I saw something interesting on my TikTok feed this week: an inspirational speech by Admiral William McRaven. Although it was an old one, it still resonated with me. McRaven said, “If you want to change the world, start by making your bed.” My first reaction to this was, huh? As a young adult, I always argued with my mother about making the bed. I never understood the point of it, especially if I was just going to mess it up again later. I hated making my bed, and I’m not even sure why I kept arguing about it.
But then, McRaven explained that making your bed in the morning is the first task you accomplish of the day. It’s a simple, basic task, but it’s a completed task nonetheless. When you start your day by completing just one thing, it sets the tone for accomplishing more throughout the day.
Often, when we decide to make huge changes in our lives—especially around New Year’s—we aim for something big without breaking it down into smaller, achievable steps. And when we can’t figure out how to tackle it, we give up. Many people say they want to organize their house this year, but that’s such a big, vague task that most give up by the second week of January. If we instead commit to organizing one drawer each month, it becomes more achievable and easy to manage. We often say we’ll lose weight or enroll in a gym, but forget to break our exercise routines into small, manageable steps.
Life isn’t always about the end goal, but about how we reach it. We need to write down our plans, break them into smaller steps, and focus on accomplishing those.
So, start your morning by making your bed. It doesn’t need to be perfect, but seeing that one small task completed will give you the motivation to continue. I know it always makes me feel happy and ready to take on the day.
Schpilkes The Blog 