How Hoda Kotb Adopted 'Right on Time' as Her Personal Mantra: 'You Need to Have Faith' (Exclusive)

For Hoda Kotb, turning 60 is something that came “just in time.”

The Today The co-host of the show marked her birthday on Monday, August 12, with a celebration organized on the NBC morning show. But among the many surprises that greeted her — including performances from Little Big Town and Sugarland, as well as a birthday card from her 60-year-old Leo co-star Sandra Bullock — it was the mural hanging outside the Plaza that might mean the most.

Illustrated by the Thrive Collection, a New York nonprofit that connects artists with public school students, the painting shows Kotba’s hand held by two young hands, each wearing bracelets with the names of her two daughters, Haley and Hope.

Next to it is the phrase “Just in time,” which Kotb has adopted as a personal mantra over the years.

She tells PEOPLE she first heard those words when she called friend Robin Roberts in 2017 with the news that she had adopted Haley. “I said to Robin, ‘Can you believe I’m going to be a mom in my 50s?’ And she said back to me, ‘That baby arrived right on time.’ ”

Hoda Kotb at the celebration of his 60th birthday in the show “Danas”.

Debra L Rothenberg/WireImage

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Since then, Kotb has gravitated to that phrase in every aspect of her life. Her second daughter, adopted in 2019, arrived right on time. Career success, from hosting Today with Hoda and Jenna towards her Today co-hosting gig alongside Savannah Guthrie, came right on time. And love will come on time one day too.

“Some people will say, ‘Oh, everyone around me is married and I’m single, why didn’t this happen to me?’ Or, ‘Why don’t I have that job?’ But you can’t live on other people’s timelines, you have to drive your own vehicle,” says Kotb. “In many ways, my life began in my 50s. Bevy Smith always says, ‘Later gets better’ — that’s what happened to me. And when it happened, I was ready for it.”

“It’s about believing that life will give you what you want when the time is right,” she continues. “You have to have faith. These blessings come to you, you just have to believe that you are worthy of them.”

Hoda Kotb on ‘Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen’.

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This is not something that Kotb understood at first.

As she admitted on the Monday, August 12, episode of her podcast Creating spacefor years she struggled with feelings of worthlessness—something she was only able to overcome by working to build her self-esteem.

“If you had told me when I was in my 40s that this is the life I would have when I turned 60, I wouldn’t have believed you,” she tells PEOPLE. “I felt grateful for what I had, don’t get me wrong, but somehow I felt that that would be it; that what I had in life was good enough and that I didn’t deserve anything more. And that was only in my early 50s I have started to change that.”

Hoda Kotb in the show “Danas”.

Nathan Congleton/NBC/Getty

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Speaking into existence proved to be a useful tool for Kotb.

“Sometimes, just looking in the mirror and saying the words ‘I want’ can open a whole new door,” says Kotb. “I remember doing that before I had my girls; I literally looked in the mirror and said, ‘I want to be a mom.’ And if I hadn’t had the courage to do that — to visualize it and manifest it and say it out loud — I don’t think I would have opened up to it, allowed that love to come in and really started to believe I was worth it.”

Kotb pauses for a moment of self-reflection. “You know, at first I didn’t feel worthy of it,” she admits. “When I adopted Haley, I remember holding her and saying to myself, ‘I don’t know if I deserve this to have this beautiful child in my life.’ But to say it out loud, it’s doubt and fear; so I really thought about myself and said, ‘You deserve to be her mom, her mom.’ ”

Hoda Kotb in March 2024.

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That confidence has helped Kotb through all the obstacles since then, giving her the confidence to believe that it’s all part of the universe’s grand plan.

“We only have one life to live,” Kotb adds. »We will only be here once. Why should we settle for ‘just enough’? Do you really want to waste your life not going after what you want? You have to push for it and you have to remember that it will come to you…right on time.”

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Source: HIS Education