To start positive change: Make your bed every day
Anne Curtis, the princess of all media with her combined 40 million followers on Facebook and Instagram, shared recently that she finished reading her first motivational book for 2025 in two days.
“Perfect read for some motivation to start the year right. Was such an easy read (2 days) as it felt like you are listening to a lecture. Life tips told with optimism for everyday struggles you may encounter in life. One line I loved was ‘I sometimes fall short of being my best, but I never fall short of giving it my best.’ Honestly, I’m sure this year, we will all have really good days but also have terribly bad days. But we can all start anew with each morning, and it always helps to boost morale and set the mood for the day when you are simply able to complete one task—even if it’s as simple as Making Your Own Bed,” Anne posted.
Make Your Bed is a No. 1 New York Times bestseller written by Retired United States Navy Four-Star Admiral, William H. McRaven. It is based on a speech he delivered to the 2014 graduating class of the University of Texas at Austin. The original video has 10 million views but there are several more with millions of views as well.
He led a force of 69,000 responsible for conducting counter-terrorism operations worldwide. Thus, he is recognized as an authority on US foreign policy and has advised presidents George Bush and Barack Obama on defense issues.
There are 10 major points from the book which were also the 10 basic tips he gave to the graduating class. Here are some snippets from the author’s speech which hopefully will inspire you to get hold of the book:
- Make your bed. “If you want to change the world start off by making your bed. 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 and 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 the 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 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.”
Can the habit of making your bed change your life for the better? Retired four-star admiral William McRaven believes so. He first discussed this life tip to the graduating class of the University of Texas in Austin in 2014. - Don’t back down from the sharks. “To pass (Navy) SEAL training, there are a series of long swims that must be completed. One is the night swim. Before the swim the instructors joyfully brief the students on all the species of sharks that inhabit the waters of San Clemente. They assure you, however, that no student has ever been eaten by a shark, at least not that they can remember. But you are also taught that if a shark begins to circle your position, stand your ground. Do not swim away. Do not act afraid and if the shark, hungry for a midnight snack, darts towards you, then summon up all your strength and punch him in the snout and he will turn and swim away. There are a lot of sharks in the world and if you hope to complete the swim, you will have to deal with them. So if you want to change the world, don’t back down from the sharks.”
- Measure men by the size of their hearts. “Over a few weeks of difficult training, my SEAL class which started with 150 men was down to just 42. There were now six boat crews of seven men each. I was in the boat with the tall guys but the best boat crew we had was made up of little guys. ‘The Munchkin Crew’ we called them. No one was over five foot five. They out-paddled, outran and out-swam all the other boat crews. Somehow these little guys reached the shore long before the rest of us. SEAL training was a great equalizer. Nothing mattered but your will to succeed—not your color, not your ethnic background, not your education, not your social status. If you want to change the world, measure a person by the size of their hearts.”
- Sing while buried deep in the mud. “The ninth week of training is referred to as Hell Week. It is six days of no sleep, constant physical and mental harassment, and one special day at the mud flats. It is on Wednesday of Hell Week that you paddle down in the mud flats and spend the next 15 hours trying to survive the freezing cold, the howling wind and the incessant pressure to quit from the instructors. As the sun began to set that Wednesday evening, my training class, having committed some egregious infraction of the rules, was ordered into the mud. The mud consumed each man until there was nothing visible but our heads the instructors told us we could leave the mud if only five men would quit. It was apparent that some students were about to give up; it was still over eight hours till the sun came up. Eight more hours of bone-chilling cold; the chattering teeth and shivering moans of the trainees were so loud it was hard to hear anything. And then one voice began to echo through the night, one voice raised in song. The song was terribly out of tune but sung with great enthusiasm. One voice became two, and two became three, and before long everyone in the class was singing. The instructors threatened us with more time in the mud if we kept up the singing but the singing persisted and somehow the mud seemed a little warmer and the wind a little tamer and the dawn not so far away. If I have learned anything in my time traveling the world, it is the power of hope.”
And finally this hopeful advice:
“The power of one person can change the world by giving people hope. So if you want to change the world, start each day with a task completed, find someone to help you through life, respect everyone, know that life is not fair and that you will fail often but if you take some risks, step up when the times are the toughest, face down the bullies, lift up the downtrodden, and never, ever give up—if you do these things —the next generation, and the generations that follow, will live in a world far better than the one we have today.”
