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Gratitude and appreciation

• Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.
• I know for sure that appreciating whatever shows up for you in life changes your personal vibration. You radiate and generate more goodness for yourself when you’re aware of all you have and not focusing on your have-nots.
• I live in the space of thankfulness – and I have been rewarded a million times over for it. I started out giving thanks for small things, and the more thankful I became, the more my bounty increased. That’s because what you focus on expands, and when you focus on the goodness in your life, you create more of it. Opportunities, relationships, even money flowed my way when I learned to be grateful no matter what happened in my life.
• If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough.
• Keep a grateful journal. Every night, list five things that happened this day that you are grateful for. What it will begin to do is change your perspective of your day and your life. If you can learn to focus on what you have, you will always see that the universe is abundant; you will have more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never have enough.
• The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.

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Know yourself

• As you become more clear about who you really are, you’ll be better able to decide what is best for you – the first time around. 
• It isn’t until you come to a spiritual understanding of who you are – not necessarily a religious feeling, but deep down, the spirit within – that you can begin to take control.

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Be yourself

• Don’t let people talk you into what they think is you.
• Don’t settle for a relationship that won’t let you be yourself.
• I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I’ve become. If I had, I’d have done it a lot earlier.
• I was once afraid of people saying, “Who does she think she is?” Now I have the courage to stand and say, “This is who I am.”
• Life is about becoming more of who you really are…

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Passion and purpose

• Find a way to get paid for doing what you love. Then every paycheck will be a bonus.
• Forget about the fast lane. If you really want to fly, harness your power to your passion. Honor your calling. Everybody has one. Trust your heart, and success will come to you.
• Have the courage to follow your passion – and if you don’t know what it is, realize that one reason for your existence on earth is to find it.
• I’ve come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that’s as unique as a fingerprint – and that the best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard, and also allowing the energy of the universe to lead you.
• Ignoring your passion is like dying a slow death…Passion whispers to you through your feelings, beckoning you toward your highest good. Pay attention to what makes you feel energized, connected, stimulated – what gives you your juice. Do what you love, give it back in the form of service, and you will do more than succeed. You will triumph.   
• Let passion drive your profession.
• Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.
• Real success means creating a life of meaning through service that fulfills your reason for being here.
• The best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard, and also allowing the energy of the universe to lead you.
• Your true passion should feel like breathing, it’s that natural.
• You know you are on the road to success if you would do your job, and not be paid for it.
• You have to find what sparks a light in you so that you in your own way can illuminate the world.
• What I know is, is that if you do work that you love, and the work fulfills you, the rest will come.

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Living your own life and following your own path

• Every day, passion speaks to us through our feelings. That’s why when you allow yourself to become anesthetized by what others think, you literally block yourself from living the life you were called to live.
• I promise you that if you make a choice that doesn’t please your mate, your friends, your mother, or whoever, the world will not fall apart. The people who truly love you want you to love yourself.
• Other people and their opinions hold no power in defining our destiny.
• Understand that the right to choose your own path is a sacred privilege. Use it. Dwell in possibility.
• Your job is not just to do what your parents say, what your teachers say, what society says, but to figure out what your heart calling is and to be led by that.
• You must define your own life. Don’t let other people write your script.

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Embracing life

• Every day brings a chance for you to draw in a breath, kick off your shoes and dance.
• It does not matter how you came into the world, what matters is that you are here.
• The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.
• With every experience, you alone are painting your own canvas, thought by thought, choice by choice.

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Enjoying the process

• I don’t believe in failure. It’s not failure if you enjoyed the process.
• It makes no difference how many peaks you reach if there was no pleasure in the climb.

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Living in the moment

• Living in the moment brings you a sense of reverence for all of life’s blessings.
• doing the best at this moment puts you I the best place for the next moment.
• The best of times is now.
• Whatever has happened to you in your past has no power over this present moment, because life is now.

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Learning and growth

• I always feel that until you take your last breath, you’re always growing.
• I am a woman in process. I’m just trying like everybody else. I try to take every conflict, every experience, and learn from it. Life is never dull.
• I believe that there’s a lesson in almost everything that you do and every experience.
• The world has so many lessons to teach you. I consider the world, this Earth, to be like a school and our life the classrooms.
• It is confidence in our bodies, minds and spirits that allows us to keep looking for new adventures, new directions to grow in, and new lessons to learn – which is what life is all about.
• Life is about growth and change. When you are no longer doing that — that is your whisper; that is your whisper that you are supposed to do something else.
• Your life is a multipart series of all your experiences – and each experience is created by your thoughts, intentions, and actions to teach you what you need to know.

