Note To Self

Everything Is Always Working Out For You

In her latest Note To Self, FW editor Emily Brooks explores how we can move forward from failure.

By Emily J. Brooks

Note To Self

In her latest Note To Self, FW editor Emily Brooks explores how we can move forward from failure.

By Emily J. Brooks

Mantras are funny things. They stay constant when our surroundings change. When good turns to bad and right turns to wrong, I guess this is when we need our mantras most. The irony here being that this is when we tend to question them. The once positive affirmation turns into a naive quote and all we are left with is self-pity. For a long time, the journalist in me has approached mantras with skepticism. Always slightly unconvinced. But over enough time, I’ve come to realise the only constant we are able to rely on in our lives is the talk that occurs in our heads. May as well make it good chat. Which is why, lately, I’ve come to lean on many mantras. There’s what you think about, you bring about and when you know better, you do better and, one I now deploy in times of great crisis, Just exist. (Thank you, Patti Andrews.)

But this week, just exist was replaced by another: Everything is always working out for you. Now before your eyes complete their rolling, I would like to inform you that Oprah said that. It is, in fact, Oprah’s mantra. I stumbled upon this mantra during my Commencement Speech YouTube Spiral which I am now deeming productive because it has produced two newsletters. And in her Commencement Speech at Colorado College, Oprah asked the graduates to recall all the times they were worried and upset and didn’t think they’d make it through. “And here you are today,” she said. “You made it. And I’m here to tell you, that you’re going to be more than OK. So take a deep breath with me right now, and repeat this: Everything is always working out for me. That’s my mantra, make it yours. Everything is always working out for me, because it is and it has and it will continue to be as you forge and discover your own path.”