Greatness is an Everyday Thing

Greatness is an everyday thing.

This is on of my own quotes. I used it as a theme one year for my track team. But the idea behind my quote comes from a story in the speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., “What is Your Life’s Blueprint?” Yes, it is the street sweeper story.

“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.”

I read this speech in high school. If you didn’t know this speech was actually presented to students at Barratt Middle School in Philadelphia. Maybe that is why it planted a seed in my mind at that time. This was a speech for students. It was a speech that didn’t call for us to chase dreams. It called us to find greatness in our life, no matter the path.

Greatness is an everyday thing.

I think we have lost sight of this concept. Our society, even our own dreams have us chasing greatness, chasing money, chasing something. Now, I believe in goals, but the general idea is that we will be great once we achieve that goal. But that idea is wrong. We can’t be average today, and the next day, and the next day, and then expect to suddenly be ready to seize an opportunity. However, that is the mindset I see in society and sadly, in the classroom.

Greatness is an everyday thing.

If we can be average everyday, we can be great everyday. Greatness is a mindset mixed with effort. Simple. The payoff comes when life presents an opportunity to be great; we are ready. We can accomplish our goals because we have been great everyday.

Interestingly, we sent the most athletes to state track the year I used the quote as our theme. I think it proves what Martin Luther King, Jr. said in his speech, “For it isn’t by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.”

Greatness is an everyday thing.