Well, hello, my friends, and welcome to the Live Inspired podcast, Monday morning moments with John O'Leary.

We record these so that you and I can begin our days, in particular the day after the Super Bowl

on Valentine's Day in awe and on fire with a burst of inspiration. So here we go. Let's start

into today's episode with this quote from my dad. John, everything is going to work out just fine.

With these words, my sweet dad was trying to encourage me and trying to cheer me up.

It wasn't working, though.

After being burned as a little boy and spending five months in the hospital, I was finally about to go home from my wheelchair,

still connected to a heart monitor with a feeding tube snaking up through my nose,

body wrapped in bandages covering either open sores or fresh scars.

It sure did not feel like everything was going to work out just fine.

Unbelievably, I looked back at my dad and responded,

That's easy for you to say, Dad, you've got a wife.

You've got a family and a job and a home.

I may never have any of those things.

And for many years, some of them very difficult years, I was proven right.

Although passionate and precocious and courageous as a little guy, there were many moments

in my life dominated by fear.

I was concerned how people might think about my injuries, saddened by all the things that I could not do,

and angry at the potential life that had been robbed from me. And I was definitely afraid, perhaps even

certain, I'd never have anybody to share my life with anyway. During those years, I was transfixed on what I wanted for my life, what I wanted

from a relationship, what someone else, in other words, could do for me. The focus, listen closely,

the focus was entirely on me. This self-centered emphasis, by the way, is one strongly encouraged by the society where we live

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