personal manifesto essay examples brainly

How to Write a Personal Manifesto

A personal manifesto will give your life meaning and direction.

A personal manifesto is a declaration of your core values and beliefs, what you stand for, and how you intend to live your life. It functions both as a statement of principles and as a call to action. A personal manifesto can serve as all of the following:

• As a frame for your life.
• As a compass, pointing you toward what you’ve decided is your true north.
• As a mechanism for focusing your mind and reminding you of your priorities.
• As a source of motivation.
• As a behavior modification system, so that you always act in accordance with your values, even during times of stress.
• As a mechanism to keep you striving to achieve high ideals.
• As inspiration to live your purpose more fully.
• As a foundation upon which to build your life.
• As a way to begin to bring a new life—or a new way of living—into existence.

Below you’ll discover how to write a personal manifesto. In addition, I’ve include my own personal manifesto, in case you need a little inspiration to get started on yours.

Guidelines for Writing Your Personal Manifesto

Begin writing your manifesto by making a list of the areas that you want to address. For example, you could make a list of the most important people in your life and write down how you intend to behave when it comes to each of them. You can also decide to include areas such as the following:

• Dealing with disappointment and hardships.
• Dealing with failures and mistakes.
• Dealing with opportunities and risk taking.
• Daily interaction with others (waiters, cashiers, neighbors, and so on).
• Choosing your attitude.
• Your general approach toward life.
• How you’ll treat your body.
• How you’ll spend your money.
• How you’ll spend your time.

In addition, you can create a manifesto by asking yourself questions such as the following:

• What do I stand for?
• What am I willing to die for?
• What are my strongest beliefs?
• How do I want to live my life?
• How do I choose to define myself?
• What changes do I need to make so that I can live my best life ?
• What words do I want to live my life by?

Here are five general guidelines for writing your manifesto:

• Make it uplifting.
• Use strong language (don’t be wishy-washy).
• It can be as short or as long as you like (but don’t make it so long that you can’t read it every day).
• Write it in the present tense.
• Keep it positive.

My Personal Manifesto

Below you’ll find the 26 points that make up my personal manifesto.

1. I cultivate peace of mind. I know that I can change the way that I feel at any moment, simply by changing my thoughts.

“Peace come from within. Do not seek it without.” – Buddha

2. I treat myself like someone I love and respect.

“Love Thyself. First you must shine with positive, high-spirited vibrations, and be full of love. In order to do that, I think it’s important to love, thank, and respect yourself.” –  Masaru Emoto, in Love Thyself, The Message from Water III

3. I trust myself and listen to my inner voice.

“Just trust yourself, then you will know how to live.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

4. I meet each day with reverence for the opportunities that it contains.

“This bright, new day… complete with 24 hours of opportunities, choices, and attitudes… a perfectly matched set of 1440 minutes.  This unique gift, this one day, cannot be exchanged, replaced or refunded. Handle with care. Make the most of it. There is only one to a customer.” – Author Unknown

5. I improve myself every day in some way, whether it’s by dropping a negative belief, learning a new word, or adding to my knowledge of the world.

“I don’t think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.”– Abraham Lincoln

6. I don’t take things personally. I know that what others say and do is a projection of their own reality; it has nothing to do with me.

“Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person is a little like expecting the bull not to attack you because you are a vegetarian.”  – Dennis Wholey

7. I’m independent of the good opinion of others.

“The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell truth that is in us . . . the divine flood of light and life no longer flow into our souls.” – Elizabeth Cady Stanton

8. I give myself permission to be myself. I’m authentic. I live life in my own way.

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”– Ralph Waldo Emerson

9. I talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person I meet.

 “There are persons so radiant, so genial, so kind, so pleasure-bearing, that you instinctively feel in their presence that they do you good, whose coming into a room is like the bringing of a lamp there.” — Henry Ward Beecher

10. I serve goodness every day with acts of courtesy and kindness.

“My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.” — The Dalai Lama

11. I make my home my sacred space.

“Home interprets heaven.” – Charles Henry Parkhurst

12. I live in a constant state of gratitude for everything that has been given me.

“Gratitude should not be just a reaction to getting what you want, but an all-the-time gratitude, the kind where you notice the little things and where you constantly look for the good, even in unpleasant situations. Start bringing gratitude to your experiences, instead of waiting for a positive experience in order to feel grateful.” — Marelisa Fábrega

13. I celebrate life every day by making happiness and play a priority.

 “A philosophy of life: I’m an adventurer, looking for treasure.”– Paolo Coehlo

14. I focus on what has gone right in my life, instead of placing my attention on those things that have not gone the way I wanted them to.

“Write the bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble.” – Arabic proverb

15. I take financial control of my life. I spend my money mindfully and buy only what I truly need and what I truly love. I put my money to work for me.

 “Let money work for you, and you have the most devoted servant in the world . . . it works night and day, and in wet or dry weather.”– P.T. Barnum

16. I treat my time like the precious commodity that it is.

“Make wise time investments. When you invest in something you expend resources, but you do so with an expectation of getting a good return on your investment (ROI). Investing your time means that you engage in activities which are calculated to bring you meaningful rewards.” – Marelisa Fábrega

17. I monitor my energy exchanges and do more of the things that give me energy and less of the things that take it away.

“The ultimate measure of our lives is . . . how much energy we invest in the time that we have.” – Tony Schwartz

18. I think “Yes” instead of “No”. I imagine “Yes” instead of “No”.  I remain open to trying new things.  I constantly stretch out a little further from my comfort zone.

“I’m continually trying to make choices that put me against my own comfort zone. As long as you’re uncomfortable, it means you’re growing.” – Ashton Kutcher

19. I’m the creator of my life. As creator, I decide what I want to create, I plan how I’m going to create it, and I take the necessary steps to create it.

“You can achieve anything you want in life if you have the courage to dream it, the intelligence to make a realistic plan, and the will to see that plan through to the end.” — Sydney A. Friedman

20. I focus on those things which are within my control, and act within my sphere of influence.

“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” – Reinhold Niebuhr

21. I create opportunities; I don’t wait for opportunities to find me.

“To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.” – Bruce Lee

22. I see mistakes as feedback; I adjust my aim, and I try again.

“Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement.  One fails forward toward success.”  — Charles F. Kettering

23. I do not misuse my imagination by worrying.

“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.” ― Corrie Ten Boom

24. In the pursuit of my goals, I act with courage.

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.” ― Mark Twain

25. I strive to make the most of my talents, to be of service, to create value, and to give back to the world.

“Your talent is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God.” – Leo Buscaglia

26. I persevere until I reach my goals, in spite of any obstacles or setbacks.

“The mighty oak was once a little nut that stood its ground.” — Unknown

A personal manifesto is a powerful tool for living your best life . Read your personal manifesto every day. Live your manifesto.

Related Posts:

• How to Create a Personal Development Plan
• How to Develop Your Character
• 16 Ways to Become a Better Person
• 16 Personal Development Goals That Will Make You Happier and Sexier

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to “Daring to Live Fully” by clicking here and get free updates.

Comments on this entry are closed.

Wow, your personal manifesto is amazing. Each line is so profound I have to read it again and again and I’m tempted to copy them as my own =)

Thanks for creating this. I’m making my own as soon as I get home and, I just LOVE “home interprets heaven”.

I enjoyed reading this too Marelisa! Deep and wise:) And the quotes help put your manifesto in context.

Sounds like it would take several lifetimes to come up with these realizations!

I like a lot your style. Very Spirtual and centered in the now, emotions, and the strngth of the spirit.

I would like alot to translate your article in spanish and publish it on my site if you dont mind ? (with reference to the source of course).

Regards, RyE

Hi Creative: Thank you; and I’m very glad that it inspired you to create your own (you can borrow as much from mine as you’d like). 🙂

Hi Vishnu: I also think the quotes help put it into context. I’m glad you enjoyed reading my manifesto. 🙂

Hi Rye: Yes, you can translate it linking back here and naming my post as the source. I’m glad that you liked it.

Very inspiring manifesto, Marelisa. Want to borrow it 🙂

Go right ahead, Naureen. 🙂

I love it. Thank you very much. I just spinning around and doing some meditation through doing the translate.

Thanks, RyE,

Wow! That was a great piece – so much so I’m going to just re-read yours till I have time to work on mine.

Beautiful! And thank you for the manifesto-writing guidance. One thought: your article indicates that present tense is the way to go, but to me, “I shall” is future tense. Wouldn’t it be more powerful to drop the shall and claim what’s happening in life right now, today? (Not a criticism, just a curiosity.) Thanks!

Hi Laura: Thank you for your feedback. You’re right. I’m going to modify it to take out the “shall” later on when I have more time (I have a play date with my nephew and he’s waiting for me right now).

Next post: The Three-Step Formula For Success

Previous post: As a Man Thinketh – The Power of Right Thought

Popular Posts

57 Tips For Writers From Writers

17 Ways to Slow Down Aging and Live Longer

How to Conduct a Life Audit

119 Journal Prompts For Your Journal Jar

18 Things to Do With a Moleskine, or Any Notebook

Recent Posts

• Christmas Books: 14 Books to Read This Holiday Season
• The WOOP Method – A Scientifically Proven Method to Achieve Your Goals
• 5 Scientific Ways to Be Happier – Tips from Yale University
• 3 Must-Read Books by Ancient Roman Philosophers
• 9 Ways to Cure Wanderlust When You Can’t Travel

This site rocks the Classic Responsive Skin for Thesis .

I Deliciate.

de*li"ci*ate (verb): to delight one's self; to rejoice; to revel. A manifesto, quest, food blog, and reminder to savor and delight in the little things and live a life worth living.

The Ultimate Guide to Writing Your Own Personal Manifesto

December 18, 2015 By Magda

What matters most to you? What do you believe in? What does your ideal life look like?

I spent a long time thinking about these questions and deciding how exactly I wanted my life to look. I literally spent months crafting my manifesto – putting it aside for a bit and then coming back to it, adding to it and refining it – until I felt like it was the best representation of my values, ideals, and goals. And when it came time for me to figure out how I was going to actually put it into practice – that’s when I came up with the idea for this blog. It’s what inspired me to create and commit to Project Delici8.

My manifesto is at the very core of all of this. That’s why I’ve spent so much time writing about this subject over the past couple of weeks. And that’s why I think there’s so much value to creating a personal manifesto of your own. I’ve experienced it for myself and I believe in it.

If you haven’t already read it, I just wrote a list of 10 reasons why you should write a personal manifesto of your own . I hope I’ve at least made you think about the idea of putting one together for yourself.

And here’s the thing. If you think a manifesto is not for you because you live a simple, unassuming life or you don’t have a lot of grand aspirations, don’t let that stop you. A manifesto doesn’t have to be a lofty or overly ambitious statement chock full of a bunch of grandiose life goals. It doesn’t have to be about travel and career and moving up in the world. It can be about spending more quality time with your partner, making it a priority to read to your kids every day, and finding the time to sit down to a technology-free family dinner on a regular basis. It can be about making an effort to drive less and recycle more, or to eat more vegetables and less meat. It can be about making it a goal to get outside more often, even if it’s just to the park down the street.  Or it can be about the virtues you’d like to cultivate – such as being more honest, more grateful, more generous, or more kind.

You can look at your life as a whole, like I did, or you can focus on one specific aspect of your life, like maybe your health, your relationships with others, or your career or business goals. A manifesto can be about anything that you feel strongly about, as long as it’s a bold declaration of intentions. The rest is up to you.

There are no rules as to how you should write your manifesto. Write it in first person if you like, or in second person. Use present tense or use future tense. Write in short phrases or complete paragraphs. Maybe your manifesto will take the shape of a bulleted list, or maybe it will be more like a letter you write to yourself or someone else. There is no right or wrong way to do it. Just do what comes most naturally to you.

So just how do you write a personal manifesto? I’ve broken it down for you into five simple steps.

Step 1. Check out other manifestos for a bit of inspiration. There are so many manifestos out there. You’ve probably already seen a ton of them. I’ve already put together two posts in which I compiled a bunch of inspiring or influential manifestos. They span a wide range of formats and were created by a very diverse group of people and organizations – everything from modern writers and bloggers to big corporations such as Apple, Google, and Lululemon to famous names like Audrey Hepburn, Benjamin Franklin, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Check those out first:

8 Thought-Provoking Manifestos to Inspire You

8 More Amazing Manifestos That Will Make You Think

Which ones resonate with you most? What ideas and principles do you wholeheartedly agree with? Draw from others’ ideas and works for inspiration.

Step 2. Ask yourself the following questions and take notes on your answers:

• What do you believe in at your core? What are your deepest-rooted values and ideals?
• How do you define yourself? What do you stand for?
• What inspires and motivates you?
• What do you know to be true? What quotes do you love ? What “words of wisdom” really speak to you?
• What breaks your heart? What bothers you?
• Where do you want to spend your money?
• How do you want to spend your time?
• How do you want to interact with others on a daily basis?
• What does good health mean to you and how will you achieve it?
• What are your biggest dreams and goals in life?
• How to you want to change the world? What effect would you like your life to have on those around you?
• How will you deal with failures, mistakes, or disappointments? How will you react when times get tough and you’re faced with hardships?
• How do you define success? How do you define happiness?
• What changes do you need to make in order to live a life truly worth living ?

Step 3. Use what you’ve written to start putting together a rough draft of your manifesto.  Figure out what format you’d like your manifesto to take, then start putting it together. Look at the notes you’ve taken and start by drawing from the ideas and concepts that have come up most often. Focus on what really jumps out at you. Expand on the things that really excite you. Don’t worry about editing for now, just get your ideas down – all of them.

Again, do what works for you. Once I got to this step, I wrote down each one of my principles on a separate note card. Then I laid them all out on the floor and started arranging and editing and rearranging them until I had something that flowed well when read as a whole.

Step 5. Finalize your manifesto. Print it out or publish it. Then challenge yourself to actually live it.  Make it public or at least print it out and put it somewhere visible – someplace where you can come back to it often, if not daily. This helps keep you accountable to what you’ve written.

Then challenge yourself to live your manifesto. Don’t let it overwhelm you – that’s not the point. Don’t expect that you will be able to live every aspect of your manifesto every day. But pick one or two things to focus on each day or week or month. Let it inspire you and let it challenge you.

And don’t forget to share! If you have a personal manifesto, I’d love to see it. And check out my manifesto (and how I’m living it) here!

About the Author

I Deliciate

How To Write a Personal Manifesto (Plus 4 Easy Tips)

When you hear someone use the term personal manifesto, your mind might automatically jump to serial killers and murderers—at least that is where my mind immediately went, but I also have an unhealthy obsession with true crime.  

During my healing journey, I did a deep dive into exactly what a manifesto is, and I ended up writing my own personal manifesto—and it has vastly improved my life.  

That is why in this article I want to share exactly what a personal manifesto is and how you can create your own.  

What is a personal manifesto?  

A personal manifesto is a declaration of the principles and values that you live your life by. It serves as a constant reminder of your core values and beliefs.  

Why do you need a personal manifesto? 

It is very easy to become overwhelmed with the amount of information that is constantly getting thrown at you on a daily basis. With so much going on around you, and constantly increasing stress , a personal manifesto can: 

• Help remind you of your priorities 
• Inspire you to live your purpose 
• Remind you of your goals when you become lost 
• Motivate you when life gets you down 

How to write a personal manifesto 

1. curate a list of your core values .

You can’t focus on your values if you haven’t narrowed down exactly what they are. The best way to do this is to create a list of values that matter to you.  

If you don’t immediately have important values rising to the surface of your brain that is okay. Try doing a simple google search for a list of common values, or you could use my favorite list from Brene Brown to give you a dose of inspiration. 

Once you have found a list, choose 5-7 words that you feel most drawn to.  

To be sure that you picked the right word, ask yourself the following questions: Do you wish people used that word to describe you? Do you see yourself that way? Would you be a different person if your actions and beliefs didn’t align with that specific value? 

Continue this until you are left with 5-7 values. 

2. Find affirmations that align with those values 

It can be difficult to turn those values into positive statements of truth that reflect who you are. I found the easiest way to do this is to find affirmations that pertain to that value. 

For example, if you pick kindness as your value, try googling “kindness manifesto examples” or “kindness affirmations.”  

Look through all your options and choose the ones you feel really resonate with you and articulate how you feel about those values. For the example of kindness I found these affirmations: 

• I am a kind person 
• I choose to be kind, even when it’s difficult 
• I am kind, compassionate, and deserving of love and respect 
• I attract kind people and experiences into my life 
• I choose to speak kind words to myself and others every day 
• Each day, I actively seek opportunities to perform random acts of kindness, making the world a better place. 

Now simply pick your favorite for that value, add it to the list, and move on to your next value. 

3. Edit your list 

Do some tweaking to the sentences if you need to, to make them clear, concise and pertain to you. Use the language you want to use, and choose terms that you know will motivate you. 

4. Make a final copy 

Make a final copy and put it somewhere that you can easily review it. Some people like to post their manifesto on their mirror. Some people put them in their journals. Some people put them on their phones. Wherever you can easily access it to review it is best. 

Personal manifesto examples 

Here are some examples of personal manifesto statements: 

• I know the only self I can control is my present self. That is why I focus all of my attention on this moment, letting go of any desire to change the past or influence the future. 
• I improve myself every day in some way, whether it’s by dropping a negative belief, learning a new word, or adding to my knowledge of the world. 
• I acknowledge my own strengths and abilities, knowing that I am capable of incredible things. 
• My mental health is a priority, and I make time for self-care and relaxation. 
• I strongly believe in the path I am on, but do not judge others. Everyone is on their own path. I will focus on mine. 
• I know that how I do anything is how I do everything and that there is no substitute for hard work. My dreams will not work unless I do. 
• I focus on what has gone right in my life, instead of placing my attention on those things that have not gone the way I wanted them to. 
• I do not misuse my imagination by worrying. 

