The Most Eye Opening 30 Minutes Of Your Life Oprah Winfrey Motivation

so we are a couple of weeks of course

into 2022 and i know that so many people

made resolutions some of you already

broke them already whether it’s to put

your health at the top of your to-do

list or follow your passion i know the

mark of a new year is that we’ve been

conditioned to reset and get all pumped

up for our next chapter and all the

possibility that awaits but i want to

propose something to you all today

i want to propose that you resolve

something very powerful

to love who you are right now and of

course i think that wanting to be your

best self and setting goals and

intentions is really major

but i remember doing a stop on the 2020

vision tour i met this reporter in miami

we took some photos together and she

said to me oprah next time you see me

i’m going to be so much skinnier and i

replied

well the next time i see you hopefully

you’re going to be as healthy as you can

be in that moment because right now

this is as healthy as you can be in this

moment and the next time you’ll be as

healthy as you can be in that moment i

told her to be kind to herself

and she looked at me and said how do i

do that

well it starts with loving right now who

you are all yourself your flaws

living in a space of lack focused on

what you don’t want or what you don’t

like about yourself

i i promise you i’ve learned it doesn’t

work

take a moment to look at what is really

running through your mind about yourself

that may be holding you back

the energy of the universe responds to

positivity and so if you’re telling

yourself you’re not slim enough you’re

not good enough when that negative

chatter starts in your head stops lean

away from it when you let those thoughts

of not being enough seep in you can’t

really act out

the best of yourself so your actions

must be in alignment with all the

goodness and strengths that you know to

be true about yourself so this week i’m

inviting you to put on your happy

sweater wherever it is or whatever that

is for you

quiet all the negative self-talk and

allow your confidence your sense of

knowing that better days are ahead

to be at the forefront of your thinking

tomorrow is never promise so let’s

accept and then let’s celebrate

ourselves

just where we are right now

thank you

thank you for where i am

and who i am

right now

let that be the blessing and intention

for ourselves this

week you know when i was a kid i thought

i was going to be a social worker or be

a teacher or somehow be in an

environment where i would be connected

and speaking to people to honor that

calling i had no

idea that god could dream this big dream

of

a television life for myself but

everybody has a calling

and your real job in life is to figure

out as soon as possible what that is

who you were meant to be

and begin to honor that in the best way

possible for yourself we have seen over

the years on the oprah show so many

people who’ve been able to rise to

success in their life and only able to

rise to success because they answered

the call lots of people think that it’s

about being famous or about being known

or about doing big big incredible things

what you’re going to hear today and see

through the stories

is that

sometimes the calling is

right in your own neighborhood sometimes

the calling is

something that was just a whisper to you

and when you began to honor that whisper

and to follow that

you end up being the best that you could

be

so in my own life i i have to say that

i

had no idea that i would end up being

who i have become

but i had a strong belief that the

calling was something greater than what

mississippi was showing me the calling

was greater than my front yard the

calling was greater than what my

grandmother believed that my life could

be

the problem is everybody is meeting

hysteria with more hysteria

and then we just are all becoming

hysterical and it’s getting worse

what i’ve learned all these years is

that we’re not supposed to match it or

even get locked into resisting or

pushing against it we’re supposed to see

this moment in time for what it is we’re

supposed to see through it and then

transcend it

that is how you overcome hysteria

and that is how you overcome

the sniping at one another the trolling

the mean-spirited partisanship on both

sides of the aisle the divisiveness the

injustices and the out and out hatred

you use it

use this moment

to encourage you to embolden you and to

literally

push you into the rising

of your life

and to borrow a phrase from my beloved

mentor maya angelou just like moons and

like sons with the certainty of tides

just like the hopes springing high

you

will rise

well you know i managed to get here

stedman and i have

absolutely uh differing philosophies

because he um teaches the idea of he has

a book called you can make it happen

nine steps to success and he’s always um

talking to me about cr having a vision

that would with no vision that people

perish and i always say i don’t have a

vision i don’t have a vision to get here

to where i am my vision was of

surrendering to what i believe was god’s

vision for me and i always say god can

dream a bigger dream for you that you

can dream for yourself i now believe

that i need a vision i think stedman is

finally right

that uh in order to continue to move

forward that i need to develop a vision

for myself and um

one of my big goals is to use this

television show as a forum and a

catalyst for change in people’s lives

that’s one of them the other is to move

out into the world in a more impactful

global format to help women and children

across the globe without education the

people perish without education nobody

will be able to survive without

education women cannot overcome poverty

will not be able to learn to take care

of themselves will not be able to move

forward on the planet so i want to use

my life and this television show to

continue to do that

i think some people think that are under

the impression that i was born empowered

that i was born coming out of the womb

ready to interview a klansman

but the truth is

i know very well what it’s like to be

