Oprah Winfrey: How to Find Your Unique Purpose, Authentic Power, and Calling In Life

The Mel Robbins Podcast

In this deeply personal and transformative episode, Mel Robbins hosts Oprah Winfrey in an intimate conversation about discovering one's uniq

Key takeaways

• Everyone has an internal GPS guiding them toward their true purpose.
• Purpose is found not in external achievements but in becoming the most authentic version of oneself.

Main topics

• Finding Your Life Purpose
• Trusting Inner Guidance

Notable quotes

"I want everybody to know that you have the power to fulfill the fullest expression of yourself as a human being."

"The difference is I'm obedient to mine. Everybody has it."

Conclusion

This conversation serves as a powerful reminder that everyone possesses an

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) Hey, it's your friend Mel, and welcome to the Mel Robbins Podcast. I don't Speaker 1 (0:08) even know how to Speaker 2 (0:09) explain how I'm feeling right now. I mean, I can't even believe I can say these words to you. Oprah Winfrey flew to Boston to sit down and have a conversation with me and you. I just finished taping it, and it's kind of hard to put into words what you're about to experience. We talk about your unique purpose, your calling in life, the reason why you're here, and what you're meant to do. There is absolutely no way that you could listen to this and not be forever changed. I know I am. You're going to hear something that will make you see your life differently. There are irrefutable truths in this conversation. that will stay with you long after it ends. I am so happy you get to experience this. Today on the Mel Robbins Podcast, a life-changing conversation with Speaker 1 (1:26) Oprah Winfrey. I'm so happy to be here with you. I really am. I Speaker 2 (1:31) thought I would be coming to you. Speaker 1 (1:32) No, Speaker 2 (1:33) I had to come to you. You could go anywhere and talk to anyone. No, I had to come to you. Speaker 1 (1:42) You were born to fulfill the dream of your life here on earth. You were born into this planet, into the density of this gravitational pull to fulfill the dream of your life and of the creator's dream of your life here on Earth. Get about the business of doing that. Whatever you're looking at is only a piece of the picture of your whole life. Speaker 2 (2:23) Hi. It's so good to see you. I came Speaker 1 (2:27) to Boston to see you, yes. Speaker 2 (2:29) Thank you. Speaker 1 (2:31) I Speaker 2 (2:31) have always wanted to sit down and have a conversation with you, but I always imagined that I would be coming to you. Really? Yes. And I guess the reason why is because I just thought, well, you could go anywhere in the world and talk to anybody. And it never even occurred to me to... think about or manifest you coming here. Well, Speaker 1 (2:56) I appreciate the invitation to actually be able to sit in your home space because this is where you reign. And this is where you reign. And I have watched you, listened to you, and I watch the bestsellers lists regularly. And I am... just so rooting for you. I have watched you become the voice of our time in leading people home to themselves. This is why one of the things I hope people get from you and I today, because I see So much of myself in you, Mel, I actually see. You Speaker 2 (3:39) do? And Speaker 1 (3:40) am honored by who you have become because I know for sure that some of what I did and what I've said over the years, you really got it. And you, to me, are like... on the same mission in your own voice, in your own way, through your own self-expression. But to me, you are one of those people who took the message of everything that we were trying to say on the show, and you just paid it forward, are moving it forward. in your own way. So it's like every time I run into someone who says, I watched your show, my mother watched your show, my grandmother watched your show, I watched your show, I was a latchkey kid. It makes me feel like, oh, you're a part of the children I raised. Yes. And you are one of those. Speaker 2 (4:31) Yes. Speaker 1 (4:31) Who's taken that light and just blasted it through the world. Speaker 2 (4:35) Well, that's one of the reasons why I was so excited to welcome you here. For 44 years, I have been your student. You have been my guide and my teacher. And I think that you have served that role for hundreds of millions of people around the world. There are producers on this team whose mothers learned English by watching your show. Speaker 1 (5:00) And Speaker 2 (5:01) your life and the way you move through the world is an example of the difference that each and every one of us can make. Speaker 1 (5:11) I Speaker 2 (5:11) would love to have you speak to the person. who is here with us watching or listening. Yes. And share your intention for this conversation and how it might impact their life. My Speaker 1 (5:24) intention for flying to Boston, to be with you, Mel, and to be with you all, is to be used as a light that shines. Speaker 1 (5:41) or illuminates in a way that you can see yourself through me, through my stories, through Mel, through her stories, and have that light ignited within yourself. I believe that I've had just the most blessed life on earth. I just can't get over how blessed I have been in my life. I can't get over it. I marvel at what God and the life forces have done for me. I marvel at that. But when I think about it now, from the point of view of 72, I realize that what I have acquired is not as magnificent or extraordinary as who I have become. And I know that the world looks at what I have acquired, but it's who I have become. Speaker 1 (6:47) And I recognize that the work to become myself is the same work and ability that everybody has to become the most of themselves. And I am most proud of the woman that I have become. And I