MUSIC OPRAH: WHAT DO YOU REALLY WANT
IN YOUR LIFE? DO YOU THINK THAT EVERYBODY
HAS A CALLING? WE ARE ALL LOOKING FOR THE
SAME THING. WHAT INSPIRES YOU? CAN WE HEAL FROM EVERYTHING? HOW DO WE LIVE AN AWAKENED
LIFE? WHY DO YOU THINK WE'RE HERE,
AS HUMAN BEINGS? TO SAY "YES" TO LIFE, YOU
GOTTA START SAYING "YES" TO
LIFE EXPERIENCES WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IS THE
TRUE MEANING OF SUCCESS? FOR
YOU.. IS IT WEALTH? POWER? PRIVILEGE?
STATUS? OR ALL OF THE ABOVE?
COULD IT BE SUCCESS IS REALLY ABOUT FULLY
REALIZING WHO YOU ARE MEANT TO BE? ....AND WHAT IF YOU COULD
USE "JOY" AS YOUR GPS TO GET
THERE? WOW. WELL THAT'S WHAT WE'RE TALKING
ABOUT RIGHT NOW ON SUPER SOUL SUNDAY... SUCCESS COACH AND
CO-CREATOR OF THE ENORMOUSLY
POPULAR "CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL"
SERIES... JACK CANFLD IS
HERE. Jack: I believe you're not given a dream
unless you're given the
capacity to fulfill it. OPRAH:
That's a powerful Super Soul message. JACK'S
TRUE PASSION IS SHARING A PATH
TO SUCCESS THAT CAN ONLY BE ACHIEVED BY EMBRACING
THE HIGHEST VISION EACH OF US
HAS FOR OURSELVES. JACK: My definition
of success used to be being
able to create whatever result
you wanted. Now it's fulfilling
your soul's purpose. IN HIS
BOOK "THE SUCCESS PRINCIPLES," JACK SAYS A HUGE
STEP TOWARDS FULFILLMENT IS
FIGURING OUT WHAT MAKES YOU COME ALIVE.
OPRAH: So you've been studying
the principles of success for now nearly 40
years. You know a few things
about it. JACK: I think so.
OPRAH: You do. And one of the things I think
that we talk about on Super
Soul all the time is being able
to honor that calling and follow whatever
the the path is for you. And
what you teach is a path to
reaching what you call the fulfillment of
our soul's purpose, which is
exactly what we talk about
here. JACK: Mm- hmm. OPRAH: And everybody has
that. It's the same as a
calling, right? JACK: True.
It's totally a calling. Yeah, the
word vocare, vocation, means to
be called in Latin. OPRAH:
Yeah. JACK: And I believe we all have an
inborn purpose that we were
born to fulfill. And when we
fulfill that, then we achieve fulfillment.
We achieve success. We achieve
happiness. We achieve
contentment. And we serve the world. I
believe each of us is
programmed to be of some
service that the world needs for the world to work
perfectly. OPRAH: So what is
the best way, Jack, you have
discovered to, what you call, tap into our
essence and, therefore, tap
into our success? I mean,
because wouldn't the world just be such a more
fulfilling and joyful space if
everybody were doing exactly
what they came here to do? JACK: Absolutely.
Every need would be fulfilled.
Every service would be there. Everyone would be happy.
Everyone would be - OPRAH:
Mm-hmm. JACK: You know,
everything would be handled. People would
be mechanics that love to be
mechanics. People would be
bakers who love to bake. People would
be cameramen who love to be
cameramen. So my point of view
is that we we have the
capacity to tap in. There are
many many tools for doing
that. There's something called a passion
test. How do you rank order
your passions? I'm happiest and
most fulfilled when I'm? And then you can
rank order those and find your
passions that way. Your
passions are your purpose I love the quote
that says, don't look to do
what the world needs. Do to see
what makes you come alive. Because what
the world needs are people who
have come alive. OPRAH: Yeah. JACK: And so for me - OPRAH: I
think that's an old quote by
Howard Thurman. JACK: Howard Thurman. That's exactly right.
OPRAH: Yes. JACK: And I think
that that each of us you
know, we all are born with
qualities, Oprah. Like my two
qualities are love and joy. And
my wife's are spontaneity and authenticity.
You know, she's just the most
spontaneous, authentic person,
and she gives people permission to be
themselves by being authentic
and spontaneous herself. I
inspire and empower people to live their
highest vision in the context
of love and joy. That's my
purpose. and I've been doing that since I was a
kid BORN IN 1944 TO ELMER AND
ELLEN CANFLD, JACK'S PARENTS DIVORCED WHEN HE WAS YOUNG.
HIS MOTHER REMARRIED AND TO HELP MAKE ENDS MEET,
JACK WORKED SUMMERS AT THE
LOCAL POOL AND AT A SHOP ALONGSIDE HIS
STEP-FATHER. HE WAS A TOP
STUDENT AND EARNED A SCHOLARSHIP TO
HARVARD AND LATER WENT TO THE
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS WHERE HE EARNED
HIS MASTERS DEGREE IN PSYCHOLOGICAL EDUCATION. JACK
THEN TAUGHT HISTORY AT AN
INNER-CITY SCHOOL IN CHICAGO. IT'S THERE
THAT HE DISCOVERED HIS TRUE
INNER- PASSION FOR TEACHING AND
INSPIRING OTHERS... JACK: it's
always been about inspiring people and
organizations to live their
highest vision. That's what I
do. And when everyone finds that thing that they do,
then they fulfill that purpose.
