Editor’s note: Moderated by CNN Senior National Reporter Sarah Sydner Timely Discussions with First Lady Michelle Obama, Amal Clooney and Melinda French Gates About our shared mission to empower girls around the world. Watch exclusively on CNN Sunday, November 20th at 8pm ET/PT.
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I have a torturer And that tormentor is never far away. The torturer is ready to strike at any moment. I am the torturer.
Suffering is self-doubt. I’m so tired. Not always present. It creeps in shame and tends to grow like weeds, sapping creativity, originality, motivation, novel ideas, and most of all, self-confidence.
It stabs me brutally and whispers in my ear. It never acknowledges achievements. It teaches me that my achievements are not mine, but the result of luck or someone else’s talent.
When I’m overwhelmed by the feeling that I have almost nothing before falling into despair, something springs up inside me and I fight like hell against it.
I make you believe that you are alone in this struggle with yourself. Other people seem to have it too.
And I sat down with three of the most recognized, powerful, wealthy, educated, and fierce women in the world and asked them if they ever experienced self-doubt.
They responded with astonishing honesty that pierced me like a defibrillator.
“Yes, I feel self-doubt moment by moment,” said the former first lady. Michelle Obama said bluntly.
She didn’t stop there:
“Society does that intentionally with women and girls. It starts at a very young age. There are people in power who want us to stay small, they want us to stay suspicious, and our culture reinforces that.
Obama offered advice, especially to young girls struggling with self-doubt.
“What I want young girls to understand is that those feelings are real and not crazy. She said.
Recall just some of what Michelle Obama has achieved:
After growing up on Chicago’s South Side, she graduated from Princeton University with honors. She is a Harvard-educated attorney. At a law firm in Chicago, she was a mentor to a man named Barack Obama, who would later become her husband and the first African-American president of the United States. She became America’s first black First Lady. She is a world traveler, New York Times bestselling author, philanthropist and mother of two.
Even though she’s exhausted just writing down everything she’s done in her life so far, she still battles her doubts.
Melinda French Gates Co-founded one of the world’s largest private charities. She was a Microsoft general manager and computer scientist. She has her MBA from Duke University. She is consistently ranked as one of the world’s most powerful women by Forbes magazine.
Still, doubt finds a place in her life as well.
“I think it’s important to tell every girl that they can be who they want to be. Stay in. All of these options are fine,” said French Gates.
She shared advice she would have given herself when she was younger.
“I would say to your 25-year-old self, you knew who you were in high school, and you let go of some of that for a variety of reasons: circumstances, college, people around you. “You knew who you were,” said French Gates.
Amal Clooney I moved to England with my family as a toddler during Lebanon’s 15-year civil war. A lawyer, Clooney has served in international courts representing victims of genocide, war crimes, mass atrocities, and political persecution. She is literally chasing war criminals.
And in her quest for justice, self-doubt can arise. But she overcomes it with this mindset.
“I think the definition of failure is not trying. It’s a good thing to actually try things and fail, so it’s a learning experience and it makes you stronger,” Clooney said. , if you don’t make the effort, if you don’t actually go after your dream, or admit what your dream is, or work towards it, it sticks in your mind.”
So it turns out that the only one who needs to prove something is himself. Lesson learned, ladies. Lesson learned.