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Making My Bed Will Not Change My Life
Habit #25 in my 30-day journey
Most graduation speeches are forgotten before the graduates toss their caps up into the air. Not Admiral William H. McRaven’s commencement address at the University of Texas, Austin in 2014.
His advice was a little revolutionary.
“If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.”
Pretty bold claim, no? He explained it like this:
If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right.
And, if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made — that you made — and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.
The speech was extremely popular so McRaven went on to write a bestseller titled, Make Your Bed: Small things that can change your life and maybe the world.
