Alright already! I have been getting a bunch of emails asking me to post the piece I wrote about Oprah-itis. So here it is in its literary glory.

Ok, let’s get one thing straight, I love Oprah. Don’t worry Stedman I don’t love her like that. She’s all yours. What I love is the fact that she’s created this huge empire off of helping people! She gives stuff away, she gives people makeovers, she cleans people’s houses, she builds schools in Africa, she grants wishes, she sends cupcakes to people and she gets other people involved and shows them how they can do it for themselves. She’s a huge example of how helping people, even in the easiest ways, can literally change the world. Plus, she likes to Skype.

She’s awesome!

What’s NOT awesome are the people suffering from ‘Oprah-itis’. No, this doesn’t mean they start hanging out with people named Gayle and start giving dishwashers away. It means they sit around and wait for things to get bad enough for ‘Oprah’ to come and save the day.

They wait for someone else to ‘make their lunch’.

They feel if they are fat enough, poor enough, dirty enough, ugly enough, unhealthy enough, mismanage their lives enough, have a tragic story or don’t clean their house for 18 years, that someone will magically come and save the day and possibly bring Dr. Oz to make them look younger.

WRONG.

Did you know that 20-25% of young people believe they will get rich from winning the lottery?!?! REALLY? One out of every 4 teens think they will win the lottery? Are you serious? That’s Oprah-itis.

We are living in a time in history where everyone is expecting a bailout.

You want to know who is going to make you rich? YOU. You want to know who is going to make sure you have what you want? YOU. You want to know who will get you your dream job? YOU. Your dream vacation? YOU. You wanna know who is going to make sure you are living the life you want.. Wait for it… Wait for it…

YOU.

Do you see a common theme? If you don’t, you might want to consider a lifelong career as a tetherball player.

YOU Make YOUR Own Lunch. Nobody is going to come through and surprise you with a perfect-life makeover complete with Smart car, Amazon Kindle and mini-Chihuahua.

If there is something you are unhappy with, decide how you’ll change it, decide that it’s realistic for you to change and then take the first step.

Let Oprah be Oprah. Let her change other people’s lives. You change yours.

Now I need to go, Oprah is on.