Like diagnosed anxiety and phobias, I’m not just talking about small stuff like asking out your crush etc.
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The strategy psychologists use to treat phobias is quite similar to that yes.
They will slowly approach the thing you fear, first just in your mind, then with pictures, and eventually in reality.
The issue with phobias is that they are self reinforcing. You avoid NotTrulyBadThing that your brain flagged as dangerous, and then nothing bad happens, so your brain rewards you for doing a good job on avoiding danger. The behavior gets reinforced because it led to the desired outcome of nothing bad happening and the thing you fear becomes even more scary.
The only way to break out of that loop is teaching your brain that no bad things happen when you don’t avoid the thing.
Of course this is only a good idea for irrational fears. If the thing you fear the most is wrestling polar bears then don’t wrestle polar bears to get more brave.
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