Tips for writing a personal manifesto 

A few things to remember when writing your personal manifesto: 

• Use strong, active language. The more specific a statement is, the more useful it will be.
• Write it in the present tense. Present tense, as opposed to future tense, forces your mind to stay in the present moment and keeps your language active, instead of passive. For example, “I take steps to reach my goal every single day” sounds better than “I will take steps to reach my goal every single day”.  
• Keep your statements positive. The more positive your statements are, the more positive your mindset will be when you refer back to them.  
• Make it motivational and uplifting . Remember, you are writing this for yourself to help you keep sight of what really matters to you in times of struggle. 

Final thoughts… 

A personal manifesto can be a powerful self-improvement tool to help you on your journey. A well-constructed manifesto will always help motivate you to become the best version of yourself. 

Take care of yourself. 

If you liked this post check out:

• Positive Affirmations That Are Focused On Self-Growth
• Hilarious Affirmations To Make You Smile
• Affirmations To Help Lower Your Anxiety

Related Posts

6 Reasons Why It’s Not Selfish To Love Yourself

7 Things Emotionally Intelligent People Don’t Do

How To Get To Know Yourself Better (8 Ideas)

Why Acceptance Is The Key To Happiness

10 Tips for Crafting Your Own Personal Manifesto

Have you ever felt lost or unsure of your direction in life? Maybe you have a general sense of your values and beliefs, but you struggle to put them into words or actions. Crafting your personal manifesto can help you clarify your purpose and guide your decisions.

In this article, I’ll share tips for creating a powerful personal manifesto that resonates with you.

What is a Personal Manifesto?

A personal manifesto is a written statement of your beliefs, values, and goals. It can be a few paragraphs or several pages long, depending on your needs and preferences. A manifesto is not a rigid set of rules, but rather a flexible guide that you can refer to when making decisions.

Your personal manifesto should reflect your unique experiences, perspectives, and aspirations. It should be authentic and true to who you are, rather than an attempt to conform to external expectations or societal norms.

Why Create a Personal Manifesto?

Crafting a personal manifesto can have several benefits. Here are a few reasons why you might want to consider writing one:

1. Clarify Your Values

A personal manifesto can help you identify your core values and beliefs. By putting them into words, you can gain a deeper understanding of what truly matters to you. This clarity can guide your decisions and help you live a more purposeful life .

2. Provide Direction

A personal manifesto can serve as a compass that helps you navigate life’s challenges and opportunities. It can provide a clear sense of direction and purpose, even in times of uncertainty or doubt.

3. Stay Accountable

A personal manifesto can help you stay accountable to yourself and your goals. By articulating your intentions, you can hold yourself to a higher standard and track your progress over time.

4. Inspire Others

A personal manifesto can also inspire others. By sharing your beliefs and values, you may encourage others to reflect on their own lives and make positive changes .

10 Tips for Crafting a Powerful Personal Manifesto

Ready to get started on your personal manifesto? Here are ten tips to help you create a powerful and meaningful document:

1. Reflect on Your Values

Begin by reflecting on your values. What do you believe in? What matters most to you? What principles guide your decisions?

Write down your answers to these questions, and consider how they might fit into a larger framework. What themes or patterns emerge? Use this reflection as a foundation for your manifesto.

2. Define Your Purpose

Your personal manifesto should have a clear purpose. What do you hope to achieve by writing it? What impact do you want it to have on your life or the lives of others?

Consider how your personal manifesto fits into your broader goals and aspirations. What role does it play in your journey?

3. Be Authentic

Your personal manifesto should reflect your unique perspective and experiences. Don’t try to conform to external expectations or societal norms. Instead, be true to yourself and your values.

Use your own voice and language, rather than trying to sound like someone else. This authenticity will make your manifesto more compelling and meaningful.

4. Keep it Simple

A personal manifesto should be clear and concise. Avoid complex language or convoluted sentences. Instead, aim for simplicity and clarity.

Use short paragraphs and bullet points to break up the text and make it more readable. This will also help you focus on the most important points.

5. Be Specific

While your personal manifesto should be concise, it should also be specific. Use concrete examples and anecdotes to illustrate your points. This will make your manifesto more relatable and memorable.

Avoid vague or abstract language that doesn’t provide any real guidance or direction. Instead, focus on tangible actions and behaviors.

6. Emphasize Action

Your personal manifesto should emphasize action. What do you intend to do with your beliefs and values? How will you turn them into tangible outcomes?

Use action-oriented language and verbs to convey a sense of purpose and urgency. This will help you stay motivated and focused on your goals.

7. Include Your Goals

Your personal manifesto should include your goals and aspirations. What do you hope to achieve in the short and long term? How do your values and beliefs support these goals?

Use your goals as a framework for your manifesto, and ensure that your beliefs and values align with them. This will help you stay focused and motivated, even when facing obstacles or setbacks.

8. Review and Revise

Your personal manifesto is not set in stone. It should be a living document that you can revise and update as needed.

Review your manifesto regularly, and make changes as your beliefs or circumstances evolve. This will ensure that your manifesto remains relevant and useful over time.

9. Share Your Manifesto

Your personal manifesto is not just for you. It can also inspire and motivate others.

Consider sharing your manifesto with friends, family, or colleagues who might find it helpful. You can also post it online or share it on social media to reach a wider audience.

10. Take Action

Finally, remember that your personal manifesto is only as powerful as the actions you take. Use it as a guide to make intentional decisions and pursue your goals.

Don’t be afraid to take risks or step outside your comfort zone. Your personal manifesto can help you stay grounded and focused, even in the face of uncertainty or adversity.

Examples of Great Personal Manifestos

Looking for inspiration? Here are a few examples of great personal manifestos:

1. The Holstee Manifesto

The Holstee Manifesto is a popular personal manifesto that has been shared widely online. It emphasizes the importance of living a meaningful and intentional life , and encourages readers to pursue their passions and make a positive impact on the world.

2. The Four Agreements

The Four Agreements is a book by Don Miguel Ruiz that outlines four principles for living a fulfilling life. These principles include being impeccable with your word, not taking things personally, not making assumptions, and always doing your best.

3. The Minimalist Manifesto

The Minimalist Manifesto is a personal manifesto that emphasizes the importance of simplifying your life and focusing on what truly matters. It encourages readers to let go of material possessions and embrace a more intentional and minimalist lifestyle.

Crafting your personal manifesto can be a powerful and transformative experience. By articulating your beliefs, values, and goals, you can gain a deeper understanding of yourself and your purpose. Use the tips and examples in this article to create a document that inspires and motivates you to live your best life.

Remember, your personal manifesto is a living document that can evolve and change over time. Use it as a guide to make intentional decisions and pursue your goals. And don’t forget to share it with others who might find it helpful or inspiring.

Are you ready to craft your own personal manifesto? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below, and don’t forget to share this article with others who might find it helpful.

• All Education Solutions
• PK-5: Galaxy
• 6-12: Navigator
• Work-Based Learning: C2B
• Postsecondary: Journey
• CCR System Features
• All Government & Workforce Solutions
• Hope Central
• Resource Center
• Webinars & Courses
• Professional Development

A personal manifesto is a declaration of what you want in life. It helps you prioritize what’s important to you and what you want to achieve. Think of it as the ultimate bucket list.

So why write one?

A personal manifesto helps keep your priorities focused. It’s written with strong, empowering language so on days you may not feel 100% or when you could use some additional encouragement, you can reminded yourself what you’re capable of, and what you’re working towards. (This can be especially important if what you’re working toward takes a lifetime to achieve!)

A personal manifesto is just that, personal. So don’t think yours needs to look like someone else’s.

Steps to get started:

• Write down things you would like to be good at, things you value, attitudes, or behaviors you feel are important in life. It may be helpful to refer to your Kuder assessment results and view your favorite occupations list. You can read about which qualities it takes to acquire those occupations, which may turn out to be some goals you set for yourself. Your Super’s Works Values Inventory-revised assessment results serve as a good reflection for what you value in work. If you’re unhappy with what you currently do or do not value, set goals for yourself that can help enhance these values to your liking.
• Rewrite your list in short, active, declarative sentences. For example, perhaps you wrote: I think it’s important to work hard at what ever you do . Try rewording it as:  I have a strong work ethic.
• Make a clean copy and post it somewhere you’ll see it every day.
• Reread your manifesto every morning.

Incorporate it into your daily routine.

Taking the time to capture your goals on paper helps to clarify what’s important to you. Reading it every morning is a great reminder of what you’re capable of and what you’re working toward.

It’s a lot easier to get where you’re going if you have a map – even if it doesn’t come with directions.

Writing a Manifesto: A Guide for Students

Many of us teachers are deeply interested in helping students grapple with and find their own original voices. From “This I Believe” essays, personal narratives, and units based on essential questions that are all about finding students’ core beliefs, this is a goal so many of us share. I’ve found, though, that these longer pieces are difficult for students. Sometimes, packaging the task into a smaller, more concentrated amount of text can help students get to the core of their belief system, and this is why I’ve had so much success with students writing their personal manifestos .

START WITH MENTOR TEXTS

As we do with all other kinds of writing, it’s critical to begin the process of writing with mentors : start writing a personal manifesto by looking at examples of other manifestos! Before even defining a manifesto for students, show them a wide variety of examples. You might even start by showing them two similar versions: a motto and a manifesto. Typically, mottos are short and punchy (almost like six-word memoirs), but manifestos are a bit longer and more poetic in nature. Putting examples in front of students lets them see this type of writing in the real world and get a sense of why a particular person or corporation might use one method over another. There are lots to look at on YouTube as well, so don’t rule out that category! Here’s one of my favorites:

TAP INTO THE “WHY?”

As someone who firmly believes in the power of inquiry , it’s critical that we understand the reasoning behind the activity and show students the WHY from the very beginning.

Why would a company or organization write a manifesto?

I really like how Andrew Dickson puts it. He says, “It’s an argument for a better way of doing things, a big exciting idea, social or political stance, or core belief that an entire company can get behind. Manifestos often need an enemy or something to fight against or an action to take.” This points to the idea that a manifesto is more than a random group of words to create inspiration — they’re standing up to an opposing force. They’re actionable. They define a mission against a reality that isn’t cutting it. To me, this is a beautiful opportunity to teach about claim (or thesis). To CLAIM something means to create an argument. A manifesto is a claiming of belief, and when a company does this, they are holding everyone under that organization’s name to that standard.

Why would students have their own manifesto?

For precisely the same reasons as we outlined above! A personal manifesto is a poetic way of speaking their truth, what they stand up for and stand against. It can become an artifact of their existence: something to post on a bedroom wall, download as a Chromebook wallpaper, and something to post on social media. It’s something students can return to after some time to check in with — are they still aligned with these beliefs? What has changed? What has stayed the same?

Giving students an opportunity to do some short, concentrated belief statement writing can be powerful as they progress toward longer essays. Help students write a manifesto now and later, watch how they take charge of their personal statements, college essays, and scholarship essays! Take a closer look here !

GETTING STARTED

As students are looking at the mentor texts, have them circle or jot down their favorite VERBS and NOUNS. In a manifesto, the verbs are critical — they showcase the action of the statement and can color the tone very specifically. The nouns are where those beliefs hinge: they carry the emotional weight of the manifesto.

The drafting process in our classroom begins with direct imitation of mentor sentences from the examples we’ve looked at. After a series of these, students start to drop the language and/or structure of the mentor and start to mold the manifesto to fit more closely with their own voices.

The polishing process adds in a new and optional layer, and that is pairing the words of the manifesto with graphic design elements. Using Canva or Google Slides, I give students the space to create their written manifesto into a visual work of art that underscores the tone, message, and themes of the manifesto itself. We discuss the use of fonts, spacing, placement of words, and more by referring back again to our mentor texts.

I’ve displayed student work in a lot of creative and fun ways over time. Here are a few ideas:

Creating an online magazine using FlipSnack (I use this also with my The Best Part of Me project )

Print and display on a bulletin board

Stich all graphics together to save as one larger image file. Make it your desktop background so kids see it every time your screen is projected!

Have students save theirs in 9 X 16 size and make it their cell phone wallpaper

Hang the printed versions from a piece of twine with clothespins

Encourage students to use their manifesto in their email signature

Further Reading:

Three Rhetorical Analysis Activities for Back to School

3 Meaningful Ways to Get Students to Write About Reading

Using Mentor Texts to Teach Writing

SPOTLIGHT RESOURCE:

If you need some other ideas using writing to help students celebrate their unique qualities and get to know their classmates even better, try this photography essay project! It’s a favorite every year.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Amanda is the author of Mud and Ink Teaching   and a collaborative blogger on Teachwriting.org . 

A high school English teacher of every level from ESL to AP Language, Amanda has made it her life’s work to encourage students and teachers to join her on an adventurous teaching and learning journey. Amanda is a full-time teacher author after spending thirteen years in the classroom. She writes curriculum for the high school level, coaches teachers 1:1 , and travels with her family whenever possible. Amanda’s obsessed with poetry, argumentation, and showing students the power of taking chances in their writing. She is also the co-host of the podcast Brave New Teaching .

Visit Amanda on Instagram ,  Facebook , or Twitter  for English teacher inspiration and powerful community.

Camp Topisaw

How To Create A Personal Manifesto

Lifestyle · Self Development

Truly knowing ourselves is the first step on the path to a joyful and productive life. One of the best tools for self discovery is to create a personal manifesto!

This post may contain affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase through the link, I may make a commission at no cost to you.  See my Affiliate Disclosure Policy for more information.

I thrive on clarity and actionable steps.

And while I consider myself a bit of a free spirit, I also thrive on boundaries.

Boundaries define us. They define what is me and what is not me. A boundary shows me where I end and someone else begins, leading me to a sense of ownership. Knowing what I am to own and take responsibility for gives me freedom.    – Henry Cloud

When you’re trying to figure out who-in-the-world you are, it’s sometimes just as helpful to know who you’re NOT. Weeding out what we don’t want is probably the fastest and clearest way to discovering what we do want!

Once you’ve done the weeding, it’s time to boldly proclaim what you are, what you value and what you believe.

And that, by definition, is a manifesto.

Here is my personal manifesto:

• Eat simply, preparing easy meals with quality ingredients.
• Spend time alone in silence — writing, reading, thinking, praying, creating and observing.
• Go for a walk every day.
• Have everything in my home have a purpose, tell a story or just make me happy.
• Practice gratitude and humility.
• Share what I have (including my time) with others.
• Whenever possible, buy secondhand.
• Create daily rituals and seasonal rhythms.
• Have fewer possessions so that I have to work less to take care of them.
• Try not to compare myself to others.
• Choose to look at things in a positive way.
• Travel as much as possible with as little as possible in my backpack!

I refer to my manifesto on a daily basis. It reminds me of who I am, what I value and what I believe. It encourages me to stick to my chosen path and to not be distracted by all the shiny objects out there!

I’d love to share with you 5 steps that YOU can take today to gain clarity and create a personal manifesto .  

WHAT IS A PERSONAL MANIFESTO?

A personal manifesto:

• defines and proclaims your core beliefs
• is a declaration of what a good life means to you
• serves as a daily reminder of who you are and what you stand for
• is a compass to guide you toward your ultimate goals
• helps you make decisions, such as if certain things and people belong in your life
• defines the kind of person you want to be
• can help you make choices, even seemingly mundane choices such as what to eat

The best part of a personal manifesto is that it’s, well, personal!

No one else can do it for you. You’re the one who gets to choose who you want to be, what you want to believe and how you want to live your life. And while all that freedom is great, it can also make it very hard for us to weed out distractions and focus on our fundamental beliefs. To help you dig deep, I’ve broken down the process into these 5 steps:

• Take Stock.
• Boldly Proclaim.

Take your time as you go through each step, and use the questions to help you refine and clarify.

Before you start, be sure to print out the PERSONAL MANIFESTO WORKSHEETS from our Resource Library. Gain access here:

GET INSTANT ACCESS TO OUR FREEBIES LIBRARY!

Enjoy all our printables FREE when you subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Unsubscribe at any time.

Yay! You did it!

You have successfully joined our subscriber list. Click here to go to our FREEBIES PAGE and enter the password:  havefun  Check your inbox for a bonus 10% off coupon to use in our online store!

5 Steps To Create A Personal Manifesto

1.Take Stock.

Mentally walk through your actual, normal, day to day routines.

Where do you sleep? When do you sleep? What time do you get up? What, specifically, do you do in the morning/afternoon/evening? What do you eat? Who do you spend time with? Where do you spend most of your time?

This step is about observing, not analyzing, so try not to make any mental judgements.

Do you struggle getting up and out the door in the morning? See our post on simplifying your morning routine !

2. Visualize.

Now it’s time to mentally picture your ideal day. Close your eyes and see yourself living your best life.

• What does your ideal day look like?
• What does your ideal home environment look like?
• What does your ideal YOU look like?

Try not to filter yourself! See yourself as you want to be. Imagine yourself doing activities that bring you joy, whether they’re done for you or to help other people. Take your time going through the whole day, and try to picture yourself as clearly as you can. 

3. Analyze.

So how does your now day compare to your ideal day?

What activities, feelings, qualities do they have in common? What are you already doing that reflects your core values?

These overlaps are a great thing! They show you that you’re moving closer and closer to living the live you desire.

Now think about how the two differ.

What would it take to get you from your current reality to your ideal reality? Do you need to eat differently, think differently, behave differently? Do you need to seek help or ask certain questions? Do you need a mind shift? A priority shift?

What sort of person do you need to become to achieve the life you visualized?

Formulate statements expressing the values that will enable you to live that life. Make sure each statement begins with a verb! Your manifesto is about action — about choosing daily to live the life you’ve envisioned. Your statements can either be true now in your current reality or true in the ideal reality that you’re working toward.

Think about developing a statement in each of these categories. (If the category doesn’t apply to you just give it a miss. Also, feel free to add more categories!)

