Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...And Maybe the World by Admiral William H. McRaven
I listen to Admiral McRaven's commencement speech every week. Not every day. Not randomly. Every week. The book expands on that famous University of Texas address, but the speech is what hooks you. Ten lessons from Navy SEAL training distilled into something almost too simple to be wisdom: start your day by making your bed, and you have already won. That simplicity is precisely why it works.
The Book I Live Weekly
The Speech That Became a Ritual
Every week I listen to Admiral McRaven's speech. The MotivationHub version, with the dramatic music and editing. Not every day, which would dilute it. Not randomly, which would make it background noise. Intentionally, weekly. Usually Sunday night or Monday morning when I need to reset.
Make Your Bed is the book version of that famous University of Texas commencement address. Admiral William H. McRaven, a Navy SEAL with decades of experience, distills life lessons from training into ten simple principles. The core message: If you want to change the world, start by making your bed.
This sounds ridiculously simple. Almost patronizing. Make your bed? That is the wisdom from one of the most elite military forces on the planet? But that simplicity is precisely the point. Grand transformations do not start with grand gestures. They start with small, consistent actions that compound over time.
The book expands and provides context. The speech captures the raw energy and simplicity. Together they form a practice, not a read-once-and-forget motivational book.
Why this matters. Why I return weekly.
In a world of complex productivity systems and life hacks, "make your bed" is refreshingly actionable. Radical simplicity.
One small win first thing in the morning sets the tone for the entire day. Days compound into weeks, weeks into months. Compounding discipline.
This is not a self-help guru theorizing. It is a four-star Admiral who commanded SEAL teams and the operation that killed Bin Laden. Credibility earned, not claimed.
When life feels chaotic, returning to basic discipline provides grounding. Make your bed. Do the small things right.
The speech version serves as weekly recalibration. Am I doing the small things? Am I maintaining standards? Am I staying disciplined?
For anyone struggling with discipline, anyone who needs simple principles that actually work, anyone tired of overcomplicated self-help, this book and speech deliver. (Buy on Amazon)
Book Details at a Glance
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Title | Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...And Maybe the World |
| Author | Admiral William H. McRaven, U.S. Navy (Ret.) |
| Publication Year | 2017 |
| Genre | Self-Help, Leadership, Military, Motivation |
| Length | ~130 pages (quick read, heavy impact) |
| Origin | University of Texas at Austin 2014 commencement address |
| Main Themes | Daily discipline, Small wins, Resilience, Leadership, Standards, Perseverance |
| Key Principle | Start each day with a task completed: make your bed |
| Speech Version | MotivationHub YouTube (20 min) |
| Who Should Read? | Anyone needing discipline, anyone building habits, anyone who values simplicity over complexity |
The Ten Lessons: Training Applied to Life
The book structures around ten lessons from Navy SEAL training. What stuck with me. Why I keep returning.
- Start Your Day with a Task Completed
Make your bed every morning. Not because it matters whether your bed is made. Because you have completed your first task of the day. You have won. You have maintained a standard.
This creates momentum. One small win leads to another. By the time you have showered and had coffee, you have already accomplished multiple tasks. The day feels productive before it has really started.
The flip side: If you cannot do the little things right, you will never do the big things right. If you cannot maintain basic standards, how will you maintain higher ones?
Why I return to this weekly: It is easy to let standards slip. "It is just a bed, it does not matter." But that is exactly when discipline matters most, when it seems not to. The weekly reset reminds me. Small things matter.
- You Cannot Go It Alone
SEAL training emphasizes teamwork. You succeed as a boat crew or you fail as a boat crew. Individual heroics do not work when you need seven men paddling in sync through freezing surf.
The lesson: Find people who will help you paddle through life. Build your crew. Support others so they will support you when you struggle.
My boat crew is scattered. Work colleagues on projects, friends for sanity checks, family for foundations. But the principle holds. You cannot succeed alone.
