This is something I've been wondering about myself for a while, and I'm hoping there are others who've experienced something similar that might be able to share their experiences.

My personality in any given situation very much depends on my surroundings. I think this much is true with everybody, but in my case, it seems to come in extremes. In some situations I'll be the quiet, introverted guy that hardly says a word. In most situations I'm somewhere between shy and outgoing; I can talk to people, even crack a good joke, but I'm not the most confident person in the room by any means and my body language likely reflects that.

But, there are times when I turn into this outgoing, funny, charismatic, and most of all, confident individual. I can talk to everybody with a smile, get people to open up, and brighten the room in general. I've found that this guy comes out in the company of a few specific friends; not even my best friends - in fact I wouldn't even call them good friends; one of them is really just an acquaintance. The only common link I see among these friends are they all seem to have very easy-going, non-threatening personalities, which perhaps makes it easier for me to just be myself. The problem is, this confident guy only surfaces in the company of these people, and these aren't people I'm usually hanging out with anyway.

The easy answer would be to just go out with these friends more often, but that's not an acceptable solution to me. I'd rather be able to go out with any of my friends (or even go out solo) and be able to say to myself "Tonight, I'm going to be that charming, outgoing person that I know I can be," and just do it. A little bit of alcohol certainly helps, but that's not a crutch I'd like to depend upon.

Has anyone else had experiences like this? How do you get to bring out that confident personality whenever you want?