• home environment
• work environment
• spirituality
• relationships
• physical appearance
• personal well being/health
• charity/volunteer
• time management 

4. Boldly Proclaim.

While just the process of learning to create personal manifesto is powerful, you’ll get the most benefit if you actually write it out.

If you use a computer, be sure to print out several copies.

If you choose to write by hand, use your favorite pen and your best handwriting, and reaffirm each statement as you write it.

Whichever method you use, just be sure to start your manifesto with “I Will” (That’s the boldly part!)

You’ve put in a lot of work to get to this point, so make sure you can actually see and review your manifesto on a daily basis.

Be sure to make multiple copies and put them in places where you hang out the most.

Here are some ideas:

• Frame or laminate it.
• Place it on your bedside table.
• Stick it to the fridge.
• Tack it to your office bulletin board.
• Keep a small laminated copy in your wallet.
• Use it as the home screen on your phone.

Periodically review your manifesto as it will probably change over time. When I was younger I had a rather formal, clean and organized home. Now, well, let’s just say not so much! These days it’s more important to me to have a creative, welcoming home so my current manifesto reflects that.

Congratulations!

You’ve worked through the 5 steps, gotten to know yourself a little better and developed a powerful tool to help you live your very best life. Now go forward, boldly proclaiming who you want to be, what you want to believe and how you want to live your life!

Get access to our freebies page PLUS 10% off in our online store when you join our email list!

Yay! You're in.

You have successfully joined our subscriber list. Check your inbox for the password and 10% of coupon code!

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Don’t Know What to Do With Your Life? This Exercise Can Make Things Clear

Stepping up your game each year means ushering in a better, bolder, and more graceful you. The exercise of documenting your plans and purpose—what matters most—can bring clarity and intentionality to your day-to-day. What better way to start a new year than with a personal manifesto? Here, Well+Good Council member Candice Kumai shares how she created her own… and how you can do the same.

When I was in my twenties and toughing it out as a writer in Brooklyn—even when I was judging on Iron Chef —I was struggling .

One Christmas, my sister gave me an artist-designed poster, a “manifesto." After framing it, I put it on the wall of my broke-ass-artist room. As my career grew and my apartments gradually became nicer, I took the poster with me. It went from an East Williamsburg apartment share to a Wall Street studio (where I could barely afford rent) to a waterfront two-bedroom overlooking the NYC skyline. No matter where I went, the manifesto poster always went on the wall to steer, motivate, and inspire me.

I've learned that a manifesto is infinitely valuable. It can help to solidify and clarify your life’s big calling. It puts all your pondering thoughts and anxious days into one safe place, bringing you back to earth and reminding your heart what really matters. Manifestos can serve as a sense of purpose or your true north. We are all in need of some good inspiration and focus, and a personal manifesto provides the place to do so.

Manifestos can serve as a sense of purpose or your true north.

With this in mind, I created my own Wabi Sabi manifesto. I included beliefs that inspire and guide me every day: Simplify, be kind, be honest, travel more, love deeply, be free with no judgment on others. Know and live with the notion that you are right where you are supposed to be. Life is and will always be perfectly imperfect. I've turned my manifesto into a poster that I hope will inspire others.

{{post.sponsorText}}

You can create your own manifesto, too. It's a brilliant way to kick off January, and you can add on to it all throughout the year, cumulatively strengthening it over time.

Below are five simple steps toward making your own manifesto.

1. Just start

Grab a notebook, find some scrap paper, or start an email draft. However you want to write, just start. Write about what inspires you: tomes that keep you going and life lessons. Write on your morals and values and those little things you’ll never back down on. Write down what makes you feel good, short advice you’d give to a friend, lessons you have learned. You’ll both feel and see who you are as a person and what really matters to you.

2. Be honest

Allow this writing to be the deepest form of self-expression. This is the place to practice honesty. Be real with yourself; be real with your intent.

3. Think of others

When we take time to put our hearts on paper, we take time to connect back to our deepest calling in life: service. Service is our purpose. Make your manifesto about service to others; this will lead you to your life’s greater calling.

4. Get creative

If you like, you can choose to draft an artistic version of this, designing it into a poster. You can do it on the computer or with watercolor, colored pencils, calligraphy, or even stencils. Get as creative as you’d like. Make your manifesto something you love to look at.

5. Share it (or don't)

Your manifesto can be shared with others or kept personal. There are no hard and fast rules to this, so have fun, get creative, and fly. Growth is an imperative part of life, and this puts more good intent into your life. And remember, keep shining—because no one can dim the light of those who are destined for greatness.

What should Candice write about next? Send your questions and suggestions to [email protected] .

Loading More Posts...

The Beach Is My Happy Place—and Here Are 3 Science-Backed Reasons It Should Be Yours, Too

Your official excuse to add "OOD" (ahem, out of doors) to your cal.

4 Mistakes That Are Causing You to Waste Money on Skin-Care Serums, According to an Esthetician

These Are the Best Anti-Chafing Denim Shorts—According to Some Very Happy Reviewers

{{ successMessage }}

Please wait a moment...

• How to Write a Personal Manifesto (in 3 Easy Steps!)
• By Will Hatton and 1 more
• August 30, 2021

Home » Personal Development » How to Write a Personal Manifesto (in 3 Easy Steps!)

Writing your personal manifesto is a POWERFUL exercise.

The process of writing my manifesto was one of the most integral turning points in my journey of personal development. It allowed me to define my system of values, a necessary step in anyone’s personal growth. Without a clear understanding of your own values, you cannot be the person you want to be.

Writing a manifesto is something I believe EVERYBODY should, at the very least, dabble and experiment with. There is a true catharsis in the process.

Now, while the word manifesto may conjure images of far-fetched political beliefs and verbose repertoires of speech delivered by angry men, pontificating at the podiums, and wildly banging their fists of fury, that really is not what a manifesto is all about.

The core principle of writing a personal manifesto is actually really simple, and it’s something everyone needs to try once.

Take a look with me at the typical definition of ‘manifesto’ :

(n) a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer Merriam-Webster

Imagine, for a second, that YOU are the angry man pontificating at the podium. YOU are the political candidate delivering the speech. And YOU are the public hearing it.

All you’re doing is declaring – be it poetically or plainly – exactly WHO you are, WHAT you stand for, and HOW you move amongst the world. Except, even more than publicly to the world, you are publicly declaring it to yourself.

You can’t grow into the person you want to become unless you define that person first. For that journey, it’s so incredibly necessary to establish what your core values are, what personal beliefs define you, and what targets in life you are aiming at.

That is the topic of today: YOUR values and YOUR journey. Today I want to teach you how to write a personal manifesto and exactly why you should take the time.

Have no fear: it’s easy! And INSANELY VALUABLE.

And it might just change your life forever.

Oi, cuz. To make it even easier, I put together a printable template manifesto to work off in the VIP section – sign up below! It’s just my way of saying you have a nice butt… I mean, thank you.

How to Write a Personal Manifesto

Writing a personal manifesto is easy –  it’s easier than you might think. The hardest part is just getting started.

Now, everything that surrounds the process of writing the manifesto is where it gets more difficult. Because that’s you. That’s where the you happens.

You live, you suffer, you rejoice, you gain, and you lose, and all of that gets channelled into the manifesto. That part is hard; channelling all that you into such a deeply personal piece of writing. If you feel emotions stir up as you write, good: that means you are on the right path.

But making the manifesto… Penning it out… That part is easy.

Ready to see how easy this is?

Step 1: Kickstart Your Brain Juices with a Value Smoothie

Got a pen? Good.

Got a piece of paper? Good!

There are several different ways to start making your manifesto, but it’s good to start every day with a green smoothie of delicious personal values! Or at the very least, a protein-loaded breakfast of positive affirmations.

Personally, I like to start my manifesto with a cover page listing positive affirmations, goals, and reminders about the person I want to be. That way, I get a crystal clear picture in my head of what my goals are and what my ideal life looks like, and that kickstarts the writing process!

I want to share with you guys the cover page of my manifesto. I read this every day because it hammers home what’s important to me and who I want to strive to be. Sometimes, I’ll give it a tweak as I read it, and sometimes I add to it. Remember that writing a manifesto is an ongoing process; it’s never truly finished.

I’ll warn you now, the cover page can get kinda messy and jumps all over the place from concept to concept. That’s totally fine; a manifesto is a dumping ground for all of your thoughts and ideas on who you want to be and the strategies you may use to get there. It’s important just to start somewhere , and the most influential ideas you have in your head about your targeted self is the perfect place to do it!

There will be plenty of time in your journey to clean this bad boy up later, but step 1 is to just fucking write SOMETHING.

The Cover Page for Will’s Personal Manifesto…

Be a sniper: focus on one thing. Be present. Breathe deep and be calm.

There is so much to be grateful for.

Be disciplined. Say no to the monkey. Love yourself.

Your environment is crucial – don’t keep booze in the house, and be around people who encourage a healthy lifestyle.

I write my core principles…

• Healthy body, pure mind, strong heart. 
• Always be kind, never be weak.
• Invest in your future self – do not fuck over the Will of tomorrow.
• Always be honest, ethical, and compassionate.
• Find strong flow, create things.

I write my current goals…

• To be sober for 90 days.
• To be open and honest in my relationships.
• To hike more.
• To be fit, healthy, and free of angst.
• To foster greater personal discipline.
• Use my phone wisely.

I write my aspirations for the next five years…

• Have built a house.
• Bagged an unclimbed peak.
• Be sober, calm, and free of anxiety.
• Have published a book.
• Be a father.

I write my positive affirmations…

I am strong and flexible.

I am healthy; I give my body what it needs. 

I am dedicated to being the best version of myself. 

I am constantly improving. 

I am a warrior and a leader. 

Healthy body, strong mind, pure heart. 

I write my reminders to myself…

Don’t take things personally, have no expectations, try your best. Keep moving forwards.

Be honest and true. Be proud of yourself. Be humble. Send love to myself and my inner child. 

To grow as a person, one must not ignore weaknesses or temptations but acknowledge and rise above them. I have a problem with drugs and alcohol – accepting this is the first step to moving past it.

I write who I am…

• I am : A writer, an entrepreneur, a humanist, a hiker, a leader, a dedicated and loving partner, a recovering addict. 
• I believe : Digital detoxes are essential, porn is toxic, phones are addictive.
• My five foundational pillars : Exercise, gratitude, body intake, journalling, and meditation. 
• Pep talk corner : You can and must be better. Be honest about what you want. Don’t take on other people’s problems. Don’t worry about what others think. Keep moving forwards; be 1% better every day. If you meditate, journal, workout, do meaningful work, and get off your phone every day, you are doing well…. Acknowledge that and honour yourself.
• Aims : To feel good in my body and my soul – to not care about what people think of me. 

I write my belief system…

• Body: Sweat, fast, eat healthy, drink water.
• Mind: Meditate, minimise phone use, no porn, be in the present, practise gratitude.
• Purpose: To create. 
• Pilgrimage: Travel tough, help people, digital detox. 
• Virtues: Work hard, be creative, share love, be honest, waste nothing.

I write my monthly personal goals…

• 30 days of sobriety.
• No porn, no cocaine.
• Fast often.
• Don’t smoke on weekdays.
• Put the phone down.
• Ask the deep questions.
• Journal my progress.
• Dial in sleep and evening routine.

I write my 3-month goals…

• Meditation practice.
• Sleep well.
• Journal often.
• Practise gratitude.
• Get out amongst nature.

I write what I still need to work on…

• Overthinking about what others think of me.
• Being addicted to validation/being desired/being noticed.
• Don’t slip down the porn and alcohol rabbit hole.
• Taking on other people’s problems .
• Detoxing the digital life (utilise the 2 phone system, cut off phone #1 at 7:30 P.M.).
• Anger management (smile, wish an antagonist a nice day, defuse, do not escalate situations – there’s no point).

Annnnnnd…

Yep, that’s quite a lot of randomly formatted goodness – hopefully, it will inspire you to write out your own manifesto! At the very least, setting your goals and self-affirmations is a therapeutic process… Plus it makes for a damn nice cover page!

One thing to note is that my manifesto is in fact about 30 pages long with many different sections. For example, I have a section that lists important lessons I have learned. There are sections dedicated to my values, my goals in life, my vices and management techniques…

Your personal manifesto is the drawing board for you as a person, and that is – ALWAYS – a work in progress. Some things about ourself remain unchanging over the years, but a lot does not. Be prepared to spend many waking hours of many years of self-therapy attending to your manifesto.

But a poignant cover page is one way to kickstart the whole thing:

• Have you written out your core values yet?
• Or a framework of who you want to be in the future?
• Perhaps some short and long-term goals?
• Maybe some positive affirmations to guide you on your journey?

And that is the cover page! Drink that spirulina-and-self-help loaded smoothie deep – once a day even – and meditate on what it means. Already, the idea of who you want to be is crystalising.

But that’s still just page one.

Step 2: Set the Manifesto’s Structure

A cover page is one thing, but again, my manifesto is 30 pages long. There’s still a lot more to write.

To truly understand your values, you have to be willing to engage with them. You have to understand their importance and how they’ve founded the person that you are.

Swing back to that idea of a public declaration to yourself, and then put it in another form – a form we’re all versed in: writing a letter. Except, in this case, you write a letter to yourself.

You don’t have to literally write a letter to yourself, however, you could. You could copy this verbatim or tweak it to your liking.

Dear [YOUR NAME]

I am writing to you today to tell you what matters most to me. I know we’ve had some good times – and I know we’ve had some bad times – but that’s the point, [YOUR NAME].

I love you and I want us to be fucking legends together. Together, we shall conquer galaxies, but we shall not rule with an iron fist.

No! No I say to the man in [YOUR CAPITAL CITY]. We shall rule with compassion and the intergalactic denizens of the universe shall prosper!

But to do that, together, we need to define what our guiding set of principles is. What are our personal values? What framework can we design to then structure the house of our life around?

What are the values that we hold highest within ourselves and within others? Who are we NOW and who do we WANT to be in the future…

The purpose of this manifesto is to honestly list our strengths and weaknesses and to identify traits which we want to cultivate within ourself. Maybe that’s patience, honour, integrity, sobriety, spontaneity… The time has come for us to sit down together and meditate upon the values that define the [MAN/WOMAN/NEITHER/SPACE HAMSTER] we want to be.

This is who we are…

And then you just write those values out: that’s your manifesto.

You write as much or as little of each of these principles that you feel defines you and your moral code – the code you live by. Because the code you live by defines who you are , and that’s why you’re writing your manifesto.

A really easy way to start is to simply start listing out traits that the best version of yourself will have and the lessons that version of yourself practises – such as kindness, forgiveness, wisdom, etc. – to achieve that best-version status. It’s important to note that your manifesto will change a lot over time; I’ve re-written mine well over 100 times.

But that’s the point. Journeys, not destinations, amigos.

Remember: First Drafts Don’t Matter

There are many different ways to write out your manifesto, however, do not stress. What’s important is that you start.

I recommend you start by simply listing the values that are important to you – do that now. The first 10-20 things that come to mind, and there are no wrong answers.

Another good way to think about it is… What values define the PERSON YOU WANT TO BE?

Then, mayhap you will rank their place in your personal hierarchy and choose several important ones to explore in-depth? For example, ‘Practise forgiveness’ is a strong concept, but it’s little more than an aphorism in that form – why does that value matter to you?

Write about it. The lessons you have learnt from that value, experiences from life that taught you its importance, and the reasons why you know it underpins your humanity. You just gotta write this shizz down.

Don’t overthink it either! Write as many or as few personal values as you can think of, and don’t stress your gorgeous face. Make it messy and make it any length.

Expanded scribbles are great, but short and concise is good too. Brevity is a valued art, but brevity is something achieved over time. You start with a great concept, spend time with it, and whittle it down over many rewrites to its core meaning.

And that will take many drafts, but there are no wrong answers. Just a starting point.

This is just your first draft: no one ever sees your first draft.  

Start with the personal value that’s obvious to you. You must have one that’s so important to you that it jumps into your mind when you first hear the words ‘guiding principle’ ? The value perched on top of the hierarchy above all your other values.

This value serves as the fundamental cornerstone of your worldview and how you interact with reality. So you must have one; you’re only human, after all. 🙂

And that’s the value you start with: that’s the perfect one. Write it down. Write what the value is, and below it, write why it’s so important to you – why it’s the ultimate tenet of your life that guides you above all else.

If you were lost in a dark cave, this manifesto would be your lantern. Or headtorch (depending on what era you’re from).

That light takes root from the core of who you are.

As you write that down, more ideas for your manifesto will pop into your head. It’s all connected, y’know, and I don’t mean that in the tie-dye and ketamine way. But the framework of values, morality, ethics, and all the other razzmajazz that makes up your conscious (and unconscious) impact on the world?

That’s all woven together in the exquisite tapestry that is your life. Follow one thread and more will become clear.

And it  is  an exquisite tapestry, too. It’s a bit frayed on the edges, sure, and sometimes the stitches loosen or the patterns peace out for breakfast, but it is certainly an exquisite tapestry nonetheless. It has a lot of history: more than you can know.

So start defining that tapestry. All your values, some of your values, your most treasured values: just get it down in that deliciously dribbly first draft format. Once you’ve begun this process of defining your personal principles, the rest of the tapestry of your life will become clearer, as will the remainder of your manifesto.

And there you go: you’ve started your manifesto! Is this the only format for a manifesto? Na – not in the slightest, but a manifesto is a very personal project. Yours will take a very different look to anyone else’s.

But you’ve started: it’s your first draft. Now the rest is on you. 😉

Creating the Manifesto – First to Final Draft

The easy part is done! I mean, I hope it wasn’t too easy. I hope it was uncomfortable at times; I hope you had to talk to yourself and listen when unsettling emotions came up.

That’s the point.

