Taylor Swift's Uses This Three-Word Motto To Help Her Persevere Through Tough Moments
If any of today's crop of pop girlies know about hard times, it's Taylor Swift. The "Love Story" singer has spent her entire adult life in the spotlight, enduring a number of highly public heartbreaks on top of the everyday burdens of being one of the most recognizable entertainers in the world. Even the high points that have marked her present journey — like a blowout wedding and the most commercially successful concert tour ever — can be extremely stressful. Swift has always been open about such struggles, and when she sat down for an intimate interview at the Grammy Museum in August 2026, she revealed the three word motto that gets her through them.
"I go through several processes and coping mechanisms that I've gone through over the years," Swift told Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of The Recording Academy in a live YouTube stream. "And one of them is saying, 'You chose this. You chose this every day. You could have opted out of this any day before it got unmanageably big.'" By repeating, "You chose this," Swift reminds herself of the reason she withstands the chaos. "Everything that comes with this ultimately is worth it as long as I get to still make music," she concluded.
Taylor Swift fends off stress with sleep and social media settings
Of course, a motto can help, but it's not magic. Swift has revealed in the past that she's had to take long periods off at a time to overcome the physical toll of anxiety and depression. She knows that mental health starts with physical health, so ahead of the "Eras" tour, she quit drinking alcohol to stay sharp, and as soon as she gets time off, she stays in bed for a whole day, even for meals. She also swears by a regular dose of L-theanine for stress and anxiety.
Swift takes the same active approach to less tangible aspects of mental health. In 2019, she extolled to Elle the benefits of turning off social media comments, removing toxic people from your life (ahem, Jake Gyllenhaal — you know, allegedly), and standing up for yourself. "Be like a snake," she advised, leaning into the imagery haters employed to harass her that became the basis of one of Taylor Swift's most iconic "Eras" tour outfits. "Only bite if someone steps on you."