Teenagers Leave A Mark
Martin Luther King Jr. captivated an entire nation by declaring, “I have a dream!” Those four words are full of potential, yet rarely spoken. Two years after declaring his dream, King witnessed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and became the youngest person ever to receive the Nobel Peace Prize—all because of his dream.
Pursuing a dream and fulfilling your destiny doesn’t mean doing more of what you are already good at. Instead—and it’s critically important for you to understand—pursuing a dream means finally becoming the person you’ve always wanted to be. The dream that will enable you to fulfill your destiny is not a type of goal. Goals come from your strengths. Goals represent wants and desires that you try to obtain with your natural talents, learned abilities, gifts, and ambitions. A dream is different because it comes from a predominant need or weakness that keeps pushing you until you finally begin pushing back. Your dream is designed to confront the shortcoming that plagues you most. A dream challenges you to excel where you are most vulnerable. You never begin with the strength you need to achieve your dream. But if you embrace it anyway, you will learn how to grow in new ways, depend on God, and develop as an individual. It’s a fact of life. However, it’s not presented as a guide for living in many sources other than Teenagers Leave A Mark.
A voice from somewhere inside tells you that even though you might feel insecure or incapable, you can actually achieve an extraordinary dream once you decide to face your most predominant need or weakness. The voice you hear is not meant to make you feel uncomfortable with yourself. Instead, it holds out a promise, a clue that will guide you to something you ought to be searching for: a better life.
As an infant, Helen Keller contracted a deadly illness that left her deaf, blind, and mute. When Helen was seven years old, Ann Sullivan began teaching her to communicate. Once she began communicating, Helen developed an insatiable appetite for learning. She eventually became the first deaf-blind person to graduate from college. Helen realized that her destiny was for the thing she was the worst at (communicating with others) to become what she was best at. She became a world-famous speaker and prolific author who said, “I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moving along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.”
Pursuing a dream is not a great or noble task. Instead, it’s a humble task that produces a great and noble life—a life that’s full of meaning and purpose. You’re about to discover that having a dream is not so difficult. In fact, pursuing your dream will prove to be one of the most enjoyable and meaningful experiences of your life!
