11. Oprah

I have been nurturing my gratitude since yesterday evening for Oprah Winfrey, in particular her show, "Oprah presents Master Class."

The woman is truly an inspiration, and has a gift for speech, for tapping into the emotions of people, for making an emotional connection with her viewers, her audience. In other words, she has an innate talent for what many entrepreneurs strive and possibly go to business school for - getting consumers to make an emotional investment/connection with the product. Her personal need to connect with people has possibly turned her into a self-made billionaire, and her courage to go beyond, to push the envelope, has made her who she is.

I have been wanting to learn more about Oprah and her work/products for quite some time now, looking up this famous personality on Twitter, Wikipedia, thinking of reading her biography (if there is one), of watching The Oprah Show, eyeing her magazine on racks at the grocery store, etc. So yesterday, after a mentally and physically exhausting day at work, with my hip muscles spasming, as I was flipping through the TV guide, I come across Oprah's channel, OWN. I watch Oprah talk about her life in "Master Class," and am completely in awe - of her gift for inspiration. This morning, I turn on her channel and watched the conclusion of Ms. Winfrey talking about her life, her show, and the life lessons she has learned along the way. At the end of this, I have a lot of respect for her perseverance, the ability to reflect on her own life, to candidly talk about her past, and for her spirituality. She has inspired me, and given me that extra oomph, to blog in between my shifts, to pursue my goals and aspirations of reaching my higher potential, of writing...so thank you Oprah, for giving me that extra nudge.

I end today's gratifying experience with a quote from the Master Class show that spoke most to me:

"Luck is preparation meeting the moment of opportunity."