I'm Inspired By: Oprah

Saturday morning I will travel at 3am to Laguna Niguel for a chance to become a part of Oprah’s new reality show. WOW! Although, thousands may be present, hovering outside the parking lot for a chance to compete; I’m overwhelmed with the idea that an opportunity is at hand. Sometimes I think it really does take a partially delusional individual to try to defy the odds. But all dreamers are partially delusional, right?


And in my attempt to totally familiarize myself with more things Oprah, I started diving into her online content. One particular article by Karen Salmansohn caught my eye right away. It was about how one could reach their full potential. Before reading the article, I visualized the magnitude of such a thing. I mean imagine if everyone was STRIVING day in and day out to become MORE. What would that look like? I envisioned a sci-fi flick filled with kids moving objects with their thoughts and coliseum size stadiums filled with folks meditating…but I digress.

Today becoming more is the equivalent of achieving the American Dream, the tangible do-re-mi and home with a white picket fence. A good majority of women still feel to reach their potential, they are supposed to be married, with 2.5 kids when they hit the age of 30-35. I know I feel the subtle but steady pressure building. YIKES!

And then there is another group, those who are just waiting. Either life has beaten them down so much they don’t want to get up. Or they’re so lost with no direction they’re afraid to move forward. But most haven’t been hit with any disproportionately bad luck; they are waiting for something in life to happen to them.

Karen referenced Aristotle; she said that he believed in something called entelechy, (having one’s end within). Wait, say that again. According to him our happiness and our ability to reach our full potential is within each and every one of us. But how is that possible? You mean to tell me that all these years striving for that Bentley isn’t going to bring me closer to my “potential” or true happiness? Aristotle would answer that each of us has a different potential, a different destiny, and a different journey or as Paulo Coelho says it, we all have to live out our own “personal legend”.

But how do we find the yellow brick road let alone follow it to the freakin wizard?

Well, that’s the fun part. That’s life’s greatest riddle. And I’m FAR from a scholar on spirituality or philosophy and don’t claim to know “the way” or “path” to achieving one’s personal legend. But I do know, we have to PAY ATTENTION! When we’re on the right track, I believe life begins to feel AMAZING. We start to notice things like little coincidences that seem to point us in the right direction. Some call it going with the flow or being in the zone. For example, on Sunday while filling out the form for Oprah’s reality show I looked up one of my old time favorites, Teen Summit, which was a talk-show on BET that catered to teens. Well on Tuesday, while working out at the gym, a guy was wearing a sweatshirt that said, “I f*** with the OLD BET”. It was kind of jarring, and the dude was like 6’6 so it really did stick out to me. But in that moment, I thought about the old BET, and Teen Summit. What was it that I really liked about that show? Perhaps, I needed to think about it more and incorporate it into my show that I was pitching to Oprah. Hmmmm…

I received a quote in my inbox today by Einstein that said, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is”. The cool thing is we all have free will to decide how we’ll travel down our path. Some will skip, tumble and race along, while others will drag and crawl at a snail’s pace. I’ve jogged forward, sprinted backwards, and now I’m just trying to steadily walk ahead without going backwards. I hate going backwards but maybe it’s part of my path.

But by all means, let’s not STAND STILL. We got a lot of traveling to do.

P.S. Check out Karen’s article! http://www.oprah.com/spirit/How-to-Know-and-Grow-Your-Potential

Shak
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