MAKE YOUR BED

"If you want to change the world - 
start off by making your bed."
William McRaven, US Navy Admiral (Ret.)

Each day I wake up around 5am.

Most days I get right to a work out.  Some days I have early morning meetings that prevent my work out until later in the day.  Even when that happens, I'm still up at 5am.

Today, as I got up, I was drinking a copy of coffee and got on to a closed Facebook group I am a part of.  It is health, fitness, wellness, inspirational related.  As I was looking at this morning's post, there was a link to an inspirational video by an influencer named Lewis Howes (click HERE to watch).

In it, he talks about intention and routine. Right at the front, he says the first thing he does....MAKES HIS BED!

This started me thinking about the WHY behind making your bed and if I could draw some significance to it...some leadership lesson.  

What is it about making your bed that leads to influence and success?

So, I GOOGLED, "why do you make your bed" and came up with some questions and answers on the health benefits, the mental benefits, and a few other things about making your bed.

BUT....then I saw a link to a video by US Navy Admiral (Ret.) William McRaven.  It was a video of the commencement speech he gave to the graduating class of 2014 from the University of Texas.

The slogan for UT says, "What starts here changes the world."

In his speech, he tells of 10 lessons he learned when he was going through Navy Seal Training.  10 lessons in life, that one can do, IF they want to change the world.

Right out of the gate, his number 1 lesson was: MAKE YOUR BED.

He said that making your bed is a simple task, mundane at best.  

But.....

"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."

I won't go into the other 9 lessons, but if you want to watch the full speech (and it is worth the watch), click HERE.

Don't bypass what looks like simple, mundane tasks in your day, because even the successful have found out that the reason they are successful is because they have developed the habits of doing things the unsuccessful are unwilling to do.

So, if you want to change the world, to start, MAKE YOUR BED!

NOTE: 

I don't usually make our bed, because most mornings when I get up, the CHEERLEADER is still in bed.  But after she wakes up, I have noticed one of the first things she does is MAKE THE BED!  She is a WORLD CHANGER!

To watch a quick 6 minute excerpt of the commencement speech that gives all 10 lessons, click HERE