marginalized to be told either

subtly or quite directly that my

contribution isn’t or wasn’t welcome

that my face was invisible and that my

needs were an affront so back when i was

doing the news in baltimore i asked to

be paid the same as my co-anchor who did

exactly the same job as i was doing

and i

expected that i would be compensated so

i went in and i asked that i would get

the same amount of money so he was doing

the same job i was doing except that he

called me babe all the time babe yeah

babe

anyway i was told by my news director

and by the general manager because first

i went to the news director then my

general manager and i was told that

because i was a single woman

who didn’t have a mortgage and i didn’t

have kids that i was not entitled to

earn the same kind of money as the man

who was sitting next to me

doing the same thing

and i realized in that moment that my

employers did not get it they did not

understand my value

but you know what i did

so cut to am chicago the team’s hard at

work and they had been working for a

long time

and after a year or so

we were asked to be syndicated that work

began to pay off

before long we were now no longer called

am chicago we’re the national oprah

winfrey show i got a raise

but my producers did not so i went into

the boss at the time

and i asked that my producers who

incidentally were all female

i asked that they would be given a pay

raise increase

and my boss this is in 1986 said why

they’re only girls

what do they need more money for

girls

uh i’ve used the word affectionately

sometimes referring to women as girls

and

there was no affection in his tone it

was absolutely condescending so

you know it takes a while to develop a

voice but once you have it you damn sure

better use it on stuff that matters

so i took a deep breath in that moment

and said

either they’re going to get raises

or i’m going to sit down

i’m not going to work if they don’t get

paid more

babe

i would like to believe that i could

have spoken that kind of truth to

misogyny even if i’d been all by myself

but here i was on the brink of finally

getting what i really wanted and had

been working uh many years for a

national show

i mean i might have been too intimidated

to stand my own ground against this guy

if i were actually alone but here’s the

thing you’re never alone

you’re never alone

the sovereign sound of maya angelou’s

voice

was pushing me forward that day

whispering

i come as one

but i stand as ten thousand

so when i was faced with the opportunity

to advocate for my producers i silently

called on some of the ten thousand

and walked into my boss’s office

hand in spirit with the women who had

come before me

i could feel bessie smith

and billy holliday and ella fitzgerald

and pearl bailey and sarah vaughan and

lena horn clutching their green books

looking for a place to eat while they

sang in supper clubs for whites only

and i could feel

reese taylor and rosa parks refusing to

relinquish their dignity in the face of

death threats all these women were with

me that day walking into the office in

chicago as was diana carroll and petula

clark and joan baez and mary tyler moore

and mom’s maybelli and barbara walters

and all of the astonishing women

whose

names none of us will ever even know

despite their sacrifice

and i’m pretty sure

i even heard shirley chisholm

urging me on with this thought

if they don’t give you a seat at the

table

bring a folding chair

i understood that there were so many

times

that many women from my mother’s

generation and god knows my

grandmother’s generation who were forced

to grit their teeth and just take it

because standing up for themselves

wasn’t even an option

the risk was too great

and they knew it

but they also knew in their bones what

my dear friend maya

put so eloquently into words when she

says you may not control all the events

that happened to you but you can decide

not to be reduced by them

because these women and so many others

like them made the decision not to allow

themselves to be reduced by the many

injustices they were subjected to

i found the strength to act if not just

for myself

not just for my producers but for all

the women who in their ingenious ways

subverted the rules laid the foundation

and pushed the envelope just a little

bit further for me

we

all are here to fulfill the dreams of

those who came before us

maya used to say you’ve been paid for

you’ve been paid for young people so put

your crown on your head and wear it

we are here not merely to bear witness

but to be the new voices of an

extraordinary new age you see when i was

growing up there were no black people in

the media just buckwheat on television

and i was constantly doing that thing

looking to find myself and what i found

and said was leave it to beaver and

donna reed and lassie although

technically i guess lassie was mostly

brown the the the point is though we are

now able to see ourselves reflected

through entertainment but what pleases

me most is that we’re beginning to see

on screen

what we’re beginning to see is starting

to change the landscape of what we see

behind the scenes what kamal was talking

about true inclusion

and what i realized during all those

years during the oprah show and the

reason that own is now thriving is how

essential it is to see yourself

reflected in other people’s stories it’s

something that you as white people never

have to even think about

because the more you see a broader and

richer and more nuanced depiction of

yourself and your neighbor and the world

the more empowered you become and it’s

that sense of empowerment that actually

tethers us to the universe it gives us

at least a glimpse of how connected we

all are

so what a blessed sign of progress it is

to know that millions of kids in 2019

don’t have to stand with their noses

pressed up against the window or the

television screens looking in at a

family that makes them feel less than by

comparison today we can point to work

that says you

are every bit as valued

and vital to the fabric of life as

anyone else you are a part of a

community but it takes time it takes

