Maximizing Performance Through Applied Common Sense*

Continuing on the subject of counter productive patterns of speech, I want to talk about speaking in the second person when you are talking about yourself.  Most people do it out of habit.  Instead of using the pronoun “I” when you are talking about your own experience, you actually use the pronoun “you.”  Examine what this would be like if I were to say to you, “well, you know when you get into the studio to do a recording, well you have to do a lot of takes and you feel kind of frustrated,” or I could say, “when I go into the studio, I record a lot of takes and sometimes it's frustrating and then I hit it and it really works well.”  So what is the message?  The message is, when you are talking about yourself, speak in the first person, it is more genuine and received better.