In getting myself back out "on the field" after a long period of depression and learning from my last LTR imploding, I'm finding that I'm a little unsure about what successful flirting and escalating looks like. I'm a good looking guy and have a pretty vibrant personality so I get lots of girls to notice me and engage with me. I have natural flirting ability so that's good. But I'm getting friendzoned a lot i think because I'm hesitant to escalate and I'm maybe letting the flirting hit a dead end because I'm afraid of getting close to another girl after what happened to me in my past one.

I'm more careful than not because I don't wanna be viewed as weird or creepy. This one guy I work with grabs girls on the heads who he barely knows and comes up behind them to joke with them. That's clearly weird and not cool. The girls tell me that's creepy especially in the workplace.

I feel like my problem is escalating because the initial flirting I'm naturally good at; it's not what I say but more how I say it. I guess I could use a speed lesson on how to escalate without looking desperate because looking desperate is always bad.