Reykavik. I hate to admit it but until a few months ago I couldn’t have told you the capitol of Iceland. But then I was invited to visit. A conference, of sorts. For women, who want to change the world. It was an easy yes.
Little did I know what a treat I was in for or that I’d leave with a surprisingly strong affection for a nation whose spirit has been forged through surviving some of the harshest conditions on the planet.
While there I learned a national maxim that explains the Viking spirit Icelanders bring to a place that dishes up its share of fire and ice (though the August weather was superb for me ☀️).
The saying:
Þetta reddast. (Note: Þ is pronounced Th.. pronouced like Thetta)
It means “it will all work out.”
It’s a national mantra born from necessity. Afterall, Iceland was settled by Vikings who had to believe they’d get through whatever the sea, skies, or volcanoes threw at them next. Literally. In fact I visited a town that was evacuated only two years ago as a wall of lava rolled toward it. Can you imagine?
The Þetta reddast mindset gradually cemented into a national identity. It’s an Icelander’s shrug to life.
I share it now because you don’t have to live in an isolated land, facing long bitter winters and lava flows, to live from it.
Imagine the stress you’d spare yourself if you embraced the Þetta reddast maxim in your own life. Or the energy you’d reclaim if you gave up worrying about all the bad things that might happen. Imagine the space for creativity that would open up or the moments of joy you’d reclaim, if you could rise above your fear of what could go wrong or your What ifs? if it did.
And imagine the life force you’d unleash, that extra spring in your step or space in your heart, if you made the decision (and remade it as often as needed, likely before your next meal) to trust - in yourself, in life - that everything is going to work out in the end.
As Marty Seligman, the father of positive psychology wrote in Learned Optimism:
“Optimists endure the same storms as pessimists. But optimists weather them better and emerge from them better off.”
Chances are that right now you are facing some variety of storm. A challenging work colleague. Financial pressure. A struggling child. A malady of some form. This is not bad. This is just life.
Of course, trusting that everything will work out in the end doesn’t mean it will be exactly the way you want. It doesn’t mean people you care about won’t struggle. It doesn’t mean you'll meet your quartely numbers. And it sure doesn’t mean you won’t face other challenges ahead. What it means is that it will all work out in ways beyond what your mind (uniquely brilliant but still limited!), can conceive from your current vantage point. And maybe even far better than you can imagine.
So if something isn’t aligning to your vision for how its supposed to be right now, consider that it’s because your story is still being written. And consider that maybe, just maybe, the things you’ll one day look back on with the most gratitude for how they shaped you lie on the other side of the very thing you’re struggling with most.
As I wrote in You’ve Got This!):
Often the very storms that we think are ruining our path is actually just revealing it.
My version of Þetta reddast:
Keep faith. Press on.
The truth is that we human beings could not have sailed across oceans, traversed rugged mountains in wagons, much less endured Icelandic winters if we were made of sugar candy (fairy floss for my Aussie subscribers.)
Deciding to trust in yourself, and in the wisdom from which you were created, that you have everything required to meet whatever life is asking of unlocks a deep well of resourcefulness to do more of what will help you meet it better. As I’ve often said to my kids, and anyone else in the midst of a stormy season:
Keep faith. Everything works out in the end. So if it hasn’t worked out yet, that’s because it’s not the end.
Þetta reddast!
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I love this Margie! This was my Grandmother’s mantra and I grew up with this very thought process 🩷