What’s the Blueprint You’re Living By?

In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr asked a group of high school students a simple but confronting question: “What is your life’s blueprint?”

Not your job title. Not your bank balance.

Your blueprint.

At its core, a blueprint is a guide. It’s what you return to when things get messy, uncertain, or hard. And while the world often pushes us to chase status, labels, or external success, Dr King challenged something much deeper: who you choose to be.

He spoke about believing in yourself. About being the original version of you. And about committing to excellence — not based on what society applauds, but on how you show up every day.

That idea resonates with me.

We often tell ourselves that excellence only belongs to certain roles. Doctors. Engineers. CEOs. Elite performers. But Dr King flipped that thinking on its head. He said if your role is to sweep the streets, then sweep them like Michelangelo painted, like Beethoven composed, like Shakespeare wrote.

In other words, it’s not what you do — it’s how you do it.

This is where I see the real power of FORCE.

Belief in yourself.

The courage to be original.

The determination to pursue excellence, wherever you are, with whatever you have.

When you live that way, you stop measuring yourself against others. You stop shrinking to fit expectations. You start building a life that actually feels aligned — not perfect, but intentional.

Your blueprint doesn’t need to impress anyone else.

It just needs to be honest.

And maybe the real question isn’t “What should I be?”

But instead: “Am I being the best version of me, right where I am?”

“Because when you live by that blueprint, no role is small, and no effort is wasted.” `~ Carol Cooke AM PLY