What is Your Life’s Blueprint?
5 MINUTE READ • LIVING WITH PURPOSE
On October 26th, 1967, just 6 months before he was killed, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., visited Barratt Junior High School in Philadelphia. His message to the young crowd of students that day was titled "What is your life's blueprint?" In his speech, Dr. King shared the importance of having self-worth, discovering and living your purpose, keeping your goals always in focus, resilience, giving your all, and always moving forward with perseverance, integrity, and love. It's a message we could all benefit from hearing more often.
Now is the Moment
In the words of Dr. King, "This is the most important and crucial period of your lives. For what you do now and what you decide now at this age may well determine which way your life shall go. Whenever a building is constructed, you usually have an architect who draws a blueprint. And that blueprint serves as the pattern, as the guide, as the model, for those who are to build the building. And a building is not well erected without a good, sound, and solid blueprint.”
Know Your Worth
“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. And I want to suggest some of the things that should be in your life’s blueprint.
“Always feel that you have worth, and always feel that your life has ultimate significance. ”
“Number one in your life’s blueprint should be a deep belief in your own dignity, your own worth and your own somebodiness. Don’t allow anybody to make you feel that you are nobody. Always feel that you count. Always feel that you have worth, and always feel that your life has ultimate significance. “
Do it, and Do it Well
“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 and the years unfold, what you will do in life — what your life’s work will be. And once you discover what it will be, set out to do it, and to do it well.
“If you can’t be a pine on the top of the hill, be a scrub in the valley, but be the best little scrub 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. For it isn’t by size that you win or you fail. Be the best of whatever you are. “
Commit Yourself
“And finally, in your life’s blueprint must be a commitment to the eternal principles of beauty, love, and justice. Don’t allow anybody to pull you so low as to make you hate them. Don’t allow anybody to cause you to lose your self-respect to the point that you do not struggle for justice. However young you are, you have a responsibility to seek to make your nation a better nation in which to live.
“You have a responsibility to seek to make life better for everybody. And so you must be involved in the struggle for freedom and justice. Life for none of us has been a crystal stair. But we must keep moving. We must keep going. If you can’t fly, run. If you can’t run, walk. If you can’t walk, crawl, but by all means, keep moving!”
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