Espresso Shot 21: A POEM by Bob Dunham

Please enjoy this poem: I AM ENOUGH

Written by Bob Dunham.     Read by Nicoa.

Listen & Repeat. 

YOU ARE ENOUGH ... thanks for listening!

Transcript

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Nicoa Coach: 0:02

sometimes don't you just need a quick moment of inspiration. Or maybe you just need a moment of caffeinated contemplation to reflect on life. That's the idea behind my weekly coffee with Nicola espresso shots, I'll be sharing short jolts of inspiration in each clip. In addition to my longer Coffee with Nicoa interview episodes, make sure to subscribe so you never miss an espresso shot, or a full length Coffee with Nicoa interview created just for you. Hi, everybody, this is Nicoa Coffee with Nicoa. Today, I want to bring to you a poem something completely different for your espresso shot for the week. This poem has been a powerful reminder to me that I am enough. I share this poem with my clients when I feel like they need it. This poem has been influencing me and my way of being, I use phrases of it in my own reflection, I think about the pieces of this poem. Sometimes it really redirects me and gets me back on track. This poem was written by a man by the name of Bob Dunham. And I'm just gonna read you a little bit about Bob. He's the founder of the Institute for generative leadership. He has worked in partnership with programs like the one I participated in called The Newfield network for coaching. It's one of the world's leading schools of coaching. Bob has worked since 1981, as an executive, consultant and educator, and a coach of management teams, executives and other coaches around the world. His poem has been a significant influence, not only on me, but on almost all of my female clients in particular. And I want to share this poem with you today. And I hope it resonates, because you deserve to remember that you too, are enough. I am enough. I am a human being. I am only a human being. I am not Superwoman, or Superman. I am not perfect. Perfection is only a game good for suffering. I am not perfect, and it's okay. Because human beings are not perfect. I accept my humanity, which means I need to accept my final tude. I can't know everything. I can't do everything. I don't have forever. And I cannot please everyone. That's life. That's being human. But at the same time, being human has great gifts, I can make requests, and I can make promises, I can create new possibilities and I can make them happen. I can create the future with others. I have a history, like any other human being. My history gives me my limits, but also my capabilities and possibilities. It gives me what I care about. It gives me my meaning. I accept my history. And I look to take care of what I care about. I have vices, but I also have virtues. It's time to accept my vices and to accept my virtues, it's time to recognize that the voice in my ear that whispers You are not enough is just an echo from the past a ghost with no care for me. It's time to recognize that the ghost does not speak the truth, but only a story from an early age, which I can choose to accept or decline. It's time to stop listening to the voice as though it tells the truth. And to find my own voice. It's time to tell the ghost Shut up. I've grown up, I have my own commitments. Now I now live from interpretations that I choose not from unexamined old habits. I now take care of what I care about with dignity and acceptance of the self that I am. I will ground myself in the assertions of what I have accomplished in the fact of my commitment and accept my humanity. And when people have assessments, as they always do, they are not revealing the truth. They are simply offering me a future for which I can choose to accept or I can choose to decline. I am committed to my center of my dignity and my acceptance of my humanity. And as well my commitment to all the other people. And I will stay true to that. I'll be open to certain assessments and I'll decline others and in some communities, I will show up as a leader and in others. I won't. People can accept and decline my I offers my standards, my commitments. I'll find people who want to play with me and accept my humanity as well. I declare that I am enough because I am a human being. And that is enough. I send you off this week. With this knowing Please SHARE this if you feel someone else would benefit. Thanks for listening. Make sure to subscribe so you never miss an espresso shot or a full length Coffee with Nicoa interview created just for you