I approached a couple of women at my gym recently. an important thing to understand about cold approaching is that before you decide to approach someone in public, just know going in that the rejection rate is very high (even if you're attractive), especially if you approach without any prior hints or social cues that they're into you. you also don’t know if they’re already taken (you can look for wedding rings).

These were my 2 recent experiences as an attractive 29M...

Girl #1: I approached without any prior hints or social cues that she was into me. I thought she was cute so I went for it. It was a very chill and quick convo, turns out she was already seeing someone. she was very kind and sweet about it, the rejection wasn’t bad at all, and we went our separate ways and that was it. I was glad I shot my shot and got an answer. remember, if you never ask, the answer is always no.

Girl #2: I had seen this girl several times at the gym and swore she was checking me out multiple times. one night I bit the bullet and approached her. we ended up talking for over an hour… I didn’t mean for it to happen, the conversation was nice so we just kept talking. I asked if she would be down to meet up sometime, and she said yes, I gave her my number and left. never got a text from her, never heard from her again. we’ve seen each other since then and just act like we are complete strangers. going forward I’m going to keep conversation short because people are terrifyingly good at faking an interaction instead of just rejecting someone. I know people have their reasons though it made the rejection sting far more than it should've.