Tip 680: Make Your Bed

From the Personal Development Workshops: Make Your Bed Every Morning

An interesting coming-together of ideas.

Two weeks ago, we talked of staying on task. 

Last week, we talked about how we’re responsible for our attitudes.

This week, we’ll talk of how staying on a task can generate a positive attitude. 

We share counsel from retired Admiral William McRaven, former commander of Joint Special Operations Command (the Army’s Delta Force, the Navy’s Seal Team Six, and the Air Force’s 24th Special Tactics Squadron).

In a speech at the University of Texas, he offered some specific—and simple—advice:   

If you make your bed every morning you’ll 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’s 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.

There’s a temptation to dismiss the counsel as facile. Overly simple. But the experience of those who’ve lived the counsel is otherwise. It’s a good way to start the day. It feels good.