Conversation starters can literally save your life on a first date.

Why?

Well, as you know, going on a first date can be very scary and intimidating. Our minds are overcome with fear and insecurities and we cave in to those emotions.

We're scared of being rejected, we're afraid of failure, we're nervous about saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and we're anxious about what our date will think of us.

All these anxieties are totally human and completely understandable ? but they produce devastating results: they paralyze us and greatly inhibit our ability to behave normally and confidently like we do with our family and with our closest friends.

Our personal fears lead us to the most uncomfortable situation where we feel a terrible lack of confidence, all stressed out, angry and frustrated.

The bottom line is that we're doomed to end up in the most annoying, embarrassing and even humiliating situation, which we all know as that "awkward silence".

Believe it or not, most of us do have the capacity to carry on a fluid, easy-going and enjoyable conversation with people we have known for years ? so, with the right approach, it shouldn't be any different with the woman we're on a first date with.

And the right approach is? conversation starters!

Preparing a list of topics and questions that you can use on the first date can do wonders for your dating skills.

When you have an arsenal of conversation starters ? it's very easy to keep the conversation going.

You always have something to say, you develop a lively conversation like there's nothing to it, you're not nervous, "stuck" or "blocked" and you can avoid the awkward silence disaster pretty easily.

Here are 10 conversation starters that you can use on your next first date:

?Has any book had a major impact on you?

?What was the best bargain you ever found?

?What's the most annoying thing someone could do on a first date?

?What's the most unusual thing you know how to do?

?Is there anything you can't say "no" to?

?What food could they not pay you enough to eat?

?Who are your cult heroes? Why?

?What was the craziest thing you ever did when you were a kid?

?If you could have any job in the world, what would it be?

?What would be the title of your biography?

There are so many conversation starters that can work for you fantastically.

They can serve as a great base for a flowing, lively, enjoyable conversation that can let your date learn about the "real you" while you leave all the pressure, anxiety and fear behind you.

Don't leave home to go out on a first date empty-handed. Sit down, prepare some great conversation starters, memorize and practice them and your chances for a great date will increase drastically.

Avishai Fuksman is author of The Date Saver, a downloadable guide for men that includes hundreds of first date conversation starters. To learn more, visit http://www.TheDateSaver.com