I recently met up with an ex, and during conversations, she commented that while we had a good thing way back when, I was/am a very stiff person. When I mentioned this to a few guy friends, they seemed to agree as well. I don't usually think of myself as stiff since I'm pretty social/extroverted and fairly witty, but if multiple people are saying this, I can't really argue it.

However, I think my main problem is that I'm a hopeless romantic, and so I struggle with trying things that my brain registers as inappropriate (even though they're not). When it comes to women, I'm not afraid of being social with them, but it seems that I'm coming across as more friendly than romantic.

I know that I need to change how I act but as a mechanical engineer, I'm very process based, and so on struggling to figure out how to go about doing that. In my head, I'm aware of how I should be acting but I can't seem to make myself act that way when push comes to shove. Do you guys have any good suggestions on how to break this train of thought?