You see, the final outline of the manifesto isn’t what’s important; it’s the PROCESS of writing the manifesto that really matters.

This manifesto template that I’ve given you is nothing more than a personal mission statement. A personal constitution for you to write and, I hope, follow. That’s why I say treat it as a letter to yourself.

You’re facilitating a conversation with yourself – something we don’t do enough of in a world forever trying to increase the volume around us.

Have you ever hiked in the middle of buttfuck nowhere with no one around for miles and brazenly held a conversation out loud with yourself ? You should give it a try sometime.

It’s the same reason I tell people they should try journalling regularly; you never know what you might learn once you start listening.

And once you’ve held that conversation with yourself and documented the minutes, your next step to making the manifesto and finishing the piece is just to polish it like a polaroid picture.

And that means rewriting the shit out of it.

Step 3: Finishing the Manifesto

Here is a link to a finished (and rather pristinely polished) example of a manifesto: The Broke Backpacker Manifesto .

This manifesto was the culmination of a tonne of hours mixed with a dash of grit and a splash of Mary Jane divided across me and the members of my team over on The Broke Backpacker . Each stellar human is a decorated and veteran traveller in their own right – and the good kind too! The Broke Backpacker Manifesto is a properly diverse bunch of vagabonds documenting what they believe to be the guiding tenets that define a legendary traveller.

20 tenets and 2053 words in total length (excluding the poetic piledriver of the intro and outro). That means…

2053 divided by 20… carry the math… equals…

Roughly 100 words per value!

And that’s not all…

We have an even shorthand printable version in the VIP section if you sign up! below

Want to take your business to the next level?

Ditch Your Desk subscribers get access to my best content. Period.

And that one is barely even a few hundred words in length!

The point of a first draft is to write a second draft. And a third. Probably a fourth.

Remember that yours will look very different to anyone else’s and will be the product of a lifetime. Maybe the end goal will just be printout you keep in your wallet: X’s Guide to Being a Dope Human. Or maybe there will be an index with dedicated sections to the various areas of your life that require work… with pretty pictures!

As long as you’re in the mindest that writing your manifesto is a journey that you will walk time and time again. Because defining yourself is a journey you will walk time and time again.

You see, that Broke Backpacker Manifesto? I wrote so many drafts I stopped numbering them! I just started giving them Pokemon names instead.

You write, rewrite, refine, rework, maybe combine a few principles, maybe cut one that doesn’t resonate quite so strongly, and above all, you trim the word count.

The lighter you trim the weight of the manifesto, the easier it will be to carry (both physically and meta physically). A manifesto can be long or long er , but it shouldn’t have to be. Your brain is already full with all the suffering and joy of existence, so trim dat shit!

But trim it gently – like a bonsai. Go all Miyagi-san on its ass until all you have left is a series of punchy one-liners veiled by esotericism and a kindly old Japanese man’s accent.

Or write it real direct, real simple, and real from the heart. That’s just as good.

Because as much as having a printable manifesto for your wallet in times of crisis is kinda fyreee, gurrrlfriennnd, the real POWER of the process comes in writing that personal mission statement to yourself – the manifesto.

You write, you rewrite. You converse with yourself. Maybe you end up with a numbered list of personal principles, or maybe it’s a 500-word soliloquy filled with borrowed Eastern philosophies and punchy idioms you saw etched on $10 coffee mugs.

As long as it speaks to you and the speaking with you has occurred to reach it, you’ve done it right. Because you’ve defined YOUR personal values.

And that leads me to why you SHOULD write a manifesto.

Why You Should Write a Personal Manifesto

Look, it doesn’t have to be as laboriously and lovingly polished as The Broke Backpacker Manifesto with epic photos of YOU ON A FUCKING MOTORBIKE IN PAKISTAN.

But the redrafting and rewriting IS important because it extends the conversation with yourself. You’re not just stopping in to drop off your neighbour’s wrongly delivered mail. You’re sitting down for cigarettes, coffee, and metaphysical chit-chats about your inner-self in a black and white Jim Jarmusch film.

Remember that point I made before? That the code you live by defines who you are.

Your code is there, whether you realise it or not: it’s an unconscious part of yourself. As much as I might wish we were, we’re not Batman getting our brood on around Gotham City’s shadowy heights spurred by a code of antihero-styled righteousness. But that also doesn’t mean that you don’t have a code.

Your code is there; it’s the habituated product of who you are built up over years of conditioning – both internal and external. The maddening mayhem of whirling chaos that swept through your years on the planet to leave you as the beautiful you that we see before us now.

Thoughts become words and those words turn to action. Action becomes habit and those habits, in turn, define your character. Beyond that, lies destiny.

That’s what an eccentric old Zimbabwean man told me deep in a forest once. He pissed off to the desert shortly after that, so his destiny is probably being dead, but that’s ok! He was a dick… albeit a wise one.

Your actions are predicated by your code – your conscious and unconscious thoughts – and those actions define who you are. We are not beasts; we are people. We have the power to rationalise, process, and make cognitive decisions.

You can, and should, act on wisdom – not kneejerk reactions. There is no wisdom in that.

But to reach that wisdom, you have to understand yourself and how and why you interact with the word in the way you do. You have to understand that framework of tapestry and all the threaded colours, intricate moments, and jarring imperfections that make the beautiful whole – you can make better choices. For yourself and others.

That is the very essence of personal development right there: making better choices. The BEST choices, for the world, which includes you.

The power of writing the manifesto lies not in the final product. It’s in the conversation. Defining your own personal values is a dying art in a world where so many people would prefer to just preach piety as a dogma rather than discuss it in open dialogue.

I had a stinker of a 2020 , complete with marriage breakdowns, substance abuse relapses, and a crumbling business model courtesy of Ragnarok. But DEFINING my values and holding this conversation with myself – i.e. writing the manifesto – was one of the apexes of my recovery.

It allowed me to see who I was and exactly what choices I had made that had led me to where I was (because spicy hot take: you design your own despair). And then beyond that, it allowed me to define the person I wanted to be and what values I wanted to uphold above all else.

And that gave me something to aim at. You always need a target in life.

Sit down and talk to yourself some time: you never know what you might learn.

After all, everybody has their story. Everybody knows something you do not.

Including you.

Tips for Writing a Manifesto

• DO NOT STRESS. It really is so not about the final product. A manifesto, much like the therapeutic nature of journalling, is about the process. You can do it as many times as you like, and there are no bad ideas.
• As you try to find your personal values, think on past regrets, mistakes, triumphs… People you’ve loved, lost… hurt. Your highest highs, lowest lows, and the wounds that still seemingly haven’t finished entirely scabbing over yet. These collections of haps and mishaps encompass YOU. If the goal is to understand and make concrete the explicit and implicit values of your self, then retreading the roads that brought you here is a necessary step in that journey.
• But as much as the process is the instrumental component of writing a personal manifesto, remember that there is a final product! And it’s something you want to be able to call on when navigating dire straits. Trim that word count, keep it poingant and pointed, and speak in way that resonates with yourself!
• If writing your manifesto doesn’t happen all at once, that’s cool! Maybe you write six values down in a moonlit mountain hut one day while walking off your woes and suddenly you feel miles better. Maybe the next creative flair won’t come until the next time you’ve hit the burnout phase and need a sitdown cuddle, chat, and warm beverage with yourself. When the word comes, let them flow. And when they slow to a drip, sit with what you’ve written.
• Remember you’re writing a letter to yourself: use strong ‘I’ statements!
• Feel free to use other people’s words! We’ve all got pieces of art we hold dear that have defined who we are, and in those works, we find wisdom. Book, movie, game, dead wise white dude, dead wise black dude, fucking Winnie the Pooh – doesn’t matter! If it speaks to you in your hour of need, use it!

Because That’s The Final Takeaway on How to Write a Personal Manifesto

It’s there to help you in your hour of need. There are times where life is a real stinker – we all know that. Many of the ancients believed that life is suffering by its intrinsic nature, and honestly, they weren’t wrong. It’s something we have to endure through our own goodness.

Relationships break down. Vices overwhelm us. We lose people – our most cherished ones. Death, war, goddamn shitting pandemics!

Some days, it isn’t even that ridonculous. Some days, the Gods just look down as you’re stepping out of bed and say-

And boom! You step on something jagged and uncomfortable that you don’t remember leaving there the night before. The Gods just took a shit in your morning coffee, and the day doesn’t get much better from there.

But for all those times and many more, it’s good to have wise words to lean on. Comforting and enlightening pieces of perennial wisdom. They guide you through the darkness. The wisdom of our contemporaries and forebearers flow together with our own.

What a manifesto is and what it means is simply a strongly-worded letter to yourself to get you through the times where it’s all a struggle. Tough love or a comforting cuddle – you know what works best for you. But think of it like a soldier clutching a letter from home as he rests in the trenches.

It gives you the strength to keep fighting.

Because times will come when you need those wise words, and writing a manifesto is the antidote to the poison. It’s the speech you give yourself – fists banging relentlessly on the podium – before you send yourself off to do battle with the Gods and suffering of existence.

And if those wise words were just your own… well… isn’t that even better?

Chin up, kid. It’s a battle you’ll win.

One more time, don’t forget we have printable manifesto templates and examples in the VIP section. Sign up and go hard, amigos!

Will Hatton

Founder of Ditch Your Desk, Will has been on the road for more than 10 years. A fitness fanatic, crypto enthusiast, marijuana connoisseur, and proverbial master of the handstand pushup, Will is currently based in Bali.

• Online Entrepreneurship 101: How to Become an Online Entrepreneur and SUCCEED

One Reply to “How to Write a Personal Manifesto (in 3 Easy Steps!)”

Hey Will, This site is awesome, it’s taught me so much about SEO and you’ve really inspired me on my own blogging journey. Are you planning to publish more stuff on here? I really hope so! Also, I’ll be in Lombok for a month from next week. Will you be at Tribal Bali then? If so, I’d love to buy you a beer/coffee and chat about blogging if you’ve got the time? Big thanks and big love Alex

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Join Me and the Digital Nomad Revolution

Become a part of an exclusive group of people who are ready to toss away the tyranny of the norm! Sign up for my newsletter, and I’ll send you updates on the regular updates as well as insider tips. Sharing is caring, folks, and that’s what I’m here for.

Get Started

• Working Online
• Self-Development

Ditch Your Desk Disclaimer

Ditch Your Desk participates in several affiliate programs, like many other online resources. At times, I may suggest a product or service; if you like one of these and purchase it, I receive a small portion of the sale. Using these affiliate links are like using any other link, and, honestly, the proceeds help me keep the site going. So thank you for your support in advance.

© Ditch Your Desk, 2021. All Rights Reserved | Sitemap

• school Campus Bookshelves
• menu_book Bookshelves
• perm_media Learning Objects
• login Login
• how_to_reg Request Instructor Account
• hub Instructor Commons
• Download Page (PDF)
• Download Full Book (PDF)
• Periodic Table
• Physics Constants
• Scientific Calculator
• Reference & Cite
• Tools expand_more
• Readability

selected template will load here

This action is not available.

3.8: Manifestos

• Last updated
• Save as PDF
• Page ID 73345

• Sybil Priebe, Ronda Marman, & Dana Anderson
• North Dakota State College of Science via North Dakota University System

How to Write a Manifesto

This guide was 37 co-authored by Megan Morgan, PhD; Updated: March 29, 2019

A manifesto is a document wherein a person, government, or organization outlines their intentions, motivations, and/or views. These texts ask and attempt to answer the question: What do I believe? The Declaration of Independence is a form of manifesto. There are artistic manifestos, philosophical manifestos, corporate manifestos, personal manifestos, and political manifestos. A religious manifesto is referred to as “a creed”. The word manifesto comes from Latin, and it connotes something which is very clear and conspicuous. While the length and content of a manifesto varies between each one, any well-composed manifesto will not only present clear attack on a worldview, but also a practical means to manifest goals. When writing a manifesto, you should keep all this in mind.

Preparing to Write Your Manifesto

Start with a meaningful question. This is a way to help you form inspiring ideas. These meaningful questions can give you focus. You may wish to ask more than one, or to focus on topics surrounding a particular question. Some examples of meaningful questions include:

• What do you want your legacy (as an individual, group or organization) to be?
• What gives your life purpose and meaning?
• What types of actions are aligned with your values?
• How do you want to show up in the world?
• What do you want to accomplish in your life?
• What are you willing to do to achieve those accomplishments?

Think about your audience. To whom are you writing the manifesto? Will your work be read by your colleagues, the general public, or clients? This may change how you choose to use language. A theological manifesto might have a lot of academic terminology if your audience is academics, but it might use very plain speech if it is directed at a wider audience.

Brainstorm your ideas. When you're first starting out, don't feel like you have to know exactly what you're going to say. Just write down your ideas in little brainstorming sessions. There are lots of ways to go about brainstorming. Choose one which suits you best, and which enables you to most freely jot down your ideas. The key is not to criticize, but to open yourself up to ideas.

• Thought webs can help you to connect many different ideas. Make sure you are adding as many connected details as you can. This will also help you to build an outline.
• Lists are a great way to get a lot of ideas down quickly. Make a list for each section of your manifesto, and to title them appropriately.
• Stream of consciousness writing can help you to get your brain working on the topic. By writing whatever comes to mind, and not worrying about the punctuation and grammar conventions, you can feel free to express important concepts. Give yourself a time limit and see how much you can jot down in that time.

Research. By researching your topic, you will strengthen your ideas. Provide yourself with sources to back up your argument. Also, survey other manifestos to see if anyone has written something similar which can provide you with models.

• Read other manifestos on a similar topic for useful tools and arguments. Famous manifestos include: The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx, "I Have a Dream" by Martin Luther King, or John F Kennedy's "Man on the Moon.”
• Strengthen your arguments by reading the opponents of your views online. Take a class if you have the time and the money.
• Familiarize yourself with theory surrounding your topic. Go to your local library or bookstore and ask a librarian or clerk to help you find similar writers.

Write an outline. Once you have enough ideas that you see a unifying point, make an outline. This will help you to arrange your ideas once you write. Put them into a logical order. Make sure to include an introduction and a conclusion in your outline. You don't need to write full sentences here. This is a point where you're just trying to figure out the flow of your writing.

• Use Roman numerals to number the major sections.
• Use uppercase letters to list details about the major sections.
• Use Arabic numerals (1,2,3) to give specifics or examples about the details of your major sections.

Writing the Manifesto

Identify yourself and your aims. This might include your personal beliefs, your worldview, and your experiences that directly inform your manifesto. By introducing yourself, your readers will have a better sense of your life course.

• Make sure that you share life details related to your ideas.
• Relate important experiences from work, school, or life that help readers see you as an authority.
• Mentioning your degree in art might be useful in an artist's manifesto, just as civil service would be worth mentioning in a political manifesto.

Include a thesis. There should be some unifying point to your manifesto. This is delivered in your introduction. It will be a compelling argument, connecting all your ideas together. Make sure you take time to craft a well-written thesis statement.

Explain your precepts in the introduction. A precept is an actionable ideal, an instruction meant to regulate behavior or thought. Tell your readers a little about what ideals they're going to read about, before they go into it. You don't want to say everything, just a little bit, so that readers can engage with your manifesto's larger picture. Give yourself at least one sentence to mention the main points of your manifesto.

• You can use bullet points to list your precepts.
• Follow a precept up with a sentence explanation if you need clarity but save most of your explaining for the body paragraphs. If it isn't merely presenting the precept, don't put it in the introduction.

Give a plan for action. Don't just provide your ideas. Offer a direction for change. Manifestos are revolutionary by nature. Though not all revolutions are equal in scale, all share in this desire for change.

• Focus on verbs to evoke a sense of action. Avoid verbs like "am/is/are", "have/has" and other passive constructions. For example: "Every artist manifests Art itself," instead of "Every artist is Art itself."
• Use concrete details. Avoid words like "thing" and "something", as these are not specific. For example: "Something in our political system disturbs me" becomes "Negligence in our political system disturbs me."
• Take a current problem and re-imagine it changed through your ideology.

Elaborate on your ideas individually. Even for a short manifesto, you will want to make sure you devote a section to each of your main points. This will make your points more concrete for readers. It will also help to make sure you address any questions your readers might have.

• Give each precept its own paragraph.
• For longer sections, use a subheading.

Be concise. A well written manifesto is crisp and sharp. The focus is clear and there is exactness in the intention. Its meaning and purpose are unmistakable. By keeping your manifesto concise, you avoid getting off-topic.

Make sure to have a conclusion. This way you can remind your readers about what they've read and the main point of your manifesto. The conclusion will help give readers a sense of closure. Make sure to restate your thesis at some point during your conclusion.

What's the key difference between a mission statement and a manifesto?

A manifesto is a declaration of someone's intentions, motives or ideas. It usually proposes some changes that the group or individual thinks should be made to the current system of government. A mission statement is what a company sets itself as its intended goal.

EXAMPLE: “I HAVE A DREAM” BY MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. 38

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so, we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again, and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so, let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

Assignments and Questions to Consider

Write up your very own manifesto. At the minimum, include the following criteria:

• Some sort of structure (intro, body, conclusion)
• Focus/thesis
• Three precepts with details
• Passionate/persuasive language

37 Found at wikiHow; wikihow uses the Creative Commons. The Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that is devoted to expanding creative work for others to build upon and legally share. Under an Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Creative Commons License, wikiHow's text content is free to modify, republish and share.

38 For audio of this speech, go to this web site: https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

PERSONAL MANIFESTO

"Men are not prisoners of fate, but only of their own minds." – Franklin Delano Roosevelt

My manifesto is a declaration of how I see myself, the world, and my place in the world. 

We each can live an ethical and honorable life and touch and impact others. It is the momentary choices we make every day that matters. It is one thing to talk and write and philosophize about integrity and health and fitness and faith—I have to live it. This I strive to do.

We don’t just live for now and for ourselves with the goal to become financially independent and lead comfortable lives.

