Creating your life’s blueprint with MLK
Awareness of our internal drivers is an important but tricky thing to grasp. When we think of tapping into our personal 'why' and how to lead a more fulfilling life by intentionally living from our unique purpose, I often think back to MLK's short but punchy speech he gave 6 months before his assassination to a group of Philadelphia school children on creating their life blueprint.
In it, he lays out two important components of your life's blueprint - that greater plan that allows you to architect a meaningful life built on a solid foundation of self-understanding and integrity:
A deep belief in your own dignity and your own “somebodiness”
How often do we count ourselves out before we are even close to really jumping in and finding our space and our stride? It can feel all too easy to slip into patterns of thinking that revolve around our lack of ‘worthiness’ or qualifications or social cache. We build others up into ivory towers of perfection and supreme worthiness, forgetting our shared (flawed) humanity and the diverse pathways that lead each of us to where we stand today.
I love this grounding in self-love and dignity—regardless of age, skin color or education level:
Don’t allow anybody to make you fell that you’re nobody. Always feel that you count. Always feel that you have worth, and always feel that your life has ultimate significance.
The determination to achieve excellence
A hunger to perform at our very top level, the burning desire to be the very best version of whomever we are destined to be—regardless of status or visibility—is key to creating an action-forward, meaningful life. We have a responsibility to ourselves and to each other to work hard to make “life better for everybody.”
… 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 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.
Live and work with love at the forefront
Find meaning in what you do and do it with love - whether that's through serving others or making an impact on the world around you. That's what I believe is at the heart of living a life based on our personal blueprint - finding meaning in what we do and doing it with intention, purpose and focus.
It's not always easy though - especially when we feel overwhelmed or lost along our journey. But MLK's words provide a guiding light to help us find our way. And that's what I'd like to leave you with today - a challenge to find your meaning, and then take action towards it in whatever ways you can.
“Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
Quick Summary:
Believing in yourself and facing your life with a determination for excellence are key to building a strong foundation
Living a life of meaning is as unique as the human you are and want to be - it’s up to you what matters most and how you’ll put that purpose into action
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