionally being an idiot when you don't care about the outcome. Whenever I'm talking to people where I don't care what they think of me I'll intentionally just do all the things that make people disinterested, laughing way too much at my own bad jokes, making jokes in general that they won't understand, talking about my own interests for a bit that nobody cares about and are only vaguely related to what we're talking about, it sounds like a nuisance but it puts the thought into my head that what matters in this conversation is me and my comfort, and I'm allowed to end it or disengage whenever I'd like. The effect that that's had on my confidence and ability to talk to people whenever I want is stunning, to say the least, if I approach girls now, conversation just flows like a river, and that's without me doing any intentional pickup stuff.

Hope that helps some of you, my goal is always to help people feel more comfortable in their own skin, nobody should have to feel anxious and shitty all the time just from trying to approach girls.