I am a creationist and believe there is life after the physical life we live right now. Helen Keller said it so well: ͞I believe in eternal life because I have within me eternal longings. Yes, it’s called faith.

During my six (and a bit) decades of life, I have witnessed the power of compassion and mercy—as well as the devastation in its absence.

As a physician, I will continue to practice ethical medicine. Ethical physicians heal, they don’t hurt or harm. (This applies to my patients, colleagues, students, co-workers, and the public.) Money will always be secondary.

I have found a voice in writing. Through it,  I have found strength and healing.

Storytelling changes lives.

My goal as a writer is to touch, challenge, and transform—to have a profound impact on the reader. Whether it is nonfiction, fiction, blogging, memoir, essay, short story, or poetry—the goal is to make the reader pause, compel them to think, sometimes make them catch their breaths, and hopefully, initiate change. Yes, I want to entertain them, make them laugh; make them weep, but also inform and inspire, and above all, challenge them to grow.

If we never challenge the status quo (and ourselves), seek the truth, come up with better models, and push beyond our comfort zones, nothing can ever change or improve or grow.

Freedom, without borders and limits, can soon achieve the opposite: enslavement. Speech (or writing or any creative endeavor), which instigates hate, threatens, insults, harms,  and destroys, is not free. It’s called abuse and tyranny. No amount of sugarcoating can change that.

I strive to never become complacent.

There’s always something new (and amazing) to learn.  

It’s a good idea to remain a student for life. This does not imply that I do not master certain skills but will continue my quest to grow and learn and master new competencies.

• I strive to be assertive, not arrogant.
• I strive to remain compassionate and not become callous and indifferent.
• I strive to remain respectful of others—irrespective of their age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, social status, occupation, or worldview.

It is my goal to make a living in an ethical way.

I believe serious artists should not starve.

Too often individuals (and wider society) are silenced by leaders, by governments, and by organizations. Through fear and intimidation and disinformation and physical harm, individuals and society are controlled and ruled and bullied into apathy and silence.

Abuse of any kind is wrong. Workplace abuse is still abuse.

It is my duty to be cognizant and to speak up.

It is my goal to help victims of abuse move toward healing, become survivors, and then grow toward victors, healed witnesses, who have found a new voice, new hope, and with it, a new life. It will often not be easy. The cycle of abuse will never end unless victims are guided toward becoming victors, and perpetrators and abusers are held accountable.

There is much hate, contempt, indifference, suffering, and despair in the world. I strive to not add to this. In my writing, and through my actions, it is my goal to help alleviate some of this.

There is also much beauty, wonder, love, compassion, healing, and endless possibilities that surround us. I will strive to add to that.

Individuals can be empowered, inspired, and guided toward the light.

We all search for meaning.

We all search for hope.

We need hope—everlasting hope.

I believe in grace, also in God’s grace.

I believe in mercy.

True strength is found in kindness.

When we learn to walk in the light, In God’s light, it all becomes a little easier. Only then, does it all makes sense.

I do not claim to have all the answers. I do not claim to be without fear or fault. I have failed many times. What I have learned is this: quitting is not an option. I will try again and fail better until I succeed. I do not claim it is easy—it never is.

I would like to be referred to, and one day be remembered as, "a passionate man, an artist, a dreamer, modest, and someone who touched people’s hearts."

This is what I believe and why I write and tell stories. Storytelling changes lives. You and I can make a difference. We need each other. You and I can touch people’s lives, their hearts. We can empower others. We can offer hope and some laughter and some healing.

The choice is ours. 

Life. Art. Purpose.

My Personal Manifesto

Last week, we left off with me declaring that I was going to move forward with a “clean slate”, starting with clearing off my actual whiteboard, which was cluttered with useless lists and reminders.

As it turns out, I didn’t clean it off as quickly as I intended to.

For some reason, I had the feeling that there was something ‘more’ about to reveal itself.

That turned out to be an enormous understatement.

I posted my blog Friday and had a very productive Saturday, reorganizing things around the house, hanging paintings, deep cleaning the kitchen, etc. but on Sunday, something started to percolate.

I found myself struggling with strong feelings of frustration, anxiety, and grief around three key areas which I had been trying to reconcile for the past few months but was also kind of avoiding. In retrospect, I was probably hesitant to come to terms with these things because each of them, though unrelated in terms of context, was deeply personal, highly sensitive, and fairly controversial to varying degrees. I was also doubting myself as to whether my feelings were justified so I just put them on the back burner, in hopes that a solution would magically emerge, saving me the discomfort of having to confront them.

By the end of the day, I could feel myself doing everything I could to hold it together, and then I received a piece of information (related to one of the issues) that put me over the edge.

I was in such turmoil and anguish that all I could do was pray and cry myself to sleep. As I lay in my bed, I begged God to help me but some of the issues seemed so overwhelming that I could not even imagine how I was going to be able to discern the answer if and when it was delivered.

And then, it came to me.

I would begin a prayer fast the next morning..

For those of you who don’t know what a prayer fast is, it is defined as “ a temporary renunciation of something that is in itself good, like food, in order to intensify our expression of [a] need for something greater — namely, God and his work in our lives. ”

I decided to do this because I desperately needed to find peace and it just felt like the best way to show God I was serious.

So, I spent the next two days, praying and talking to God, fasting all day and eating only dinner.

During that time, a series of miraculous things happened, each directly relating to the specific nature of my concerns. It was fascinating to be an observer of how God organized and directed certain events and circumstances so that each of the three issues would be addressed in the right order. As it turns out, I needed one of the issues to be addressed first, in order to give me the correct perspective on and support for the other two.

You probably wouldn’t believe me if I told you how God revealed exactly what I needed but I’m truly amazed at how swiftly and surely He comforted me and brought peace to my heart through His word, through circumstances He created and through the love and support of others who reached out, just at the right time.

Even though there is one issue that still causes the most pain and anguish, it is only one that I have no control over. There is nothing I can do that I am not already doing and now that I have come to terms with the other two issues, I am able to see that clearly.

So, what was this all about?

I believe that, before I could really move forward with a clean slate, I needed to address these three things. Even though I felt ready and inspired to start fresh, I still hadn’t admitted to myself the impact they were having on me. Had I not addressed them now, they would have become stumbling blocks for me, somewhere down the road.

While they may not be fully resolved yet (and perhaps they may never be) the important thing is that I’m aware of them. Because of this, I’ll be able to draw on the resources God has provided me, giving me a greater capacity to cope with whatever comes.

Finally, the Slate is Clean!

Yesterday morning during prayer, I finally felt resolution around my issues and, as I glanced at my whiteboard again, I knew it was time to clean it.

As soon as I wiped off the last bit of marker, God revealed to me what was next!

So now…. without further ado… the BIG reveal…

MY PERSONAL MANIFESTO!!!!

Based on recent events and as I pay attention to where God is leading me, creating a personal manifesto makes so much sense!

I did a little bit of research today and found a great resource that serves as a guide for completing your own Personal Manifesto. I’m very excited to share it with you and to give you a sneak peek into my first draft, as well.

I’ll include them below and will also create a separate post for my Manifesto so that I can update it and keep it current.

I look forward to sharing more with you next week.

Until then, thanks for walking with me…

May you be blessed :)

How To Write Your Personal Manifesto

A personal manifesto is a declaration of your core values and beliefs, what you stand for, and how you intend to live your life. It functions both as a statement of principles and as a call to action. A personal manifesto can serve as all of the following:

• As a frame for your life.
• As a compass, pointing you toward what you’ve decided is your true north.
• As a mechanism for focusing your mind and reminding you of your priorities.
• As a source of motivation.
• As a behavior modification system, so that you always act in accordance with your values, even during times of stress.
• As a mechanism to keep you striving to achieve high ideals.
• As inspiration to live your purpose more fully.
• As a foundation upon which to build your life.
• As a way to begin to bring a new life—or a new way of living—into existence.

Begin writing your manifesto by making a list of the areas that you want to address. For example, you could make a list of the most important people in your life and write down how you intend to behave when it comes to each of them. You can also decide to include areas such as the following:

• Dealing with disappointment and hardships.
• Dealing with failures and mistakes.
• Dealing with opportunities and risk taking.
• Daily interaction with others (waiters, cashiers, neighbors, and so on).
• Choosing your attitude.
• Your general approach toward life.
• How you’ll treat your body.
• How you’ll spend your money.
• How you’ll spend your time.

In addition, you can create a manifesto by asking yourself questions such as the following:

• What do I stand for?
• What am I willing to die for?
• What are my strongest beliefs?
• How do I want to live my life?
• How do I choose to define myself?
• What changes do I need to make so that I can  live my best life ?
• What words do I want to live my life by?

Here are five general guidelines for writing your manifesto:

• Make it uplifting.
• Use strong language (don’t be wishy-washy).
• It can be as short or as long as you like (but don’t make it so long that you can’t read it every day).
• Write it in the present tense.
• Keep it positive.

Don’t miss another ‘Process of Illumination’ Post!

• Starting a Business
• Growing a Business
• Small Business Guide
• Business News
• Science & Technology
• Money & Finance
• Subscribers For Subscribers
• ELN Write for Entrepreneur
• Store Entrepreneur Store
• Spotlight Spotlight
• United States
• Asia Pacific
• Middle East
• South Africa

Copyright © 2024 Entrepreneur Media, LLC All rights reserved. Entrepreneur® and its related marks are registered trademarks of Entrepreneur Media LLC

Create Your Personal Manifesto in 25 Minutes Instead of creating yet another set of ambitious goals, take 25 minutes to do this little exercise.

By Milena Regos • Jan 29, 2022

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

As the new year approaches, many people commit to exercising more, not drinking alcohol, eating healthier and paying more attention to sleep. I also like to make big work goals, plan trips and have plans to get fit.

But in less than ten days, those plans usually fail and I return to my old habits until the next January rolls around.

I stopped making New Year's resolutions a few years back, despite looking into the science of how to make them stick. Now, I have a strategy for creating a personal manifesto inspired by the work of designer Ayse Birsel.

Read more: 8 Ways You Can Use Science to Make Your Resolutions Stick

New Year's resolutions fail

We already know that less than 10% of New Year's resolutions stick. Successful people commit to simple resolutions. Arianna Huffington wants to restore her sense of wonder. Hubspot CEO Bryan Halligan wants to nap and meditate more. Billionaire serial entrepreneur Fred Mouawad intends to keep more of his time unscheduled to dream more and leave time to innovate. Mark Cuban resolves to play more.

It seems most successful people lean into more time off work, more playtime, more family and fun time.

Related: How Many of Us Actually Stuck to New Year's Resolutions

Habits are hard to change

James Clear's research on habits shows why habits are so hard to change. According to the author, the five big reasons are trying to change everything at once, shooting for habits too big to change, seeking a result and not a ritual, not changing your environment and assuming that small changes don't add up.

You can get better, even if just get better by 1% each day — it's still a habit change.

What if, instead of focusing on habits, we change how we think about New Year's resolutions and think like a designer instead to design a sustainable manifesto.

Write your manifesto in 25 minutes

Designer Ayse Birsel recommends that you take 25 minutes and sit alone or with your team and do this little exercise. I have modified it from her framework to work for leaders and entrepreneurs who want to create sustainable success without sacrifices by creating life, work, and play effortlessly.

Here are three steps you can take to create your manifesto.

Step 1: Unlearn

Sit for 25 min in a place where you won't get distracted. It's good to do this sometimes early in the year. You can use my manifesto as a template.

1. Start with the heart.

What feelings and emotions do you want to keep from last year, and what do you want to let go of?

2. What Worked Well?

What worked well last year that's worth pursuing this year? List all accomplishments, successes and big wins.

3. What Didn't Work?

What can you let go of, simplify, remove, delete, ignore or change in the new year without being too judgemental here?

4. What obstacles hold you back from stepping into your full human potential?

Be honest with yourself. What holds you back that you're in control of? Then, list only the things you control.

5. Express gratitude.

What are you grateful for? According to Harvard Health , gratitude contributes to overall well-being. The word gratitude is derived from the Latin word gratia , which means grace. Expressing gratitude can help you connect with yourself, others, nature or a higher power.

What brings you joy in day to day that can keep you optimistic and motivated to keep going forward, find time for yourself and do what you love.

Now that you have everything, time underline the things that resonate with you the most - focus on the essentials here.

Step 2: Relearn

Take time to reflect on the year, and ask yourself how to design new experiences. When in doubt, always go with your gut.

What big dreams are worth imagining?

If fear was no object, what would you do?

What's the cost of not doing it?

What if it was easy?

Step 3: Write your manifesto.

It's time to put it all together with a pretty bow on top so you can refer to it daily.

Your manifesto = Life + Work + Play

Now that you have your manifesto share it with your family and friends (it adds accountability). You can do the exercise with your team and share goals, obstacles and dreams.

Related: Align your Business Strategies and Become a Goal Accomplisher

Founder of Unhustle

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Editor's Pick Red Arrow

• 'The IRS is Coming in Hot': Jason Tartick Says All Business Owners Should Do This 1 Thing Before Filing Taxes — Or Risk a Potentially Pricey Audit
• Lock What Is a 'Dry Promotion' — and Has It Happened to You? Employees in This Specific Group May Be the Most Likely Victims .
• I Was a 25-Year-Old Nurse When I Started a Side Hustle to Combat Anxiety. It Made $1 Million in 7 Months — Then Sold for a Life-Changing Amount.
• Lock 2 Phrases I Learned From a Senior CIA Officer That Changed My Leadership Style
• The U.S. Justice Department Is Suing Apple in a Groundbreaking iPhone Monopoly Lawsuit — Here's Why
• Lock I Built My Company to 23 Profitable Stores. Here's My Advice to Small Business Owners Who Want to Grow Their Retail Presence.

Most Popular Red Arrow

From tom brady to kevin o'leary – see who lost big in the wake of the ftx crypto collapse.

The crash exposed an $8 billion hole in FTX's accounts, leaving investors and customers scrambling to recoup their funds.

Popular Appetite Suppressant Ozempic Can Be Made For Less Than $5 a Month, New Research Suggests

The $5 includes a profit margin.

Karlie Kloss, Josh Kushner Announce Plans to Relaunch Life Magazine, 16 Years After Its Last Print Issue

Kloss is the CEO of Bedford Media.

This Highly-Debated Piece of Cinematic History Just Sold For Over $700,000 at Auction

The wood panel from "Titanic" is often mistaken as a door. Either way, he couldn't have fit. (Sorry.)

Mark Zuckerberg Says This CEO Is the 'Taylor Swift' of Tech

Meta's CEO posed with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on Instagram Wednesday.

Avoid These 9 Pitch Deck Mistakes When Asking Others For Money

Crafting an efficient pitch deck requires serious effort, but at least it's not wandering in the dark since certain rules are shaped by decades of relationships between startups and investors.

Successfully copied link

What are your chances of acceptance?

Calculate for all schools, your chance of acceptance.

Your chancing factors

Extracurriculars.

10 Personal Statement Essay Examples That Worked

What’s covered:, what is a personal statement.

• Essay 1: Summer Program
• Essay 2: Being Bangladeshi-American
• Essay 3: Why Medicine
• Essay 4: Love of Writing
• Essay 5: Starting a Fire
• Essay 6: Dedicating a Track
• Essay 7: Body Image and Eating Disorders
• Essay 8: Becoming a Coach
• Essay 9: Eritrea
• Essay 10: Journaling
• Is Your Personal Statement Strong Enough?

Your personal statement is any essay that you must write for your main application, such as the Common App Essay , University of California Essays , or Coalition Application Essay . This type of essay focuses on your unique experiences, ideas, or beliefs that may not be discussed throughout the rest of your application. This essay should be an opportunity for the admissions officers to get to know you better and give them a glimpse into who you really are.

In this post, we will share 10 different personal statements that were all written by real students. We will also provide commentary on what each essay did well and where there is room for improvement, so you can make your personal statement as strong as possible!

Please note: Looking at examples of real essays students have submitted to colleges can be very beneficial to get inspiration for your essays. You should never copy or plagiarize from these examples when writing your own essays. Colleges can tell when an essay isn’t genuine and will not view students favorably if they plagiarized. 

Personal Statement Examples

Essay example #1: exchange program.

The twisting roads, ornate mosaics, and fragrant scent of freshly ground spices had been so foreign at first. Now in my fifth week of the SNYI-L summer exchange program in Morocco, I felt more comfortable in the city. With a bag full of pastries from the market, I navigated to a bus stop, paid the fare, and began the trip back to my host family’s house. It was hard to believe that only a few years earlier my mom was worried about letting me travel around my home city on my own, let alone a place that I had only lived in for a few weeks. While I had been on a journey towards self-sufficiency and independence for a few years now, it was Morocco that pushed me to become the confident, self-reflective person that I am today.

As a child, my parents pressured me to achieve perfect grades, master my swim strokes, and discover interesting hobbies like playing the oboe and learning to pick locks. I felt compelled to live my life according to their wishes. Of course, this pressure was not a wholly negative factor in my life –– you might even call it support. However, the constant presence of my parents’ hopes for me overcame my own sense of desire and led me to become quite dependent on them. I pushed myself to get straight A’s, complied with years of oboe lessons, and dutifully attended hours of swim practice after school. Despite all these achievements, I felt like I had no sense of self beyond my drive for success. I had always been expected to succeed on the path they had defined. However, this path was interrupted seven years after my parents’ divorce when my dad moved across the country to Oregon.

I missed my dad’s close presence, but I loved my new sense of freedom. My parents’ separation allowed me the space to explore my own strengths and interests as each of them became individually busier. As early as middle school, I was riding the light rail train by myself, reading maps to get myself home, and applying to special academic programs without urging from my parents. Even as I took more initiatives on my own, my parents both continued to see me as somewhat immature. All of that changed three years ago, when I applied and was accepted to the SNYI-L summer exchange program in Morocco. I would be studying Arabic and learning my way around the city of Marrakesh. Although I think my parents were a little surprised when I told them my news, the addition of a fully-funded scholarship convinced them to let me go.

