The OPRAH Effect

There are less than 20 shows left until Oprah concludes her program and I wanted to share my biggest AHA Moment. This is the letter I sent in to her (with above pic):

Dear Oprah, 

The show that stays with and haunts me is Erin Kramp discussing her dying wishes for her daughter. 

But the biggest epiphany AHA Moment was on January 27, 2005. You were doing a show called Wildest Dreams and one of your guests wildest dreams was to meet you and another womans wildest dream was to get a house- you granted both wishes. The woman with the dream to meet you was slightly disappointed when she saw the other woman get a house. She said something like: I didn't know I could wish for something like a house- and your responses was something like: Well, it's your wildest dream so dream bigger next time. Now the spooky thing was just the day before I had been reading Jack Canfield's book The Success Principles and a cartoon on p30 had stuck out to me and it was this exact lesson:

Randy Glasbergen

WILDEST DREAMS! Even the same wording, so weird. This lesson hit me hard, and when only a month later I had a great idea I used both the cartoon-Oprah-Wildest Dreams-coincidence and Erin Kramp to get the nerve to write my first book. I had a book deal with HarperCollins for My Last Wishes... A Journal of Life, Love, Laughs & A Few Final Notes within 6 months.

The greatest lesson you have shared with us is that anything is possible. Dream BIG and Wild! Living into our wildest dreams isn't easy (which is why we needed all the rest of the shows, OWN, O magazine, Soul Series, etc) but this one lesson alone makes your 25 years on the air worth everything you and your staff have put into it. 

Thank you for the greatest gift I have ever received. 

Love,
Joy 

PS. Since I practice it because of you, My Wildest Dream is to attend the TED Conference and then share the brilliance with your viewers and readers (... and a house 😜).

So chances are Oprah will never read this story, but in thinking about how important this lesson is and my concern that others might not get the chance to have a similar epiphany, I came up with what I think is a fitting tribute to both....

Not that book clubs aren't also a great way to expand your life, but what is more important and a better use of time than to be working on our dreams (and helping along those of our friends)! My idea is to bag the book and dig your dreams out of the "someday" realm and get to manifesting them today. Sure nothing wrong with a vision board or some prayers but dreams have a better chance of coming true when they are spoken out loud and when we spend even 15 minutes a week working on one contribution to them. Maybe your dream is to be the next Oprah, that might be unlikely but start heading in that direction and maybe you'll host an event to motivate women in need. You'd like to be an actress on Broadway... would you be disappointed to star in your local theatre (closer than you probably are today)?!

What I learned is that we don't know where our dreams will take us, but if we don't dream or don't share them- the chances of them coming true are very slight. Plus what could be more of an amazing bonding experience then to help your friends get a tad closer to living their dreams. To quote my friend Stacey Edgar (read about her in post below): Start Small, Dream Big, Change Lives --and nothing wrong or selfish about beginning with yours!

I will tell you my life has been much more fulfilling since I started dreaming Big, Wild, Joyous Dreams!

Currently dreaming about:

• Attending Oprah's Finale. (didn't make it, on to next adventure)
• Having financial freedom with no debt and $1M in the bank.
• Attending the TED Conference.
• Living in condo with view of lake and city.
• 2013: Create Wildest Dream Project with Gretchen Rubin.
• Have ME Theory content serve 100K people.
• Starting a real life: Wildest Dreams Club- 1st dream-together April 20th 2013 YAY!!!!

What are your dreams? What are you doing to get the world to conspire to help them come true?