Becoming by Michelle Obama — Book Notes

A Powerful Memoir by a Strong Woman !

This book will leave you invigorating.

Becoming is not about having an aim, but about evolving into a better version of yourself at different stages of your life.

Michelle takes you through her journey, different phases of her life, as if she is narrating it to you in person.

There are many lessons to be learned from this book, but he most important one is — to keep evolving yourself no matter the circumstances in your life.

Do what makes you happy in life, never settle for anything less, because happiness should be the end goal of doing anything.

Michelle Obama had 2 Ivy league degrees but she never held onto them when she thought that she was not happy in her job, even though she was making good money and was climbing the corporate ladder. She left everything to serve the people, her community. She realized that her happiness really lies in helping her community.

What inspired me most is that even though she was the first lady, she did not stay in her husband’s shadow, she carved her own path and helped people. She did what she thought was right, she did what she really believed in and she did what made her happy, while making sure she helped those in need. She helped raise awareness about many important issues like Child Obesity, she worked towards the welfare of injured veterans and many other causes that she believed in.

Some of the best quotes from the book -

“Failure is a feeling long before it becomes an actual result. It’s vulnerability that breeds with self-doubt and then is escalated, often deliberately, by fear.”

“To me, there was magic in the learning.”

“If you don’t get out there and define yourself, you’ll be quickly and inaccurately defined by others.”

“It was possible that I was more in charge of my happiness than I was allowing myself to be.”

“Even when it’s not pretty or perfect. Even when it’s more real than you want it to be. Your story is what you have, what you will always have. It is something to own.”

“I wasn’t going to let one person’s opinion dislodge everything I thought I knew about myself.”

“Confidence, I’d learned then, sometimes needs to be called from within. I’ve repeated the same words to myself so many times now, through many climbs. Am I good enough? Yes I am.”

“So many of us go through life with our stories hidden, feeling ashamed or afraid when our whole truth doesn’t live up to some established ideal.”

“Now I think it’s one of the most useless questions an adult can ask a child — What do you want to be when you grow up? As if growing up is finite. As if at some point you become something and that’s the end.”

“Inspiration on its own was shallow; you had to back it up with hard work.”

“It was possible, I knew, to live on two planes at once — to have one’s feet planted in reality but pointed in the direction of progress.”

“For me, becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self. The journey doesn’t end.”