I think I can

If you had to pick a personal mantra, what would it be? Is there a message you already rely on to help you feel more positive, confident, comforted, or thankful? What phrase provides focus when you need to get a grip and manage frustrations, but also helps you recognize a better way to be?

There is a Little Engine frozen in time saying, “I think I can. I think I can.”

And there’s a whole book convincing readers, “Don’t sweat the small stuff”

I’ve been using “Que Sera Sera” for years.

My good friend should be reminding herself, “I deserve better.”

And I could name several people who ought to breathe and repeat “Relax.”

During my first year of teaching, I had two mantras. I don’t remember which one came first, probably because that first year felt like one long, terrible, never-ending day.

Once, after seriously losing my cool in front of the class, a close friend reminded me that I was a professional and I had to act like one. To reinforce this mind-set, I wrote on a slip of paper “I am a professional” and hid it in a locket necklace. Whenever I started to feel a surge in blood pressure at school, I held that locket, or I straightened that chain around my neck and internally repeated the phrase, “I am a professional” in my head. Not that this prevented me from ever losing my temper again, but I think it helped tone it down.

My students were well aware of this necklace; especially in the month of March and beyond. A few of the more meddlesome students noticed the tiny latch and were more than curious to know what was behind that green stone cover. Without revealing what the message said, I told them inside was a note to myself about something I wanted to remember every day. They begged to know for quite some time and I just never could share. I didn’t want them to mock it if it didn’t seem that serious to them.

Then, on this one day when I was sharing the poem “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes with my class, we got to talking about troubles in our lives. Students expressed impatience and irritation with siblings, school, or home. At that point, my necklace held a slip of paper that said, “Its only a matter of time” to help me focus on finishing out the school year. I repeated this to myself to see past my daily failures and to remind me that the dragging year would end and I would survive with time. So at that appropriate moment, I shared with my students my necklace mantra, and I explained that when I got anxious or frustrated about something in my life, I would tell myself that it was only a matter of time before it would change. I encouraged them to use it when they needed to remember its only a matter of time before their friend stops ignoring them, or their mom finds a new job, or till summer break comes. They just had to look ahead to see how things would change.

Sitting there quietly, they just let me speak my piece and never did mention that necklace of mine again.

Those mantras meant something to me at the time. Today, they are only bookmarks to a time in my life where I needed those specific words to support me.

Currently I try to remind myself that, “Its another beautiful day and I am lucky enough to be in it.”