So, you know, My definition of
success used to be being able to
create whatever result you
wanted. Now it's fulfilling
your soul's purpose. I love the quote that
says you don't want to get to
the top of the ladder and find
out it was leaning against the wrong
wall. And a lot of people spend
their whole life climbing that
ladder and get to what they call
success. They have the money,
the fame, the fortune, the
power, the influence, and they're not
happy because they climbed the
wrong ladder. They were
pursuing the wrong goals. OPRAH: How do you
know what is the ladder for you
and that it's up against the
right wall? JACK: If you're
experiencing joy as you're
climbing it. I believe - OPRAH:
Oh, good. JACK: Yeah, I believe that joy is
your internal guidance system.
OPRAH: Yeah. You call it our
internal GPS. JACK: GPS. Exactly. And
so we're either on course and
we're experiencing joy, or off
course and we're feeling frustration
and anger and headaches and
resentment and all of that.
OPRAH: And there's a there's some of
that in every job at some point
where you have challenges. But
you're right. I just, you know, doing
what I'm doing here with you
now all those years of the
Oprah Show, not it didn't matter what the
show was. There was a level of
knowing that in that moment,
you're doing exactly what you're
supposed to be doing. JACK:
Exactly. That doesn't mean
there's no effort in life. OPRAH: Yeah. JACK: It
doesn't mean there's not times
when you're gonna have to do
some difficult things. I know when
I wrote this book, The Success
Principles, I would start
writing at 7:00 at night after I ate dinner with
my wife and I'd go out into the
office and sometimes, the next
thing I know, I'd hear birds singing.
And I go oh, my God. It
dawn's coming up. I've been
writing for 12 hours. And it was work. But I
was loving it. I was loving the
crafting. OPRAH: You were in
the flow, Jack. JACK: I was in the
flow. Exactly. OPRAH: In the
flow. OPRAH: I like actually
how you even begin the book. Because I
think one of the things that
I've discovered that holds
people back is them holding onto the past.
And you start out in the
introduction of Success
Principles sharing that, "Everything in the past has
actually been perfect." Now,
when you first hear that or
read that, it sounds, I know to a lot of
people, ridiculous because
they're thinking about all the
things that have gone wrong in their life. You
say, "Everything in your past
has led you to this
transformative moment in time. Everyone,
including you, has always " I
love this. Maya used to always
say this " everyone, including
you, has always done the best
they could with what they knew
at the time." JACK: Mm-hmm.
OPRAH: "Now you're about to
know more. Celebrate your new awareness. It's about to set
you free." JACK: Yeah, I
believe that everything you've
ever done was you were doing the best you
could with the awareness,
skills, tools, and knowledge
you had at the time to meet a basic need.
You know, whether people
cheated on their income taxes
or some kid joined a gang or someone did
something, you know, that we'd
say is illegal, they were
trying to meet some basic need for approval,
for connection, for belonging.
If they had better tools and
awareness, they would have done better.
You know, it's one of the big
shames of our prison system is
that we don't teach people what they need to
know when they come out to be
successful. OPRAH: Yeah. JACK: We're punishing people rather
than teaching them new
awareness and new skills.
OPRAH: Yeah. My belief is that the whole
purpose of life is to gain
mastery, master our emotions,
our finances, our relationships, our
consciousness through
meditation, things like that.
And it's not about the stuff. All the stuff can
be taken away. You know? People
lose their fortunes. They lose
their reputation. Beautiful spouses
die or leave you. But who you
became in the process can never
be taken away. Never. You are
mastering through the process
of overcoming these obstacles
that you face in life. COMING UP...
THIS WAS A HUGE
"BING-BING-BING" MOMENT FOR
ME... JACK: I believe you're not
given a dream unless you have
the capacity to fulfill it.
OPRAH: That's a powerful Super Soul message.
You don't even have a dream
that you're not allowed to
fulfill. AND LATER... THE UBER-TALENTED,
GRAMMY AWARD-WINNER BOBBY
MCFERRIN SHARES HIS SOUL'S PURPOSE...
Music can change a person's
brain I think molecularly. It
can soothe a person's soul. SO
MUCH MORE SUPER SOUL SUNDAY IN
A MOMENT. IN 1993, JACK CO-AUTHORED
"CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL"- A
COLLECTION OF 101 SHORT STORIES MEANT TO
WARM HEARTS AND LIFT SPIRITS.
15 MONTHS LATER, THE BOOK MADE "THE NEW
YORK TIMES" BESTSELLER LIST AND
THE WORLD COULD NOT GET ENOUGH.
OVER 250 VERSIONS FOLLOWED...
INCLUDING 46 MORE NEW YORK TIMES
BESTSELLERS. BACK IN 2008, JACK
AND HIS PARTNER SOLD "CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE
SOUL." TODAY, "CHICKEN SOUP"
HAS BECOME A BILLION DOLLAR EMPIRE, SELLING
MORE THAN 500 MILLION COPIES IN
OVER 40 LANGUAGES AROUND THE WORLD.
