By Amy Heydlauff
“You’ve got this!”
A junior high math teacher recently told me this is her mantra with her students. I wish she’d been my math teacher.
You’ve got this! is an awesome short sentence that can be used by anyone for the following good reasons.
- It inspires self-confidence in the listener.
- It conveys a sense of optimism.
- The listener is now responsible for the outcome.
- The speaker is willing to let go.
There is no time constraint on ‘getting it’. There is room to try, get it partly right but fail. Try, get it more right and fail. Try and succeed.
It isn’t written in stone. The speaker can judiciously step in to prevent catastrophe (which for a junior high math student might be embarrassment in front of their peers. Perhaps it’s the same for those of us well beyond junior high.)
Sometimes the sentence can be self-talk, as in “I’ve got this.” Like, on the way into a job interview or trying karaoke for the first time. Preparing for a difficult apology to a friend or increasing exercise. Planning for a first date or gently sharing difficult news.
It may not always turn out the way we hoped. “You’ve got this.” may mean we simply learned something but didn’t win.
Back to our junior high students; the student may now understand percentages but not fractions (yet).
The point is, our life is richer for the effort and we know something or did something we didn’t know or do before.
We grew.
We are now more capable.
More ready.
There is a fundamental optimism in this sentence. I wish I’d used it much more.
It’s not too late and I’m going to start to use it now. I hope you’ll join me in encouraging yourself and those around you.
We are failing forward. We can be optimistic. We’ve got this!
