This video is one I’m glad I didn’t miss. Thank you to Lina for sending me the link and reminding me how much I’ve always admired Oprah Winfrey. One of the things that make her so special and so popular throughout the world is her willingness to be authentic. When she discloses the struggles of her own life, she provides a window into her heart and invites others to do the same with theirs. Talk show hosts typically stay on a superficial level with their guests and you never really get to know them. Oprah opened up a world of real life problems and she was never afraid to ask the difficult questions. On this video, you’ll see her pull up her pant leg and show us how she cuts the foot of her pantyhose off so she can wear sandals AND support hose at the same time. Who would do that?? Those are the secrets we usually don’t share publicly. We put on the front, and hope it passes. Disarming. Nice. Funny. And most of all, it’s a statement that we’re OK, even with our little hidden quirks. We don’t even need to hide them anymore, because it’s likely that everyone else is doing the same!

For those who appreciate having things written down (like I do), here are some excerpts taken from the video. They are the key points and the takeaways for me.

OPRAH: “I was a poor colored girl, but I held onto my belief that there was something bigger and greater for me. At different times in your life, the call will be different. I knew that whatever that right thing was, it wasn’t gonna be what everybody told me it was.

The only way to know what to do in life is to pay attention to the life that you are living right now. You can’t get it by listening to other people. The purest light of yourself, your own conscience~ that’s how the energy of God speaks to all of us. Knowing that you deserve and are worthy of the best that creation has to offer, and believing that there is a reason why you are here, and understanding that your job is to figure out what that is and then follow that belief. In life, everybody is a teacher for you. If you’re in a bad relationship right now, you’re a student of how to have a better relationship.”

Jim Carrey: “I would visualize directors being interested in me, saying ‘I like your work.’ I would visualize things coming to me that I wanted. I had nothing at that time, but it just mad me feel better. I wrote myself a check for 10 million dollars for acting services rendered, and I gave myself 3 years, dated for Thanksgiving, 1995, and put it in my wallet. Three days before that date, I got paid 10 million dollars for Dumb and Dumber.”

OPRAH: “If you can see it and believe it, it’s a lot easier to achieve it. Time, effort, and energy that you put into a thing. You become what you believe. To find your purpose, pay attention to the life you are leading now. You don’t become what you want. Most of the time in life you don’t even get what you want.

I remember listening to the Bible stories in church as a child. I believed that ‘through God all things are possible.’ Jesus was talking about having the faith of a mustard seed. Have you ever seen how tiny a mustard seed is?

Do you believe you are worthy of happiness? Do you believe that happiness, success, abundance, comfort, fulfillment, peace, joy, and love is a part of your birthright? Because you will manifest the life that you believe. People who are most successful and who can handle that success~ it fulfills them and doesn’t overwhelm them~ are the people who have that belief.

I talk for a living. But I knew JK Rowling and I had something in common, even though she’s a writer. JK Rowling is the first self-made billionaire author ~ selling over 400 million books in 69 languages and 200 countries. She said, “The voice in my head said, ‘The difficult thing will be to get published. If it’s published, it’ll be huge.’ I wasn’t the world’s most secure person. The one thing in my life that I believed is that I can tell a story.”

OPRAH: “That manuscript was turned down by many many people, but she wouldn’t stop believing. She was a writer, and she knew she was a writer, and what writers do is write. They write whether 15 people or 15 million people are reading it. If that is what you believe you were born to do, you do it~ you find a way to allow the truth of yourself to express itself. We’re all looking for the highest, fullest expression of ourselves as human beings, and unless you’re doing that, you are not living your fullest life.

You are worthy of happiness, love and peace. Believe it. Believe cannot come from your ego self. Many beliefs have been formed by people’s or society’s definition of what you should become. There’s a heart calling on everybody. Your heart calling is only YOURS, and can only be expressed by what YOU have to offer the planet.”

Sara Blakely and SPANX ~ “All the men I was cold-calling said this isn’t a good idea, no one’s going to buy it~ but I believed in it, and it has just taken off. The journey has been amazing.”

Ralph Lauren: “I had a passion. I love working. I love teams. I love the challenge of doing things that haven’t been done. I went into stores and couldn’t find what I wanted, so I made it.”

OPRAH: “They didn’t give up on their belief. Once you know what you believe, hold on to that belief and don’t allow yourself to be compromised in any way. As we are evolving into becoming the fullest expression of who you were meant to be, it’s really important to know what you believe about yourself. You are where you are in your life based upon what you believe. It’s not what you think you believe on the surface. It’s also the shadow beliefs that are holding you back. If you’re not looking at those subconscious tapes running through your mind telling you you’re not good enough, worthy or smart enough~ if you’re not conscious of that~ then you end up acting out of that belief system.

Jim Carrey started to act as thought he already had what he wanted. Your actions have to be in alignment with what you say you believe. The choices you have made have been because of what you have believed to be true for yourself. When you begin to open yourself up to the real world, the reason you’re here is for the contribution that you have to offer, and your real job is to figure that out!”