The Path Made Clear: Discovering Your Life's Direction and Purpose(16)

Bishop T. D. JAKES


BISHOP T. D. JAKES: Have you ever seen so many tired people in all of your life? I mean, everybody’s tired. Thirty years old and exhausted, twenty-five-year-olds who can’t get out of bed in the morning. You know why we’re tired? Because we’re pretending. It takes so much work to pretend. When you can really be who you are and find out where you fit and function from a place of comfort, then you stop working. You stop wrestling.

OPRAH: It’s about finding your flow.

BISHOP JAKES: Absolutely. And when you get in it, that’s a life-changing experience. Surrounding yourself with people you want to be like takes you to the next level because they are modeling the lifestyle that you are stepping into, rather than emulating the lifestyle you are stepping away from. Putting yourself in environments with people who are positive or doing what you’re doing, whether it’s starting a business, owning a company, managing a division—you need to run with people who have your current and who are in your flow. Do you see that? Do you see that?





SHONDA RHIMES


OPRAH: Writing is your truth, would you say?

SHONDA RHIMES: Absolutely.

OPRAH: Tell me what happens. We’ve all heard about athletes having a zone. Is it a zone for you, too?

SHONDA: I call it the hum. I get this hum in my head where I feel like I could write forever. Like a frequency where you go from exertion to exaltation. There’s just an endless joy for me. Where I feel like I could write for the rest of my life. And I lose time and my assistant has to come in and say, “It’s been five hours.” It’s really lovely, a real, true happiness. It’s very pure for me.

OPRAH: It’s a spiritual practice.

SHONDA: Yes, it is.





JAY-Z


Flow is becoming one with the music. You find someplace inside the music that you tuck in. And you don’t get in the way of the groove. You insert yourself in the song as an instrument. You’re no different than the horn, or the snare, or the bass, or the high hat. It’s just smooth and it just flows. I love having that experience.





JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE


Practice and keep working when no one’s looking. Get comfortable in it. So that when you step on that stage, you’re ready. Then you can literally forget all of it and just be in the moment. And then, do something different. Do something original. Do something different every time.





JOEL OSTEEN


Be satisfied knowing this: If you’re doing your best, if you’re giving it your all, if you’re pursuing your dreams, if you’re growing, then you’ve got to believe your time is coming. And in the meantime, when we’re content, we’re honoring God. If you don’t get happy where you are, you probably won’t get to where you want to be. And so you’ve got to come back and say, Okay, you know what? I’m not going on a big vacation yet, but I’m going to be faithful right where I am. I’m going to make good choices. I’m going to develop my gifts. And I believe God will open up some of those doors. You’re saying, Hey, you know what, God? I want to do something greater with my life. Or, I want to pay this house off. Or, I want to start this business. But right now, I’m not going to be discontent where I am.





Brother DAVID STEINDL-RAST


OPRAH: I think that what you just said is the key that unlocks the path to a successful life. And that is: Trust life.

BROTHER DAVID STEINDL-RAST: That’s the foundation of everything. Even though I don’t see it, I trust that life will give me good things. With trust, there is also hope. And “hope” is something very different from “our hopes.” Because our hopes are always something that we can imagine. But hope in the spiritual sense is openness for surprise for that which you cannot imagine.





CHAPTER SEVEN


THE CLIMB


Funny thing about a mountain: It always looks easier to climb when you’re at the foot of it.

—Oprah




In 2012, I had the honor of interviewing Valerie Simpson just after she’d lost her husband of thirty-eight years, Nick Ashford.

Better known as the legendary songwriting duo Ashford & Simpson, they had a four-decade musical partnership that produced some of the most memorable hits ever to come out of Motown. During our emotional conversation, Valerie shared the real story behind one of their greatest songs, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” Sing along if you’d like …

Ain’t no mountain high enough

Ain’t no valley low enough

Ain’t no river wide enough

To keep me from getting to you babe



Most people think of these as enduring words of love, expressing the deepest form of devotion. But as we talked, Valerie told me that when Nick originally wrote the lyrics, he was referring to his all-encompassing goal to one day write songs professionally. At the time, Nick was an unknown musician living in New York City, hoping to be discovered. While looking up at the skyscrapers towering above him, he came up with the phrase ain’t no mountain high enough to convey just how determined he was that nothing was going to keep him from his dream:

No wind, no rain

Or winter’s cold can stop me baby,