How often has "overcome my shyness" been your mantra after an unhappy night out, difficult social occasion or unsuccessful job interview? It's always easy to have that urge right after something painful has happened, but it's much more of a test of resolve to implement a long term strategy.
If you are about to undertake the "overcome my shyness" challenge then there are short term and long term things you can do.
In the short term, you can make sure you are prepared for a social occasion in these ways.
1) Be prepared.
As yet, there is no known method for getting to know people that does not involve the dreaded small talk.
So have some handy.
Make sure you are up to date on current news events and have some opinions to hand, or check out what the latest popular TV shows are.
Try Google Trends.
If you are shy, its very difficult selling yourself, so try and divorce yourself from that with these prepared topics to hand.
It'll be a comfort to know you have something to talk about to hand.
2) You can listen not talk.
When you decide it's time to overcome my shyness, you will find yourself talking to other people.
Most people love to talk about themselves.
So ask them! Listening will help you focus on the other person, what they are about, and hopefully reduce your level of self consciousness.
Those are two useful short term tactics.
In the long term, you can get on the "Overcome My Shyness" road on different ways.
Try sitting down, writing shyness on the middle of a blank piece of paper, then taking arrows and themes from it in a flow chart.
You might surprise yourself with what you write down, and have a much better understanding of where your shyness stems from.
The other thing is to reward yourself for your efforts, even if you deem them not to be a success.
Finally, remember that most people aren't actually looking or focusing on you, even though it seems like it.
Good luck!