Michelle Obama has opened up about the difficult process of confronting her fears before choosing to support Barack Obama’s decision to run for president.
The former first lady, 62, discussed her concerns about Barack, 65, entering the White House during the latest episode of her IMO podcast.
Michelle said she initially doubted whether she could cope with the demands of being first lady. However, after taking time to examine the source of her anxiety, she decided to stand behind her husband.
The conversation began when her co-host and brother, Craig Robinson, read a listener’s question asking her to recall a time when taking a risk felt frightening but ultimately changed the course of her life.
“How did you know it was worth the risk?” the listener asked.
Michelle acknowledged that she has faced plenty of intimidating moments. “A lot of things have come my way where I’ve been like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t do that,’” she said.
One of those decisions came in 1991, when she left a well-paid position at Chicago law firm Sidley & Austin to become an assistant to Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley.
“Leaving corporate law and giving up a big salary while I still had a lot of college and law school debt to work for the city and a nonprofit was extremely scary,” she explained. “Doing something that wasn’t lucrative while carrying that kind of debt was frightening.”
Michelle Obama has spoken candidly about the difficult process of overcoming her fears before supporting Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.
On the latest episode of her IMO podcast, she said she initially questioned whether she could manage life as first lady before examining her fears and ultimately backing Barack. The couple are pictured together in 2009.
Michelle revealed that agreeing to support her husband’s bid for the White House was another moment that left her deeply afraid.
“Over time, I’ve learned to ask myself, ‘What am I actually afraid of?’” she said. “I’ve learned to examine my fear instead of immediately allowing it to take over.”
She added that fear can sometimes serve as an important warning, but people should also consider whether discomfort or a fear of failure is holding them back. “If it’s not life-threatening, you should recognize that and think about what you’re truly capable of handling,” she said.
Michelle noted that many people can manage far more uncertainty and pressure than they initially believe. In her view, fear often prevents people from pursuing opportunities that could lead to meaningful personal growth.
Offering advice to anyone hesitant to take a chance, she said: “First, work out what is making you hesitate and decide whether it’s a genuine fear that needs to be addressed. If it’s not, and it’s simply a thought lingering in the back of your mind, then go for it.”
Michelle has previously said that her greatest concern after Barack was elected president was the impact the intense public attention would have on their daughters, Malia and Sasha.
“The biggest worry I had when Barack was elected wasn’t the difficulty of the job,” she said on the podcast last year.
“It wasn’t the pressure, the hardship, the threats or any of the things you might imagine. I was worried about my girls.”
The subject arose after Craig Robinson read a listener’s question asking Michelle to describe a time when taking a terrifying chance ultimately changed the direction of her life.
Michelle acknowledged that supporting her husband’s decision to run for president was one of the most frightening choices she had ever made.
‘I worried about moving them out of what was the only community and home they had ever known, where my brother was down the street and my mom was picking them up from school.’
Michelle explained at the time that she felt extremely guilty over uprooting her daughters’ lives, who were then aged ten and seven.
‘I thought, “I’m gonna do the worst thing to these kids, I’m going to pluck them out in the middle of the school year,”‘ she said.
In the end, she said the girls ‘did way better’ than she expected with the transition.
Michelle’s latest admission comes weeks after she detailed how she kept her ‘nepo baby’ daughters grounded while they were growing up in the White House.
Back in September, she spoke about the importance of saying ‘no’ to children in order to set them up for success later in life.
She explained that it was especially vital that she told her and former President Barack’s daughters, Malia, now 28, and Sasha, now 25, ‘no’ when they were kids because of the unique situation they were in.
The conversation started with Michelle encouraging listeners to embrace failure.
She explained: ‘Life is like a big muscle. You’ve got to build it up. Every failure is like a pushup or a rep.
‘The more reps you do the stronger you get at life. You don’t get the strength without the reps.’
Michelle previously revealed that the ‘biggest worry’ she had when Barack was elected was how it would affect their daughters, Malia and Sasha. The family is seen in 2013
She added that everyone has to ‘learn what their own process is for getting through failure,’ which is something she said you ‘figure out the older you get.’
Her brother and co-host, Craig, then suggested that parents let their kids fail when they’re young so that their first major setback in their 20s doesn’t feel like a ‘catastrophe.’
Michelle said that was something she implemented when her daughters were growing up, explaining that she went out of her way to tell them ‘no’ to things because they ‘needed to know what it felt like.’
She added that now, looking back, Malia and Sasha sometimes question why she wouldn’t allow them to do certain things.
‘The girls tell me, “Mom, you used to tell us no.” They’d be like, “Why?” Because you need to know what no feels like,’ she said. ‘Especially for kids like ours… there’s no natural “nos.”‘
Guest 2 Chainz then interjected: ‘Nepo babies, man.’
‘We grew up with a lot of “nos,”‘ Michelle went on. ‘It was, “No we can’t afford that. No you can’t have that.”‘