Today’s post is inspired by one of the biggest dreamers in American history: Martin Luther King, Jr., who reminds me how much is accomplished when our dreams become goals fueled by hope, passion and persistence.
I submit to you that if a man hasn’t discovered something he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.
– Martin Luther King Jr., Speech in Detroit, June 23, 1963
If only we all had a dream about which we felt so passionate we would do, and sacrifice, anything to see it become reality. That sort of passion evokes change. Would you die to protect your stuff? Then why do you work yourself to death in the pursuit of acquiring it?
Man is man because he is free to operate within the framework of his destiny. He is free to deliberate, to make decisions, and to choose between alternatives. He is distinguished from animals by his freedom to do evil or to do good and to walk the high road of beauty or tread the low road of ugly degeneracy.”
– Martin Luther King Jr., “The Measures of Man,” 1959
If each of us realized how much power we have over our lives, i.e. choices, how many of us would work a job we hated? Stay in an unhealthy relationship? Settle for less than even our smallest goal? What will it take for man to realize the power he holds over his own life?
Success, recognition, and conformity are the bywords of the modern world where everyone seems to crave the anesthetizing security of being identified with the majority.”
– Martin Luther King Jr., “Strength to Love,” 1963
Would you give up your dream if no one would ever know your name? Would you give up your dream if you knew you could never earn lots of money doing whatever it is you dream of doing? If you would give them up, are those really the dreams of your heart and soul? Or are those your ego’s way of getting you to conform?
If you gave up on your dreams, whatever they may have been, I challenge you to re-examine them and embrace the risk to reap the reward of living a life you used to dream of, but gave up in order to do what everyone else does or what everyone else thinks you should do.
Besides your family, have you discovered something you would die for?