“It seems to me that telling yourself subvocally, ‘the head to go forward and up’ and so on is a very, very powerful stimulus to do it. If I tell myself things, I usually tell myself to do things. I’m not so subtle in conversations with myself that I just tell myself to give consent to do something. I don’t just say, you know, ‘Come on, old fellow, just let it happen.’ I say, ‘Wake up at the back there!’
F.M., in talking about these things, said, ‘Talk to it nicely.’ Talk to it nicely means don’t shout, don’t get cross, but do really talk to it. And the problem is getting that mental attitude, that psychophysical attitude.”
(Taken from “Thinking Aloud” – Allowing Time to Say No p55)