I often find myself lost in thought over my past actions. Pondering key events that have sculpted the person who I am today, imagining how things could have turned out different if I had made that decision instead of this one. I know these muses are not subject to just myself, it is only human nature to experience these thoughts. And sure, these daydreams of self reflection can be beneficial; aligning your values, hopes, dreams, and desires. But too much focus on trying to change the past will surely inhibit present progress. I can attest to this fact, firsthand.
When I inevitably fall into one of these ruts of stagnation, I turn to an email my Dad sent me back in May of 2014. The subject line reads “Lessons from A Navy Seal”. I had just graduated high school in 2014, so when I saw the email first appear in my inbox, there it sat for many months, unopened. I was more concerned with hanging with friends, partying, and starting my life as an “adult”. The idea of learning “Lessons from a Navy Seal” seemed boring and unnecessary. Plus, I already thought I knew everything at that point in my life. It wasn’t until my first semester of college, when I was procrastinating finishing my classwork, that I finally decided to give it a look. The opening words my Dad wrote struck a chord deep within me…
Ry,
I just thought you might want to read this. It is some good advice to keep in the back of your mind when faced with challenges that life throws at you.I am proud of you son,
Dad
I knew after reading his opening remarks that this wasn’t just some offhand advice. My Dad truly believed the contents of this email was worthy enough to send it my way, and I don’t think he had EVER sent me an email before. In fact, I remember when I first got this email, I was wondering how he even found out my address. So after reading those words, I snapped out of my delusion that the road ahead was going to be all freedom, fun, and games. I decided I was going to take whatever instruction this email provided to heart.
The lessons contained were written by former Navy SEAL Admiral William H. McRaven. I later learned he originally offered the advice to a University of Texas at Austin 2014 graduating class. He includes a total of 10 lessons, all of which he learned during his time at basic SEAL training. I’m not going to go into all of them at this time, but rather stress the importance of his first lesson mentioned: If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.
Every morning during Admiral McRaven’s basic SEAL training, his instructors would show up to his barracks room and the first thing they would inspect was his bed. He goes on to explain that although it was just a simple task, they were required to make their bed to perfection. While ridiculous sounding at first, that such attention was put on such a mundane task, McRaven soon saw the wisdom that simple task provided.
Making your bed every morning will give you a sense of accomplishment, you’ve completed your first task of the day without even eating breakfast yet. That small sense of pride will give you, what I like to call, task momentum. You’ll be encouraged to complete another task, and another. By the end of your day, that one small task of making your bed will have turned into a whole days worth of completed tasks. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you’ll never be able to do the big things right.
McRaven also throws in at the end of this lesson that if you do happen to have a miserable day, you will at least come home to a bed that is made - that you made - and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.
Starting to make my bed every morning changed my life, and I don’t say that lightly. I imply with utmost sincerity that after reading those lessons and implementing the simple task of making my bed every morning, my life drastically changed for the better. The sense of accomplishment and the beginning of that task momentum seeped its way into all areas of my life. I got school work done early instead of dealing with the procrastination, night-before, sprints that I had been so accustomed too. I started going to the gym and lifting, something I had never done in my life. Now, 7 years later, fitness and health has become such a core part of my identity, I genuinely get upset when I miss more than a few days of being at the gym. My desire to read and learn new, interesting topics has drastically grown (I don’t think I read a single book in high school, thank you sparknotes). I often delve into new hobbies, coffee being one of my current obsessions. Consuming everything about the subject, becoming enchanted by it, until some other novel topic piques my interest.
While my endorsement of the apparent wonder-drug “make your bed” seems like it provided me magical results, it was not all smooth sailing. I have fallen off the horse multiple times, and when I do, I never really know how hard I’m going to hit the ground. Sometimes I’ll go months of what I would consider optimal productivity and personal growth. But suddenly, I’ll fall flat on my face and end up in one of those “ruts of stagnation” that I mentioned earlier. These ruts are not always small, they can be deep, dark scary places. Filled with apathy, lethargy, anxiety etc. Making your bed in a deep rut like that can be difficult. But I urge you to try, or at least make a playbook*.
*A playbook to me is a set of actions you know will help pull yourself out of unpleasant situations. My personal playbook for getting out of ruts consists of these things: Make my bed, meditate, consistent 8 hours of sleep, gym, journal. I may not make all of those plays in a single day, but I try to make as many as I can as often as I can. What I can say is that out of all those plays in my playbook, making my bed has always led to yards gained.
I don’t believe any of this fantastic personal growth I have experienced would have been possible, if I did not start making my bed all those years ago. I hope I have convinced you of the importance of making your bed, please, give it a try. If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.