BB&T Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where the first staging of Oprah’s 2020 Vision Tour was held. This was the grand kick-off for Oprah’s nine-city tour where she partnered with WW (formerly Weight Watchers) to spend one full day inspiring and guiding attendees in setting their vision for 2020. Despite the long lines outside (it took some of us almost an hour to get in), once inside the venue, the anticipation of seeing the Queen of Talk herself was palpable. Everyone was buzzing about what they thought the day would be like and rushing to their seats so that they could be on time to see Oprah take the stage for the first time.

My group of ladies (10 of us) sat together in clusters in the same general area. We ran into several other Jamaicans who had either flown in for the event or lived in Florida, all fans of Oprah in one way or another. I was beyond excited to be in the house to see her LIVE as this was a bucket-list item for me. But it was even better to have the experience with like-minded women, a few of whom were accountability partners for each other’s dreams which created instant connection and more meaningfulness.

Holistic living

Oprah, in her wisdom, worked with her team in designing a day filled with activities and talks from experts aligned with her way of holistic living. The day started with energising movement and song lead by Daybreak, which got us pumped up for welcoming Lady O to the stage. All the talks were inspiring, we learned about meditation from Jesse Israel, mass meditation expert, and watched a performance and testimonial from gospel singer Tamela Mann, one of Billboard’s Gospel singers of the decade. Julianne Hough inspired us with routines from her Kinrgy Dance Cardio programme and Lady Gaga had many of us in tears with her vulnerable interview about her journey with sexual assault and mental illness.

While I was sceptical that the conference was solely about weight loss and joining the WW programme, Oprah made it clear in her intro that the day was about committing ourselves to holistic wellness habits that would allow us to achieve our dreams, no matter what they were. And she delivered! She dropped pearls of wisdom about taking care of yourself first before taking care of others, being in alignment with your spiritual side as this will see you through difficult times; and my favourite, challenging yourself to take action towards achieving your goals by asking the question – “Is It One Day or Day One?” meaning, are you going to start working on your dreams today or waiting until one day in the future?

I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t bring my backpack into the stadium with me. I packed it like I was going to class, because I was! I was going to life-class. This disappointment quickly shifted when I got to my seat and saw that Oprah had given each person a#2020visiontour swag bag packed with a workbook, pen, snacks and a few promotional items. There were many valuable takeaways shared in the box.

Oprah’s 3 Keys to Deliver Your 2020 Vision

1. Conduct a Life Audit: In her workbook, there were a few pages dedicated to identifying where you are as this is key to helping you identify where to focus your energy while on your dream journey. This was dubbed your Wellness Quotient.
2. Set Intentions: Since 1989 Oprah has been a practitioner of intentional living. She has openly shared that this is one of the key reasons her life has been so successful and is her core guiding principle in everything she does. This was by far my favourite part of the entire day! My Epic Intention cards were actually inspired by Oprah and my 2020dream is for the cards to be gifted to the graduating class of her girls’ school in South Africa. I took one brave step at the event by giving a deck of the cards to someone that was sitting behind her and asking them to pass it on. Let’s hope my intention rings true for this year!
3. Make a Commitment: The true test of whether or not you will achieve your dreams, is not by saying you will try. It is by making a deliberate commitment and deciding that you will move towards the life you desire. We were all asked to sign a contract for ourselves as a symbol of our commitment to live our life in focus.

There’s still time and possibly tickets to attend the tour, which runs till March. You can always follow the tour page on Instagram @ww.now. For info on my intention cards visit www.epicintentioncards.com. This was the perfect way to start a milestone year and will undoubtedly be the best decade of my life.