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Evolution

• The real point of being alive is to evolve into the whole person you were intended to be.
• We can’t become what we need to be by remaining what we are.
• You are built not to shrink down to less but to blossom into more.

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Fulfilment

• The essential question is not, “How busy are you?’ but ‘What are you busy at?’ ‘Are you doing what fulfills you?
• What I know is, is that if you do work that you love, and the work fulfills you, the rest will come.

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Peace and joy

• Joy is a sustained sense of well-being and internal peace – a connection to what matters.
• What I know for sure is that you feel real joy in direct proportion to how connected you are to living your truth.

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Doing your best

• Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.

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Self-belief

• Our beliefs can move us forward in life – or they can hold us back.
• You become what you believe – not what you wish or want but what you truly believe. Wherever you are in life, look at your beliefs. They put you there.
• You are what you are by what you believe.

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Confidence

• It is confidence in our bodies, minds and spirits that allows us to keep looking for new adventures, new directions to grow in, and new lessons to learn – which is what life is all about.

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Possibility

• Don’t put a ceiling on yourself.
• I want every day to be a fresh start on expanding what is possible.
• What God intended for you goes far beyond anything you can imagine.
• You are where you are in life because of what you believe is possible for yourself.
• What I know for sure is this: You are built not to shrink down to less, but to blossom into more. To be more splendid. To be more extraordinary. To use every moment to fill yourself up.

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Inner wisdom

• And how do you know when you’re doing something right? How do you know that? It feels so.
• Check your ego at the door and check your gut instead. Every right decision I have ever made has come from my gut. Every wrong decision I’ve made was the result of me not listening to the greater voice of myself.
• Follow your instincts. That’s where true wisdom manifests itself.
• I know that inner wisdom is more precious than wealth. The more you spend it, the more you gain.
• If it doesn’t feel right, don’t do it. That’s the lesson. That lesson alone, will save you a lot of grief. Even doubt means don’t.
• When you don’t know what to do, get still. The answer will come.

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Intuition

• Trust your instincts. Intuition doesn’t lie.
• Follow your instincts. That’s where true wisdom manifests itself.

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Loving yourself

• This is a call to arms. A call to be gentle, to be forgiving, to be generous with yourself. The next time you look into the mirror, try to let go of the story line that says you’re too fat or too sallow, too ashy or too old, your eyes are too small or your nose too big; just look into the mirror and see your face. When the criticism drops away, what you will see then is just you, without judgment, and that is the first step toward transforming your experience of the world.
• Your life is a journey of learning to love yourself first and then extending that love to others in every encounter.
• You cannot hate other people without hating your self.

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Self-worth

• Over the years, I’ve interviewed thousands of people, most of them women, and I would say that the root of every dysfunction I’ve ever encountered, every problem, has been some sense of a lacking of self-value or of self-worth.
• You’re worthy because you are born and because you are here. Your being here, your being alive makes worthiness your birthright. You alone are enough.
• You alone are enough.
• When you undervalue what you do, the world will undervalue who you are.

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Love

• I believe that every single event in life happens in an opportunity to choose love over fear.
• Life is a journey of learning to love yourself first and then extending that love to others in every encounter.
• Love somebody. Just one person. And then spread that to two. And as many as you can. You’ll see the difference it makes.
• Money is worth nothing if it can’t buy you the opportunity to love more.
• The happiness you feel is in direct proportion to the love you give.
• When you make loving others the story of your life, there’s never a final chapter, because the legacy continues. You lend your light to one person, and he or she shines it on another and another and another.

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Friendship

• Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.

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Forgiveness

• Forgiveness is giving up the hope that the past could have been any different.
• True forgiveness is when you can say, “Thank you for that experience.”
• When you forgive somebody, it doesn’t necessarily mean you want to invite them to your table.

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Encouragement

• Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher.

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Mentorship

• A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself.
• For everyone of us that succeeds, it’s because there’s somebody there to show you the way out.

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Giving

• I don’t think you ever stop giving. I really don’t. I think it’s an on-going process. And it’s not just about being able to write a check. It’s being able to touch somebody’s life.
• To me, the money is – it’s certainly a wonderful thing. But it is in direct proportion to how you’re able to bless yourself and bless others with it.

