Introducing The Optimist Project with Yara Shahidi
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How dare I curate so many experiences for the rest of the world and I not enjoy them? Artist extraordinaire, lover of Swedish fish candy, professional note taker, and the fairy glam mother of Halloween. Did you guess I'm talking about the Janelle Monae? ♪

Welcome to The Optimist Project, where we explore the world through the lens of creativity, purpose, and the power of optimism. I'm your host, Yara Shahidi, and today we're exploring the extraordinary world of Janelle Monae, a creative force whose artistry has inspired me and millions of others. Welcome to The Optimist Project, where we explore the world through the lens of creativity, purpose, and the power of optimism.

From Janelle's genre-defying sound to her boundary-pushing visuals, she's a true pioneer, blending futuristic vision with pure emotion. As a musician, actor, producer, fashion icon, and total vision expander. But beyond the talent, boldness, and inspiring style, Monet's work is grounded in something even deeper, purpose. ♪

Whether she's interrogating traditional norms or creating space for others to be heard, her work is more than just entertainment. It's a call to action. Today, we'll explore how Monet's love of self and love for others continues to show up and shape her journey and explode her purpose. So join me in taking it all in. Take notes and get ready to be energized by the smoothness that is Janelle Monáe.

Let's get inspired.

I just want to start by saying thank you for joining us here at The Optimist Project. Oh my God, are you kidding me? This is a highlight for me. You know I love you so much. I love you too, and I just feel like you have always been, in any space I see you, such an embodiment of joy. Even in spaces where I'm like, how do you maintain that level of warmth and kindness when people are coming at you with all sorts of energy? So I can't wait to just kind of dive deeper about

how you've maintained that for yourself. Yes. So ask me anything. Yeah. Well, I love to start with the question, how do you define optimism for yourself? I define optimism for myself. It was in your, you know, when they say, can you, I'm going to ask you a question and can you put the answer within the question? Your question was that answer. It's all in my mind. Yeah. Obviously there are circumstances where if you are

you know, not feeling well or someone's passed on and you're sad. Those are things that can sort of drag you longer than you want to be when it comes to being optimistic about life and about what's next. But for the most part, it took me a while to get it, but I realized like,

I'm the architect of my perceptions, how I'm feeling about me, how I'm feeling about you, how I'm feeling about them, how I'm feeling about life. And it's not an easy thing to do by default. It takes work.

I can imagine. When did you realize that this was the work you were going to start to do of architecting your own life? Because it sounds great and I hear it and each time I go, that's exactly where I want to be. But like you're saying, in daily practice, it takes so much self-work, so many reminders, so much grace, I can imagine. Yeah. I think reminders. You said it. I have a whole notes app that I keep working on.

where I'm like, okay, this is for when you're PMSing and you think the whole world is going against you. It is not true. It is your hormones. It will pass. You have to sort of write letters for your future self. I'm using my notes app all wrong. I have...

rat bars on there for my future drill career that's important too but I'm not but when you said this I'm like oh my goodness duh one of the things that I learned later in my career was to invest in a good mental health care plan and to set some money aside and have that person who is able to remind me of the patterns that I'm having the loop that I may be going in around you know uh

not healing from certain things. And I think once you sort of get tired of, like, you just get tired of running around in the same circles, you, you start to feel what that feels like in your body when you're not in that rat race. And once I felt like a sense of joy and peace and,

and optimism about life and about possibility and about getting up and going past the mistakes that I felt defined me. It was always the goal. It was like, no, this is where, let me remember this feeling. Let me remember this high. Let me remember that this is how I'm supposed to be feeling. I'm actually, I've been doing it all wrong. Yeah. I love what you're saying just because

Right.

Trying to find a practice that helps me retain those feelings, those memories, those things that brought out the best in me. Where is the documentation of that in my own kind of archive and life? That brings me to, again, notes. I love notes. I literally have to make sure that I'm balancing notes.

My PMS thoughts. I know I talk about PMS a lot. No, but so when do you have the wherewithal to be like, let me write a letter now? Because I can imagine when you're in it, you're not wanting to write. So I have all these. I'm only going to show you. I can't show you. You see all of these? These are pinned. So you see PMS. And so I put the dates. Put dates because it really helps to track. Like, oh, okay.

Ah, it's this. This is just hormonal right now. Like I can stop thinking that this is going to be my reality forever because it won't. It'll pass. Right. And these are the dates. These are the facts. And if you're like me, like I have a I can be super analytical and I want to get to the root of something and I'll put the dates and I'm like, OK, this tracks. And then I remember how I was feeling. And then I have another notes that says happy thoughts. Yeah.

I love how filled it is. Happy thoughts. Look at all of this. Yeah, I love how filled it is. Right now, all is well. I'm not trying to be perfect. So I will not obsess over hitting every note on stage or every dance move. I am not comparing myself to anyone. I have a built-in internal support system for myself. My light is infectious no matter who I touch or speak with. This is beautiful. Thank you.

Thank you for being open to sharing. But it's such a good reminder of, one, I love the Notes app because we talk journaling a lot in personal life here. But still, it becomes such an event, the idea of having a journal, finding the time, versus we have whatever is accessible to you in that moment where you have it on you. I love the idea of being on my phone because I have it on me.

Right. Exactly. Yeah.

The idea that it will pass, we may know it, but it's something that's so easy to forget. All the time. Because our brains are, you know, depending on how we've programmed them based on our experiences and how we grew up, the default is to go into what it's used to. And you have to do a lot of work to reprogram that.

After this conversation, I'm doubling down on owning me. Janelle reminded us that embracing who we truly are, not who we think we should be or how others want us to show up, is the key to unlocking our power. In everything we touch, our daily work, our passion projects, our music, art, the goal is to continue to discover who we want to be. So my takeaway? Own me.

prioritizing showing up as myself and for myself. I noticed that it can be uncomfortable, but aren't all new endeavors? And I also realized that the discomfort was temporary. More importantly, it was empowering, exciting, and freeing. My goal? To lean into the temporary discomfort and to acknowledge and celebrate each step towards me.

So we're asking you to join us and take a page from Janelle Monae and write a note of encouragement or affirmation on your phone, computer, or even in a notebook.

Be your own biggest fan in moments of uncertainty. I'm beginning right now. By writing an affirmation in my notes app on my phone, you can pop over to our Instagram to see what I wrote. And we'd love to hear from you. Share a dose of optimism from your week and tag us at optimistprojectpod. Leave a message at 323-761-0837 or email us askoptimistproject at gmail.com.

You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Be sure to share The Optimist Project with your friends, subscribe, click those stars, and leave us a review. And as always, keep nurturing optimism.