Lea Michele Could Be Your Life Coach

Lea Michele does it all. (Photo: Getty)

There’s no doubt that Lea Michele is seriously multitalented. She’s a Broadway actress (Les Miserables, Spring Awakening), a singer (her album Louder was released last year), a TV star (she was a sensation on Glee, she has a new show Scream Queens), and an author (Brunette Ambition, You First). But with the debut of her second book, You First: Journal Your Way to Your Best Life, Michele is introducing a new role to the mix — life coach. The book is a combo of advice tome, self-help workbook, and inspirational and metaphysical guide with Michele as your personal cheerleader.

The concept of the book is similar to the bestselling book The Secret, but it’s based on Michele’s own experience with journaling. “When I was in Spring Awakening I was writing down that I wanted to be on a TV show, and I wanted to make an album, and here I was just living in New York with various, limited resources and a lot of people coming at me with ‘You Cant’s’ and ‘It Won’t Work Out’ and what not,” Michele told me over a recent interview. “It was a place to write down my goals and my dreams with zero judgment from anyone. It was also a space to be held accountable. I’ve found that as I was writing things down then I would be like, “OK now I really have to do this.” I have to be accountable to me. And then I really started to make things happen for myself.”

Of course it is one thing to write something down, and it’s another to have it actually happen (otherwise there would be a lot of women married to George Clooney). Michele is clear it’s not about fantasy “I wish this we Lea’s ‘Magic Journal’ and you could merely wish it and have it come true but real success takes real work,” she writes. The book also covers nutrition, fitness, family, relationships, role models, and charity. While cynics might have a field day with it, it’s just not for them. It’s simply a sweet, optimistic, book about looking inward and trying to be happy. It’s for the Taylor Swifts of the world, not the Mileys.

Lea Michele and Matthew Paetz. (Photo: Instagram)

For Michele who publicly went through the heartbreaking sudden loss of her boyfriend and Glee co-star Cory Monteith two years ago, it makes sense that she would want to dive into a project that’s about finding and creating happiness. With her book and Scream Queens both debuting September 22nd, a new love, Matthew Paetz who she recently thanked on Instagram “For making me smile again and bringing such a bright joy into my every day.” it looks like all that optimism is working.

Yahoo Beauty: So I’ve been going through your book, and I was thinking it’s basically almost like having you as a life coach. Was that the idea behind it?

Lea Michele: [Laughs] I really think that for me, having the opportunity to write this book, I’m just using this platform to share with my fans what I’ve learned over the years. I really hope that this format of journaling and writing things down inspires my readers. I find that this form of writing and writing down your goals and dreams and trying to manifest all this stuff has worked for me over the years, so see if it works for you. But there’s no pressure.

You wrote that your friend, actor Jonathan Groff, was the one that got you in to journaling. How did that come about?

We were working on Spring Awakening and every night after the show he would sit in his dressing room for an extra hour or two hours, and he would journal. I’d be like, “We just did this huge performance! Aren’t you tired? What are you writing down?” After a while I started to see how great the satisfaction he was getting out of it was. The opportunity to write down the story of what was happening to us, our lives were changing so quickly with the quick success of the show. I was like OK I’m going to give this a try. My form of journaling was different than his. It was less storytelling, mine was much more writing down goals and dreams. Over the years it really started to become a really great source of success for me. The things I was writing down were really starting to manifest and come true.

There’s a little bit of The Secret in here with concept of manifesting, and the idea to write down your goals and then they’ll happen. How much metaphysical magic do you think is involved here and how much is determination?

I really believe that when you truly believe in something and you put your energy and your heart and your mind into it that it will happen. I had so much against me coming into this business, with people telling me that I needed to change my look. This was my safe space to write down what I wanted to make happen instead of what people were telling me. I’ve always truly believed in that there’s an extreme energy in writing things down and visualizing them. Again this is just what’s worked for me, and I believe that there’s such a great positive energy in to it. It’s also a great space to just journal your thoughts and your feelings and if you wanted to write down funny stories. Or if you just wanted to open up the book and work on the fitness chapter you could do that as well. So it’s really whatever you want it to be and it also just lets people, whatever they believe in, make it their own.

Have you read The Secret? Do you think it’s similar or do you think it’s different?

I’m familiar with The Secret. I never read it. For me, if I, I think that that concept is very powerful, and I think that this should just be, in its own right, relatable for this generation. This is my form and my version of that concept of that manifesting and visualizing your goals and dreams. But again it also has a nutrition section, so I think that it explores lots of different areas in a little bit more of a relatable way.

In the food section, you said that writing down what you were eating actually made you realize how emotional your eating was.

For me, food is a celebration. It’s like, ‘I’m having a great day! I’m going to eat a whole pizza,’ or ‘I’m having a bad day. I’m going to eat an entire pizza.’ I think it’s important, I don’t think we need to be meticulous with writing down our food—I don’t think it should get to an unhealthy place — but if you really just want to look at your eating and what your triggers are and what you’re having too much of or too little of, it’s actually a great place to start.

Lea Michele and BFF Emma Roberts at Pilates. (Photo: Instagram)

I feel like you’re such a cheerleader in the book — are you that person for your friends and family?

I try to be! For me, my mom is the greatest source of comfort and motivation. I go to my mom for everything. And what I love the most about how my mom has helped me over the years is that there’s no pressure. When I was younger and I was working on Broadway she was like “If this is making you happy then you should continue. If it’s not, then you don’t have to.” She was always there just to support and motivate me, but I also knew that there was zero pressure. That’s sort of the same theme and the same type of message that strings throughout this book. There’s really no judgment. You can do as much, or as little — it’s totally up to you. It’s exciting to sort of see where the book takes you and what resonates, and what you might find that you’re going to open up to that you might not have before.

You’ve been very honest with your fans sharing pictures of you and your boyfriend, and you’re very candid about how you feel. Why is that important to you?

I’ve always been open with my fans. But I do think it’s very important in this business because people are always asking you personal questions. People are always prodding into your personal life — sometimes in a very inappropriate way. So for me I choose to open my life in the way that makes me feel comfortable and share what I want, but I always understand and keep in my mind the importance of keeping my life as private as possible.

Tell me about your character Hester in Scream Queens, I saw she wears a neck/back brace, and she wears no makeup. Were those your ideas or were those already drawn to the character?

That was all Ryan Murphy, I think it’s was an amazing choice on his part to create this character that I think shows zero signs of Rachel Berry. I know that was a part of his thought process. I’ve been having the best time working on this show. I think everyone is going to absolutely love the show, and getting to just play a completely different character and getting to show the audience a completely different side of me, I think is the greatest opportunity.

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