Second-person self-talk and increased performance

A series of studies have confirmed that speaking to yourself can influence your performance. When comparing the effectiveness of self-talk using first person pronouns "I can do this!" to second-person pronouns "You can do this!", researchers found that second-person self-talk improved performance.

Previous research suggested that second-person self-talk enhances public speaking performance because it increased self-distancing - where you step outside your immediate emotions and view them instead from a detached perspective.