Morning Prayer
May I have the courage today
To live the life that I would love
To postpone my dream no longer
But do at last what I came here for
And waste my heart on fear no more
John O’Donoghue
A client recently shared this beautiful poem/prayer of John O’Donoghue’s. To me it is both beautiful and almost like a map for how to bring your dreams to fruition.
I’ve been having lots of talks with people about Dream Builder and for everyone who leaned in and is embracing how to live a life they love on the programme starting this week, kudos! You are on your way. And for everyone who has a dream, I want to share this poem today with some insights as to what it means in terms of guiding us to the answers for how to make our dreams manifest.
May I have the courage today – we have to summons our courage, it takes commitment and willingness to bring a dream to fruition. We will either live our lives by design or default. Default is the easy option, even though it leads to much frustration and disappointment. Default is being at the victim of other people’s expectations and at the mercy of circumstances and conditions. Living life by design takes courage, it requires that we take responsibility for our lives, take responsibility for our responses to the people and circumstances in our lives and take responsibility for the decisions we make. May we have the courage to do that today.
To live the life that I would love… this means we have to know what that life is and start to live it. What would you love? I ask this repeatedly. You have to know the answer to that. The starting point of all successful achievement is knowing where you want to get to. And that takes courage too, to do the work of defining what you’d love. Most people spend more time planning a holiday than they do planning their lives. That’s how special you are when you do this work, you’re already standing out from the crowd! And that’s why it is easier to do in community and with a coach, it’s easier to do with support, there isn’t a whole lot of role modelling of it out there in the world at large. And then you have to start being that person now. Living your life as the man or women in your dreams now. And as you do that, you cause it to come into being.
To postpone my dream no longer… now that’s a tricky one, isn’t it? How many of you have been hearing your dream knocking over these several weeks when I’ve been sharing information about Dream Builder? And you all have busy lives, I get that. I do too and so does everyone I know, whether they’re in coaching to create lives they love or not. And here’s the deal, your dream is never going to show up when it’s convenient! It lives on the other side of convenience. So John O’Donoghue had it absolutely right, we have to make a commitment to live our dream, to postpone it no longer, for time waits for no one and your time, the best time for your dream, is always Now.
But do at last what I came here for… you have a calling! Your dream is calling you to be the person you came here to be. You are as unique as your thumb print. No one else will live the life you are here to live and no one else can ever have the impact you are here to have and create. As friend, sibling, parent, partner, colleague, boss, peer, no one else can be the you that you are here to be. The world needs you to be you. And as you step into the best version of you, you light up and inspire everyone else to be their best too. You are not being selfish wanting to live your dream, we all need that for you and from you. Lean in!
And waste my heart on fear no more… will there be fear as you embark on your dream? Absolutely. It is part of the process. We are hard wired to be fearful in the face of change. And guess what? Your dream is a change! It’s a change from life as you know it to the life you’d love. Fear is going to be part of that journey from where you are to where you’d love to be. And John O’Donoghue’s beautiful invocation is to not waste your heart on that fear any more. It is not worth your time and attention. It’s just part of the process. Feed your dream with your heart and dial down the fear, put it in its rightful place (the back seat, not the driver’s seat) and keep going.
You were born to live a life you love. May John O’Donoghue’s wisdom guide your path.
PS If you’d like to explore how I can further support you in clarifying your dream and bringing it to fruition, join me for a complimentary strategy session and let’s get you started.