- Only the Size of Your Heart Matters
Physical size, background, credentials. SEAL training does not care. What matters is heart, determination, grit. The smallest often outlast the biggest because they have something to prove.
In tech, in business, in life, credentials get you in the door but determination keeps you there. I have seen brilliant people quit when things got hard and average people excel through sheer persistence.
- Life Is Not Fair. Drive On.
Some days you will do everything right and still get punished. Your boat crew will win the race and still do extra push-ups because the instructor is having a bad day. That is not fair. But fairness is irrelevant. What matters is how you respond.
Do not waste energy complaining about unfairness. Acknowledge it. Then drive on. Control what you can control. Accept what you cannot.
I need this weekly because it is easy to get bitter about unfair situations. The speech resets my perspective: unfairness is universal, response is individual.
- Failure Can Make You Stronger
In SEAL training, if you fail inspection, you get rolled back. Sent to an earlier class to repeat training. This feels like failure. But those who got rolled back often became the strongest performers because they had learned from mistakes.
Failure is not final unless you quit. It is data. Use it.
Every production incident, every blown deadline, every failed project. Data for improvement if I treat it that way.
- You Must Dare Greatly
There is a training exercise where you slide down a rope from a tower, facing backward into darkness, trusting the rope and your training. It is terrifying. But if you do not take the leap, you do not graduate.
The big opportunities require daring greatly. Starting a business, making a career change, committing to a relationship. You cannot guarantee outcomes. But you have to take the leap.
Fear is constant. Every week brings new situations requiring courage. The speech reminds me that daring greatly is the only way forward.
- Stand Up to the Bullies
SEAL training has sugar cookie punishment. Get wet and sandy, stay miserable all day. It is humiliating. The lesson: bullies exist everywhere, and the only way to beat them is to refuse to be intimidated.
Stand up to injustice. Speak truth to power. Refuse to accept abuse as normal. Easy to say, hard to do, necessary to practice.
- Rise to the Occasion
The darkest moment of SEAL training is Hell Week. Five days of continuous physical activity on minimal sleep. This is when most people quit. Those who make it discover reserves they did not know they had.
You are capable of far more than you think. When pushed to limits, you find another gear.
I have had Hell Weeks. Project crunches, family crises, overlapping emergencies. Getting through them proved I could. The speech reminds me I have done hard things before and can do them again.
- Give People Hope
In the darkest moments of Hell Week, instructors would sometimes sing. Not to torment. To give hope. A reminder that even in suffering, there is humanity and music and light.
When you are leading through difficulty, your job is not just to drive. It is to give hope. There is purpose. It will end.
When colleagues are stressed, projects are failing, morale is low, what song am I singing? Am I providing hope or just adding to the darkness?
- Never, Ever Quit
The final lesson is simple. If you want to change the world, do not ever, ever ring the bell. In SEAL training, there is a bell you ring to quit. Ring it and the pain stops. But so does the dream.
Quitting is always an option. But it is rarely the right one. Persist through discomfort, uncertainty, setback. The only guaranteed way to fail is to quit.
Persistence requires constant recommitment. Every week I need the reminder. Do not ring the bell. Keep going.
Why the Speech Over the Book
The weekly practice centers on the MotivationHub speech version.
Time efficiency: 20 minutes. Weekly commitment is manageable.
Emotional impact: The original commencement delivery, McRaven's voice, the editing and music. It hits emotionally in ways text does not.
Ritual quality: Listening becomes a ritual, a reset. Reading does not have the same weekly practice feel.
Pure principles: The speech is condensed. Just the core lessons without expansion. Sometimes you need the undiluted version.
Accessibility: Audio while commuting, exercising, doing dishes. The speech fits into life without requiring dedicated time.
The book and speech work together. The speech for weekly practice. The book for deeper exploration when ready.
