"We cannot always control our thoughts, but we can control our words, and repetition impresses the subconscious, and we are then master of the situation"
About this Quote
Jane Fonda’s line has the crisp, practical optimism of someone who’s spent decades being watched, judged, and asked to stay “in control” in public even when the private mind is a mess. It doesn’t romanticize inner chaos; it routes around it. The first clause admits a modern anxiety: thoughts are unruly, intrusive, sometimes embarrassing. Instead of selling the fantasy of total mental mastery, she offers a more workable lever: language. Words are behavior. They’re also rehearsal.
The key move is the pivot from “control” to “repetition.” That’s where the quote reveals its real engine: not willpower, but training. Repetition “impresses the subconscious” borrows from self-help, therapy, and performance craft all at once. Actors literally build emotion through lines said again and again until they feel true; activists build conviction through slogans until they stick; anyone clawing through a bad day tries to talk themselves into a steadier posture. Fonda’s subtext is that identity is partly a script you write in real time, then audition for yourself until you believe it.
“Master of the situation” is telling, too: it’s not enlightenment, it’s leverage. In Fonda’s cultural context - aerobics evangelist, public reinvention artist, political lightning rod - the promise isn’t purity of thought. It’s agency under pressure. Say the words you want to live by, repeat them until they sink in, and you can move through the world as if you meant it. That “as if” is the quiet trick: performance as survival, and eventually, as self.
The key move is the pivot from “control” to “repetition.” That’s where the quote reveals its real engine: not willpower, but training. Repetition “impresses the subconscious” borrows from self-help, therapy, and performance craft all at once. Actors literally build emotion through lines said again and again until they feel true; activists build conviction through slogans until they stick; anyone clawing through a bad day tries to talk themselves into a steadier posture. Fonda’s subtext is that identity is partly a script you write in real time, then audition for yourself until you believe it.
“Master of the situation” is telling, too: it’s not enlightenment, it’s leverage. In Fonda’s cultural context - aerobics evangelist, public reinvention artist, political lightning rod - the promise isn’t purity of thought. It’s agency under pressure. Say the words you want to live by, repeat them until they sink in, and you can move through the world as if you meant it. That “as if” is the quiet trick: performance as survival, and eventually, as self.
Quote Details
| Topic | Habits |
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