Make Your Bed

Small Things That Can Change Your Life…And Maybe the World

self-help
personal development
leadership
motivation
Change your world, one task at a time. This Learnerd summary of Admiral William H. McRaven’s “Make Your Bed” distills ten profound lessons from Navy SEAL training into actionable principles for overcoming adversity, achieving your goals, and making a positive impact.

1 Listen to Make Your Bed Summary

2 Book Summary: Make Your Bed

Admiral William H. McRaven’s “Make Your Bed” expands on his viral 2014 commencement speech, sharing ten profound lessons learned during his thirty-seven years as a Navy SEAL. These principles are not just for soldiers; they are universal truths that can help anyone overcome life’s challenges, achieve their goals, and ultimately, change the world for the better. The core idea is that small, consistent acts of discipline and courage compound over time to create extraordinary results.

2.1 Lesson 1: Start Your Day with a Task Completed

If you want to change the world, start by making your bed.

  1. The First Accomplishment: Making your bed perfectly every morning is the first completed task of the day. This simple act gives you a small sense of pride.
  2. The Domino Effect: This initial success encourages you to complete another task, and then another. It sets a positive tone for the entire day.
  3. Reinforcing the Details: It reinforces the fact that the little things in life matter. If you can’t do the small things right, you’ll never be able to do the big things right.
  4. A Beacon of Hope: If you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made - that you made. This provides encouragement that tomorrow will be better.

The act of making your bed is a daily demonstration of discipline and attention to detail. It’s a constant you can control, regardless of the chaos happening in the outside world. This small victory provides a foundation of order and accomplishment to build upon.

2.2 Lesson 2: You Can’t Go It Alone

If you want to change the world, find someone to help you paddle.

  1. The Power of Teamwork: During SEAL training, trainees must paddle a ten-foot rubber raft through heavy surf. It’s impossible unless every member paddles in unison and with equal effort.
  2. Rely on Others: Life’s challenges are like that surf. You cannot overcome them alone. You need friends, colleagues, and mentors to help you reach your destination.
  3. Offer Support in Return: When a team member is sick or exhausted, the others must paddle harder to pick up the slack. Be prepared to support others, knowing that you will one day need their support in return.

2.3 Lesson 3: Only the Size of Your Heart Matters

If you want to change the world, measure a person by the size of their heart.

  1. Performance Over Appearance: In SEAL training, the “munchkin crew” - a team of the smallest trainees - consistently outperformed all the larger, more physically imposing crews.
  2. Will to Succeed: SEAL training is a great equaliser. Nothing matters but your will to succeed. Your background, ethnicity, education, or social status are irrelevant.
  3. Grit and Determination: True strength comes from within. Determination and grit are far more important than raw talent or physical size. Judge people (and yourself) on their character and resilience.

2.4 Principles for Overcoming Adversity

During uniform inspections, instructors would always find a flaw, no matter how perfect the uniform. The punishment was to become a “sugar cookie” - diving into the surf and then rolling in the sand. This taught an invaluable lesson:

  • Accept Unfairness: Sometimes, no matter how hard you try or how well you perform, you will fail or face unjust criticism. Life isn’t always fair.
  • Don’t Complain: Complaining or blaming your misfortune won’t change the outcome.
  • Keep Moving Forward: The only productive response is to accept the situation, learn from it if you can, and keep driving forward toward your goal.

Failing any daily event in SEAL training earned you a spot on “The Circus” list—two hours of extra, punishing calisthenics designed to break your spirit.

  • Embrace Failure’s Price: You will fail, and you will pay a price for it. This is unavoidable.
  • Failure Builds Resilience: The students who constantly found themselves at The Circus grew physically and mentally stronger. The pain built resilience and inner strength.
  • Don’t Fear The Circus: Life is full of circuses. Don’t be afraid of them. Let your failures teach you, strengthen you, and prepare you for life’s toughest challenges.

The obstacle course record seemed unbeatable until one student tackled the “Slide for Life” headfirst—a faster but much riskier technique.

  • Push Your Limits: You will never know what is truly possible in your life without pushing your limits and taking calculated risks.
  • Overcome Fear: Those who live in fear of failure, hardship, or embarrassment will never achieve their full potential.
  • Dare to Try: Life’s struggles require you to occasionally slide down the rope headfirst. Trust your abilities and dare greatly.

2.5 Other Key Ideas

The waters off San Clemente Island are full of sharks. Trainees are taught that if a shark circles, they must stand their ground. If it attacks, punch it in the snout.

  • Courage is Essential: Bullies, like sharks, thrive on fear and intimidation. They gain strength from the timid.
  • Don’t Back Down: To achieve your goals, you must have the courage to face down the bullies in your life. Don’t act afraid; stand your ground.
  • Find Your Inner Strength: Courage is within all of us. When you stand up to intimidation, you will find it in abundance.

The underwater ship attack mission requires swimming two miles at night to find the ship’s keel - the darkest, most disorienting point of the mission. It is here a SEAL must be at their absolute best.

  • Be Your Best in the Darkest Moments: At some point, we all confront dark moments—the loss of a loved one, a career failure, a personal crisis.
  • Compose Yourself: In that dark moment, you must be calm and composed. It is the time to bring all your skills, power, and inner strength to bear.
  • Reach Deep Inside: When your spirit is crushed, reach deep inside yourself and be your very best. This is what will separate you from everyone else.

During the infamous “Hell Week,” trainees were ordered into freezing mud for 15 hours, with instructors tempting them to quit. When morale was at its lowest, one student began to sing. Soon, the whole class joined in, their collective will strengthened.

  • The Power of One: One person can change the world by giving people hope.
  • Hope is a Force Multiplier: Hope is the most powerful force in the universe. It can inspire nations and raise up the downtrodden.
  • Start Singing: When you find yourself up to your neck in mud, that is the time to lift up those around you and give them hope that tomorrow will be a better day.

A brass bell hangs in the centre of the SEAL training compound. A trainee can quit at any time by simply ringing it three times.

  • Quitting is the Easy Way Out: Life will constantly present situations where quitting seems much easier than continuing.
  • Regret is Permanent: If you quit, you will regret it for the rest of your life. Quitting never makes anything easier in the long run.
  • Refuse to Give Up: No matter how difficult times get, refuse to give up on your dreams. Stand tall against the odds and never, ever ring the bell.

2.6 Key Principles to Live By

  • 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.
  • Take some risks.
  • Step up when times are toughest.
  • Face down the bullies.
  • Lift up the downtrodden.
  • Never, ever give up.

3 Summary Video

4 Practise

The simplest and most direct way to practise the book’s core lesson is to commit to the title’s advice. For the next 30 days, make your bed every single morning without fail, as soon as you get out of it. Pay attention to the details. Make it to a high standard. Observe how this small, consistent act of discipline affects the rest of your day and your general mindset. Does it create a domino effect of productivity and order as the Admiral suggests?

5 Learn More

  • Get the book: Make Your Bed by William H. McRaven book cover
Back to top