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Making a difference

• If you want to feel good, you have to go out and do some good.
• My whole reason for creating a network is literally to bring little pieces of light. It’s to continue to spread little pieces of light in the world, to illuminate the possibility of the human spirit.
• When you think about growing and being empowered yourself, it is what you’ve been able to do for other people that leaves you the fullest.
• What material success does is provide you with the ability to concentrate on other things that really matter. And that is being able to make a difference, not only in your own life, but in other people’s lives.

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Unity and teamwork

• No matter who we are or what we look like or what we may believe, it is both possible and, more importantly, it becomes powerful to come together in common purpose and common effort.
• The goal of my shows, my interviews, my business, my philanthropy, all of it, whatever ventures I might pursue, would be to make clear that what unites us is ultimately far more redeeming and compelling than anything that separates me.

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Empathy

• The struggle of my life created empathy – I could relate to pain, being abandoned, having people not love me.

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Connection

• The roles we play in each other’s lives are only as powerful as the trust and connection between us– the protection, safety, and caring we are willing to share.

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Surrender and acceptance

• When you surrender and stop resisting and stop trying to change that which you can’t change, but be in the moment, be fully open to the blessings you’ve already received and those that are yet to come & stand in that space of gratitude … and look at where you are and how far you’ve come and what you’ve accomplished …- when you can claim that and see that, the literal vibration of your life will change.

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Health

• With age comes the understanding and appreciation of your most important asset, your health.

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Attitude

• The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.

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Create a vision of who you want to become

• The challenge of life, I have found, is to build a resume that doesn’t simply tell a story about what you want to be, but it’s a story about who you want to be.

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Thinking

• If you want your life to be more rewarding, you have to change the way you think.

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Courage and risk taking

• Devote today to something so daring even you can’t believe you’re doing it.
• Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it.
• I have a lot of things to prove to myself. One is that I can live my life fearlessly.

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Truth and integrity

• Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.
• Truth allows you to live with integrity. Everything you do and say shows the world who you really are. Let it be the Truth.
• What I know for sure is that you feel real joy in direct proportion to how connected you are to living your truth.

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Trust in life

• I trust in the ebb and flow of the universe. I trust that life’s bigger than what I can see. I trust that there is a divine order beyond my control. And I trust that no matter what happens, I will be all right.

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Dreams

• The deepest courage we can exercise is continuing to believe in our dreams until we make them come true.
• The key to realizing a dream is to focus not on success but on significance – and then even the small steps and little victories along your path will take on greater meaning.

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Greatness

• I always knew I was destined for greatness.
• Why are you trying so hard to fit in when you were born to stand out?

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Excellence

• Even if you flippin’ fries at McDonald’s, if you are excellent, everybody wants to be in your line.
• I was raised to believe that excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism. And that’s how I operate my life.
• I believe the choice to be excellent begins with aligning your thoughts and words with the intention to require more from yourself.

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Communication

• I think that being able to communicate with people is power.

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Attention

• My therapy has come from paying attention to my life.
• That whisper you keep hearing is the universe trying to get your attention.

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Vision

• There is a vision for my life that is greater than my imagination can hold.

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Ask for what you want

• You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.

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Taking responsibility

• I don’t think of myself as a poor deprived ghetto girl who made good. I think of myself as somebody who from an early age knew I was responsible for myself, and I had to make good.
• My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you I the best place for the next moment.
• You are responsible for your life. You can’t keep blaming somebody else for your dysfunction. Life is really about moving on.

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Preparation

• I believe luck is preparation meeting opportunity. If you hadn’t been prepared when the opportunity came along, you wouldn’t have been lucky.

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Joy in the simple things

• You can find the sacred in the most ordinary of things.

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Letting go

• Let go.  And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure. 
• Think about any attachments that are depleting your emotional reserves. Consider letting them go.

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Making a new start

• Right now you are one choice away from a new beginning—one that leads you toward becoming the fullest human being you can be.

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Focus

• I’ve learned that you can’t have everything and do everything at the same time.
• You CAN have it all. You just can’t have it all at once.

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Hard work

• The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.

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Energy management

• Energy is the essence of life. Every day you decide how you’re going to use it by knowing what you want and what it takes to reach that goal, and by maintaining focus.
• Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.
• You are responsible for the energy that you create for yourself, and you’re responsible for the energy that you bring to others.

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Life as a race

• Don’t waste your time in the race looking back to see where the other guy is or what the other guy is doing. It’s not about the other guy. It’s about what can you do. You just need to run that race as hard as you can. You need to give it everything you’ve got, all the time, for yourself.