OPRAH: So when you sat down and
you all came together to write Chicken Soup
for the Soul, did you imagine
it would be as successful? Did
you had you projected that for
yourself. JACK: We intended it
to be a best selling book
However, we had no idea that it would become
the cultural phenomenon. I
mean, I have 50 cartoons on the
walls of my office of cartoonists that
have made jokes about Chicken
Soup. OPRAH: Chicken Soup,
yeah. JACK: And I just learned, this is
amazing, they've sold over 300
million books in China. And
they're using the book in the classrooms to
teach English with English on
one side and Chinese on the
other. OPRAH: Right. So you didn't
imagine that. JACK: I couldn't
imagine that. How could I
imagine that. OPRAH: Yeah. Because
isn't part of what happens to
us all, you I call it you
surrender your dream to that which is bigger
than yourself. I call it God.
And then the combination of
your dream and the energetic force of what
is, you know, intended changes
it. JACK: Yeah. It takes over
if you allow it. But it's phenomenal.
And I have to say that I you
know, the thing I take credit
for more than anthing in life is
listening to my inner guidance.
And something said, write these
books and I did. Something said, stop
writing them. And I did.
Someone said write this book.
And I did. OPRAH: Now you also say that
we're unlimited in our capacity
and our consciousness for
impact. Are we really? All of us? JACK: I
believe we all have unlimited
possibilities to become pretty
much anything we want because I
believe you're not given a
dream unless you have the
capacity to fulfill it. You won't be allowed to have
it. Now you may need to learn
new things. You may need to
mentor. Get mentored. OPRAH: Oh. JACK:
You may need to team up. OPRAH:
That's a powerful Super Soul message. You don't even
have a dream that you're not
allowed to fulfill. JACK:
Exactly. You have the capacity. You
won't be allowed to have the
dream if you don't have the
ability, the talent, the skills, that you
you may develop more skill.
But you have the capacity to do
anything you can dream up. You know,
Napoleon Hill said whatever the
mind can conceive and believe
the mind can achieve. OPRAH: Can
achieve, yeah. JACK: And I
totally believe that. That's
been my experience with thousands of
students. OPRAH: So yes.
Thousands of students after,
what, 500 million copies of Chicken Soup
for the Soul. JACK: Right.
OPRAH: And what's remarkable
is, I think I read that you got
turned down 144 times? JACK:
144 rejections over the course
of about 18 months. Yeah. I mean, we went
to New York here's a kind of
funny story. We all got
goosebumps when we had the idea. We said,
this is amazing. We went to New
York and nobody got goosebumps. So we 22 publishers over
about three or four days.
Everyone said stupid title.
People don't read short stories. Anthologies
don't sell. Which literally
anthologies don't. OPRAH: Yes.
JACK: But these were real stories. And
they just thought the title was
dumb. Whatever. And so then we
went on our own after our literary
agent gave us the book back and
said, here, I can't sell it.
And and the so someone said got to the
Book Expo America. We went to booth to booth to
booth to booth for three days
sharing stories, telling our
story. Nothing. Last day, in the afternoon, a
little publisher in Florida
called Health Communications
said, we'll read it. We couldn't even get anyone to
read it. And they read it and
they called us and said we love
it. We want to publish it. And we
said, how many copies do you
think you'll sell? And they
said, 20,000. We said, that's not our vision.
They said, what's your vision?
We said 150,000 by Christmas.
It came out in July. And a million and
a half in a year and a half.
And they laughed at us. I'm
sure you've had people laugh at your dreams
sometimes. OPRAH: Yes. Exactly.
JACK: And he laughed out loud. And now he doesn't laugh
anymore. OPRAH: Of course not.
I had a guy, when I first got
syndicated, Roger King, King World, who
has since passed on, and
Michael King, his brother, just
recently passed. But Roger told me that when he
was trying to sell the show in
Idaho that a General Manager of
the station told him he could get
a better number, a better
rating, more audience by
putting a potato in the chair. And it's been one of
those fantastic moments, you
know? JACK: You should have
taken a picture of a potato in a
chair. OPRAH: Of a potato. And
so Roger went across the street
to whoever was the other guy and sold the
show to the other guy. So
that's yes. It's actually
wonderful to be underestimated. JACK: It is,
actually. It is, actually.
Because it you surprise
people. And they're not resisting you so much when
they underestimate you. OPRAH:
But what's interesting to me is
that you had that moment that I
had, actually, with The Oprah
Show I reached a point where I
thought, all right, what can I continue to
say in this format that's
different than what I've said
before? JACK: Mm-hmm. OPRAH: That I can
still remain stimulated and
engaged? I really just want to
have the conversations that I want to
have. Create my own network and
platform for doing that. So I
just talk to people who I want to talk to.
JACK: Mm-hmm. OPRAH: And grow
on. I call it growing yourself forward. And essentially you
did the same thing with Chicken
Soup. You let it go. JACK: I
did. I did. About oh, I'd say 15
years into it all of a sudden
it stopped being fun. Remember
I said joy is your guidance system? OPRAH:
Joy is your guidance system.
