Hi all,

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I've found myself in a bit of a downward spiral lately and thought I'd turn to you guys and get your perspective on things on how to actually get started on turning my life around.

A bit about me: I am a 22yo Asian male who's been reading seduction material for about 2-3 years now. I'm not a virgin and have had a couple of girlfriends in the past so I know I'm not completely hopeless. But here's the problem: I recently moved to a new city in which I know no one for a job.

In the past, I've always met people through friends, classes, connections, etc. I've actually never approached a girl or a stranger for social purposes, ever. And I am freaking terrified to do it. From having read so much material on this stuff (I guess I am one of those guys that keeps ingesting knowledge as an excuse not to actually get out there), I know that the only solution is to actually approach somebody, but I can't. I've gone out with the intention of doing so and have always, always chickened out. I don't even get close.

I guess I just have really bad self esteem or something. I'm not the best looking guy in the world (I would objectively rate myself as a little below average), but I just have too many fears. These are endless and I'm not even going to begin to get into them. I do have mild social anxiety although once the ice is broken I usually do okay. The worst part is I know I'm being irrational, I know that there's no way around approaching, and honestly that just makes it worse because I keep bashing myself every time I chicken out.

I've also tried online dating. I quit because I wanted to push myself into approaching in real life (and also because I was having very little luck) and not use it as a crutch. So I guess my question to you guys is: is there any way to ease into it? I find that I don't have trouble "approaching" when I have an actual reason to - I can talk to cashiers and salespeople pretty easily, but I somehow just get crippled with fear when it comes to approaching someone for seduction purposes.

tl;dr - I know I'm being a little bitch about approaching but I just can't seem to dig myself out of that fearful mindset. Tips on how to ease into it?