I lived with a host family in Marrakesh and learned that they, too, had high expectations for me. I didn’t know a word of Arabic, and although my host parents and one brother spoke good English, they knew I was there to learn. If I messed up, they patiently corrected me but refused to let me fall into the easy pattern of speaking English just as I did at home. Just as I had when I was younger, I felt pressured and stressed about meeting their expectations. However, one day, as I strolled through the bustling market square after successfully bargaining with one of the street vendors, I realized my mistake. My host family wasn’t being unfair by making me fumble through Arabic. I had applied for this trip, and I had committed to the intensive language study. My host family’s rules about speaking Arabic at home had not been to fulfill their expectations for me, but to help me fulfill my expectations for myself. Similarly, the pressure my parents had put on me as a child had come out of love and their hopes for me, not out of a desire to crush my individuality.

As my bus drove through the still-bustling market square and past the medieval Ben-Youssef madrasa, I realized that becoming independent was a process, not an event. I thought that my parents’ separation when I was ten had been the one experience that would transform me into a self-motivated and autonomous person. It did, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t still have room to grow. Now, although I am even more self-sufficient than I was three years ago, I try to approach every experience with the expectation that it will change me. It’s still difficult, but I understand that just because growth can be uncomfortable doesn’t mean it’s not important.

What the Essay Did Well

This is a nice essay because it delves into particular character trait of the student and how it has been shaped and matured over time. Although it doesn’t focus the essay around a specific anecdote, the essay is still successful because it is centered around this student’s independence. This is a nice approach for a personal statement: highlight a particular trait of yours and explore how it has grown with you.

The ideas in this essay are universal to growing up—living up to parents’ expectations, yearning for freedom, and coming to terms with reality—but it feels unique to the student because of the inclusion of details specific to them. Including their oboe lessons, the experience of riding the light rail by themselves, and the negotiations with a street vendor helps show the reader what these common tropes of growing up looked like for them personally. 

Another strength of the essay is the level of self-reflection included throughout the piece. Since there is no central anecdote tying everything together, an essay about a character trait is only successful when you deeply reflect on how you felt, where you made mistakes, and how that trait impacts your life. The author includes reflection in sentences like “ I felt like I had no sense of self beyond my drive for success, ” and “ I understand that just because growth can be uncomfortable doesn’t mean it’s not important. ” These sentences help us see how the student was impacted and what their point of view is.

What Could Be Improved

The largest change this essay would benefit from is to show not tell. The platitude you have heard a million times no doubt, but for good reason. This essay heavily relies on telling the reader what occurred, making us less engaged as the entire reading experience feels more passive. If the student had shown us what happens though, it keeps the reader tied to the action and makes them feel like they are there with the student, making it much more enjoyable to read. 

For example, they tell us about the pressure to succeed their parents placed on them: “ I pushed myself to get straight A’s, complied with years of oboe lessons, and dutifully attended hours of swim practice after school.”  They could have shown us what that pressure looked like with a sentence like this: “ My stomach turned somersaults as my rattling knee thumped against the desk before every test, scared to get anything less than a 95. For five years the painful squawk of the oboe only reminded me of my parents’ claps and whistles at my concerts. I mastered the butterfly, backstroke, and freestyle, fighting against the anchor of their expectations threatening to pull me down.”

If the student had gone through their essay and applied this exercise of bringing more detail and colorful language to sentences that tell the reader what happened, the essay would be really great. 

Table of Contents

Essay Example #2: Being Bangladeshi-American

Life before was good: verdant forests, sumptuous curries, and a devoted family.

Then, my family abandoned our comfortable life in Bangladesh for a chance at the American dream in Los Angeles. Within our first year, my father was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. He lost his battle three weeks before my sixth birthday. Facing a new country without the steady presence of my father, we were vulnerable — prisoners of hardship in the land of the free. We resettled in the Bronx, in my uncle’s renovated basement. It was meant to be our refuge, but I felt more displaced than ever. Gone were the high-rise condos of West L.A.; instead, government projects towered over the neighborhood. Pedestrians no longer smiled and greeted me; the atmosphere was hostile, even toxic. Schoolkids were quick to pick on those they saw as weak or foreign, hurling harsh words I’d never heard before.

Meanwhile, my family began integrating into the local Bangladeshi community. I struggled to understand those who shared my heritage. Bangladeshi mothers stayed home while fathers drove cabs and sold fruit by the roadside — painful societal positions. Riding on crosstown buses or walking home from school, I began to internalize these disparities. During my fleeting encounters with affluent Upper East Siders, I saw kids my age with nannies, parents who wore suits to work, and luxurious apartments with spectacular views. Most took cabs to their destinations: cabs that Bangladeshis drove. I watched the mundane moments of their lives with longing, aching to plant myself in their shoes. Shame prickled down my spine. I distanced myself from my heritage, rejecting the traditional panjabis worn on Eid and refusing the torkari we ate for dinner every day. 

As I grappled with my relationship with the Bangladeshi community, I turned my attention to helping my Bronx community by pursuing an internship with Assemblyman Luis Sepulveda. I handled desk work and took calls, spending the bulk of my time actively listening to the hardships constituents faced — everything from a veteran stripped of his benefits to a grandmother unable to support her bedridden grandchild.

I’d never exposed myself to stories like these, and now I was the first to hear them. As an intern, I could only assist in what felt like the small ways — pointing out local job offerings, printing information on free ESL classes, reaching out to non-profits. But to a community facing an onslaught of intense struggles, I realized that something as small as these actions could have vast impacts. Seeing the immediate consequences of my actions inspired me. Throughout that summer, I internalized my community’s daily challenges in a new light. I began to stop seeing the prevalent underemployment and cramped living quarters less as sources of shame. Instead, I saw them as realities that had to be acknowledged, but could ultimately be remedied. I also realized the benefits of the Bangladeshi culture I had been so ashamed of. My Bangla language skills were an asset to the office, and my understanding of Bangladeshi etiquette allowed for smooth communication between office staff and its constituents. As I helped my neighbors navigate city services, I saw my heritage with pride — a perspective I never expected to have.

I can now appreciate the value of my unique culture and background, and of living with less. This perspective offers room for progress, community integration, and a future worth fighting for. My time with Assemblyman Sepulveda’s office taught me that I can be a change agent in enabling this progression. Far from being ashamed of my community, I want to someday return to local politics in the Bronx to continue helping others access the American Dream. I hope to help my community appreciate the opportunity to make progress together. By embracing reality, I learned to live it. Along the way, I discovered one thing: life is good, but we can make it better.

This student’s passion for social justice and civic duty shines through in this essay because of how honest it is. Sharing their personal experience with immigrating, moving around, being an outsider, and finding a community allows us to see the hardships this student has faced and builds empathy towards their situation. However, what really makes it strong is that they go beyond describing the difficulties they faced and explain the mental impact it had on them as a child: Shame prickled down my spine. I distanced myself from my heritage, rejecting the traditional panjabis worn on Eid and refusing the torkari we ate for dinner every day. 

The rejection of their culture presented at the beginning of the essay creates a nice juxtaposition with the student’s view in the latter half of the essay and helps demonstrate how they have matured. They use their experience interning as a way to delve into a change in their thought process about their culture and show how their passion for social justice began. Using this experience as a mechanism to explore their thoughts and feelings is an excellent example of how items that are included elsewhere on your application should be incorporated into your essay.

This essay prioritizes emotions and personal views over specific anecdotes. Although there are details and certain moments incorporated throughout to emphasize the author’s points, the main focus remains on the student and how they grapple with their culture and identity.  

One area for improvement is the conclusion. Although the forward-looking approach is a nice way to end an essay focused on social justice, it would be nice to include more details and imagery in the conclusion. How does the student want to help their community? What government position do they see themselves holding one day? 

A more impactful ending might look like the student walking into their office at the New York City Housing Authority in 15 years and looking at the plans to build a new development in the Bronx just blocks away from where the grew up that would provide quality housing to people in their Bangladeshi community. They would smile while thinking about how far they have come from that young kid who used to be ashamed of their culture. 

Essay Example #3: Why Medicine

I took my first trip to China to visit my cousin Anna in July of 2014. Distance had kept us apart, but when we were together, we fell into all of our old inside jokes and caught up on each other’s lives. Her sparkling personality and optimistic attitude always brought a smile to my face. This time, however, my heart broke when I saw the effects of her brain cancer; she had suffered from a stroke that paralyzed her left side. She was still herself in many ways, but I could see that the damage to her brain made things difficult for her. I stayed by her every day, providing the support she needed, whether assisting her with eating and drinking, reading to her, or just watching “Friends.” During my flight back home, sorrow and helplessness overwhelmed me. Would I ever see Anna again? Could I have done more to make Anna comfortable? I wished I could stay in China longer to care for her. As I deplaned, I wondered if I could transform my grief to help other children and teenagers in the US who suffered as Anna did.

The day after I got home, as jet lag dragged me awake a few minutes after midnight, I remembered hearing about the Family Reach Foundation (FRF) and its work with children going through treatments at the local hospital and their families. I began volunteering in the FRF’s Children’s Activity Room, where I play with children battling cancer. Volunteering has both made me appreciate my own health and also cherish the new relationships I build with the children and families. We play sports, make figures out of playdoh, and dress up. When they take on the roles of firefighters or fairies, we all get caught up in the game; for that time, they forget the sanitized, stark, impersonal walls of the pediatric oncology ward. Building close relationships with them and seeing them giggle and laugh is so rewarding — I love watching them grow and get better throughout their course of treatment.

Hearing from the parents about their children’s condition and seeing the children recover inspired me to consider medical research. To get started, I enrolled in a summer collegelevel course in Abnormal Psychology. There I worked with Catelyn, a rising college senior, on a data analysis project regarding Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). Together, we examined the neurological etiology of DID by studying four fMRI and PET cases. I fell in love with gathering data and analyzing the results and was amazed by our final product: several stunning brain images showcasing the areas of hyper and hypoactivity in brains affected by DID. Desire quickly followed my amazement — I want to continue this project and study more brains. Their complexity, delicacy, and importance to every aspect of life fascinate me. Successfully completing this research project gave me a sense of hope; I know I am capable of participating in a large scale research project and potentially making a difference in someone else’s life through my research.

Anna’s diagnosis inspired me to begin volunteering at FRF; from there, I discovered my desire to help people further by contributing to medical research. As my research interest blossomed, I realized that it’s no coincidence that I want to study brains—after all, Anna suffered from brain cancer. Reflecting on these experiences this past year and a half, I see that everything I’ve done is connected. Sadly, a few months after I returned from China, Anna passed away. I am still sad, but as I run a toy truck across the floor and watch one of the little patients’ eyes light up, I imagine that she would be proud of my commitment to pursue medicine and study the brain.

This essay has a very strong emotional core that tugs at the heart strings and makes the reader feel invested. Writing about sickness can be difficult and doesn’t always belong in a personal statement, but in this case it works well because the focus is on how this student cared for her cousin and dealt with the grief and emotions surrounding her condition. Writing about the compassion she showed and the doubts and concerns that filled her mind keeps the focus on the author and her personality. 

This continues when she again discusses the activities she did with the kids at FRF and the personal reflection this experience allowed her to have. For example, she writes: Volunteering has both made me appreciate my own health and also cherish the new relationships I build with the children and families. We play sports, make figures out of playdoh, and dress up.

Concluding the essay with the sad story of her cousin’s passing brings the essay full circle and returns to the emotional heart of the piece to once again build a connection with the reader. However, it finishes on a hopeful note and demonstrates how this student has been able to turn a tragic experience into a source of lifelong inspiration. 

One thing this essay should be cognizant of is that personal statements should not read as summaries of your extracurricular resume. Although this essay doesn’t fully fall into that trap, it does describe two key extracurriculars the student participated in. However, the inclusion of such a strong emotional core running throughout the essay helps keep the focus on the student and her thoughts and feelings during these activities.

To avoid making this mistake, make sure you have a common thread running through your essay and the extracurriculars provide support to the story you are trying to tell, rather than crafting a story around your activities. And, as this essay does, make sure there is lots of personal reflection and feelings weaved throughout to focus attention to you rather than your extracurriculars. 

Essay Example #4: Love of Writing

“I want to be a writer.” This had been my answer to every youthful discussion with the adults in my life about what I would do when I grew up. As early as elementary school, I remember reading my writing pieces aloud to an audience at “Author of the Month” ceremonies. Bearing this goal in mind, and hoping to gain some valuable experience, I signed up for a journalism class during my freshman year. Despite my love for writing, I initially found myself uninterested in the subject and I struggled to enjoy the class. When I thought of writing, I imagined lyrical prose, profound poetry, and thrilling plot lines. Journalism required a laconic style and orderly structure, and I found my teacher’s assignments formulaic and dull. That class shook my confidence as a writer. I was uncertain if I should continue in it for the rest of my high school career.

Despite my misgivings, I decided that I couldn’t make a final decision on whether to quit journalism until I had some experience working for a paper outside of the classroom. The following year, I applied to be a staff reporter on our school newspaper. I hoped this would help me become more self-driven and creative, rather than merely writing articles that my teacher assigned. To my surprise, my time on staff was worlds away from what I experienced in the journalism class. Although I was unaccustomed to working in a fast-paced environment and initially found it burdensome to research and complete high-quality stories in a relatively short amount of time, I also found it exciting. I enjoyed learning more about topics and events on campus that I did not know much about; some of my stories that I covered in my first semester concerned a chess tournament, a food drive, and a Spanish immersion party. I relished in the freedom I had to explore and learn, and to write more independently than I could in a classroom.

Although I enjoyed many aspects of working for the paper immediately, reporting also pushed me outside of my comfort zone. I am a shy person, and speaking with people I did not know intimidated me. During my first interview, I met with the basketball coach to prepare for a story about the team’s winning streak. As I approached his office, I felt everything from my toes to my tongue freeze into a solid block, and I could hardly get out my opening questions. Fortunately, the coach was very kind and helped me through the conversation. Encouraged, I prepared for my next interview with more confidence. After a few weeks of practice, I even started to look forward to interviewing people on campus. That first journalism class may have bored me, but even if journalism in practice was challenging, it was anything but tedious.

Over the course of that year, I grew to love writing for our school newspaper. Reporting made me aware of my surroundings, and made me want to know more about current events on campus and in the town where I grew up. By interacting with people all over campus, I came to understand the breadth of individuals and communities that make up my high school. I felt far more connected to diverse parts of my school through my work as a journalist, and I realized that journalism gave me a window into seeing beyond my own experiences. The style of news writing may be different from what I used to think “writing” meant, but I learned that I can still derive exciting plots from events that may have gone unnoticed if not for my stories. I no longer struggle to approach others, and truly enjoy getting to know people and recognizing their accomplishments through my writing. Becoming a writer may be a difficult path, but it is as rewarding as I hoped when I was young.

This essay is clearly structured in a manner that makes it flow very nicely and contributes to its success. It starts with a quote to draw in the reader and show this student’s life-long passion for writing. Then it addresses the challenges of facing new, unfamiliar territory and how this student overcame it. Finally, it concludes by reflecting on this eye-opening experience and a nod to their younger self from the introduction. Having a well-thought out and sequential structure with clear transitions makes it extremely easy for the reader to follow along and take away the main idea.

Another positive aspect of the essay is the use of strong and expressive language. Sentences like “ When I thought of writing, I imagined lyrical prose, profound poetry, and thrilling plot lines ” stand out because of the intentional use of words like “lyrical”, “profound”, and “thrilling” to convey the student’s love of writing. The author also uses an active voice to capture the readers’ attention and keep us engaged. They rely on their language and diction to reveal details to the reader, for instance saying “ I felt everything from my toes to my tongue freeze into a solid block ” to describe feeling nervous.

This essay is already very strong, so there isn’t much that needs to be changed. One thing that could take the essay from great to outstanding would be to throw in more quotes, internal dialogue, and sensory descriptors.

It would be nice to see the nerves they felt interviewing the coach by including dialogue like “ Um…I want to interview you about…uh…”.  They could have shown their original distaste for journalism by narrating the thoughts running through their head. The fast-paced environment of their newspaper could have come to life with descriptions about the clacking of keyboards and the whirl of people running around laying out articles.

Essay Example #5: Starting a Fire

Was I no longer the beloved daughter of nature, whisperer of trees? Knee-high rubber boots, camouflage, bug spray—I wore the garb and perfume of a proud wild woman, yet there I was, hunched over the pathetic pile of stubborn sticks, utterly stumped, on the verge of tears. As a child, I had considered myself a kind of rustic princess, a cradler of spiders and centipedes, who was serenaded by mourning doves and chickadees, who could glide through tick-infested meadows and emerge Lyme-free. I knew the cracks of the earth like the scars on my own rough palms. Yet here I was, ten years later, incapable of performing the most fundamental outdoor task: I could not, for the life of me, start a fire. 

Furiously I rubbed the twigs together—rubbed and rubbed until shreds of skin flaked from my fingers. No smoke. The twigs were too young, too sticky-green; I tossed them away with a shower of curses, and began tearing through the underbrush in search of a more flammable collection. My efforts were fruitless. Livid, I bit a rejected twig, determined to prove that the forest had spurned me, offering only young, wet bones that would never burn. But the wood cracked like carrots between my teeth—old, brittle, and bitter. Roaring and nursing my aching palms, I retreated to the tent, where I sulked and awaited the jeers of my family. 

Rattling their empty worm cans and reeking of fat fish, my brother and cousins swaggered into the campsite. Immediately, they noticed the minor stick massacre by the fire pit and called to me, their deep voices already sharp with contempt. 

“Where’s the fire, Princess Clara?” they taunted. “Having some trouble?” They prodded me with the ends of the chewed branches and, with a few effortless scrapes of wood on rock, sparked a red and roaring flame. My face burned long after I left the fire pit. The camp stank of salmon and shame. 

