I'm 24 guy that has been shy most of my life.

Over the last several months, I noticed I'm becoming more bold approaching women/new people in general and not being as nervous.

Since I met a girl who became good friends with me, things only got better. (Just friends) Having a girl who's happy to see you, invites you to events, initiates chats with you, etc really helps. It helped me get rid of pessimism that I had, after experiencing many girls being standoffish.

I started taking salsa classes (cause the girl-mate invited me). Women enjoy dancing and are encouraged to accept a dance if a guy asks. So that was another good confidence booster.

I also started taking horse riding lessons (my dream is to be a cavalryman). I enjoyed having my instructor remind me that I'm "the boss" when I lead a horse. Being firm but gentle, correcting a horse if it misbehaves, etc all helped with being comfortable with taking the lead in dating and risk taking.

All these things naturally helped me to be in the right mindset when approaching women.

Advices like 'Fake it till you make it', 'rejection makes you stronger', etc definitely did not help me.

TL;DR - OP improves inner game by befriending a girl and taking up salsa&horse riding instead of trying to follow advices like fake it till you make it