when you're doing the work you're meant to do it feels right and every day is a bonus regardless of
what you're getting paid and how do you know when you're doing something right how do you know that
it feels so what i know now is that feelings are really your gps system for life
when you're supposed to do something or not supposed to do something
your emotional guidance system let you know the trick is to learn to check your ego at the door
and start checking your gut instead every right decision i've made every right decision
i've ever made has come from my gut and every wrong decision i've ever made was a result of me
not listening to the greater voice of myself if it doesn't feel right don't do it that's the lesson
even doubt means don't this is what i've learned there are many times when you don't know what to
do when you don't know what to do get still get very still until you do know what to do and when
you do get still and let your internal motivation be the driver not only will your personal life
improve but you will gain a competitive edge in the working world as well because as daniel
pink writes in his best seller a whole new mind he says we're entering a whole new age and he
calls it the conceptual age where traits that set people apart today are going to come from
our hearts right brain as well as our heads it's no longer just the logical
linear rules-based thinking that matters he says it's also empathy and joyfulness and purpose
inner traits that have transcendent worth these qualities bloom when we're doing what we love
so when we're involving the wholeness of ourselves in our work both our expertise and our emotion
so i say to you forget about the fast lane if you really want to fly just harness your power
to your passion honor your calling everybody has one trust your heart and success will come to you
so lesson one follow your feelings if it feels right move forward if it doesn't feel right
don't do it now i want to talk a little bit about failings because nobody's journey is seamless or
smooth we all stumble we all have setbacks if things go wrong you hit a dead end as you will
it's just life's way of saying time to change course so ask every failure this is what i do
every failure every crisis every difficult time i say what is this here to teach me and as soon
as you get the lesson you get to move on if you really get the lesson you pass and you don't have
to repeat the class if you don't get the lesson it shows up wearing another pair of pants or skirt
to give you some remedial work and what i found is that difficulties come when you
don't pay attention to life's whisper because life always whispers to you first and if you ignore the
whisper sooner or later you'll get a scream whatever you resist persists but if you ask
the right question not why is this happening but what is this here to teach me what is this here
to teach me it puts you in the place and space to get the lesson you need my friend Eckhart
Tolle who's written this wonderful book uh called a new earth that's all about letting the awareness
of who you are stimulate everything that you do he puts it like this he says don't react against
a bad situation merge with that situation instead and the solution will arise from the challenge
because surrendering yourself doesn't mean giving up it means acting with responsibility okay
many of you know that as president hennessey said i started this school in africa and
i founded the school where i'm trying to give south african girls a shot at a future
like yours and i spent five years making sure that school would be as beautiful as the students i
wanted every girl to feel her worth reflected in her surroundings so i checked every blueprint i
picked every pillow i was looking at the ground in between the bricks i knew every three count of the
sheets i chose every girl from the villages from nine provinces and yet last fall i was faced with
a crisis i never anticipated i was told that one of the dorm matrons was suspected of sexual abuse
well that was as you can imagine devastating news first i cried actually i sobbed for about
a half an hour and then i said let's get to it that's all you get is a half an hour you
need to focus on the now what you need to do now so i contacted a child trauma specialist
i put together a team of investigators i made sure the girls had counseling and support and
gail and i got on a plane and flew to south africa and the whole time i kept asking that question
what is this here to teach me and as difficult as that experience has been i got a lot of lessons i
understand now the mistakes i made because i had been paying attention to all of the wrong
things i built that school from the outside in when what really mattered was the inside out
so it's a lesson that applies to all of our lives as a whole what matters most is what's inside what
matters most is the sense of integrity of quality and beauty i got that lesson and what i know is
is that the girls came away with something too they've emerged from this more resilient
and knowing that their voices have power and their resilience and spirit have given me more than i
could ever give to them which leads me to my final lesson the one about finding happiness not a small
topic this is finding happiness but in some ways i think it's the simplest of all gwyndolin brooks
wrote a poem for her children it's called speech to the young speech to the progress toward and she
says at the end live not for battles won live not for the end of the song live in the along
she's saying like eckhart tolle that you have to live for the present you have to be in the moment
whatever has happened to you in your past has no power over this present moment because life is now
but i think she's also saying be a part of something don't live for yourself alone
this uh this is what i know for sure in order to be truly happy
you must live along with and you have to stand for something larger than yourself because life
is a reciprocal exchange to move forward you have to give back
and to me that is the greatest lesson of life to be happy you have to give something back
so whatever field you choose if you operate from the paradigm of service i know your life
will have more value and you will be happy i was always happy doing my talk show but that happiness
reached a depth of of a fulfillment of uh of joy that i really can't describe to you a measure
when i stopped just being on tv and looking at tv as a job and decided to use television to use it
and not have it use me to use it as a platform to serve my viewers that alone changed the trajectory
of my success so i know this that whether you're an actor you offer your talent in the way that
most inspires art if you're an anatomist you look at your your gift as knowledge
and service to healing whether you've been called as so many of you here today getting doctorates
and other degrees to the profession of business law engineering humanities science medicine if
you choose to offer your skills and talent in service when you choose the paradigm of service
looking at your life through that paradigm it turns everything you do from a job into a gift
you