In the tent, I pondered my failure. Was I so dainty? Was I that incapable? I thought of my hands, how calloused and capable they had been, how tender and smooth they had become. It had been years since I’d kneaded mud between my fingers; instead of scaling a white pine, I’d practiced scales on my piano, my hands softening into those of a musician—fleshy and sensitive. And I’d gotten glasses, having grown horrifically nearsighted; long nights of dim lighting and thick books had done this. I couldn’t remember the last time I had lain down on a hill, barefaced, and seen the stars without having to squint. Crawling along the edge of the tent, a spider confirmed my transformation—he disgusted me, and I felt an overwhelming urge to squash him. 

Yet, I realized I hadn’t really changed—I had only shifted perspective. I still eagerly explored new worlds, but through poems and prose rather than pastures and puddles. I’d grown to prefer the boom of a bass over that of a bullfrog, learned to coax a different kind of fire from wood, having developed a burn for writing rhymes and scrawling hypotheses. 

That night, I stayed up late with my journal and wrote about the spider I had decided not to kill. I had tolerated him just barely, only shrieking when he jumped—it helped to watch him decorate the corners of the tent with his delicate webs, knowing that he couldn’t start fires, either. When the night grew cold and the embers died, my words still smoked—my hands burned from all that scrawling—and even when I fell asleep, the ideas kept sparking—I was on fire, always on fire.

This student is an excellent writer, which allows a simple story to be outstandingly compelling. The author articulates her points beautifully and creatively through her immense use of details and figurative language. Lines like “a rustic princess, a cradler of spiders and centipedes, who was serenaded by mourning doves and chickadees,” and “rubbed and rubbed until shreds of skin flaked from my fingers,” create vivid images that draw the reader in. 

The flowery and descriptive prose also contributes to the nice juxtaposition between the old Clara and the new Clara. The latter half of the essay contrasts elements of nature with music and writing to demonstrate how natural these interests are for her now. This sentence perfectly encapsulates the contrast she is trying to build: “It had been years since I’d kneaded mud between my fingers; instead of scaling a white pine, I’d practiced scales on my piano, my hands softening into those of a musician—fleshy and sensitive.”

In addition to being well-written, this essay is thematically cohesive. It begins with the simple introduction “Fire!” and ends with the following image: “When the night grew cold and the embers died, my words still smoked—my hands burned from all that scrawling—and even when I fell asleep, the ideas kept sparking—I was on fire, always on fire.” This full-circle approach leaves readers satisfied and impressed.

There is very little this essay should change, however one thing to be cautious about is having an essay that is overly-descriptive. We know from the essay that this student likes to read and write, and depending on other elements of her application, it might make total sense to have such a flowery and ornate writing style. However, your personal statement needs to reflect your voice as well as your personality. If you would never use language like this in conversation or your writing, don’t put it in your personal statement. Make sure there is a balance between eloquence and your personal voice.

Essay Example #6: Dedicating a Track

“Getting beat is one thing – it’s part of competing – but I want no part in losing.” Coach Rob Stark’s motto never fails to remind me of his encouragement on early-morning bus rides to track meets around the state. I’ve always appreciated the phrase, but an experience last June helped me understand its more profound, universal meaning.

Stark, as we affectionately call him, has coached track at my high school for 25 years. His care, dedication, and emphasis on developing good character has left an enduring impact on me and hundreds of other students. Not only did he help me discover my talent and love for running, but he also taught me the importance of commitment and discipline and to approach every endeavor with the passion and intensity that I bring to running. When I learned a neighboring high school had dedicated their track to a longtime coach, I felt that Stark deserved similar honors.

Our school district’s board of education indicated they would only dedicate our track to Stark if I could demonstrate that he was extraordinary. I took charge and mobilized my teammates to distribute petitions, reach out to alumni, and compile statistics on the many team and individual champions Stark had coached over the years. We received astounding support, collecting almost 3,000 signatures and pages of endorsements from across the community. With help from my teammates, I presented this evidence to the board.

They didn’t bite. 

Most members argued that dedicating the track was a low priority. Knowing that we had to act quickly to convince them of its importance, I called a team meeting where we drafted a rebuttal for the next board meeting. To my surprise, they chose me to deliver it. I was far from the best public speaker in the group, and I felt nervous about going before the unsympathetic board again. However, at that second meeting, I discovered that I enjoy articulating and arguing for something that I’m passionate about.

Public speaking resembles a cross country race. Walking to the starting line, you have to trust your training and quell your last minute doubts. When the gun fires, you can’t think too hard about anything; your performance has to be instinctual, natural, even relaxed. At the next board meeting, the podium was my starting line. As I walked up to it, familiar butterflies fluttered in my stomach. Instead of the track stretching out in front of me, I faced the vast audience of teachers, board members, and my teammates. I felt my adrenaline build, and reassured myself: I’ve put in the work, my argument is powerful and sound. As the board president told me to introduce myself, I heard, “runners set” in the back of my mind. She finished speaking, and Bang! The brief silence was the gunshot for me to begin. 

The next few minutes blurred together, but when the dust settled, I knew from the board members’ expressions and the audience’s thunderous approval that I had run quite a race. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough; the board voted down our proposal. I was disappointed, but proud of myself, my team, and our collaboration off the track. We stood up for a cause we believed in, and I overcame my worries about being a leader. Although I discovered that changing the status quo through an elected body can be a painstakingly difficult process and requires perseverance, I learned that I enjoy the challenges this effort offers. Last month, one of the school board members joked that I had become a “regular” – I now often show up to meetings to advocate for a variety of causes, including better environmental practices in cafeterias and safer equipment for athletes.

Just as Stark taught me, I worked passionately to achieve my goal. I may have been beaten when I appealed to the board, but I certainly didn’t lose, and that would have made Stark proud.

This essay effectively conveys this student’s compassion for others, initiative, and determination—all great qualities to exemplify in a personal statement!

Although they rely on telling us a lot of what happened up until the board meeting, the use of running a race (their passion) as a metaphor for public speaking provides a lot of insight into the fear that this student overcame to work towards something bigger than themself. Comparing a podium to the starting line, the audience to the track, and silence to the gunshot is a nice way of demonstrating this student’s passion for cross country running without making that the focus of the story.

The essay does a nice job of coming full circle at the end by explaining what the quote from the beginning meant to them after this experience. Without explicitly saying “ I now know that what Stark actually meant is…” they rely on the strength of their argument above to make it obvious to the reader what it means to get beat but not lose. 

One of the biggest areas of improvement in the intro, however, is how the essay tells us Stark’s impact rather than showing us: His care, dedication, and emphasis on developing good character has left an enduring impact on me and hundreds of other students. Not only did he help me discover my talent and love for running, but he also taught me the importance of commitment and discipline and to approach every endeavor with the passion and intensity that I bring to running.

The writer could’ve helped us feel a stronger emotional connection to Stark if they had included examples of Stark’s qualities, rather than explicitly stating them. For example, they could’ve written something like: Stark was the kind of person who would give you gas money if you told him your parents couldn’t afford to pick you up from practice. And he actually did that—several times. At track meets, alumni regularly would come talk to him and tell him how he’d changed their lives. Before Stark, I was ambivalent about running and was on the JV team, but his encouragement motivated me to run longer and harder and eventually make varsity. Because of him, I approach every endeavor with the passion and intensity that I bring to running.

Essay Example #7: Body Image and Eating Disorders

I press the “discover” button on my Instagram app, hoping to find enticing pictures to satisfy my boredom. Scrolling through, I see funny videos and mouth-watering pictures of food. However, one image stops me immediately. A fit teenage girl with a “perfect body” relaxes in a bikini on a beach. Beneath it, I see a slew of flattering comments. I shake with disapproval over the image’s unrealistic quality. However, part of me still wants to have a body like hers so that others will make similar comments to me.

I would like to resolve a silent issue that harms many teenagers and adults: negative self image and low self-esteem in a world where social media shapes how people view each other. When people see the façades others wear to create an “ideal” image, they can develop poor thought patterns rooted in negative self-talk. The constant comparisons to “perfect” others make people feel small. In this new digital age, it is hard to distinguish authentic from artificial representations.

When I was 11, I developed anorexia nervosa. Though I was already thin, I wanted to be skinny like the models that I saw on the magazine covers on the grocery store stands. Little did I know that those models probably also suffered from disorders, and that photoshop erased their flaws. I preferred being underweight to being healthy. No matter how little I ate or how thin I was, I always thought that I was too fat. I became obsessed with the number on the scale and would try to eat the least that I could without my parents urging me to take more. Fortunately, I stopped engaging in anorexic behaviors before middle school. However, my underlying mental habits did not change. The images that had provoked my disorder in the first place were still a constant presence in my life.

By age 15, I was in recovery from anorexia, but suffered from depression. While I used to only compare myself to models, the growth of social media meant I also compared myself to my friends and acquaintances. I felt left out when I saw my friends’ excitement about lake trips they had taken without me. As I scrolled past endless photos of my flawless, thin classmates with hundreds of likes and affirming comments, I felt my jealousy spiral. I wanted to be admired and loved by other people too. However, I felt that I could never be enough. I began to hate the way that I looked, and felt nothing in my life was good enough. I wanted to be called “perfect” and “body goals,” so I tried to only post at certain times of day to maximize my “likes.” When that didn’t work, I started to feel too anxious to post anything at all.  

Body image insecurities and social media comparisons affect thousands of people – men, women, children, and adults – every day. I am lucky – after a few months of my destructive social media habits, I came across a video that pointed out the illusory nature of social media; many Instagram posts only show off good things while people hide their flaws. I began going to therapy, and recovered from my depression. To address the problem of self-image and social media, we can all focus on what matters on the inside and not what is on the surface. As an effort to become healthy internally, I started a club at my school to promote clean eating and radiating beauty from within. It has helped me grow in my confidence, and today I’m not afraid to show others my struggles by sharing my experience with eating disorders. Someday, I hope to make this club a national organization to help teenagers and adults across the country. I support the idea of body positivity and embracing difference, not “perfection.” After all, how can we be ourselves if we all look the same?

This essay covers the difficult topics of eating disorders and mental health. If you’re thinking about covering similar topics in your essay, we recommend reading our post Should You Talk About Mental Health in College Essays?

The short answer is that, yes, you can talk about mental health, but it can be risky. If you do go that route, it’s important to focus on what you learned from the experience.

The strength of this essay is the student’s vulnerability, in excerpts such as this: I wanted to be admired and loved by other people too. However, I felt that I could never be enough. I began to hate the way that I looked, and felt nothing in my life was good enough. I wanted to be called “perfect” and “body goals,” so I tried to only post at certain times of day to maximize my “likes.”

The student goes on to share how they recovered from their depression through an eye-opening video and therapy sessions, and they’re now helping others find their self-worth as well. It’s great that this essay looks towards the future and shares the writer’s goals of making their club a national organization; we can see their ambition and compassion.

The main weakness of this essay is that it doesn’t focus enough on their recovery process, which is arguably the most important part. They could’ve told us more about the video they watched or the process of starting their club and the interactions they’ve had with other members. Especially when sharing such a vulnerable topic, there should be vulnerability in the recovery process too. That way, the reader can fully appreciate all that this student has overcome.

Essay Example #8: Becoming a Coach

”Advanced females ages 13 to 14 please proceed to staging with your coaches at this time.” Skittering around the room, eyes wide and pleading, I frantically explained my situation to nearby coaches. The seconds ticked away in my head; every polite refusal increased my desperation.

Despair weighed me down. I sank to my knees as a stream of competitors, coaches, and officials flowed around me. My dojang had no coach, and the tournament rules prohibited me from competing without one.

Although I wanted to remain strong, doubts began to cloud my mind. I could not help wondering: what was the point of perfecting my skills if I would never even compete? The other members of my team, who had found coaches minutes earlier, attempted to comfort me, but I barely heard their words. They couldn’t understand my despair at being left on the outside, and I never wanted them to understand.

Since my first lesson 12 years ago, the members of my dojang have become family. I have watched them grow up, finding my own happiness in theirs. Together, we have honed our kicks, blocks, and strikes. We have pushed one another to aim higher and become better martial artists. Although my dojang had searched for a reliable coach for years, we had not found one. When we attended competitions in the past, my teammates and I had always gotten lucky and found a sympathetic coach. Now, I knew this practice was unsustainable. It would devastate me to see the other members of my dojang in my situation, unable to compete and losing hope as a result. My dojang needed a coach, and I decided it was up to me to find one.

I first approached the adults in the dojang – both instructors and members’ parents. However, these attempts only reacquainted me with polite refusals. Everyone I asked told me they couldn’t devote multiple weekends per year to competitions. I soon realized that I would have become the coach myself.

At first, the inner workings of tournaments were a mystery to me. To prepare myself for success as a coach, I spent the next year as an official and took coaching classes on the side. I learned everything from motivational strategies to technical, behind-the-scenes components of Taekwondo competitions. Though I emerged with new knowledge and confidence in my capabilities, others did not share this faith.

Parents threw me disbelieving looks when they learned that their children’s coach was only a child herself. My self-confidence was my armor, deflecting their surly glances. Every armor is penetrable, however, and as the relentless barrage of doubts pounded my resilience, it began to wear down. I grew unsure of my own abilities.

Despite the attack, I refused to give up. When I saw the shining eyes of the youngest students preparing for their first competition, I knew I couldn’t let them down. To quit would be to set them up to be barred from competing like I was. The knowledge that I could solve my dojang’s longtime problem motivated me to overcome my apprehension.

Now that my dojang flourishes at competitions, the attacks on me have weakened, but not ended. I may never win the approval of every parent; at times, I am still tormented by doubts, but I find solace in the fact that members of my dojang now only worry about competing to the best of their abilities.

Now, as I arrive at a tournament with my students, I close my eyes and remember the past. I visualize the frantic search for a coach and the chaos amongst my teammates as we competed with one another to find coaches before the staging calls for our respective divisions. I open my eyes to the exact opposite scene. Lacking a coach hurt my ability to compete, but I am proud to know that no member of my dojang will have to face that problem again.

This essay begins with an in-the-moment narrative that really illustrates the chaos of looking for a coach last-minute. We feel the writer’s emotions, particularly her dejectedness, at not being able to compete. Starting an essay in media res  is a great way to capture the attention of your readers and build anticipation for what comes next.

Through this essay, we can see how gutsy and determined the student is in deciding to become a coach themselves. She shows us these characteristics through their actions, rather than explicitly telling us: To prepare myself for success as a coach, I spent the next year as an official and took coaching classes on the side.  Also, by discussing the opposition she faced and how it affected her, the student is open and vulnerable about the reality of the situation.

The essay comes full circle as the author recalls the frantic situations in seeking out a coach, but this is no longer a concern for them and their team. Overall, this essay is extremely effective in painting this student as mature, bold, and compassionate.

The biggest thing this essay needs to work on is showing not telling. Throughout the essay, the student tells us that she “emerged with new knowledge and confidence,” she “grew unsure of her own abilities,” and she “refused to give up”. What we really want to know is what this looks like.

Instead of saying she “emerged with new knowledge and confidence” she should have shared how she taught a new move to a fellow team-member without hesitation. Rather than telling us she “grew unsure of her own abilities” she should have shown what that looked like by including her internal dialogue and rhetorical questions that ran through her mind. She could have demonstrated what “refusing to give up” looks like by explaining how she kept learning coaching techniques on her own, turned to a mentor for advice, or devised a plan to win over the trust of parents. 

Essay Example #9: Eritrea

No one knows where Eritrea is.

On the first day of school, for the past nine years, I would pensively stand in front of a class, a teacher, a stranger  waiting for the inevitable question: Where are you from?

I smile politely, my dimples accentuating my ambiguous features. “Eritrea,” I answer promptly and proudly. But I  am always prepared. Before their expression can deepen into confusion, ready to ask “where is that,” I elaborate,  perhaps with a fleeting hint of exasperation, “East Africa, near Ethiopia.”

Sometimes, I single out the key-shaped hermit nation on a map, stunning teachers who have “never had a student  from there!” Grinning, I resist the urge to remark, “You didn’t even know it existed until two minutes ago!”

Eritrea is to the East of Ethiopia, its arid coastline clutches the lucrative Red Sea. Battle scars litter the ancient  streets – the colonial Italian architecture lathered with bullet holes, the mosques mangled with mortar shells.  Originally part of the world’s first Christian kingdom, Eritrea passed through the hands of colonial Italy, Britain, and  Ethiopia for over a century, until a bloody thirty year war of Independence liberated us.

But these are facts that anyone can know with a quick Google search. These are facts that I have memorised and compounded, first from my Grandmother and now from pristine books  borrowed from the library.

No historical narrative, however, can adequately capture what Eritrea is.  No one knows the aroma of bushels of potatoes, tomatoes, and garlic – still covered in dirt – that leads you to the open-air market. No one knows the poignant scent of spices, arranged in orange piles reminiscent of compacted  dunes.  No one knows how to haggle stubborn herders for sheep and roosters for Christmas celebrations as deliberately as my mother. No one can replicate the perfect balance of spices in dorho and tsebhi as well as my grandmother,  her gnarly hands stirring the pot with ancient precision (chastising my clumsy knife work with the potatoes).  It’s impossible to learn when the injera is ready – the exact moment you have to lift the lid of the mogogo. Do it too  early (or too late) and the flatbread becomes mangled and gross. It is a sixth sense passed through matriarchal  lineages.