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Leadership

• Leadership is about empathy. It is about having the ability to relate to and connect with people for the purpose of inspiring and empowering their lives.

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Mistakes

• Being human means you will make mistakes. And you will make mistakes, because failure is God’s way of moving you in another direction.
• So go ahead. Fall down. The world looks different from the ground.

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Failure

• Every stumble is not a fall, and every fall does not mean failure.
• Failure is a signpost to turn you in another direction.
• Failure is just a way for our lives to show us that we’re moving in the wrong direction, that we should try something different. It holds no more power than we give it.
• I don’t believe in failure. It’s not failure if you enjoyed the process.
• If you’re constantly pushing yourself higher, higher, the law of averages – not to mention the myth of Icarus – predicts that you will at some point fall. And when you do, I want you to know this, remember this: There is no such thing as failure.
• So, ask every failure – this is what I do with every failure, every crisis, every difficult time – I say, what is this here to teach me?
• Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.

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Adversity

• Difficulties come when you don’t pay attention to life’s whisper. Life always whispers to you first, but if you ignore the whisper, sooner or later you’ll get a scream.
• You get to know who you really are in a crisis.
• Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.

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Pain

• Turn your wounds into wisdom.

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Worry

• Worrying is wasted time. Use the same energy for doing something about whatever worries you.

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Judgement

• I try to basically keep my opinions to myself when it comes to people who are charged with crimes that I don’t know anything about.

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Stress

• We create stress for ourselves because you feel like you have to do it. You have to. I don’t feel that anymore.

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Fear

• The thing you fear most has no power. Your fear of it is what has the power. Facing the truth really will set you free.
• Whatever you fear most has no power–it is your fear that has the power.

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Attachment

• Think about any attachments that are depleting your emotional reserves. Consider letting them go.

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Rejection

• There’s nothing worse than rejection. It’s worse than death. I would wish sometimes for the guy to die because at least then I could go to his grave and visit.

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Perfectionism

• Perfectionism is the ultimate fear that people will see you as you really are and you won’t measure up.

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Fame

• If you come to fame not understanding who you are, it will define who you are.
• You’re either humble or you’re not. If you were a jerk before the fame, you just become a jerk with a bigger spotlight. Whoever you are really comes through.

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Decision making

• It’s much easier for me to make major life, multi-million dollar decisions, than it is to decide on a carpet for my front porch. That’s the truth.
• One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned recently is that when you don’t know what to do, you should do nothing until you figure out what to do because a lot of times you feel like you are pressed against the wall, and you’ve got to make a decision. You never have to do anything. Don’t know what to do? Do nothing.
• Only make decisions that support your self-image, self-esteem, and self-worth.

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Relationships

• If a man wants you, nothing can keep him away. If he doesn’t want you, nothing can make him stay.

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Spirituality

• Spirituality for me is recognizing that I am connected to the energy of all creation, that I am a part of it and it is always a part of me. Whatever label or word we use to describe “it” doesn’t matter. Words are completely inadequate.

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Family and parenthood

• I think people who have good parents come into the world with a strength, yes, and an advantage.
• Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother.
• That’s the gift that a mother can give, to make everyone feel like they are the special one.

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Food

• My idea of heaven is a great big baked potato and someone to share it with.

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Dogs

• Dogs are my favorite role models. I want to work like a dog, doing what I was born to do with joy and purpose. I want to play like a dog, with total, jolly abandon. I want to love like a dog, with unabashed devotion and complete lack of concern about what people do for a living, how much money they have, or how much they weigh. The fact that we still live with dogs, even when we don’t have to herd or hunt our dinner, gives me hope for humans and canines alike.

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Reading

• Books were my pass to personal freedom. I learned to read at age three, and soon discovered there was a whole world to conquer that went beyond our farm in Mississippi.
• Some women have a weakness for shoes… I can go barefoot if necessary. I have a weakness for books.

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A new year

• Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.

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• How would Larry King or handle it?  A TV documentary.  A tabloid journalist?  A Hollywood movie director?  What are the fascinating aspects?  The parts that grab people’s curiosity and imagination. 
• I know for sure that what we dwell on is who we become.
• I’m black, I don’t feel burdened by it and I don’t think it’s a huge responsibility. It’s part of who I am. It does not define me.
• If you want to accomplish the goals of your life, you have to begin with the spirit.
• Life is really about moving on.
• Most people honestly want to do as well as they can in their lives.

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• I still have my feet on the ground, I just wear better shoes.

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