Emmy Award-winning, Academy Award-nominated talk show host and media mogul Oprah Winfrey’s words moved me. I chanced upon a video on YouTube where she was passionately talking about recognizing one’s higher purpose in life. The timing was impeccable as I have been reflecting on how one can remain relevant and how one can avoid doing things that are inconsequential or pointless.
Oprah, in her motivational speech streamed online, crisply said “What you are putting out is what’s coming back”. She discussed the key message in Gary Zukav’s book, “Seat of the Soul”, how we create our own reality through action and thought. This is another way of stating Sir Isaac Newton’s third law of motion: for every action, there is an equal but opposite reaction.
For one to be relevant, she has to be intentional. When you embrace intentional living, you can live on your own terms and create a life of purpose and meaning. You can’t just be going through the motions. You can’t get stuck on autopilot. You have to be clear about what you are putting out to the world and you have to be intentional about what you want to happen.
In “Seat of the Soul”, Zukav talked about how one’s intention is always one with the law.
What he is simply emphasizing is that before one even thinks about the thing, he or she has an intention for the thing. And that the intention is going to determine the outcome.
Oprah said when she had this realization this immediately changed how she did things in her television show. “When I figured that out, I went, Whoa!!! I changed everything in my show. I called in the producers and I said, from this day forward, I will no longer be speaking to the KKK. I will no longer be speaking to people who are fighting each other in a way that is damaging to the character of myself and other people who watch. From this day forward, I am only going to do intentional television”, said the TV host.
She went on by stressing that it is her intention to fulfill the dream of her Creator, to live to the highest calling and to be pressed to the mark of the highest calling that she has come to do. “And when you can ask the Creator, that has made you you, what is your dream for me? I guarantee you, instead of you trying to define the dream, what is your dream for me? If you are able to lean into the dream that the universe and all the forces of light and love, of power and grace by all the names that we call God has for you, nobody can touch you,” she added.
Very powerful coming from a woman who according to Forbes magazine, was the richest African American of the 20th century, but who also went through difficult times in her life and one who continues to use her gifts and resources for good. Watching and listening to a fellow woman who is in the same profession and industry as mine, is so inspiring and empowering!
“What is your intention? How are we gonna use whoever is on this show? Whatever is happening on this show, to serve the audience in a way that fulfills the mission of uplifting, enlightening, encouraging and entertaining. And if it doesn’t do that, I CAN’T DO IT.”
These statements of hers reaffirmed my belief that one must prevent herself from doing something that is not aligned with her higher purpose. What do we get from being famous or being recognized if the outcome of what we do does not uplift the lives of the students whom we teach if we are educators or the audience who rely on us for information if we are in the media?
She also pointed out how people spend so much time wanting to be in somebody else’s life. This is nonsense. She did not mince words when she asserted that nobody gets honored or revered or celebrated, wanting what somebody else has. That one cannot be relevant if she is not aware and does not embrace how phenomenal and glorious she is. “You don’t get credit for messing with somebody else’s territory or trying to have power over something you have no control,” said the TV producer.
The billionaire media executive and philanthropist is best known for hosting her internationally popular talk show from 1986 to 2011. The Oprah Winfrey Show aired for 25 seasons. Its success made her the first Black woman billionaire in 2023. She launched her television network, OWN and a lifestyle magazine brand. She was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame, and in 2018, became the first Black woman to receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes for her outstanding contributions to entertainment.
Oprah is famous for so many inspiring, uplifting and empowering statements that have touched the lives of many, especially women who struggle and strive to make a dent in society but one my favorite quotes from this admirable, self-made and empowered woman is, “You have no power in any territory other than your own. You get to be the master of your own fate. And if you just manage that. If you just take care of your own territory, all the glorious and wonderful opportunities and possibilities are waiting for you.”
A reminder that we must be intentional about what we want and what we do and create because “what you are putting out is what is coming back”. A statement that may be trite but true.*
