Lucy Liu: One Outstanding Humanitarian
Instead of saying I’m going to let’s say you want to lose weight: ‘I’m going to lose 100 pounds, overnight.’ It’s not going to happen overnight. You know, the wall didn’t come down overnight. So, it’s really about small changes that are going to make you feel like you’re accomplishing something every day. There are things that I think about in my life that I wish I would have done differently. I look back and I sort of see that I can do that now; but you can’t really move forward if you’re too busy looking back.
The one thing that I would sort of stress is don’t try to do everything at once because you’ll overwhelm yourself. You’ll be discouraged, and then ultimately disappointed. The most important thing to do is to just do one little thing every day for yourself, you know? When you do something for yourself, if you live by example, other people will see that, and they will want to know what your secret is.
Deepak Chopra: So, Lucy, going forward, what’s really important for you now in your life?
Lucy Liu: I think what’s important for me now, at this point in my life, is to really surround myself with spiritually engaged people. Likeminded people, in this sense, are going to help encourage me to be more than I am now. And to not feel trapped in safety; to step outside of myself and do things that are unusual; and to recognize that everyone is a little bit of a unicorn. That’s okay, to not feel like you need to fit into everything.
I think a lot of people get into this industry because they don’t quite fit in to whatever it is in their lives. Find that center and recognize that the center is constantly moving; if it doesn’t, then you’ve become inflexible. In philosophy, they said, you have to be like the willow tree. You have to be able to bend when the wind blows. Otherwise, if you’re very stiff, and you’re very set in your ways, when the wind blows, you will break. I think to be even more flexible in your life, as time goes on, is probably the most important thing I can learn.