There are no sources that catalogue the scent of incense that wafts through the sunlit porch on St. Michael’s; no  films that can capture the luminescence of hundreds of flaming bonfires that fluoresce the sidewalks on Kudus  Yohannes, as excited children chant Ge’ez proverbs whose origin has been lost to time.  You cannot learn the familiarity of walking beneath the towering Gothic figure of the Enda Mariam Cathedral, the  crowds undulating to the ringing of the archaic bells.  I have memorized the sound of the rains hounding the metal roof during kiremti , the heat of the sun pounding  against the Toyota’s window as we sped down towards Ghinda , the opulent brilliance of the stars twinkling in a  sky untainted by light pollution, the scent of warm rolls of bani wafting through the streets at precisely 6 o’clock each day…

I fill my flimsy sketchbook with pictures from my memory. My hand remembers the shapes of the hibiscus drifting  in the wind, the outline of my grandmother (affectionately nicknamed a’abaye ) leaning over the garden, the bizarre architecture of the Fiat Tagliero .  I dice the vegetables with movements handed down from generations. My nose remembers the scent of frying garlic, the sourness of the warm tayta , the sharpness of the mit’mt’a …

This knowledge is intrinsic.  “I am Eritrean,” I repeat. “I am proud.”  Within me is an encyclopedia of history, culture, and idealism.

Eritrea is the coffee made from scratch, the spices drying in the sun, the priests and nuns. Eritrea is wise, filled with ambition, and unseen potential.  Eritrea isn’t a place, it’s an identity.

This is an exceptional essay that provides a window into this student’s culture that really makes their love for their country and heritage leap off the page. The sheer level of details and sensory descriptors this student is able to fit in this space makes the essay stand out. From the smells, to the traditions, sounds, and sights, the author encapsulates all the glory of Eritrea for the reader. 

The vivid images this student is able to create for the reader, whether it is having the tedious conversation with every teacher or cooking in their grandmother’s kitchen, transports us into the story and makes us feel like we are there in the moment with the student. This is a prime example of an essay that shows , not tells.

Besides the amazing imagery, the use of shorter paragraphs also contributes to how engaging this essay is. Employing this tactic helps break up the text to make it more readable and it isolates ideas so they stick out more than if they were enveloped in a large paragraph.

Overall, this is a really strong essay that brings to life this student’s heritage through its use of vivid imagery. This essay exemplifies what it means to show not tell in your writing, and it is a great example of how you can write an intimate personal statement without making yourself the primary focus of your essay. 

There is very little this essay should improve upon, but one thing the student might consider would be to inject more personal reflection into their response. Although we can clearly take away their deep love and passion for their homeland and culture, the essay would be a bit more personal if they included the emotions and feelings they associate with the various aspects of Eritrea. For example, the way their heart swells with pride when their grandmother praises their ability to cook a flatbread or the feeling of serenity when they hear the bells ring out from the cathedral. Including personal details as well as sensory ones would create a wonderful balance of imagery and reflection.

Essay Example #10: Journaling

Flipping past dozens of colorful entries in my journal, I arrive at the final blank sheet. I press my pen lightly to the page, barely scratching its surface to create a series of loops stringing together into sentences. Emotions spill out, and with their release, I feel lightness in my chest. The stream of thoughts slows as I reach the bottom of the page, and I gently close the cover of the worn book: another journal finished.

I add the journal to the stack of eleven books on my nightstand. Struck by the bittersweet sensation of closing a chapter of my life, I grab the notebook at the bottom of the pile to reminisce.

“I want to make a flying mushen to fly in space and your in it” – October 2008

Pulling back the cover of my first Tinkerbell-themed diary, the prompt “My Hopes and Dreams” captures my attention. Though “machine” is misspelled in my scribbled response, I see the beginnings of my past obsession with outer space. At the age of five, I tore through novels about the solar system, experimented with rockets built from plastic straws, and rented Space Shuttle films from Blockbuster to satisfy my curiosities. While I chased down answers to questions as limitless as the universe, I fell in love with learning. Eight journals later, the same relentless curiosity brought me to an airplane descending on San Francisco Bay.

“I wish I had infinite sunsets” – July 2019

I reach for the charcoal notepad near the top of the pile and open to the first page: my flight to the Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes. While I was excited to explore bioengineering, anxiety twisted in my stomach as I imagined my destination, unsure of whether I could overcome my shyness and connect with others.

With each new conversation, the sweat on my palms became less noticeable, and I met students from 23 different countries. Many of the moments where I challenged myself socially revolved around the third story deck of the Jerry house. A strange medley of English, Arabic, and Mandarin filled the summer air as my friends and I gathered there every evening, and dialogues at sunset soon became moments of bliss. In our conversations about cultural differences, the possibility of an afterlife, and the plausibility of far-fetched conspiracy theories, I learned to voice my opinion. As I was introduced to different viewpoints, these moments challenged my understanding of the world around me. In my final entries from California, I find excitement to learn from others and increased confidence, a tool that would later allow me to impact my community.

“The beauty in a tower of cans” – June 2020

Returning my gaze to the stack of journals, I stretch to take the floral-patterned book sitting on top. I flip through, eventually finding the beginnings of the organization I created during the outbreak of COVID-19. Since then, Door-to-Door Deliveries has woven its way through my entries and into reality, allowing me to aid high-risk populations through free grocery delivery.

With the confidence I gained the summer before, I took action when seeing others in need rather than letting my shyness hold me back. I reached out to local churches and senior centers to spread word of our services and interacted with customers through our website and social media pages. To further expand our impact, we held two food drives, and I mustered the courage to ask for donations door-to-door. In a tower of canned donations, I saw the value of reaching out to help others and realized my own potential to impact the world around me.

I delicately close the journal in my hands, smiling softly as the memories reappear, one after another. Reaching under my bed, I pull out a fresh notebook and open to its first sheet. I lightly press my pen to the page, “And so begins the next chapter…”

The structuring of this essay makes it easy and enjoyable to read. The student effectively organizes their various life experiences around their tower of journals, which centers the reader and makes the different stories easy to follow. Additionally, the student engages quotes from their journals—and unique formatting of the quotes—to signal that they are moving in time and show us which memory we should follow them to.

Thematically, the student uses the idea of shyness to connect the different memories they draw out of their journals. As the student describes their experiences overcoming shyness at the Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes and Door-to-Door Deliveries, this essay can be read as an Overcoming Obstacles essay.

At the end of this essay, readers are fully convinced that this student is dedicated (they have committed to journaling every day), thoughtful (journaling is a thoughtful process and, in the essay, the student reflects thoughtfully on the past), and motivated (they flew across the country for a summer program and started a business). These are definitely qualities admissions officers are looking for in applicants!

Although this essay is already exceptionally strong as it’s written, the first journal entry feels out of place compared to the other two entries that discuss the author’s shyness and determination. It works well for the essay to have an entry from when the student was younger to add some humor (with misspelled words) and nostalgia, but if the student had either connected the quote they chose to the idea of overcoming a fear present in the other two anecdotes or if they had picked a different quote all together related to their shyness, it would have made the entire essay feel more cohesive.

Where to Get Your Personal Statement Edited

Do you want feedback on your personal statement? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays. 

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

Next Step: Supplemental Essays

Essay Guides for Each School

How to Write a Stellar Extracurricular Activity College Essay

4 Tips for Writing a Diversity College Essay

How to Write the “Why This College” Essay

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

• Words with Friends Cheat
• Wordle Solver
• Word Unscrambler
• Scrabble Dictionary
• Anagram Solver
• Wordscapes Answers

Make Our Dictionary Yours

Sign up for our weekly newsletters and get:

• Grammar and writing tips
• Fun language articles
• #WordOfTheDay and quizzes

By signing in, you agree to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy .

We'll see you in your inbox soon.

Short Manifesto Examples

• DESCRIPTION Manifesto word written on cube wooden blocks
• SOURCE https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/1022727734
• PERMISSION 1001Love / iStock / Getty Images Plus

When you think of a manifesto, you might think of a political change or a newsworthy artistic movement. But, anyone can have a manifesto. Learn what a manifesto is through a definition and several examples. Then, identify how to create a manifesto of your own.

What Is a Manifesto?

Manifestos aren’t just for politicians or artists. Manifestos are for everyone.

In a manifesto , you declare your vision , core values and goals to the world. This might be a manifesto of a company, artist, person, movement or politician. Unlike a mission statement , a manifesto is a call-to-action that works to ignite the masses. One example that might instantly come to mind is the Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. However, manifestos come in all shapes and sizes.

The Purpose of a Manifesto

Manifestos create direction, focus and purpose. This can be important in both business and personal life. Not only do they clarify your beliefs but they help to explore your motives while creating policies and aims.

A manifesto discusses your personal goals in print and helps you to evaluate opportunities for reaching them. It can also show the world how you are going to contribute to the future you want to see.

The Benefit of Keeping It Short

Manifestos can be a few sentences or the length of a novel. While having a long, drawn out manifesto might include all your intentions and goals, a short, powerful manifesto of a few lines or a page can get your message across quickly.

Keeping it short also helps to ensure it will be read. In a quick fix world, where people spend less than 10 minutes a day reading , packing your message into a few lines is the way to go.

Examples of Short Manifestos

When it comes to short manifestos, there is a lot of variety out there. Some companies and artists pack their goals into a few lines. Others might use a page to declare the impact they want to make on the world.

Peruse through some different examples of short manifestos created by students, companies, artists, writers and more.

Nike: Purpose Moves Us

Our purpose is to unite the world through sport to create a healthy planet, active communities and an equal playing field for all.

Nike packs power into one line: “ Purpose moves us .” Their revolving goal is a changing and moving effort to create an active planet. With their manifesto, Nike provides articles and inspiration on how the company is working to achieve their goals through their products.

Apple: To the Crazy Ones

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify them or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things.

In this excerpt from their short ad manifesto , Apple demonstrates their commitment to people who think differently. They strive to push the status quo and invite imagination and creativity. This call to arms, so to speak, not only inspires but invites everyone to explore their thinking.

Holstee: This Is Your Life

This is your Life. Do what you love, and do it often. If you don’t like something, change it. If you don’t like your job, quit. If you don’t have enough time, stop watching TV…Life is about the people you meet, and the things that you create with them so go out and start creating. Life is short. Live your dream and share your passion.

When it comes to short manifestos, Holstee takes a unique approach by creating a visual appeal along with their goals. In their unique typographical poster, they show that their definition of success is finding passion in your life and achieving it. Not only do the words evoke powerful feelings but the creative layout bolds the important elements.

• DESCRIPTION Holstee Manifesto
• PERMISSION Used by permission from Michael Radparvar of Holstee

LIVESTRONG: We Believe

We believe in life. Your life. We believe in living every minute of it with every ounce of your being. And that you must not let cancer take control of it. We believe in energy: channeled and fierce. We believe in focus: getting smart and living strong. Unity is strength. Knowledge is power. Attitude is everything. This is LIVESTRONG.

Fighting cancer and living strong are the goals at LIVESTRONG. Their short one-page manifesto breaks down how they intend to help others to live strong and fight disease. This inspiring message of a few words is not soon forgotten.

Sofia Gabriel: Personal Manifesto

I believe that creating a cohesive, vibrant community that unites both the young and the old is important to nurturing the growth of individuals. I believe that community artworks are the anchors of this community, creating and maintaining this sense of community. Therefore, I believe that works of art, visual and otherwise, should be created and supported by members of a community as important reminders and symbols of cohesive community.

In her personal manifesto on art, Sofia Gabriel shows how important art is to the community. Sofia uses thought-provoking wording to demonstrate that art is important because it brings us together.

Fluxus: Purge the World

Purge the world of bourgeois sickness, "intellectual", professional and commercialized culture, purge the world of dead art, imitation, artificial art, abstract art, illusionistic art, mathematical art, — purge the world of "Europanism"!

In his manifesto, George Maciunas uses dictionary terms and handwriting to illustrate the Fluxus art movement. This 1960s and ‘70s movement emphasizes how art should be evolving and experimental. Rather than focusing on the product, you should look at the process involved in creating art or living art.

Fluxus manifesto

Acumen: creating hope in a cynical world.

It starts by standing with the poor, listening to voices unheard, and recognizing potential where others see despair. It demands investing as a means, not an end, daring to go where markets have failed and aid has fallen short. It makes capital work for us, not control us. It thrives on moral imagination: the humility to see the world as it is, and the audacity to imagine the world as it could be. It’s having the ambition to learn at the edge, the wisdom to admit failure, and the courage to start again. It requires patience and kindness, resilience and grit: a hard-edged hope. It’s leadership that rejects complacency, breaks through bureaucracy, and challenges corruption. Doing what’s right, not what’s easy. Acumen: it’s the radical idea of creating hope in a cynical world. Changing the way the world tackles poverty and building a world based on dignity.

Acumen is an investing company that works to help the poor and drive change. Through their short manifesto, you can clearly see their commitment to changing the world and their goals of helping the poor to be heard. The hope that they infuse in the wording strives to make readers want to make the world a better place.

Fashion Revolution: This Is Our Dream

We are Fashion Revolution. We are designers, producers, makers, workers and consumers. We are academics, writers, business leaders, brands, retailers, trade unions and policymakers. We are the industry and the public. We are world citizens. We are a movement and a community. We are you. We love fashion. But we don’t want our clothes to exploit people or destroy our planet. We demand radical, revolutionary change. This is our dream…

Fashion Revolution is a political movement to create a fashion industry that values creativity and inclusion. They use their short manifesto to discuss the 10 changes that they would like to see happen within the industry. Through this excerpt , you can see their passion to mold the fashion industry into a better, more environmentally-friendly place.

Mozilla: We Are Committed

We are committed to an internet that includes all the peoples of the earth — where a person’s demographic characteristics do not determine their online access, opportunities, or quality of experience. We are committed to an internet that promotes civil discourse, human dignity, and individual expression. We are committed to an internet that elevates critical thinking, reasoned argument, shared knowledge, and verifiable facts. We are committed to an internet that catalyzes collaboration among diverse communities working together for the common good.

Creator of Firefox, Mozilla uses their short manifesto to clearly show the goals they hope to create and harness. Not only do they want to offer the internet to everyone but they want to see the internet push creativity and collaboration.

LiisBeth: The Feminist Entrepreneur

Support Feminist-Led Business Celebrate Innovation, Community and Life Change the Narrative Engage Challenge Stereotypes & Biases Towards Work Equality & Social Justice Encourage Achievements & Potential in Alternative Approaches to Entrepreneurship Fuel the Movement Fund Feminist Creators & Journalists Believe in Success No Matter Your Age

Through a short manifesto, feminist literary company LiisBeth demonstrates their goals of advancing feminist literacy. Using creativity and thought-provoking wording, LiisBeth shows you their plan to create a platform to invoke change and social justice.

Creating Your Own Manifesto

Creating a manifesto isn’t as hard as you might think. It doesn’t even have to be anything that you share with the public. When creating a manifesto think about:

• Who: Who are you? Why are you or your business important?
• Meaning: What is the meaning of your company, brand or idea? What gives it purpose?
• Goals: What legacy do you want to leave? What do you want to change?
• How: Tell the world how you intend to accomplish your goals.
• Language: When you are creating your manifesto, don’t get wordy. Think of powerful, engaging, descriptive wording that will spark a reader.

Igniting a Nation

A short manifesto doesn’t have to ignite a nation but it could. Tell the world your core values and goals that you hope to achieve in your personal, political or business life. Need some help identifying your core values? Examine a few examples of core values to get started!

• Paper Writer Free >
• Essays Examples >
• Essay Topics >

My Personal Manifesto Essays Examples

Type of paper: Essay

Topic: Life , Failure , Bachelor's Degree , Fear , Desire , Meeting , Greatness

Published: 2020/12/14

I will be a creative being. In the past, I have allowed fear of failure to define me. But, today I will create without fear of failure. I will innovate. And, if my imaginings fail, I will innovate again. I will aspire, not to riches, but to greatness. I will define greatness as finding a life that provides well for my needs, while leading to contentment and true joy. While in the past, I may have been driven forward by my desire for wealth, I will instead be moved forward by my desire to feel connected to my life work. In such, I will work at something that I find personal interesting, with a cause or company that I can invest in. It will be better to be satisfied by a day’s work, and the personal interest that I take in that work than to be driven forward as a slave to the dollar. I will commit myself to communication with others that is meaningful, and intimate. Not relying in physical intimacy but instead allowing my closest relationships to be built on the meeting of our minds, before the meeting of our bodies. I will build a close knit circle of friends whom I respect, and who encourage me to move toward the lifestyle I have designed for myself. I will work to create, in myself a whole person. Embracing my flaws, and accepting my weaknesses, while celebrating my successes and capitalizing on my strengths. I will move toward kindness, genuineness, honesty and integrity. And in this venture, I will ultimately discover a life worth living.

Share with friends using:

• How To Tips
• Capstone Project
• Hemisphere Research Papers
• Sunlight Research Papers
• Experimentation Research Papers
• Sudan Research Papers
• Judging Research Papers
• Detective Research Papers
• Humidity Research Papers
• Innocence Research Papers
• Grass Research Papers
• Elevation Research Papers
• Migrant Research Papers
• Ruler Research Papers
• Shed Research Papers
• Deed Research Papers
• Stool Research Papers
• Intestine Research Papers
• Dust Research Papers
• Leaf Research Papers
• Lyrics Research Papers
• Pale Research Papers
• Transplantation Research Papers
• Beats Research Papers
• Bulimia Research Papers
• Anorexia Research Papers
• Flu Research Papers
• Quantum Research Papers
• Sony Research Papers
• Pilgrimage Research Papers
• Glasses Research Papers
• Surgeon Research Papers
• Medical Center Research Papers
• Reluctance Research Papers
• Spiral Research Papers
• Jean Piaget Research Papers
• Motor Vehicle Research Papers
• Lawn Research Papers
• Emanate Research Papers
• Arthritis Research Papers
• Sauce Research Papers
• Cough Research Papers
• Nose Research Papers
• Stock Exchange Research Papers
• Proxy Research Papers
• Dairy Research Papers

We use cookies to improve your experience with our site. Please accept before continuing or read our cookie policy here .

Wait, have you seen our prices?