Michelle Obama's LIFE ADVICE On Manifesting Success Will CHANGE YOUR LIFE | MotivationArk

as many of you know my background I mean I grew up in Chicago in a workingclass community my parents weren't wealthy so we didn't have the resources to spend on fees at private schools we went to the neighborhood public school and I went to public school my entire life and I I was always that student who wanted to get A's I wanted to do well I enjoyed learning I enjoyed excelling but what I found out is that when you're one of those kids in a community where not everyone has the same goals I found myself

having to walk a bunch of different lines there were some kids that didn't like kids who were smart and got good grades there were some kids who criticized the way I talk they said that I talk like I was white which was another way of saying that you think you're better than other people so I had to contend with with how do I get my education when I'm surrounded by people who may have different expectations of me and those just weren't the kids in the neighborhood there were teachers I had to confront teachers who underestimated

me every step of the way even when I applied to Princeton I write about in my book and I tell the story all the time even though I was at the top of my class and I was a class officer I was a leader when I sat down with my high school counselor or somebody who didn't know me but was assigned to work with students to help them apply to college and I told them my intention was to apply to Princeton that counselor told me I don't think you're Princeton material the person whose job it

was to help young people reach their dreams when it came to college saw me and whatever she saw on me told her that my dreams were too high and that cut me in a way that even though I continued on I applied obviously you know I got in but I still remember that story I remember that feeling of Doubt just another adult sort of placing a barrier on me that I didn't even have for myself so then to enter into an elite school when your high school counselor has told you you're not good enough when

all of society sort of looks at kids of color or kids from poor community or rural communities as not belonging you know I like many others walked into that school with a stigma in my own head more young people nowadays call it impostor uh syndrome I don't know if they call it that in in Britain where kids like me feel like they don't belong so they feel like they're faking it and I had to get over that and one of the ways that I got over it was that I looked around at Prince and I

saw kids who were not as talented or as gifted or as hardworking as I was I learned that this notion of affirmative action sometimes only applies to kids of color or kids from different backgrounds or poor kid but there are all kinds of affirmative action that take place in Elite schools around the country athletes who are admitted because not because they're great students but because they can add value Legacy people who come from families with long Lines within the school they get admission so I started to realize that the doubts that I had in my

head were all mine and I had to work to overcome that question that I always ask myself am I good enough and I write about that that's a question that has dogged me for a good part of my life am I good enough to have all of this am I good enough to be the first lady of the United States and I think that many women and definitely many young girls of all backgrounds walk around with that question but how I overcame that is how I overcome anything hard work so whenever I doubted myself I

I just told myself let me put my head down and do the work and I would let my work speak for itself and I still find that I do that I still feel that at some level I have something to prove because of the color of my skin because of the shape of my body because of who knows how people are judging but it takes some time and it takes some maturity to start having some successes under your belt where you realize yes in fact I am good enough I absolutely believe that education is the

key not just for young women but for people in general knowledge the opportunity to mature to try new things to meet new people to be open to different cultures you know a lot of the problems that we have in the world come from lack of knowledge you know people who are just underexposed to all the different ways there are to be human uh and we judge people based on our limited understanding of the world and and I always try to hold out empathy for those who were in that position because I know that it's based

in a place of ignorance sounds like a harsh word but it's the appropriate word just not knowing you only know what you know and sadly if your world view is this small and you know no one else that looks or think differently from you because you didn't have the chance to be educated or to travel or to see the world or to have your ideas challenged and to learn how to be analytical you know then it's understandable that you would be afraid of something different from you but the only way we break through that is

to educate ourselves and to educate the Next Generation you know to open them up to new ideas if you're not a strong reader if you can't take in huge amounts of information and break it down and have it make sense you won't even know when things are good for you or bad for you so yes I absolutely believe and particularly for for women and girls because women still raise the Next Generation women are at the heart of all Society we bring life we raise life we nurture life we feed our families and if we don't

know what to do if those mothers raising children don't know how to keep them alive or not expose them to diseases or to feed them when they're hungry if they can't raise a living to bring resources in we all struggle so it would seemed to me that if we want to solve anything any major issue that you can think about climate change terrorism poverty inequality it starts with an education I I don't know how we we do any of it if people don't know what they don't know one of the challenges that formal education places

before young people is that you're taught to figure out what you want to be when you grow up right and you're given titles and there's a finite set of them a lawyer teacher a researcher you learn those titles and then you you do the work to get to those titles and then you get jobs and you have careers what I learned was none of that has anything to do necessarily with who I am not what I want to be what do I care about how do I want to wake up and invest my time every