JACK: I stopped feeling the
joy. I was reading stories that
should have moved me, and I
wasn't moved. It's like I'd
become jaded. OPRAH: Because you'd heard
them. JACK: I'd heard 'em all.
JACK: but it was good. I
needed to move on. And so I just
we sold the company to a group
in New York and I took a year
to kind of think about what I wanted to
do and I started realizing I
wanted to do trainings again.
And I wanted to write about success. And I
wanted to share. I think what
happened for me, Oprah, was I
had achieved an enormous amount of
success. And I wanted to share
that with others. COMING UP... DO YOU EVER FEEL LIKE YOU'RE
SABOTAGING YOUR OWN SUCCESS?
JACK: Every time we judge someone else,
it's just a projection of our
own self-judgment. Parts of
ourself we don't accept. SUPER SOULERS, I WANT
TO KNOW HOW YOU DEFINE
SUCCESS....YOU CAN FACEBOOK OR TWEET ME, TWEET
TWEET ME EVEN USING THE HASHTAG "SUPER SOUL SUNDAY." BESTSELLING AUTHOR JACK
CANFLD HAS BEEN ENCOURAGING PEOPLE TO LIVE
THEIR BEST LIVES FOR DECADES...
FIRST WITH THE BLOCKBUSTER "CHICKEN SOUP
FOR THE SOUL" AND LATER IN HIS CELEBRATED WORK "THE SUCCESS
PRINCIPLES." Jack: "you have
the power to create anything you want..literally
anything. you can have it all.
all you need is the key to
unlock the lock." FIRST PUBLISHED IN 2005, THE
BOOK DESCRIBES HOW TO TRANSCEND
LIMITING BELFS AND HOW TO FIND
SUCCESS IN THE DIGITAL AGE....
JACK'S INTENTION IS TO GUIDE YOU TO ANSWER THIS
BIG QUESTION "IF I COULD LIVE
MY IDEAL LIFE, WHAT WOULD I BE DOING?"
OPRAH: And so what are your
favorite principles? JACK: My favorite principle? OPRAH:
Yes. JACK: Well, first I have
to give you a large answer. And
then I'll answer your question.
OPRAH: Okay, good. JACK: What's
your favorite organ in your
body? You can only keep one. OPRAH:
I'm gonna keep the heart. JACK:
Good. But your body won't work without the liver, the kidney,
the stomach, the you know
what I'm saying? OPRAH: Yeah.
JACK: You need it all. So there's a
system of success that I put in
this book. There's 25
principles that are critical. It's about doing the
OPRAH: You need one so
it's not one thing. JACK: No.
OPRAH: It's a combination. JACK: It's
a combination lock, really. If
you know the combination to a
lock, it doesn't matter if you're
black, white, young, old, male,
female, the lock's gonna open.
If you're missing one number, Oprah -OPRAH: Yes.
JACK: that lock won't open.
Most people are missing numbers. They have them in the
wrong order. OPRAH: Yeah. JACK:
It's about doing the right
thing in the right order in the
right way at the right time.
OPRAH: That's why you call
you say at the very beginning of the book,
learn the fundamentals. JACK:
Right. OPRAH: And this is
really the foundation and spiritual
principle of the book is that
there are fundamentals that you
have to follow. JACK: Right. OPRAH: They're
basically spiritual principles.
JACK: They are. OPRAH: Yeah. JACK: And they're not taught
in school. OPRAH: And they're
not taught in school. JACK:
Right. OPRAH: And if you follow that
that formula, you will
succeed. JACK: Right. OPRAH:
And there are no shortcuts to that.
JACK: There are no shortcuts
JACK: Now, to go back to your question and answer it in a
more honest way, the first
principles of the book I think
is the most important one is the
fundamental bedrock and it's
called take 100 percent
responsibility for your life and your results. And there's
a formula in there called E.
plus R. equals O. Events plus
Response equal Outcome. OPRAH: Outcome, yeah.
JACK: And everyone in life,
when they don't get what they want, they're complaining
about their outcomes. My kids
won't talk to me. I don't have
a job. I have a headache. OPRAH: Look at
what happened to me. Living in
the past. JACK: Exactly. And
then that's that's my reason for
my outcomes. But what creates
the outcome is my response to
previous events. Or to current events.
OPRAH: Okay. Events. E. plus R.
equals O. JACK: So an event happens. So let's say that
Stedman forgets your birthday.
And now you go, how would you
feel if Stedman forgot your birthday?
OPRAH: I would actually be okay
with it. JACK: You would. OPRAH: Yeah, you know why?
Because why? Go ahead. JACK:
Because you're conscious. OPRAH: Because I'm conscious.
JACK: Exactly. OPRAH: Okay.
JACK: But most people would go, oh, I would feel bad because
my husband that means my
husband doesn't love me. But
you could say someone who loves me
forgot my birthday. Now I'm in
concern. Not feeling bad.
OPRAH: Yeah. JACK: It's a different
feeling. So the reality is, we
have choices about responses.
And if we don't get the outcomes we
want, most people blame the
event. It's my husband. It's
the economy. It's the President. It's the Wall
Street. It's the weather. The
traffic made me late. As
opposed to saying, it's my response to the event.
