Alternatively: if you "psych yourself up", using second person or third person positions the praise outside yourself, as if it would come from a peer or third p

Alternatively: if you "psych yourself up", using second person or third person positions the praise outside yourself, as if it would come from a peer or third party. It builds on similar things you may have heard from other people trying to cheer you up in the past (and thus taps into the feelings associated with those memories) and helps you visualize how other people might judge you positively if you succeed. I.e. visualizing success mixed with recalling positive experiences in the past. "You can do it! You're a good person. You rock!" etc. This would also match with the idea of people who inflict self-harm chastising themselves in the second person (though I'm not sure whether that is actually a thing or just something you find on tumblr and in movies): "You're no good. You don't deserve this. You're a failure." etc (which sounds like something you'd expect an abusive parent to tell you).