You talk to yourself more than anyone else in your life. Make that voice sound like a coach, not a heckler.

The voice inside your head has the most airtime and is rarely chosen on purpose. A lot of it is inherited: a teacher, a parent, a bad season, repeated often enough that it started sounding like plain fact. A coach corrects and expects more of you; a heckler only wants you off the field. The difference is not softness, it is whether the commentary has a purpose.

Catch one line you say to yourself often and ask whether you would say it to a teammate you wanted to succeed. If not, write the coaching version and use that instead.