OPRAH: May I just say this,
too? JACK: Please. OPRAH: I
think people get way too upset over
people missing their birthdays.
JACK: Exactly. OPRAH: Isn't it
about how somebody treats you or how
they feel about you all the
time? JACK: Really. OPRAH: And
not just that one I can't get
the everybody gets crazed if
you I actually have a friend
who gets upset if you forget her
forget the birthday. And I'm
like but what about all the
other days? JACK: Right. OPRAH: What about all
the other days? JACK: Yeah,
it's a 365-day year. But I
think the important point of this is
there's three responses you can
have to any event. OPRAH: Yeah.
That's the - JACK: There's the - OPRAH:
(inaudible) we're making.
JACK: There's the images you have. Because fear is always
created by having images of the
future being bad. So if I
imagine something bad in the future,
I'm gonna feel bad. And then
finally it's your behavior.
OPRAH: And how big a role does our own
negativity play into what the
future is? I know you write
about gossip You say, "Gossip and judgment
affect you, too, because you
end up releasing a poison into
the river of energy." I love this "that is
set up to bring you that which
you truly want." It's releasing
a poison into the river of energy that's set
up to bring you that which you
truly want. Jack: Right. And so
every time we are negative about
someone else, we are actually
affecting ourselves. And the
other thing that's important, you know this, too,
because I've heard you talk
about it. Is every time you
judge someone else, it's just a
projection of our own
self-judgment. Parts of ourself
we don't accept. Parts of ourselves we won't give
permission to express. And so
basically, you know, the old
thing when you're pointing your finger,
there's three fingers pointing
back. And so I always tell
people, that whatever you focus on, you get
more of. OPRAH: That's right.
JACK: So if I'm gossiping about someone that I'm judging or
being negative about, then I'm
actually creating more
negativity inside of me and I'm not focusing on
what I want. And what I teach
in the Success Principles is
you always want your focus to be on what
do you want to be producing in
life? What are your goals? What
are the qualities you want to be
experiencing? And if you're not
doing that, then you're wasting
your time. You're not gonna get to where
you want to go. OPRAH: You talk
about in a way that Eckhart doesn't, you say that the ego
can actually be useful. JACK: I
think it can. I think it can. I
think the ego is a part of us that I
don't think you can kill off So
for me, I think the ego is
is a part of us that we can say, okay, I'm gonna
retrain you now to serve the
soul. To serve the higher
purpose. To serve - OPRAH: Yeah, I call that
being in alignment. JACK: Yes.
Exactly. OPRAH: Or Gary Zukav
says when the personality, you can
use the word ego, too, comes to
serve the energy of the soul.
JACK: Yes. OPRAH: That's when you're
really authentically empowered.
JACK: Yeah. OPRAH: When all of that you use that to
line up. You use your big
personality. I have a big one.
You have a big one. JACK: Right. OPRAH: To serve
whatever your calling is.
Whatever you've actually come
to do. JACK: Well, a laser light -
OPRAH: Yes. JACK: is just
coherent light. It's all the
lights going in one direction. Normally our
lightbulbs are lights going all
over the place. When you get it
all coherent, you have a laser. So
for me, getting the ego and the
personality and all the
functions, the intellect, the emotions, the
body, all of that lined up in
service, I use this image of an
upside down funnel. So up here is the
soul. And it's giving
directives down to a little
part of the middle down here, think of it as a bullseye
called the eye. So when I
meditate, I am aware of inner
guidance coming from my soul. And then I
choose to use my intellect, my
body, my emotions, my
intuition, my imagination, in the service of
whatever I've been directed to
do. COMING UP... OPRAH: Yeah.
You were talking about what your
definition used to be for
success. JACK: Yeah. OPRAH:
What is it now? PLUS, THE QUESTION JACKS
SAYS WE NEED TO START ASKING
OURSELVES... AND IT COULD BE A GAME CHANGER
IN YOUR LIFE! JACK: At the end
of the day, I say, where could I have been more.
OPRAH: That's a good question.
Where could I where could I
have been more? Yes. SOOOO MUCH
SUPER SOUL FOOD... DON'T FORGET
TO DVR THE SHOW OR WATCH US AGAIN ON
SUPERSOUL.TV SO YOU DON'T MISS
A MOMENT. OPRAH: You were talking about
what your definition used to be
for success. JACK: Yeah. OPRAH: What is it now? JACK:
Fulfilling your soul's purpose.
And then you have to find out,
what is that purpose? And then work to
fulfill it. And that purpose
can evolve, too, by the way. It
can grow and change over time. So you have
to be constantly tuning in. My
meditation is tune in, get
guidance, come out in the world, fulfill
it, come back in, tune in. I do
four different kinds of
meditation. I never know which one I'm gonna do
until I sit down. I might do a
mantram. I know you do TM. I
might do a - OPRAH: I actually do
different kinds, too. JACK: You
do, too? OPRAH: Yeah. JACK:
Okay, good. I didn't know that. So
sometimes it's a mantram.
