Be Your Best: A Psychologist Touts Wisdom of Martin Luther King

Quotations from experts and heroes are a staple in people’s speeches and email signatures. As a psychologist, I see that whatever and whomever you quote reveals your values, how you intend to inspire and what you aspire to.

What is your favorite?

Mine is “The Street Sweeper” sermon by Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King.

Most people favor his “I Have A Dream.” I love that too. But the street sweeper message aligns with what I have been telling people, especially youngsters, for years in my role as a life and relationship advisor in media and for audiences worldwide audiences.

Do your best no matter what you do.

King delivered The Street Sweeper sermon in a Baptist Church in Chicago on April 9, 1967. He also gave the same message to a group of students at Barratt Junior High School in Philadelphia on October 26 of the same year, six months before he was assassinated. He told them to be their best, and also to stay in school.

The peace prophet and anti-racism activist was resounding with exceptionally wise psychological advice in this sermon. No wonder he was one of the most eloquent spokespersons of our time.

In the “Street Sweeper” sermon, King called for excellence in whatever you do. However high or low your social status, value and respect yourself and your work at the highest level and for the highest good.

A survey showed that 85 percent of Americans dread their work and wait for retirement. Instead, if this is you, find joy in every action and live each day to the fullest. I teach this message at all my trainings, classes and seminars.

In King’s wise words,

“ If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven played music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, …Here lived a great street sweeper.”

He elaborated:

“Set out to do such a good job that the living, the dead or the unborn couldn’t do it any better. If you can’t be a pine at the top of the hill, be a shrub in the valley but 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.”

Being your best brings you inner joy that radiates joy to others around you. Excelling at whatever you are doing is the key to taking any other step you want in your life. Concentrate on the process rather then the actual position or person. Act with the utmost devotion, pride and responsibility. Then, you can apply these qualities to another other position or relationship.

No matter what you do, respect yourself to the highest degree.

King said, wisely:

“Don’t allow anybody to make you feel that you’re nobody… Always feel that you count. Always feel that you have worth, and always feel that your life has ultimate significance.”

Self-esteem is at the foundation of mental health and well-being. Every problem anyone ever asked me about over decades had this answer at the core: Feel good about yourself. Have self-esteem.

The message applies to how you treat others as well. Treat others as their best too. Acknowledge and appreciate others for their higher self. Do this especially for those who serve you. Compliment and thank the doorman, bus driver and messenger as if they were Michelangelo, Beethoven or Shakespeare.

King said,

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

Service to others was key in King’s psychological advice as the key to happiness and greatness.

As King said,

“If you want to be great — that’s wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That’s your new definition of greatness — it means that everybody can be great because everybody can serve…You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verbs agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.”

Make others happy. Bring joy to someone else’s life from your heart without thinking of what you get in return.

King put this poignantly, when he said,

“Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.”

King used the parable of the street sweeper to stimulate the youngsters to answer the question: “What is your life’s blueprint?” Your life’s blueprint is your life plan, like an architect designs a building.

From the foundation to the interior design, every brick and decoration in your life plan should be laid with love and appreciation for who and where you are now in life. Follow your dream. And appreciate and assist others to do the same in their life blueprint.

These messages are music to this psychologist’s ears. I hope you take them to heart.