MAKE YOUR BED by William H. McRaven

• If you want to change the world… start off by making your bed.
• In battle soldiers die, families grieve, your days are long and filled with anxious moments. You search for something that can give you solace, that can motivate you to begin your day, that can be a sense of pride in an oftentimes ugly world. But it is not just combat. It is daily life that needs this same sense of structure. Nothing can replace the strength and comfort of one’s faith, but sometimes the simple act of making your bed can give you the lift you need to start your day and provide you the satisfaction to end it right.
• If you want to change your life and maybe the world—start off by making your bed!
• If you want to change the world… find someone to help you paddle.
• No SEAL could make it through combat alone and by extension you needed people in your life to help you through the difficult times.
• To be an effective SEAL you had to be physically fit.
• None of us are immune from life’s tragic moments. Like the small rubber boat we had in basic SEAL training, it takes a team of good people to get you to your destination in life. You cannot paddle the boat alone. Find someone to share your life with. Make as many friends as possible, and never forget that your success depends on others.
• If you want to change the world… measure a person by the size of their heart.
• it’s not the size of your flippers that count, just the size of your heart.
• If you want to change the world… get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward.
• In all of SEAL training there was nothing more uncomfortable than being a sugar cookie.
• “Mr. Mac, do you have any idea why you are a sugar cookie this morning?” Martin said in a very calm but questioning manner. “No, Instructor Martin,” I dutifully responded. “Because, Mr. Mac, life isn’t fair and the sooner you learn that the better off you will be.”
• It is easy to blame your lot in life on some outside force, to stop trying because you believe fate is against you. It is easy to think that where you were raised, how your parents treated you, or what school you went to is all that determines your future. Nothing could be further from the truth. The common people and the great men and women are all defined by how they deal with life’s unfairness:
• Sometimes no matter how hard you try, no matter how good you are, you still end up as a sugar cookie. Don’t complain. Don’t blame it on your misfortune. Stand tall, look to the future, and drive on!
• If you want to change the world… don’t be afraid of The Circus.
• In life you will face a lot of Circuses. You will pay for your failures. But, if you persevere, if you let those failures teach you and strengthen you, then you will be prepared to handle life’s toughest moments.
• As I was to find out, change is never easy, particularly for the person in charge.
• I sometimes fell short of being the best, but I never fell short of giving it my best.
• I realized that the past failures had strengthened me, taught me that no one is immune from mistakes.
• True leaders must learn from their failures, use the lessons to motivate themselves, and not be afraid to try again or make the next tough decision.
• If you want to change the world… slide down the obstacle headfirst.
• Life is a struggle and the potential for failure is ever present, but those who live in fear of failure, or hardship, or embarrassment will never achieve their potential. Without pushing your limits, without occasionally sliding down the rope headfirst, without daring greatly, you will never know what is truly possible in your life.
• If you want to change the world… don’t back down from the sharks.
• Without courage, men will be ruled by tyrants and despots. Without courage, no great society can flourish. Without courage, the bullies of the world rise up. With it, you can accomplish any goal. With it, you can defy and defeat evil.
• Bullies are all the same; whether they are in the school yard, in the workplace, or ruling a country through terror. They thrive on fear and intimidation. Bullies gain their strength through the timid and faint of heart.
• In life, to achieve your goals, to complete the night swim, you will have to be men and women of great courage. That courage is within all of us. Dig deep, and you will find it in abundance.
• If you want to change the world… be your very best in the darkest moments.
• Tonight, you will have to be your very best. You must rise above your fears, your doubts, and your fatigue. No matter how dark it gets, you must complete the mission. This is what separates you from everyone else.”
• At some point we will all confront a dark moment in life. If not the passing of a loved one, then something else that crushes your spirit and leaves you wondering about your future. In that dark moment, reach deep inside yourself and be your very best.
• If you want to change the world… start singing when you’re up to your neck in mud.
• The truth is, when you lose a soldier you grieve for the families, but you also fear that the same fate may someday befall you.
• Hope is the most powerful force in the universe. With hope you can inspire nations to greatness. With hope you can raise up the downtrodden. With hope you can ease the pain of unbearable loss. Sometimes all it takes is one person to make a difference.
• If you want to change the world… don’t ever, ever ring the bell.
• “If you quit, you will regret it for the rest of your life. Quitting never makes anything easier.”
• Of all the lessons I learned in SEAL training, this was the most important. Never quit. It doesn’t sound particularly profound, but life constantly puts you in situations where quitting seems so much easier than continuing on. Where the odds are so stacked against you that giving up seems the rational thing to do.
• As a wartime leader you try not to internalize the human suffering. You know that it is part of combat. Soldiers get wounded. Soldiers die. If you allow every decision you make to be predicated on the possible loss of life you will struggle mightily to be effective.
• Life is full of difficult times. But someone out there always has it worse than you do. If you fill your days with pity, sorrowful for the way you have been treated, bemoaning your lot in life, blaming your circumstances on someone or something else, then life will be long and hard. If, on the other hand, you refuse to give up on your dreams, stand tall and strong against the odds—then life will be what you make of it—and you can make it great. Never, ever, ring the bell!
• Remember… 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 times are toughest, face down the bullies, lift up the downtrodden, and never, ever give up—if you do these things, then you can change your life for the better… and maybe the world!
• If you think it’s hard to change the lives of ten people, change their lives forever, you’re wrong.
• But changing the world can happen anywhere, and anyone can do it.
• Our struggles in this world are similar and the lessons to overcome those struggles and to move forward—changing ourselves and the world around us—will apply equally to all.
• 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.
• If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.
• For the boat to make it to its destination, everyone must paddle.
• You can’t change the world alone—you will need some help—and to truly get from your starting point to your destination takes friends, colleagues, the goodwill of strangers, and a strong coxswain to guide them.
• If you want to change the world, find someone to help you paddle.
• If you want to change the world, measure a person by the size of their heart, not the size of their flippers.
• Sometimes no matter how well you prepare or how well you perform you still end up as a sugar cookie. It’s just the way life is sometimes.
• If you want to change the world, get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward.
• Life is filled with circuses. You will fail. You will likely fail often. It will be painful. It will be discouraging. At times it will test you to your very core.
• If you want to change the world, don’t be afraid of the Circuses.
• If you want to change the world, sometimes you have to slide down the obstacle headfirst.
• There are a lot of sharks in the world. If you hope to complete the swim you will have to deal with them.
• If you want to change the world, don’t back down from the sharks.
• If you want to change the world, you must be your very best in the darkest moment.
• If I have learned anything in my time traveling the world, it is the power of hope.
• One person can change the world by giving people hope.
• If you want to change the world, start singing when you’re up to your neck in mud.
• If you want to change the world, don’t ever, ever ring the bell.
• 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 toughest, face down the bullies, lift up the downtrodden, and never, ever give up… if you do these things, then the next generation and the generations that follow will live in a world far better than the one we have today. And what started here will indeed have changed the world, for the better.