Sometimes I sit I do a tree of
life meditation which comes out of the
Kabbalah tradition. I find that
very powerful. Sometimes I do
vipassana which is just watching my
breath. OPRAH: Yeah. JACK: You
know, just being there and
allowing thoughts to emerge and
thoughts to go away. OPRAH:
Right. JACK: Well, you know the
title for Chicken Soup for the Soul came
from a meditation. And I
literally went into meditation
and said, okay, I'm gonna sit here for an hour
a day for five days until I get
a title. And on the third day,
a hand came out, like a green chalkboard
in the school, and it wrote
Chicken Soup on it. And I
looked at that and I said, what the hell does
Chicken Soup have to do with
this book? I'm a little
irreverent with God. And so he's fine with it.
And so basically it said when
you were sick as a child, your
grandmother gave you Chicken Soup. And I
said, but this is not a book
about sick people. And then the
voice said, people's spirits are
sick. This was 1993, '2, there
was a recession going on back
then, the first Gulf war, and people were
downsizing, mortgages were
being lost the same way as
recently. And I went, Chicken Soup for the
spirit. Chicken Soup for the
Soul. And that's when I got
goosebumps. And for me, goosebumps are God
bumps. I know that when I get
those, that's I'm on. That's
a semantic intuition that says, right on.
And of course no one got
goosebumps in New York for a
while. But eventually. OPRAH: Eventually.
After 144. JACK: Rejections,
right. OPRAH: Rejections. JACK: You never give up. That's so
important. Never, ever give up.
OPRAH: And so you also believe
that there is power in measuring or
listing our successes and our
goals. Do you still do that?
JACK: I do. OPRAH: On a daily basis? JACK:
I call it keeping a victory
log. And I also and I write
down my victories. I don't do it every
night. Sometimes I do what I
call the mirror exercise where
I actually talk to myself in the mirror.
So I would say, Jack, I want to
acknowledge you today for the
following things, and I would
acknowledge myself for anything
I accomplished, any temptations
overcome. My big thing is surfing the
internet too long. I just I
need to get sleep and things
like that. And then any any disciplines kept
like yoga and meditation and
things like that. And then I
end with, I love you. And for a lot of people,
they can't even say I love you
to your to themselves
without freaking out. They choke on it. And so
I believe you cannot let in
more love than you OPRAH:
Than you can give. JACK: You can't let
in any more than you can give
to yourself. To yourself. So
basically, what I do is I do an evening
review where I at the end of
the day, I say, where could I
have been more? And i'm working on a
quality all the time of love,
compassion, joy, courage,
whatever. Where could I have been more loving
today? Oh, in the bank I got
really upset with the teller
because the line was too long. And then I
replayed in my mind the way I
would have liked to have been
had I been more conscious in that moment.
So I'm laying a blueprint down
for the next day to be more
loving. And then finally I - OPRAH:
That's a good question. Where
could I where could I have
been more? Yes. I love that. JACK:
Yeah, whatever it is. Loving.
Compassionate. Patient. OPRAH: Where could I have been more?
Mm-hmm. JACK: And the funny
thing is, you'll always get an answer. You'll always see
where you could have done it
better. And I think, you know,
a lot of us just think you just naturally are
loving or naturally are this. I
think you have to kind of
intend it. You have to you can want to - OPRAH:
And that's where why where I
could have been more, that's
why tomorrow is another day,
Scarlet. JACK: Right. OPRAH:
And you get another chance.
JACK: Right. OPRAH: You get another
chance to get it right. JACK:
Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And
I think, too, the other thing I teach
people to do is to to
visualize the next day the way
you want it to go before you go to bed. OPRAH:
Yeah. JACK: Visualize your
goals. I have affirmation cards
with my goals and I read through them
and visualize them. Because
what we know from the research
is that whatever you think about, talk
about, read about, watch on TV
about right before you go to
bed, your subconscious will play more
often through the night than
everything else that happened
during the day except traumatic things like
your cat got injured or
something. And so you want to
take advantage of that. OPRAH: I know. That's
why isn't the news not good for
you going to bed? JACK: The
news is terrible. You know, what it
first of all, what is the
news? It's the same news every
night with different names. There was a
murder. There's a hurricane. It
flooded here. There was a fire
there. And then you're processing that
all night long. OPRAH: I know.
Which I bringing into your consciousness is just, to me,
the worst possible thing you
can do before going to bed.
COMING UP.... OPRAH: And so what has
been your greatest reward in
all of this? JACK: Wow. AND LATER... GRAMMY WINNER BOBBY
MCFERRIN ON FINDING HARMONY
INSIDE... IN THIS WEEK'S SUPER SOUL SHORT.
Bobby: The hardest thing is to
really find your genuine selves. Because that's what
people want. You will be a
success when you find that.
BACK IN A MOMENT. OPRAH: Why do you think we are
all here? JACK: You know, I
used to think there's one
answer to that and I used to always look
for what is the one answer and
find that one teacher? OPRAH:
Yeah. JACK: And I think different
teachers are teaching different
things, you know, like the
Abraham work is all about joy. Other people
are saying it's all about
balancing karma. Other people
are saying it's about learning and mastery.
And it kind of attracted to the
teachers who are teaching what
you need to do in this lifetime. But I
think I think we're here to
- OPRAH: But isn't everybody
there's just you can call those
you can you called it
Success Principles. I think
it's all about, like, a guide to how how to lift
your life to where it can be.
