It was a sunny day in May of 2020. There were beams of light seeping through my window. The warmth reminded me that summer was near. As a senior in high school, I was never more eager for the school year to end. Not only was my painstaking high school career almost over, but the beginning of summer meant the end of staring at my laptop screen for hours of online school. Online school was largely a blur of blank stares and occasional unmuting. However, on this one particular day in my AP Literature class, my teacher played a video. The message of this video somehow stuck with me and changed my life forever.
In 2014, Navy Seal Admiral Mcraven delivered the commencement speech to the graduating class at the University of Texas at Austin. In this speech, he gives advice based on what he has learned over the course of his 36 years as a navy seal. While all of his advice was great, there is one piece of advice in particular that I remember: Make your bed everyday. Despite the fact that he and his peers were risking their lives, they were also required to make their bed perfectly everyday. While this task may seem mundane, the reason it is so powerful is because of the effect that it has on your mindset.
Starting off the day by making your bed seems ineffectual. How would making your bed have any impact on your day at all? It actually has many small impacts that are overlooked. For one, by accomplishing this simple task, you feel a sense of accomplishment which boosts your self-esteem at the start of the day. By making your bed, you are sending a message to yourself that your day is starting and that your time of rest is over. Furthermore, how much better does it feel to come home to a nicely made bed as opposed to pillows all over the floor and a crumpled blanket.
While all of these little impacts are perks of making your bed, they are not the reason why making your bed is life-changing. Starting this habit results in a mindset shift. It causes us to believe in the significance of the little things. It shows us that accomplishing one small thing feels rewarding and pushes us to continue to accomplish things one at a time. We start with something as small as making our beds and work our way up until we make great impacts on the people around us.
All of us have things that we hope to accomplish and many of these things may feel out of reach. This is why we must take things one step at a time and making your bed can be the first step to reaching your end goal.