time to see yourself it takes time to

hear yourself and to feel to feel

appreciated for just being yourself

empowerment does not happen overnight

like change it is never just one thing

it is a series of consistent steps great

and small that proves to us again and

again that genuine change is actually

possible

so many people are worried about

building a brand i hear kids on social

media talking about their brand and i

used to really resent the word when

people would say to me oh you have this

brand because i never never even thought

about a brand

i just thought about day in and day out

making the best right choice for me

but now i embrace it because i recognize

people see me as a brand

but for me it’s not a business it is a

question of what do you stand for

and i will say this you’re nothing if

you’re not the truth

and that’s the if i could leave you with

any message today that is it

uh the biggest reward is not financial

benefits though it’s really good you can

get a lot of great

shoes nothing wrong with great shoes

but those of you who have a lot of shoes

know that having great shoes and a

closet full of shoes or cars or houses

or square footage doesn’t fill up your

life

it doesn’t

but living a life of substance

can

substance through

your service your offering of your whole

self

and the baseline for how do you live a

life of substance is whatever is the

truth for you what do you stand for

[Music]

people may not remember your every word

they may not remember all of your

actions but they certainly remember

how your words and your actions made

them feel

so let’s leave here today

with the collective memory

of wanting to create enlightenment in

the world

let’s leave here

knowing that we can give people the

sense

that they have been heard and respected

let’s foster original thinking

and humane treatment

let’s seek out the words we don’t know

let’s do away with the us and them i’ve

seen us in them create a whole lot of

problems but i’ve never seen it solve

one thing

instead let’s nourish our artists let’s

offer the possibility of something

better

for all of us

because a new day is no longer on the

horizon

the new day is now

one of the things i started to get

around

mid to late 90s is that everybody that i

had on the show at the end of the show

would say something to me like

was that okay was that okay how was that

was that okay at the end of the

interview

and i started to then track it it didn’t

matter if it was

i had gone and done a show where i was

in um

a prison i was interviewing a father who

was in jail for life for murdering his

twin daughters and at the end of the

interview even behind bars he said to me

is that okay

how’d i do

and barack obama said it when he sat in

the chair the first time and george bush

said it

this is what i learned

sitting in that chair for 25 years that

at the end of the day

whether you are

interviewing me or i get to interview

you

whatever your profession is

wherever you are in your life in your

relationships

every person that you encounter every

experience the person wants to know

was that okay

was that okay

and what i started to hear was that what

people are really saying is did you hear

me

did you hear me

and did what i say mean anything to you

and so i started to listen

with that in mind with that intention of

validating that your being here

you’re speaking to me you’re taking the

time to do this with me is important

because you matter and that’s true for

everybody who’s watching or listening

that every argument that you ever have

every encounter the person just wants to

know did you hear me did you see me and

did i say anything that mattered

everybody works hard

and everybody has their own dreams

there was a time where i used to spend a

lot of energy wanting things

of course it’s easy for me to say oh

things don’t define you because i got a

lot of things things nice i like them

but this is what i learned

when you can surrender to the dream

you get to live in the space of the

higher power

you get to live in the space

that you purposefully have come to earth

to claim for yourself so

around 1984

i was sitting in bed one morning

i was reading

the new york times review of the color

purple

and i thought whoa this sounds like a

really great book i got out of bed in my

pajamas put on my galoshes

and went to the store to get the copy of

the color purple

i read the color purple in one afternoon

got

went back to the bookstore bought every

book of the color purple

i took the books to the office and i

said to everybody y’all got to read this

book oh my god you got to read this book

color purple i needed a book club i

didn’t have one

so i passed out the book to everybody i

knew please read the color purple read

the color purple then i start to hear

that somebody’s going to do a movie

about the color purple but i don’t know

anybody in the movie business by this

time i was on am chicago i don’t know

anybody i start praying to god god

please help me find a way to get in the

color purple

i say jesus i don’t even have to have a

speaking part

i will be because i went to the movies

and i saw on the movie credits

at the last credit there’s something

called best boy

so i said jesus if you just let me be

best girl

that’ll be all right by me i can be best

girl

i can carry the script i can help the

people with the water i can do whatever

so i start praying for the color purple

as divine law would have it quincy jones

comes to chicago

and he is in chicago for one half of a

day

because somebody has filed a suit

against michael jackson claiming that

billie jean was their lover and that’s

not his song

so quincy had taken the red eye to

chicago

he was in his hotel room

he was coming out of the shower

and the television in his hotel room is

on am chicago

there sits little chubby me

with my jared curl

on am chicago

quincy jones tells ruben cannon the

casting agent i think i found sophia so

i get a call

for movement cannon who says

i’m calling about a movie

it’s called moon song

would you be interested to come and

audition and i say i have not been

praying for moon song

[Music]