JACK: Yeah, you know, I read a
book called Life After Life by Dr. Raymond
Moody when I was in graduate
school. OPRAH: I read that
book, too. JACK: I love that book.
And//there was this one story
about a guy who you know, he
left his body, went through the tunnel,
met the being of light and the
being of light, you know,
basically showed him all the places in
his life he wasn't loving and
he had to look at that and feel
the pain of that, and then he asked him
two questions. How did you
expand your capacity to love?
And what wisdom did you learn from this
life? And I thought, wow,
that's the final exam. OPRAH: That is. JACK: And
nobody's and nobody's
teaching for the final, you
know? So I started made a commitment. I was in
graduate school. And I said
this needs to be taught. And
that was when I recommitted to teaching
about love and about wisdom. So
this book's about wisdom. The next book I'm gonna write is
called "Love or Fear. The Only
Choice That Matters." OPRAH:
That is it. JACK: Yeah. OPRAH: That's
a great title, too. JACK: Thank
you. OPRAH Because there really are only two choices. And
you're either moving in the
direction of love or you're -
JACK: Moving away. OPRAH: moving away.
JACK: It's a binary choice at
all times. OPRAH: So, what is
the quality that you most admire
in other people?JACK: I think
three qualities. Love, joy, and
excellence. I really love people who are
committed to excellence in
whatever they do. OPRAH:
Mm-hmm. JACK: I remember a guy who was
a traffic he led you know
when there's construction and
they have to wave you on or stop
you? OPRAH: Mm-hmm. JACK: He
did it with such grace, with
such aplomb, it was like a ballet
artist, you know? I mean, he
just took it to a whole other
level. The level of excellence that you've
committed yourself to, that
I've committed myself to, that
Itzhak Perlman's committed himself to. I just
am in awe of excellence. It
doesn't matter what it is. I'm
just - OPRAH: Yeah. And I'm like you. I
really am in awe of it when I
see people doing simple things
really well. JACK: Mm-hmm. OPRAH: Really,
really well. I mean, it's the
person behind the counter at
the cleaners who does that with
such a joyful spirit that you
can't wait to go pick up your
clothes. JACK: Yeah. OPRAH: Yeah. JACK:
Someone once said to me you
want to be the kind of person
if you were a plumber, that when the
person that met you was walking
away, they'd be thinking, there
must be some plumbing I need done.
OPRAH: That's good. JACK: Yeah.
OPRAH: That's that's good. What do you see as the world's
greatest wound? JACK: I think
the greatest wound we've all experienced is somehow being
rejected for being our our
authentic self. OPRAH: Mm.
JACK: And as a result of that, we then
try to be what we're not to get
approval, love, protection,
safety, money, whatever. And that the real
the real need for all of us is
to reconnect with the essence
of who we really are and re-own all the
disowned parts of ourself
whether it's our emotions,
whether it's our spirituality. We all go around
hiding parts of ourself. And,
you know, I was with a Buddhist
teacher a number of years ago. We were
co-leading a seminar. And he
said at the end, he said, let
me give you the secret. If you were to
meditate for 20 years, this is
where you'd finally get to.
Just be yourself. But be all of you. OPRAH: And how
do we do that?JACK: By working
on ourselves. I think
meditation is probably one of the most
important ways because when we
meditate, things emerge into
our consciousness and we may have
buried parts of ourselves that
we put aside. And I think, you know, human
potential training because I'm a big believer.
I've taken over 600 trainings.
Literally. When I first got into this, I
was living in Chicago and I met
a guy in a laundromat and he
talked to me about this workshop that was
happening. I went, okay, I'll
go. And I took 37 weekend
workshops that year. OPRAH: Oh, my
goodness. JACK: It was as if I
was living in a desert and
starved for water and didn't even know
water existed. And he I
would assist. I would do
anything so I could get in for I was a graduate
student. I didn't have a lot of
money. But I was like I
grew. OPRAH: Wow. JACK: I learned who I
was. OPRAH: And now you do
them. JACK: And now I do them. OPRAH: All over the world.
JACK: I do. OPRAH: Yeah. OPRAH:
And so what has been your greatest reward in all of
this? JACK: Wow. Watching
people's lights go on. OPRAH:
Yeah. OPRAH: And one of the great things
about this entire book, it's
like if you if you followed
every principle, of course you would be
ultimately successful. But it's
they're layered. So you try
you do one. Then you do another. And then
you add another. And you add
another. And before long, you
know. JACK: Absolutely. OPRAH: Yes.
JACK: Absolutely COMING UP...
OPRAH: But is every person meant to be successful? PLUS,
YOUNG ARTISTS GET A MASTER
CLASS WITH THE LEGENDARY BOBBY MCFERRIN...
student: bobby treated us like
equals... like artists and
let's just create together. SUPER
SOUL SUNDAY WILL BE RIGHT BACK OPRAH: Do you have a definition of God for
yourself? JACK: I think God is
all that is. God you know,
you said that which is I loved your
phrase. That which is bigger
than all of us or something
like that? OPRAH: Yeah. JACK: I think God is
consciousness. And it's a sea
of consciousness. OPRAH:
Mm-hmm. JACK: And we're like a point
of consciousness. I mean a cup
of you know. OPRAH: Yes.
