Joel Osteen on Fulfilling Your Purpose

"Your life follows your thoughts." These are the words of Joel Osteen, best-selling author and pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston. In his interview with SUCCESS Editor-in-chief Josh Ellis, Osteen shares an array of motivation and inspirational thoughts. For him, life comes down to fulfilling his purpose of helping people, and he wants to help you do the same.

This interview appears on the SUCCESS Talks Collection February 2016 edition.

Takeaways:

• The surprisingly shy Joel Osteen shares how he summons courage to speak in front of millions of people weekly
• What you can learn from Osteen's weeklong process to write his sermons
• Why negativity is so destructive and keeps you from pursuing your biggest goals
• How to use positive thinking to tune out negative thoughts — from both your inner dialogue and outsider naysayers
• What does God think about personal development? Osteen shares his thoughts
• How the preacher differs on-camera versus behind-the-scenes

Favorite Quote From This Episode:

"Negative thoughts will really try to push you down, so talk to yourself the right way. If you don't talk to yourself the right way, then your self will talk to you." —Joel Osteen