If a teammate missed a free throw, you’d say “next one.” Try saying it to yourself.

The tone you use on a teammate who misses is not softness, it is strategy. You keep them loose because a tight player misses the next one too. Then you turn around and talk to yourself in a voice you would never use on anybody else, and wonder why your own next attempt is worse.

Pick the moment you are hardest on yourself, usually right after a mistake, and say the short thing instead. Two words, then back to the task. Keep score of nothing except whether you said it.