Quite honestly I think you have to find your own way. Everyone has things that they do that help them but these won't work for everyone; Disaster Area suggests shooting with a friend as it helps him whilst for me thats the most distracting thing that can happen - I prefer to be on my own. I find sitting and having a coffee outside, iPod on and watching the world go by before I get started helps me find, for want of a better phrase, some sort of rhythm.
There are also the 'universal truths,' i.e. relax, smile and enjoy yourself, know that you're doing nothing wrong or weird, these really do apply to all of us.
You can constantly walk around, exploring and hoping to find something along your path or you can find a spot with an interesting background, good light or thats very busy and stick to that small patch. I tend to combine the two, I may have four or five 'hotspots' in any one town/city that I'll hang around in for a while before wending my way to one of the others for a bit of a change.
Talking to people is another oft repeated piece of advice. I think this is simply good advice in general, you meet lots of interesting people from very different backgrounds - that's just interesting in itself. I don't ask people if I can photograph them, unless I'm doing a close up of their shoes or something that requires me to lie on the floor and have them keep still for a while, but I often strike up a conversation or have someone start one with me. Perhaps this comes from looking relatively approachable and people being intrigued by me taking lots of pictures. Which kind of leads me to the point about being open. Exactly how this is defined is probably very personal but you can be discreet with out being deceitful and obvious without being over the top. There are times when you wish not to be noticed as an expression or body shape may change, whilst there are also situations where being open, moving with the fluidity of someone who has nothing to hide will get you a shot that would have been lost had you been moving more slowly, more surreptitiously.
So there's lots and lots of good advice that will come your way, but you'll probably need to try a number of methods to find those that work best for you....and of course there's the simple fact that you'll need to hone those skills in the same way that any photographer hones the skills they'll need for the area that interests them; namely lots of practice, lots of shooting and a thick skin to deal with all the setbacks and disappointments.
As you know what kind of images impress you I'd suggest looking at those kind of shots and trying to work out how the photographer may have got them, come up with a little shortlist of ideas and then go out and try those ideas for yourself. One of the best things about photography is the experimentation, playing around.
Good luck
