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"  Attending a party solo, making a toast at a wedding, suiting up for your son&amp;#039;s Mommy and Me swim class... every woman has something that presents her with a sweaty-palm moment of hesitation. &amp;quot;Doubt lurks in all of us,&amp;quot; says Leslie Sokol, Ph.D., coauthor, along with Marci G. Fox, Ph.D., of Think Confident, Be Confident. &amp;quot;The trick is to recognize it and then replace that feeling with a more positive view of yourself.&amp;quot; So the next time you feel your knees \u2014 and your nerves \u2014 start to shake, try one of these tricks. Give yourself credit for the small stuff. Nervous about mingling at a pal&amp;#039;s party? Create a list of times you&amp;#039;ve been sociable with strangers lately: Write down everything from the smile you shared with a clerk to the small talk you made while waiting in line for the treadmill, recommends Sokol. You&amp;#039;ll reinforce that you&amp;#039;re a lot more self-assured than you thought.  Test yourself. You can&amp;#039;t feel confident if every criticism sends you into a tailspin of self-doubt, reminds Fox. Retrain your brain by deliberately performing an act of rebellion that could leave you open to disapproval, such as skipping book club. Are you a failure? No. Do people still like you \u2014 even if they&amp;#039;re annoyed? Yes. &amp;quot;Breaking your self-imposed rules leads to freedom from doubt \u2014 and more confidence,&amp;quot; Fox says.  Reframe your thinking.  Say your boss cuts you off during a meeting. Before you immediately jump to the conclusion that she&amp;#039;s mad at you, consider that she might just be having a bad morning. &amp;quot;What you believe isn&amp;#039;t necessarily the truth,&amp;quot; Sokol explains. &amp;quot;The more you realize you can&amp;#039;t fully know the motivations behind other people&amp;#039;s behavior, the less you&amp;#039;ll assume it&amp;#039;s about you, and the more confident you&amp;#039;ll be.&amp;quot;  Spin the situation. Instead of focusing on your fears when, for example, you have to speak in front of a crowd, think of the benefits you&amp;#039;ll reap from the experience, like showing off your knowledge and getting better at something that&amp;#039;s difficult for you. &amp;quot;Listing as many advantages as you can will give you the motivation to excel,&amp;quot; Fox says. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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