want everyone else to have that. I want you to have that. I want, before I leave this earth, Speaker 1 (7:16) I want everybody to know that you have the power to literally fulfill the fullest expression of yourself as a human being. So that's why I wanted to have this conversation with you today. I believe everybody has come to do a service to the planet. That's why we're here. I believe that this is a... I don't believe we're the only planet. I don't believe we're the only life. But I believe that this is a special one. I believe that this is the Earth school where we all get to teach and we all get to learn from one another. And right now, a lot of us are messing that up because we've missed the point. But I also know that within each of us is this internal GPS. Speaker 1 (8:08) Within you, mine is no different than yours. Mine is no different than yours. The difference is I'm obedient to mine. Everybody has it. I just listened and I'm obedient to mine. Speaker 1 (8:28) Every single person that comes to the planet comes to the planet with the ability to have that light with inside themselves and to be guided by that light. And every time you go off course, every time you allow yourself to be out of alignment, things go wrong. You feel stuck. You feel overwhelmed. You feel exhausted. You feel that you can't go forward. You feel you don't know what to do next. You feel confusion. You feel... But... Everybody has it. I know one of the reasons why I think I was so successful and we were number one for 25 years because I really did not see a difference between me and the audience that was watching. I recognized that we were the same and that I was the surrogate voice for them, that I get to sit there and I get to interview Tom Cruise and I get to interview all the people. But what gave me the power to do it was that I was speaking for the audience, not for myself. And so I do believe that a lot of people are missing out because they're not obedient to the call. And the call is within you. It's not out here. It's not on social media. You're not going to hear it from your friends. It means being still enough to know what it is. And you can feel it. It's just a feeling, doesn't it? Wasn't it a feeling? It's Speaker 2 (9:47) a Speaker 1 (9:47) feeling. Speaker 2 (9:47) There is a particular story that you share about being three or four years old Speaker 1 (9:52) and Speaker 2 (9:52) watching your grandmother through the screen door. And the voice spoke to you. in a very firm way about what you don't want. And I think it might be helpful for the person listening to understand that if you're not hearing it in the affirmative, Speaker 1 (10:09) it may be easier for you to hear it in the way that it's like, nope, or Speaker 2 (10:14) no, don't. I Speaker 1 (10:14) just had an aha listening to that. You're right. You're so right. A lot of people are thinking, what do I want to do? What do I want to do? Do you know what you don't want to do? And a lot of times, if you're in a job that you know you don't want, that is vital information. You're in the job that you don't want. That's telling you you don't want to be here. So let's figure out where I actually do want to be. So this story I've shared often, but it's so dear to me because it's the only conscious memory I have of recognizing the voice from the first time. for the first time. I had to be between four and five because that's where like round memory starts. But I was very, very small. And my job with my grandmother was to take out, we had what we call a slop jar because there's no... It was like a peapot, you know, for using the bathroom because you don't want to go to the outhouse at night because it's too dark and there might be snakes in there. And so my job was, as a little girl, too much responsibility to empty that pot every morning. My other job was to, you know, sort the clothespins for my grandmother. She's hanging clothes on the line so that she doesn't have to sort them and also pick them up at the same time. Speaker 1 (11:37) And also churning butter, because all you do to churn butter is you just do there with the stick, churning butter. Butter had to be churned back then, y'all. We didn't have butter. So I was churning butter on the back porch, looking through the screen door, and it was cold. And my grandmother was hanging clothes on the line. And I'd sorted the clothespins all in one place. And she's just picking up the clothespins and hanging these sheets because she was a domestic worker and had brought the sheets home. from the white people's houses and was boiling them in the pot. That's how we cleaned the sheets. And she said, oh, Abigail, you better watch me now because one day you're going to have to learn how to do this for yourself. And I was just churning the butter and I was watching her. And this feeling came over me that literally spoke to me and said, no, you won't. This will not be your life, but don't tell her. Speaker 1 (12:45) Because she will not appreciate that. Speaker 2 (12:49) And I want to hover on this. Yeah. Because there are so many times in my life where I could not hear, I couldn't even hear the radio. I was so confused. I mean, forget about that little Speaker 1 (13:03) whisper inside Speaker 2 (13:04) me because the Speaker 1 (13:05) noise Speaker 2 (13:05) was so loud. The fear was so loud. As you call it, the disease to please was just eating me away. So for the person who's listening, who has now heard there is a GPS, a light inside you, because it begins here. Speaker 1 (13:21) And Speaker 2 (13:22) you have said, Oprah, that I believe that every single one of us, yes, you are listening right now. Oprah believes I believe that you have a light within you. You are here for a very unique and particular Speaker 1 (13:34) purpose. Yeah. And don't get confused that it's some big thing that has to be seen. I think