In 1983, Oprah moved to Chicago -- a decision that led to extraordinary career opportunities. Later, when she started to feel "The Oprah Winfrey Show" was going down the wrong path -- she had the foresight to change the direction.
What was the driving force guiding these major decisions? Instinct, she says.
"The decision to come to Chicago was based upon an instinct," Oprah says on "Oprah's Lifeclass." "My decision to change the show from controversial television to a platform that really tried to lift people up -- that was instinct. I instinctively felt that this in now the direction I wanted to move."
Bishop T.D. Jakes, author of Instinct: The Power to Unleash Your Inborn Drive says it can be difficult to get in touch with our inner voice in such a frenetic modern world. "We live in so much noise that we don't have time to hear what's coming out of inside you," he says.
To explain the importance of instinct, he tells a story about a safari he took in South Africa with a zoologist and a Zulu.
The zoologist could tell Bishop Jakes every detail about the animals: their habitat, mating practices, the formation of their teeth. "The problem was, he could explain the elephant -- but he couldn't find it," Bishop Jakes says.
After going all day without seeing an elephant, the Zulu finally spoke. "The Zulu stood up and said, 'The elephant is over there,'" Bishop Jakes says.
"And when he said it, bells went off in my head," he says. "Because all of a sudden, I realize I am seated between intellect and instinct. Intellect can explain it, but instinct can find it."
"All of my life flashed before me in the most incredible way," Bishop Jakes says. "Intelligence may load the gun—but instinct pulls the trigger."
"Oprah's Lifeclass" airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on OWN.
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