Life's Blueprint

[Reprinted from Seattle Times article]
Six months before he was assassinated, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to a group of students at Barratt Junior High School in Philadelphia on October 26, 1967.

I want to ask you a question, and that is: What is your life's blueprint?

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.

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 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.

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.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great essayist, said in a lecture in 1871, "If a man can write a better book or preach a better sermon or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, even if he builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door."

This hasn't always been true — but it will become increasingly true, and so I would urge you to study hard, to burn the midnight oil; I would say to you, don't drop out of school. I understand all the sociological reasons, but I urge you that in spite of your economic plight, in spite of the situation that you're forced to live in — stay in school.

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 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.

— From the estate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Stay inspired my friends!

Happiness of What

True happiness is to enjoy the present, 

without anxious dependence upon the future, 

not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears 

but to rest satisfied with what we have, 

which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. 

The greatest blessings of mankind

are within us and within our reach.

A wise man is content with his lot,

whatever it may be,

without wishing for what he has not. 

― Seneca ―

Stay inspired my friends!

Key Ring Full Of Succss

“Don't wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.” - Mark Victor Hansen

"Keys to success", a term many use to describe a methodology to fulfilling your dreams or goals. Perform a search on the Internet using this phrase and you will find 255,000,000 entries. That is a lot of advice and wisdom to read through.

After reading all of the material, will you now have the 'keys' which make your life successful? Probably not in the way you imagined. The reality is that no one key exists but a ring full of keys and many different doors to unlock.

The good news is all of the 'knowledge' you will gain will improve your ability to achieve success. Notice I did not say knowledge will make you successful. Knowledge provides the ability to position yourself properly for success.

Knowledge will help you make good decisions.

The other areas of your life need to be in balance. Having improved knowledge will help you achieve this balanced life, positioned to take advantage of opportunity when it comes around. Think of it as the balanced spokes of a wheel which rolls more easily.

Another book, another key on your key ring you might say. Just think of it as more knowledge or "Google hit 255,000,001" on the Internet. The amount of reading might seem a daunting task. Do not wait, do not plan, do not despair, but simply start doing.

Start now because the time will never be just right.

There is a phrase many use which goes "Wow, that is going to take a long time to complete." The reality is sure it may take a long time, so don't wait, start now. Begin today, take a first step towards success. Once there, you will find you had the keys in your hand all of the time.

Stay inspired my friends!

Unlimited Imagination

"The level of our success is limited only by our imagination and no act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted." - Aesop

The ability to imagine something in your life is boundless. You can dream of things day in and day out. There are material things, the lottery, relationships, abilities or most anything.

We have a limitless wish list for our lives.

Yet most people keep their dreams locked up inside, only to be reviewed from time to time by only them self. The dreams never see the light of day because we hold our self back, afraid to move forward, afraid of failure. So each and every time we think of those things we want in our life, the next step is never taken.

An open door that we never walk through.

Even when you can see a glimpse of what is out there, we stay on inside. The grass may be green and comfortable, but it is the comfort of where we are currently which holds us back from something far greater. A world imagined will remain that until we choose to step forward and experience it.

Like the day before a marriage or the pending birth of a child. These are things dreamed of and now you are on the threshold of stepping through the open door. You are now ready to experience all that has been imagined for so long. It is both exciting and terrifying at the same time, but boldness of movement will allow you to reach what was once dreamed.

Set aside your fear of the unknown.

Find out what else is on the other side of the door. That is where your dreams reside and through that door you must walk in order to reach them.

Stay inspired my friends!