The Weekly Practice: Why It Works
Every week. Not daily, which would become background noise. Not monthly, which is too infrequent for reinforcement. Weekly.
Regular reset. Weekly reminds me if I have let standards slip. Am I making my bed? Am I doing small things right?
Accountability checkpoint. Did I dare greatly this week? Did I help my crew? Did I give hope when things got hard?
Motivation renewal. Discipline depletes. Weekly recharging prevents running empty.
Pattern recognition. Listening weekly lets you notice which lessons you need that week. Sometimes it is dare greatly. Sometimes it is drive on. Sometimes it is do not ring the bell.
Habit reinforcement. The weekly practice itself becomes a discipline. Consistency in consuming discipline content reinforces consistency in practice.
Honest confession: I do not always make my bed. I let it slide, think it does not matter, and then notice discipline slipping in other areas. The weekly speech catches that drift and resets me.
Real-World Impact: Does This Actually Work?
The cynic in me wants to dismiss this as motivational fluff. But the evidence is hard to ignore.
Morning momentum. Weeks when I consistently make my bed, I am more productive. Correlation is not causation. But the pattern is clear.
Standard maintenance. Small disciplines prevent big collapses. Maintaining standards in small things makes maintaining them in big things easier.
Resilience building. The lessons, persevere, help your crew, dare greatly, are not just motivation. They are operational protocols for getting through hard things.
Weekly recalibration. The practice of returning weekly prevents long drifts. Course corrections happen in days, not months.
What does not work: Reading the book once, feeling motivated, then forgetting. The power is in regular return. In making it practice, not just inspiration.
Final Thoughts
Rating: 5/5. Simple, actionable, profound. Required reading and weekly listening.
This is one of those rare books where the simplicity is the genius. Make your bed. Do the little things right. Help your crew. Do not quit. These are not complex strategies. They are foundational disciplines that work because they are simple enough to actually practice.
Who should read this:
- Anyone struggling with discipline and consistency
- Anyone building habits and daily routines
- Leaders responsible for teams
- Anyone who has let standards slip and needs reset
- People who prefer simple principles over complex systems
Who can skip this:
- Anyone allergic to military metaphors
- Cynics who dismiss simple wisdom as simplistic
- People who do not believe small actions compound
How to use this book:
- Start with the speech for immediate impact
- Watch it weekly for reinforcement
- Make your bed every morning for a week
- Notice what changes when you maintain small standards
- Return to the speech when discipline slips
📖 Buy Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life on Amazon
The weekly challenge: Listen to the speech every week for a month. Make your bed every day for that month. See what changes. You will notice the compound effect of small disciplines.
Companion practices:
- Atomic Habits by James Clear, for habit formation framework
- Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink, for more SEAL leadership lessons
- Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins, for the intense version
This book gave me something I did not know I needed. Permission to focus on small things instead of chasing complex transformations. Make your bed. Win your first task. Let that compound. Simple, powerful, actionable.
Related Reading
If the discipline and small-wins philosophy resonates, you might also enjoy:
The Man Who Solved the Market - Jim Simons' Renaissance Technologies proves that discipline beats intuition in trading. The systematic execution and ruthless adherence to process mirrors McRaven's philosophy of doing the small things right. Applied to quantitative finance instead of military operations.
The Tao of Pooh - Interesting counterpoint to McRaven's disciplined approach. Where SEAL training emphasizes control and structure, Pooh represents effortless flow and wu wei. Both work. Discipline when building foundations, flow when executing from mastery.
Shoe Dog by Phil Knight - Phil Knight's Nike memoir shows how daily discipline compounds into building a global brand. Years of grinding through cash flow crises, maintaining small standards (like McRaven's made bed), and showing up every day despite uncertainty. Entrepreneurship as applied discipline.
Decan 28: Algol, Renewal Through Challenge - My decanal journal exploring how discipline before action creates renewal. The connection between military-style morning routines and 10-day tracking cycles for building systems that compound.
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