a lot of people think when you talk about purpose. Wait Speaker 2 (13:43) a minute, what Speaker 1 (13:43) did you say? Okay, hold on Speaker 2 (13:44) a second. I want to make sure that you heard that. Don't get Speaker 1 (13:47) confused. Confused that, oh, it has to be a big thing. It has to be Instagrammable. Speaker 2 (13:53) Yes. Yeah. I think that's where we, you're like, okay, my thing needs to be out here. Yeah, yeah, Speaker 1 (13:57) no, no, no, no. That's where you're wrong. It's Speaker 2 (13:59) in Speaker 1 (13:59) here where you start? It's in here. And it's also. How do you best serve where you are? You know, when I ended the show, I said, you know, that I had had this marvelous platform of speaking to millions of people on a daily basis. But every person has a platform. Your family is your platform. Your community is your platform. Your church is your platform. Your job is your platform. Your work. You have the ability to reach and touch people's lives wherever you are. If you touch the life, you still have a legacy. And so for everybody, everyone who listens and hears us, your legacy isn't the big, big, big picture. It's what you're doing today. It's how you speak to the person that's Speaker 2 (14:42) a Speaker 1 (14:42) dry cleaners. It's how you talk to the person who's parking your car. It's how you. It's how you're treating the people in your immediate circle. That's how you will be remembered. And that's the heart print that you leave or don't leave with people. Heart print? Yes, it's the heart print that you leave or don't leave. Actually, I learned that word from a little guy named Matty Stepanek who was... On my show, he was in a wheelchair and ended up dying when he was 13, but really one of the wisest little angels who come to earth. And he used to say, whenever you touch someone's heart, whenever you move, you're moved by something someone does. You leave a heart print. And so we're leaving heart prints all the time. You know, that wonderful phrase that Maya has about people don't remember what you say or what you did, but they always remember how you made them feel. Just be responsible for the energy that you're carrying into the world and understanding that you are a part of the bigger picture. We are all a part of the big thing. We are all here. And I know it's so hard when the price of eggs, the price of everything, the price of just living seems so overwhelming. But there is a deeper reason other than just working to survive. And when you recognize that, I think it gives you room to breathe in a deeper force field. You know, it's not just about the job, that the real work of your life is to figure out why you actually came. The real work of your life is why did you actually come? And I know, I can tell just by listening to you, that you have figured that out. Speaker 2 (16:34) Me? Speaker 1 (16:35) Yeah, that you are in service to the call. Speaker 2 (16:38) Absolutely. Speaker 1 (16:39) In service to the call. Thank Speaker 2 (16:40) you for saying Speaker 1 (16:40) that. It's true. Yeah, yeah. It's true. And it wasn't always that way. It Speaker 2 (16:44) wasn't always that Speaker 1 (16:45) way for me. Speaker 2 (16:45) I lived in chaos, fear, anxiety, self-destruction, people-pleasing, addiction. Oh, my God. Like, just. It's interesting because when you're in chaos in your head, Speaker 1 (16:59) it's Speaker 2 (17:01) so loud that... I could hear what you're saying in those moments. I feel pulled to wanting to tap into the light and to trust myself and to find that inner GPS. I honestly didn't know how, which is why I kept coming back to you. You would be the voice that would silence everything. And then I would start to practice what I was learning. And I would love to have you expand on this because I know the person that's... thinking right now is probably thinking, okay, well, I Speaker 1 (17:33) want that. Oh, Speaker 2 (17:33) easy for you. I want that. Or easy for you, Speaker 1 (17:35) Oprah, easy for you. Yes, which Speaker 2 (17:37) is a deflection because when you start to blame and get triggered by the very thing that could save you and help you and free you, that's a sign that you want it, but you don't know how. Having sat with so many people that have found purpose and meaning and peace in their life. versus people who are very stuck. Is there a difference between those two people in terms of if somebody's very stuck right now? Speaker 1 (18:08) Yeah, I think the difference is if you're very stuck right now, it's because you can't see the bigger picture. You can't see that the source of all being didn't bring you here to get you stuck. It brought you here so that you can continue to move forward and offer what you came to give to the rest of us, to the rest of the world. That's all we're all here to do is to bring our offerings. And our offerings come from every lesson we've ever learned. Don't you, you, you, you see that now. I, Maya used, Maya actually wrote a book called, I think it's a book of poetry called I Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now. But she used to sing the song. It's an old hymn. I wouldn't take nothing for my journey now, for my journey now, for my journey now. Oh, I wouldn't take nothing for my journey now. That means all the stuff that was a part of the journey to this moment, I wouldn't take nothing. for it. And I feel that. And I want you Speaker 1 (19:20) To know that whatever has happened to you was also happening for you once you could recognize why it was happening to you, no matter how horrible it was. And that's why I can say, in spite of the sexual abuse, in spite of growing up poor, not only in spite of, I am so grateful to have been born, literally, red dirt road poor. in Mississippi with no running water and electricity. I am so grateful for that. I am so grateful for having an outhouse and not