day what brings me joy what makes me sad we don't teach that in school but I learned to try to find that for me and turn that passion into my career and that was some of the best advice because that's when I decided learned that I didn't want to be a lawyer because I'd never taken the time to think about why was I going to law school I was going to law school because I thought I should be a lawyer not because that's who I was it wasn't that work filled me up so I had

to learn how to do that and that required networking and exposing myself to more people and more jobs and more careers and more opportunities as a result of that I became uh an assistant to the mayor in the city of Chicago and then I went on to run a nonprofit organization and I went on to be an associate Dean at a university and I went on to be the vice president at an academic Medical Center and my life just started opening up in ways that I never predicted because I started asking myself that one simple

question not what did I want to be but who did I want to be and how did I want to show up in the world and if you all can get the jump on starting to ask yourself that question as you you know go after your careers if you're starting to think about what what kind of work will bring you Joy because if you find that you're going to do well at it and everything else is going to fall into place and it did for me I think young people when they think about change you

get hung up on thinking that the only change that matters is something big and huge and powerful and mighty starting your own organization or moving the needle on a on an initiative but when you're young the best thing you can do do is number one take care of you because you are the best asset you can invest in at this time so that means taking care of your space your health your education protecting your heart is an important investment for the bigger picture and then think about who's just who's around you who can you really

influence and everyone can influence someone maybe it's a young sibling you know maybe it's a neighbor uh maybe it's another girl in a class below you because when you think about it younger kids they don't necessarily look up to the teacher they look up to the girl right just above them so I would urge you to think about who do you have access to right now today that is looking to you for guidance they see you as a role model because I guarantee you there is someone in your life right now now who thinks that

the sun rises and sets on every word you say and I would start talking to them and I would do small things like bring them with me when I did something unique taking them to a museum it's those small gestures that matter it's not the grand sweeping actions that make change change happens every single day with the little interactions that you have have with the people in your life well I Mentor because I was mentored yeah I think Maran Wright Edelman one of my heroins said service is the rent we pay for living and I

feel the same thing I feel like when someone invests in me as many people have I didn't get here on my own I didn't get here because I was some miracle kid that had dust sprinkled on me and things just happened there were people in my life who saw potential in me people who didn't have to make the investment who held a hand out and showed me the way and some of them were much older than me some of them were people who were my peers or people just ahead of me so I am a

product of the generosity of other people's mentorship so the expectation of myself is that I give that back and it's also selfish of me that I Mentor because I get a lot out of it too I mean one of the best things I do is spend time with younger people because they keep me focused they as I said at the top of this conversation you all keep me clear and focus I feel fulfilled in helping you achieve your goals it's the most fulfilling thing that I do is to watch another person benefit from something that

I help them do I'm not not here to compete with people I'm here to keep continue to lift people up my hope is that the support that I've shown you and others have shown you you will find it in you to show that to someone else one of the reasons I started the mentorship program in the White House was because I wanted people to know that everyone has the time and the capability even the first lady and the president of the United States because the president had a separate mentorship program too and we connected our

mentees with senior people throughout the White House from the chief of staff to the head of the household to Secret Service agents they were connected with people on a regular basis so if we can do it if we can find the if we could find the time in our busy lives to take a moment out because it doesn't even take that long you can have an impact on another person with one good conversation you know I never underestimate the value of showing children my regard which is why I take time out when I see kids

cuz I think even if I'm with you in a photo line or on a rope line that maybe there's one thing I can say to you that you're beautiful that you're smart that I see you you know that I believe in you yeah I don't know you but sometimes a kid it just needs to hear that and that doesn't have to come from the first lady it's powerful when it does come from the first lady but coming from you coming from all of you to someone who looks up to you it means the same thing

so my expectation for all of you is that you find a way to mentor and maybe now is not the time but at some point in your life when you get to a place where you have the space My Hope Is that you make that time and that you continue to look for the mentors in your life because I still look for mentors even today anybody who knows more than me I'm going to sit them down and they're going to become my friend and I'm going to ask for help I did it when I came

into the White House one of the the first people I sat down with were other living first ladies I made it a point to meet with every single one of them number one to just thank them for their service number two I wanted to make sure they felt the lines of communication were open with me third I wanted to know what it was like for them what were their challenges so you never stop learning and I never stop learning so if I'm still looking for mentorship you all should be doing that at every phase of

your life whether it's another mother when you become a parent you're going to need other parents to help you Mentor if you're in a relationship you're going to want mentorship to help you get through your relationship ship it never [Music] [Music] stops