create your life’s blueprint
Martin Luther King Jr. was not only an influential leader but also one of the greatest orators in the entire human history.
On October 26, 1967, which would be six months before he was assassinated, King gave an incredible speech to a group of students at Barratt Junior High School in Philadelphia.
Firstly, he asked them an important question:
“I want to ask you a question, and that is: What is your life’s blueprint?”
He elaborated:
“Whenever a building is constructed, you usually have an architect who draws a blueprint, and that blueprint serves as the pattern, as the guide, and a building is not well erected without a good, solid blueprint.
Now each of you is in the process of building the structure of your lives, and the question is whether you have a proper, a solid and a sound blueprint.”
He continued:
“I want to suggest some of the things that should begin your life’s blueprint. Number one in your life’s blueprint, should be a deep belief in your own dignity, your worth and your own somebodiness. Don’t allow anybody to make you feel that you’re nobody. Always feel that you count. Always feel that you have worth, and always feel that your life has ultimate significance.
Secondly, in your life’s blueprint you must have as the basic principle the determination to achieve excellence in your various fields of endeavor. You’re going to be deciding as the days, as the years unfold what you will do in life — what your life’s work will be. Set out to do it well.
And I say to you, my young friends, doors are opening to you–doors of opportunities that were not open to your mothers and your fathers — and the great challenge facing you is to be ready to face these doors as they open.”
He urged them to focus on their education and further said:
“And when you discover what you will be in your life, set out to do it as if God Almighty called you at this particular moment in history to do it. don’t just set out to do a good job. Set out to do such a good job that the living, the dead or the unborn couldn’t do it any better.
If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well. If you can’t be a pine at the top of the hill, be a shrub in the valley. Be the best little shrub on the side of the hill.
Be a bush if you can’t be a tree. If you can’t be a highway, just be a trail. If you can’t be a sun, be a star. For it isn’t by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.”
Doesn’t this thunderous speech give you goosebumps?
It’s poetic, philosophical, practical and inspires us to embrace and express our best authentic selves and achieve excellence in our chosen line of work.
Whoever you are, wherever you live, whatever you do, no matter you what your past has been and what your current circumstances are, you should always aspire to be the best in your work and in your life.
This world is full of opportunities to be our best and do our best. It’s time to create your own blueprint and start living the life of your personal legend.