Oprah Winfrey, one of the most impactful inspirational leaders of the modern age, is throwing an 8-city The Life You Want tour and this past weekend she hosted in Washington D.C. I have attended many empowerment conferences but this one was leaps and bounds above all others. Why?

Oprah is a powerful speaker who penetrates your soul and gets you thinking and moving. And she had 4 amazing speakers (Elizabeth Gilbert, Mark Nepo, Rob Bell and Iyanla Vanzant). But there were 2 additional touches that sealed it for me: (1) three “time outs” during the event to write in our convention notebook to answer some deep questions and to write out action items, and (2) being among 10,000+ like-minded souls which included a lot of dancing and grooving to old school R&B spun by DJ Kiss! The power of everyone coming together in a common purpose and raising the energy through the roof was intoxicating

Since not everyone may have the opportunity to attend the convention (click here to check out the remaining cities), I want to share some pearls of wisdom from the speakers that are worth reading. Please take some time to read each of these and reflect on what it means to you. See how it resonates and whether it begins to stir something within you that you know deep down needs to change.

Oprah’s advice:

• There is no life without a spiritual life. Any discord that you feel in your life is in direct proportion to your spiritual location.
• When things are “off” or when you experience failure, life is pushing you in another direction. Listen to the push.
• Life speaks in whispers. You can only hear them if you quiet yourself … everyday.
• If you ever wonder why you are here having a human experience, it is because you were called to be here … to be here now. Don’t waste it.
• Be present to see the ordinary moments in life as creating an extra-ordinary life.
• Mine your own energy field, and stay out of others. Your field is where your power is; we have no power in other’s territory.

Mark Nepo’s advice:

• Author of The Book of Awakening.
• The longest journey you will make in life is from your head to your heart.
• Don’t waste this rare life. Ask what you need to know. Say what you need to say. Do what you need to do. Be who you need to be.
• We have to build our inner world (through reflection) or gravity of the outer world will crush us.
• Wherever you are that isn’t comfortable, use it as information to launch you forward. Because when you feel misery, you are in the wrong spot and need to change direction.

Elizabeth Gilbert’s advice:

• Author of Eat. Pray. Love.
• Transformation is not supposed to be easy, or everyone would do it everyday.
• Any movement can bring injury, so we do not move until we are pushed. But movement is growth.
• At some point, we will all embark on a Quest (The Hero’s Journey) which is found within every culture, but never does the Quest involve a woman … it’s time to change that.
• We receive a calling.
  • We embark on an adventure – there’s no going back
  • We encounter a road of trials and meet a trickster, wise elders, friends disguised as enemies, enemies disguised as friends
  • We live through a dark night of the soul
  • We call upon divine assistance to help us
  • We receive powers and talents to help us grow
  • We battle what we most fear
  • And we face the fear and win

• When you have limitations/obligations in life that pre-empt a Quest (young children, caring for elder parents, financial restrictions), simply make a promise to do what you need to do at some point and then plan for it.

Rob Bell’s advice:

• Author of What we talk about when we talk about God
• We are not simply living a spiritual life, we are a spiritual life.
• No matter what is going on, life is miraculous. Think of all that it takes, that we do not think about (such as breathing and cell regeneration) to keep us alive everyday.  That’s a miracle.
• When you are grounded and present, everything in spiritual no matter how mundane.
• The life you want is first embracing the life you have.
• Unapologetically live your life, not the life that others want for you.

Iyanla Vanzant’s advice:

• Author of a new book on Forgiveness: 21 Days to Forgive Everyone for Everything
• The life you want is on the other side of painful labor. When life says push, you need to push! It’s not pretty at the time, but afterwards it’s glorious.
• If you made it through the past, you passed so let it go.
• If you don’t have silence, you cannot hear your life. And then you’re on your own and that’s why people feel loneliness among the chaos.
• Your eyes adjust to the level of deficiency in your life, so you do not recognize it as a deficiency. But when you get quiet, you become aware of the deficiencies.

It is impossible for me to convey in words the power and inspiration received during this weekend with Oprah and her team. What I want to convey is that when an opportunity comes along to attend an event like Oprah’s The Life You Want or another empowerment conference, please put all excuses aside and GO! It will be an investment in yourself that never goes away.

I know that I am going through a massive shift right now and I know that no matter what happens during the labor, I always have and always will end up in a better place. Most people do not believe that, but I want to change that. So whether it’s attending an empowerment conference, reading books, or going through my past blogs where this has been a common theme … just take one step away from something that isn’t right and towards something that is. Just one step at a time is all you need and the light of your true life will begin to shine.

It’s time to turn up the volume on your life. (Psst, stay tuned for a program that I’m planning to launch in January 2015 to help you.)

About Allie Phillips: