I have to say I wasn’t feeling my best when I got the invite to attend probably this biggest classroom held in the Toyota Center and by “THE” Oprah Winfrey herself. “Who turns down Oprah”, I thought. I had been seeing commercials for a while about the multi-city arena tour that was to engage, encourage, and empower the audience. So despite feeling ill, I decided to go to the sold out “The Life You Want Tour” that was being held Oct. 17-18th. What a great decision I made. Oprah and her Trailblazers (Rob Bell, Deepak Chopra, Iyanla Vanzant, and Elizabeth Gilbert) transformed the audience via personal relatable experiences, thought provoking questions, and motivational stories.
“I want us all to fulfill our greatest potential. To find our calling, and summon the courage to live it.” – Oprah
It was extremely challenging to choose 10 from my notes. If I hadn’t attended the event I too would be upset about reading only 10 life changing lessons; however, 100 lessons wouldn’t do the weekend justice, I would have to write an entire book! So please enjoy the 10 life changing lessons that I learned at Oprah’s The Life You Want Tour: Houston.
10: “Your life is validated by service” – Oprah
Oprah stated this after quoting MLK “Not everyone can be famous, but everyone can be great because greatness is determined by service”. This quote was apart of day one, under the lesson of Awakening to the Life you want; your beliefs, your hearts desire, who you are meant to be. So what sort of life do you want? Do you want to be famous? Do you want to be someone who is known? What validates your life? Oprah mentioned how she wanted the house, the car, more money; but how service truly validated her life.
9: “Don’t do anything from this day forward unless you specifically INTEND to do it” – Oprah
She started off talking about the 3rd law of physics: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. So the energy you put out comes back to you. She talked about how you co-create your life with the energy of your INTENTION. Even before our thoughts and actions there are intentions. We are motivated by our intentions. You have to be responsible for every action, every thought, and every intention. Ask yourself what are your intentions? Do you look to move ahead by stepping on others? Do you expect positive energy when you put out negative? The life you want, will you get it by any means necessary?
8: “Everything you’ve been through is going to help you get through” – Maya Angelou to Oprah
Obviously we are talking about negative experiences as positive experiences do not have as much as an impact on our life as negative ones. Don’t use the past as a handicap. Use past experiences as fuel, fuel to get you to the next state in life. Look at your past experiences and choices, accept them, realize that you are still breathing, and make a choice right now to use them to elevate you.
7: “Statistically we produce about 50k thoughts a day, about 80% of them are negative” – Oprah
I thought this was an interesting statistic. I could not agree with Ms. O more when she said we say things to ourselves that we dare not say to others or allow them to say to us. What are some ways we speak negatively to ourselves: I cant, I am not, Im unworthy, Unlovable, I am fat, ugly, and unskilled. I could go on. At the back of our program there was even a list of negative and positive sayings. “Become aware of the language we use to speak to ourselves”, she said. We were instructed to create a new vision with new language. So for the life you want, from this day forward when you wake think positive, find something to be grateful for. When negative thoughts start, uproot them immediately, “re-language” yourself. Don’t define yourself with words, let positive words adorn you.
6: “There is more stress on the highway” – Deepak Chopra
Deepak was responding to a persons question about how to remain positive amongst the stressful issues of the world like ISIS and Ebola. Deepak was alluding to that fact that everyday life is stressful by saying more stress on the highway. Although you could hear the audience dismissal of the question due to their agreeing with Deepak, I feel that the person that tweeted this choose the wrong two issues. I feel like their reaction would have been different had Ferguson replaced one of the two issues. In any case I agree with Deepak, you remain positive by focusing on things to be grateful for. There is so much more stress than Isis, Ferguson, Ebola, etc. People are living with diseases that only 1% of the population has with no media/tv time. People are loosing loved ones to death every day. I could definitely go on and so could you. If you focus on negative things you will find it hard to be positive because that’s your focus. Focus on the positive.
5: “The life you want is on the other side of the labor pains it takes to birth it” – Iyanla Vanzant
This one is self explanatory. I mean nothing is given to you. You have to work for it and it will be hard, painful, you will want to give up, but in the end it will be worth it. She equated it to labor pains. The mothers in the room definitely could relate. If you are a man or never been pregnant and have ever passed a kidney stone you could also relate on a small degree according to doctors. Either way we can imagine the pain that one have to endure to birth a child. Are you ready for that? Can you withstand the pain? There are classes that women take to prepare them for birth. You too can prepare yourself for what it takes to get you to the other side. The life you want tour equated to one of those classes.
4: “Life says yes, no, stop, go!” – Iyanla Vanzant
It was hard for me to accept this; extremely hard! I am an optimist/part-time realist. I see good in everything so for me to draw lines and say life is telling me no, that’s extremely hard. Why? Because I say life is telling me not right now. But according to Dr. Vanzant life doesn’t confuse us, we confuse ourselves. Its up to us to read the signs and adjust accordingly.
3: “Your eyes will adjust to the level of deficiency present” – Iyanla Vanzant
Have you created a distorted view of reality about others or yourselves? If so we will have a distorted outlook on life.
2: “Holding on to resentment is like holding your breath, you will suffocate” – Deepak Chopra
3 words: LET IT GO
1: “The enemy is sometimes in me” – Iyanla Vanzant
Such a powerful statement and for obvious reasons it’s my number one lesson. Sometimes we hold ourselves back, sometimes we hate ourselves, and sometimes we abuse ourselves. Stop! We should love us, cherish us, and treat us well. We need to take care of our health physically, emotionally, and mentally. Don’t allow ourselves to blame others for what’s going wrong in our life. We are adults take responsibility for YOU!
The Life You Want Tour will continue in Miami, Seattle, and end in San Jose. For more information visit: Oprah.com