Hello seddit! I'm a 22 year old guy currently studying. Yesterday I met a girl at the gym. Without having looked at everything here, I feel like the idea here generally is work on yourself, build confidence and success will follow. The reason I'm asking this is first and foremost because I need help, secondly because I want to know if I got the idea right.

So what about the girl? It's not really about her. Yesterday I was at the gym and saw this really beautiful girl training. I thought I couldn't ever get myself to hit on a girl at the gym, but it turns out I really can't get myself to hit on anyone anywhere.

After a while, we ended up training next to each other, which was really cool and great motivation. I had a bad day and wanted to leave, but ended up being the last person leaving before they closed. She and her friend were second last. They went to the lockers to get their stuff, I went straight out. Met her alone walking out of the locker room, looked at her. She smiled at me. So what did I do? I looked away, walked past her and went straight home.

I can't put enough stress on how much I wanted this girl, can't remember ever spending so much gym time looking over my shoulder. Think I managed to develop a small crush during that time. This was no awkward random encounter, we had something in common, we had something to talk about, this was a perfect opportunity to talk to her(right?). And still I looked away and ran like a scared, awkward 14 year old.

So here is where my question comes in. I like to think that I belive in myself, my life is going in the right direction, I'm quite good looking and surely don't think of myself as not good enough or anything like that. So I feel confident in myself, but I don't feel confident hitting on girls. Actually, I never have, not directly. And I have missed a million chances.

Even now, a day later I still don't have any idea what I could have said to get that conversation going. It would just feel like an awkward work-around to get her number or something, and it would be obvious to everyone involved. I'm from northern europe, where american style dating and talking to strangers is not as common(not sure if I'm making up excuses now) if that makes a difference. So to sum up: I have worked on myself, but my skills are almost non existent/alternatively, I have zero confidence in them. How do I get around that.

TL;DR: I have no idea how to hit on girls, I would't know how to come up with anything worthwile to say with a gun against the back of my head. Please help!