JACK: And for me, that's - OPRAH: I
can see you watch. Hello. JACK:
I do, I do. I told you I did. OPRAH: Yeah. JACK: But
basically we're all individual
points of consciousness in the
ocean and we can either identify as being a
drop of water. OPRAH: Mm-hmm.
JACK: Or we can identify, as
I'm the ocean. And God is the
ocean for me. It's the it's
infinite intelligence that
manifests itself through everything. And I
think God is evolving. And we
are the cusp of that evolution.
OPRAH: Interesting. Yeah. JACK: You
know, consciousness is
evolving. God is evolving. Just
like you and I evolve. And so he's evolving,
he, she, it, through us. We are
the we are the cutting edge
of evolution. That is a cool idea. And if we
don't fulfill that, if we don't
step into that and allow
ourselves to be that, we are stopping the
evolution. We are we can't
stop it, but we're slowing it
down. OPRAH: But is every person meant to
be successful? JACK: Every
person is meant to fulfill
their purpose. Yes. Now, that doesn't mean
everyone's gonna live in a big
house. OPRAH: Yeah. JACK: Some
people want to be poets and live in
small little houses in New
Hampshire in the woods. Some
people want to run a little organic farm.
That is a great success.
Raising two healthy children in
our world today? That's a huge success. Staying
sane in a crazy world is a
success. OPRAH: Yeah. OPRAH:
Thank you, Jack, for coming over.
Thanks, my neighbor. JACK: I
love you. OPRAH: Thank you for
coming over. Let's have a hug. Thank
you so much. That was so sweet
for you to come. BOBBY singing different
musical notes with audience OPRAH: IN THIS WEEK'S SUPER
SOUL SHORT, THE MAGICAL AND
LYRICAL WORLD OF BOBBY MCFERRIN... THE 10-TIME GRAMMY
WINNER IS THE MAN BEHIND THE
WILDLY- POPULAR 1980'S HIT, "DON'T
WORRY, BE HAPPY." NOW, A RARE
GLIMPSE INSIDE THE UNIQUE GENIUS OF BOBBY AND
HIS MUSIC, AS HE MENTORS GIFTED STUDENTS FROM THE NATIONAL
YOUNG ARTS FOUNDATION... Nats singing. BOBBY: So you
probably know about me. I like
to improvise. So have a seat. (Bobby on camera) Music can
change a person's brain I think
molecularly. It can soothe a
person's soul. BOBBY to Students: Ok..
let's do this again
individually. Whatever groove I
do you go along with it. BOBBY: Improvisation
can be dangerous because you're
heading into the unknown. You
never know what's going to happen.
bobby to students: I'm gonna
sing a groove and I want you to
find your note. BOBBY: the good
thing about improv is that you
learn there are different ways
of approaching music.. BOBBY UNDER VO: You set out on
a journey and you just start
walking, you start singing and playing and
you don't stop. It's like any
kind of journey you know going
to a place you've never been before.
You're unfamiliar with the
sites, these are new places
you've never seen. You've never seen this
mountain range. You've never
seen this pond. You've never
seen these stars. That's what improv is. STUDENT: As young musicians,
young artists, what advice do
you have for us as we embark on this
journey? BOBBY: The hardest thing for
you kids these days is to
really find your genuine selves. Because
that's what people want. You
will be a success when you find
that it is being authentic. BOBBY: Music is I think a very
spiritual art. It gets to heart
of things quickly. It moves people. It heals people. BOBBY: when I'm onstage I like
to disappear into the music and
let the music lead.It's like
singing in faith. because you
never have any idea what's
going to happen. you don't know where the music's
going to go. and you just
follow it and see where it
leads you. Student: He gave us
assignments at the end of the
day and the assignment was get me
an arrangment of Swing Low Sweet Chariot in whatever
key you choose which actually
sounded relatively easy. We started outside it just
wasn't working, bugs were
biting. So we walked inside we
said ok we'll work on this for 5 or 10 more
minutes. I don't know what
happened but all of a sudden
all these ideas just started flowing. We had
3/4ths of the song completely
done. Girl Student #1: We didn't
even have a clue when we were going
onstage. We didn't know what we
were singing. We didn't know if
we were singing the arrangments
we made. Male Student #1: Finally he
said our names.. It was huge,
it was full. and they were all
watching us. Girl Student #2: Bobby treated
us like equals Let's just
create together. (GROUP SINGING
TOGETHER) Bobby: Yeah, they did a good
job. To me the stage is a
platform for adventure. As an
artist onstage you have to be
relaxed, very confident. And I
think they got a taste of what
that feels like. Boy Student #1 VO: He's just a
great human being. The humility
and the grace. And my biggest takeaway was how much I could
learn from him not as a
musician, but as a person who
also does music. (GROUP SINGING TOGETHER) APPLAUSE (GROUP SINGING TOGETHER) BOBBY: And then how does it
end? (GROUP SINGING TOGETHER) BOBBY: That's improv babe, and
I'm telling you it's good.
Just... trust. MUSIC
