Goofy Mantras
· 879 words · 5 min read
I’ve spent years dabbling in the kinds of things that make you sound a little unhinged at dinner parties: mindfulness, affirmations, sigils, orgonite — the whole hippie-nerd crossover catalogue. I’ve gotten real benefit from some of it and had a good laugh at the rest. But one simple practice stands out: a daily mantra I say to myself. It doesn’t sound profound. It lacks polish. It feels a little goofy. And those qualities makes it work.
The Power of a Daily Reset #
Most of us carry yesterday into today: a bad meeting, a missed workout, a short temper with the kids. The weight of small failures accumulates like compound interest.
Practicing a daily reset doesn’t mean pretending yesterday didn’t happen. It means refusing to let yesterday’s scoreboard dictate today’s game. The sun comes up, and so do you. Each day deserves a fresh start.
A short, goofy spoken phrase flips the scorecard back to zero. It clears the register and gives me permission to try again.
My Very Best #
For years, I started my mornings with this line:
“Every day, I wake up, and I tell myself I’ll do my very best. And that’s what I do every day. And sometimes my best isn’t good enough, but that’s okay.”
I didn’t borrow this from a Stoic philosopher or ancient scripture. It nods to Al Franken’s Stuart Smalley character. Autosuggestion and affirmations feel silly. I do them anyway.
The first part commits me: I will do my best. The second part extends grace: sometimes my best won’t cut it, but somehow the sun still rises. Together, they form a quiet pact with myself. I’ll show up. I’ll try. But I won’t beat myself up when things don’t go perfectly. Because they won’t.
My wife heard me say this aloud enough times that she would laugh and recite it along with me. That little moment of shared amusement reinforces the point: caring about your own mental health and success doesn’t have to feel dorky. You can even inject humor if you want it to. If you can’t laugh at your own humanity, you have taken yourself too seriously. I haven’t recited this particular phrase daily in a while.
“I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.”
– Stuart Smalley
The Old Wheel #
More recently, I’ve added another catchphrase to my pull-string. I had caught myself on autopilot, telling people “Oh, you know… Living the dream.” every time someone asked, “how are you?” It rolled off the tongue too easily. It meant nothing. Worse, I had no personal attachment to it.
So I swapped it out for something that felt more true:
“Every day provides another chance to play—another spin of the old wheel.”
It feels more authentic and not like deflecting with cliche. The “old wheel” references nothing specific. It just exists as a mental image I like: a big, creaky carnival wheel. Some days it lands on a prize; some days it lands on a dud. But you get to spin it again tomorrow. What a gift!
Framing the day as “play” changes the emotional stakes. When you play, you experiment, stumble, and laugh when things go sideways. Play doesn’t demand perfection. It just asks you to show up and take your turn.
The catchphrase also puts showing up front and center. Anyone can analyze a situation to death and never take any action. The invitation to spin the wheel signifies that any opportunity not taken becomes an opportunity lost. We only get so many spins (days), so why waste any? Imagine stepping up to a game you’ve already paid for and opting out. That makes no sense.
We don’t always win, but we receive the opportunity to stay in the game. This catchphrase shows gratitude while keeping the laughing child within alive.
Playing with Words #
Saying these words aloud draws a line between the person who went to bed with yesterday’s baggage and the person waking up with a clean slate. The mantras don’t solve problems. They don’t make me more productive or more disciplined. They just give me a moment of deliberate neutrality before the day pulls me in a dozen directions. As a new dad, that feels grounding.
I don’t suggest you adopt my words. My mantras fit me because they came from me. Yours should fit you. If nothing else, you’ll give your partner or friends something to tease you about, making it all worth the proverbial price of admission.
Yesterday’s mistakes follow you into today only if you invite them. A simple, slightly goofy mantra won’t change your life overnight. But it might, over time, change how you carry your life.
— ws
P.S. Writing this reminded me of an old blog post a friend shared with me years ago: Words matter↗! I’d like to take that thought a step further: our words don’t just matter; they shape who we become. The words we speak and think have a direct effect on how we live.
P.P.S. After writing this, then re-reading the P.S., I thought it fitting to revise the whole thing to conform to E-prime↗ (with the exception of the mantras and quotes themselves). It forced me to take a more active tone and offer clarification.