I play tight. Sometimes too tight. People I sit with comment that Im tight. Dont know why but its very hard for me to come out of my shell. On my way to the casino, I'll tell myself Im going to play more aggressive that day but I dont. ITs always "I cant bluff him" or "Im not getting cards" or "He's an idiot." ITs the same thing over and over everytime I play. I feel my game has not improved lately. I read and talk poker with friends. I go over hands and what I did wrong or what I could have done differently. I feel like I should be beating 1/2 NL but Im lucky if I break even. I know Im better than alot of the people I play with. How can I learn to be more aggressive?

"I play tight. Sometimes too tight"

You really want replies or are you just lacking about 20,000 hours of live play?

How's your cbet and semibluffing? Two easy ways to improve your aggression and make your hands harder to read at the same time.

Open up your range in late position, try every now and then to just limp big pairs, reraise with a range wider than QQ+, etc

This may not be the best book in the world,
but it may be the best one to get you playing more aggressive.
It helped me with this problem, YMMV.

Are you adequately rolled for the limit you're playing? I used to be a total nit when I was underrolled for my game. Now that I have 30 Buy-Ins at my disposal I've turned into a bit of a lagtard and my win rate has skyrocketed.

I've also noticed that on the occasions when I play $5/10 I shirk back into my old nitty ways unless I make a consious and continuous effort not to.

You could always try downing a few drinks...

I am actually naturally an extremely risk-averse person and when I first started playing poker, I was also way too tight and conservative. I try to gambol a lot in life now - if I feel like I have an edge/even flip in a side bet or something non-poker related, I will always take it. I have consciously made an effort to gambol more in my life and be more accepting of risk and now it's pretty safe to say I'm one of the laggiest players I know at the stakes I play.

For those of us born risk-averse, it is a skill that can be improved with practice.

They usually are idiots and you can never bluff a calling station. You just have to pick your spots and go with it

Maybe your so tight because you dont want to loose your roll

And move up to where they respect your raises?

move up where they respect your inability to play poker

Sounds like you are probably fine. Just needing a couple years more experience. "playing aggressive" instantly isnt something you can "just do" nor is it anything a book can show you how to do. Keep reading keep learning and keep trying new things. The next step in your game will come in time when you see enough situations. And when the lightning strikes you one day, you will " get it" and your game will improve.
In a nutshell, keep playing tight untill you understand how and why making certain moves is smart. Its all about practice. We have no magic wands.

Put your hand down your pants periodically. Remind yourself that you have balls.

i find playing low stakes HU and 6max online is starting to help me open up a little more when playing live. helps you to see and experience that you dont always need to have the best hand, or any hand, to take down a pot.

open up in late position as someone already said.

take 4-5 buyins to the casino with you. its easier to make tough, yet correct, calls/pushes and so on when you know you have 3 more reloads in your wallet. do not underestimate the variance in these live small stakes NL games. that being said, keeping more money than youd think you need at home in cash does wonders for alleviating playing with 'scared money'.

also, buying in shorter can sometimes make it easier to get more aggressive (especially if youre mostly playing premiums PF). it makes your decisions easier and hurts the implied odds your loose deep-stacked opponents are getting to stick around or play back at you.

"I know Im better than alot of the people I play with. "

Try to be a bit more humble and accept you still have alot to learn to win at live poker may help you. Stop thinking you only losing because you not hitting the cards but infact your opponents may actually be better than you.

Actually, if he recognizes the value of aggression and wants to improve his game then he is already better than 90% of B&M $1/2 players.

Do you at least C-bet the flop when you miss after raising preflop?

Do you even raise preflop or just limp with everything?

One of the best ways to learn aggression is to go into a particular hand with no fear. Play one specific hand as if you have Aces no matter what you are holding.

If play is limped around to you when you act, put in a 3X or higher raise. Make a continuation bet after the flop. If you get raised or called, you can be less aggressive the remainder of the hand, but the point is - you are starting to learn aggression. After every hour of play, say you are going to do this on the 3rd hand after the clock strikes the hour.

Be aggressive and see what the results are. Then mix it in every so often a little more.

Within 5-10 sessions, you will feel more comfortable with aggression.

Also, you shouldn't be afraid of representing something that hits. Maybe the river brings a 3rd suited card and the play of the other players indicates that they weren't on a flush draw.

Bet that ****!

I would recommend playing limit games because your current personality is better suited for that. The you should enter low stakes tournaments and play as aggressive as possible. Tournaments are different than NL games but I think it should give you a better feel.

Read "The Psychology of Poker" by Schoonmaker
I used to think the same way as you do but this book helped me learn why I played like that, why loose players play like they do and how do optimal tight/aggressive players think and play the game.

Synopsis:
-Tight/Passive - Their main drive is fear of loosing/getting sucked out on
-Loose/Aggressive - Their main drive is creating action and gambling it up
-Loose/Passive - Their main drive is just fitting in and passing time
-Tight/Aggressive - Their main drive is to play optimally and win the monies with selective aggression.

Most people I know who fit your description have at least one (usually both) of these problems:

-They think the flop hits their opponents every time
-They think their opponents can read them perfectly

Sure, most people would say they don't fall into these categories, but often the way they play (and, more importantly, their results) suggest otherwise.

Learn the math, get sufficiently rolled, and practice online at stakes you can well afford. That should help.

Randomly pick one hand per hour & just raise with it.

OP,
I know well where you are right now because I have been there. I'll try to give a few tips based on my own experiences.

Avoid making value judgements of your opponents. Saying "He's an idiot." or "I know Im better than alot of the people I play with." will not help you to improve. Instead, make observations that don't include making a value judgement. What you mean to say is "He made a very big mistake in that hand which I can exploit in this way in the future." or "I understand pot odds and probablilities better than a lot of people that I play with because I've read more books and studied the game more." When you don't categorize your opponent as an idiot, you are at least open to the idea that he played the hand more optimally than you did (intentionally or not).

As far as developing aggression, I found PNL1 to be a very useful starting point. I studied and re-studied the topic of Stack to Pot Ratio (SPR). I then went online and played a lot of hands of 10NL-6max with a half stack ($5). With a half stack, you get to your commitment threshhold quickly and you are often committed pre-flop or on the flop. One concept still stands out in my mind from that book and it is (paraphrased) that when you are committed, you welcome aggression, cannot be bluffed off your hand and are in fact, trying to get the money in as quickly as possible. Sounds aggressive? It is.

Keep in mind that in NLHE, you are playing for stacks. You will get stacked - it's going to happen. Sometimes you'll commit pre-flop with AK against someone who follows you in with KQ and spikes his Q. It happens, it's ok and you want him to follow you in with that hand - every time.

The reason I advise you to play online is that you can get a lot of hands very quickly. You can completely rebuild your game in a relatively short amount of time. With your new aggression and confidence, you can sit deeper (full 100BB buyins). You will now be able to play against the short stacks very well - you may understand their game better than they do. When you can beat 10NL-6max, you will definitely be able to beat 1/2 live in a casino just on poker fundamentals. Playing live, you can now work on spotting and using physical tells (Read Navarro for this) to detect and exploit weakness.

I hope this helps!

yeah sooooo becoming more aggro is pretty damn easy. i used to have this problem then one day i finally woke up and smelled the coffee. RAISE ANY 2 IP AGAINST WEAK LIMPERS AND OUTPLAY THEM POSTFLOP!!! This will get your PFR up tremendously along with your cbet and af and as.