The amount of self confidence you have can fundamentally alter how you get by in life. It’s the difference between being nervous and doubtful or feeling on top of the world. How confident you feel in yourself can have a big impact on how others perceive you.

If you find yourself in situations where you’re lacking in confidence, it can be of great benefit to fake it, so you appear more confident to others around you, as well as in yourself.

There are a number of techniques you can follow to build self confidence:

1) Fake it until it’s real

One great trick is just pretend. Pretend to both yourself and others around you and you may be amazed to find that the more you fake it, the more real it becomes.

2) Dress the part

If you’re doing something where you need a confidence boost, for example presenting in front of a large audience or going on a first date, ensure you choose what you wear, carefully. You want something that enhances your confidence. Don’t wear something that will make you feel self conscious or insecure.

3) Practice your Oscar winning acting skills

If you aren’t feeling great about yourself, take on the persona of someone else.  You can reinvent yourself to be anyone you desire. Behave as you think that person would behave. Confidence can be a matter of how good of an actor you are. If you are amazing at pretending to be a confident person, then that’s who you will become.

4) Don’t apologise

Apologising for how you are, is a sure fire sign of lack of confidence. Carry on with what you’re doing, head held high. Don’t make excuses for yourself, or highlight something you are lacking in confidence in, you’ll just draw attention to it.

5) Maintain positive body language

How you hold yourself, will give away a lot about your confidence levels. Stand tall, breathe deeply and hold you head high. If you look confident, you’ll feel more confident.

6) Make eye contact

If you avoid everyone’s eye in the room, it will be a dead give away that you are not feeling confident. Look at each individual clear in the eyes and hold their stare. This makes you appear more sure of yourself.

7) Smile

If you haven’t got a great poker face, your lack of confidence might be written all over you. Instead of looking uncomfortable or nervous, slap a big smile on your face. It will instantly make you appear more in control of the situation and at ease.

8) Realize you know more than you think you do

It’s really easy to think that everyone else knows a lot more than you do, about everything. This is usually, simply not the case.  Be confident in yourself, that you know what you’re talking about. If you don’t know something, there’s no harm in asking for the answer, that way you’ll know for next time.

9) Take time out

If you have found yourself in stressful situations, that you really needed to build yourself up for, ensure that you make some time for yourself, where you don’t need to fake confidence and you can just relax. It can be tiring, constantly displaying an air of confidence, especially if it’s not really how you feel. You need some time to refresh, and help you feel ready to tackle, head first, the next situation where a confidence burst is required.

11) Prepare yourself

Work out what routine you need to follow, before an occasion where you need a confidence boost, to get into the zone. If you are dreading something, figure out what can you do beforehand, to best prepare. This will be different for everyone, you might want some quite time, a pep talk, listen to uplifting music or jumping up and down like a mad thing! Whatever works for you.

12) Realise everyone else lacks confidence

When you realise that most people have confidence issues at one point in time or another, and even the people who appear to be super confident (probably great actors) aren’t always, it can make you feel better. Remember, people are too busy worrying about their own insecurities to spend too much time think about you.

If you try carrying out all these tips, before you know it, you won’t be acting confident, you’ll be confident.

I’d love to hear any tips you have on appearing confident, or improving your confidence levels.