i had not been playing for moon song

i’ve been praying for the color purple

he said well

i think you should come and and audition

so i go to audition you know movie

people they make everything all secret

steven spielberg didn’t want anybody

know he was doing color purple so on the

outside of the script it says moon song

but i know all the words by heart

so when i open the script i know this is

the color purple jesus this is the color

purple

so i auditioned for the color purple i

can’t even believe it they don’t just

want me to be the water girl

or the best girl they are asking me do i

want a part in the movie oh that i’m

thinking prayer prayer works

three months pass three months is a long

time

i auditioned in february

march

april may comes i haven’t heard anything

so i call reuben cannon i say mr cannon

i’m sorry sir i haven’t heard anything i

expected to hear something by now and

reuben cannon

african-american man says to me you

don’t call me i call you and i didn’t

call you do you understand that i have

real actresses who have auditioned for

this part

real actresses and he tells me who just

left his office and i went well okay i’m

not getting that part

so i hang up the phone and i start

crying i can’t believe that god has

played this trick on me i think

this is a trick

so i decide that this is because the fat

has finally caught up with me

the fat has finally caught up with me

and now i must get rid of the fat in two

weeks

i am going to go to a fat farm

and i’m going to lose

25 pounds

i’m gonna drink a lot of green juice

i’m gonna have some cleanses and

colonics

so i also

was trying to make peace with it

i said god

i don’t understand

i thought it was for me you ever had

that talk with god

i i thought it was for me i thought it

was for me

god you let me audition with somebody

named harpo

that’s my name backwards jesus that was

a sign wasn’t it a sign

and then three months pass and then then

ruben cannon says real actresses

have just left his office

so i start to pray on the track i’m out

on the track

at the fat farm

and i am running around at the track

at the fat farm

it starts to rain

you all know how that is

but i don’t even care cause i am praying

to god to help me to let it go help me

let it go because now i’ve become

obsessed with it and it’s now

controlling my life i start praying

running around the track

and i keep hearing this noise and i

i can’t there’s nobody on the track but

me

and i’m running around the track

and i look around and it is my thighs

rubbing together

my thighs are rubbing together

causing this thunderous sound

[Music]

there’s nobody on the track so then i

really start to cry

oh lord help me

help me let it go help me let it go help

me let it go god help me let it go

and you ever did this prayer where you

say okay lord don’t come and let it go

then you get up and you go well i think

i still got a little bit of it

i did help me let it go

but i am not going to be able to see the

other actress

in my part i won’t be able to see it

won’t be able to see color purple just

can never see it the rest of my life i

won’t be able to see it

so then i started

i don’t know where it came from

i surrender all

i

surrender all

all

to thee my

blessed savior

i

surrender

all

i sang and i cried

i sang and i cried and i prayed some

more

until i could reach the point where not

only

not only will i be able to go to the

movie but i can bless the other actress

i can bless her

i can say

i bless you i bless you i bless you with

this i surrender all

i

surrender all

all

to thee

my

blessed savior

i

surrender all

and i tell you

in my greatest testimony

that the instant i laid that thing down

i’m telling you when i laid it down

when i laid it down and it didn’t have

me anymore

it had no control over me anymore

i didn’t feel anything about it anymore

when i let it go

when i intentionally surrendered it to

the power that was greater than i could

ever know the instant that happened

a woman comes running out of the

cafeteria

screaming offering

is your name all free

for 10 years nobody can pronounce my

name

i said yes she says somebody’s on the

telephone for you he’s a named spielberg

[Music]

i get to the phone

he says i hear you’re at a fat farm

i said no sir

this is a health retreat

he says i’d like to see you in my office

in california tomorrow this was in

wisconsin i was i’d like to see you in

my office

and if you lose a pound

you could lose this part

no

problem do i have

i’ll have no problem not losing a pound

so honey i packed my bags

and i stopped at the dairy queen

i got three scoops just in case i’d lost

a half a pound

and the next day i was in steven

spielberg’s office and he said you’re

hired you’re hired

you have no idea of the power

of

noticing

another human being

and what it feels like when somebody

knows that they have been seen truly

seen by you

it is the greatest offering you can give

and all those years of the oprah show

the greatest lesson i learned was that

you know after every show

uh someone would say invariably in one

way or another um

how was that i’d finish an interview

with father who killed his twin

daughters i’d finish an interview with

politician barack obama joe biden george

bush they beyonce they all say the same

thing

how is that

and so i started to see that there’s

this common thread in our humanity

where everybody wants to know

how was that

did i do okay

did you hear me

and did what i say

mean something to you

so i would have to say that

recognizing that in other people has

helped me to become you know a person of

compassion a person understanding a

person who can interview anybody about

anything because i know that if the core

of you is the same as core me you just

want to be heard

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

you