We are often hard-pressed to tell our own story in a meaningful way. Michelle prompts us with a challenge: Describe yourself to someone who doesn’t know you. Small exercises within the journal help you understand self-acceptance and valuing your self-worth.

To help make the list of wants into actionable goals, Obama instructs readers to write “one simple step toward making that wish come true.” 

“They were things that I had control over—they were habit goals, which focused on the process, rather than achievement goals, which rests on the outcome.”

She also encourages thinking of what one step toward a goal might look like for you is helpful because doing that one small thing can, over time, lead to a major achievement.

In order to find your voice you must first learn to quiet the noise inside your own head that perpetuates self-defeating behaviours. “Failure is a feeling long before it becomes an actual result. It’s vulnerability that breeds self-doubt and then is escalated, often deliberately by fear,” she writes.

The journal has several prompts that may seem unrelated at first, such as reflecting on the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done, penning a letter to your teenage self, listing people who’ve invested in you, and pondering whether you’ve ever been stereotyped.

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