Make Your Bed

I have never seen the point in making my bed each morning - never saw the point in tucking in corners and arranging pillow shams that would be coming right back off in just a few hours.  In my mind, that’s why the bedroom came with a door.

Now I learn that, according to Admiral William McRaven, that has been the source of all my shortcomings. 

In this year’s commencement address at the University of Texas, McRaven says the most important lesson he learned in Navy SEAL training was to make your bed.

You can see the entire 19 minute speech HERE, but the part about making beds was

“Every morning in basic SEAL training, my instructors, who at the time were all Viet Nam veterans, would show up in my barracks room and the first thing they would inspect was your bed.

If you did it right, the corners would be square, the covers pulled tight, the pillow centered just under the headboard and the extra blanket folded neatly at the foot of the rack—rack—that's Navy talk for bed.

It was a simple task—mundane at best. But every morning we were required to make our bed to perfection. It seemed a little ridiculous at the time, particularly in light of the fact that were aspiring to be real warriors, tough battle hardened SEALs—but the wisdom of this simple act has been proven to me many times over.

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.

If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.”