Pick-up updates for August (so far) - fear or just "something to say"?

Well, it's been pretty lean for me. I just can't get past the "overthinking" thing that my brain does with everything (I reject the assumption that I see from most PUA/SC advisors that the only possible reason for it is fear).

Case in point: today at the supermarket I saw a very attractive woman, and there were several things I noticed that I could use to make the start of a conversation. The standard PUA advice seems to be, "Just go for it and say any one of them." My brain doesn't do that. It doesn't seem to know how to. I do not have it in me to "just say anything", I have to say something. Which means I need something to say, which means I need to know which something I am going to say. Seriously, if I were to approach someone and was expected to say anything when I got to them, the most likely thing to be said is a blank "Errrrrrrrm...[lasts about five seconds!] oh, yes! I know! Hi, I'm [birth name]!" If you say "go up to someone and say your name", then the "Hi! I'm [birth name]!" comes at the beginning, but you still get the blank-faced 5-second, "erm". Not helpful.

So, it took me a few seconds to sort out what thing I wanted to use as my opening remark. By which time, the woman in question had moved on around the store, and the relevance of all the options I had, had disappeared. I didn't see her again until I saw her at the front of a check-out queue and I was at the back of a different queue. Ho hum.

However, I did (I think) manage inadvertently to flirt with the checkout woman when it came to my turn to pay for the goods I wished to buy. I say "inadvertently", because it really does not strike me as being appropriate to hit on someone who is working, and who has to be nice to you as part of their job - it can put that person in a very tricky and uncomfortable position.

This accidental "flirtation" took the form of a brief exchange talking about my change. My goods cost £9.01, and I had a £10 note. Did I have the extra penny, she asked? So I explained about my money pot that receives all my coppers and small silver (5p pieces, and the occasional 10p), and apologised for not being able to help. Turns out, she does the same thing, which was nice. "So, no small change when I get to the till. But the upside is, I get more change to put in the pot!" She laughed in a way that I definitely associate with a successful connection/flirtation. In another setting, without the barrier of the checkout and the fact that she's working and has to be nice, I would have taken that as the cue to go for the full chat-up. So, coming away, I was a bit puzzled but felt as though somehow I had "inadvertently" managed to "flirt", even though that had not been my intention.

Those pick-up dudes mentioned above would say, "Ah, because you knew you weren't going for the pick-up with this checkout woman, you didn't have The Fear, so you were confident and that made the interaction easier".

Bollocks.

At the checkout, we already had a pretext for talking (I'm buying stuff from the shop she works for, she needs to get my money and give me change). It turned out that I was fed a line for which I had a natural follower that did not require much thought, because there was only one follower that was true (for me) - the story about my money pot at home. By the time I had used that, my basic light-hearted approach had time to marshal the other stuff in my brain and I was, at that point, ready for having an actual conversation. That there was only time for one more exchange (and that the circumstances prevented me going for a pick-up anyway) does not change that.

I know what fear of approaching feels like it and, while it is still there, it is not the cause of what's going on for me. I have already made the decision to override it, and have in the past done so with ease. What I need is a streamlined decision-making process for what to say when I do approach.