I Read a Book About Making Your Bed

It’s called Make Your Bed by Admiral William H. McRaven. It’s a little book of less than 144 pages that I bought sale on my kindle for just $2.99 and read in about an hour.

In all honesty, it’s more of a small series of essays that expand upon the commencement speech that Admiral McRaven gave at the University of Texas at Austin in 2014 than a full-blown book about making your bed. The subtitle of the work is “Little Things That Can Change Your Life…And Maybe the World” and it includes ten chapters each based on life lessons that the former U.S. Navy SEAL learned from his training and career serving in the military.

In addition to the injunction to make your bed, these include bits of advice such as “You can’t go it alone,” “Give people hope,” and “Never, ever quit!”

Takeaways

Although the section on the importance of making your bed is quite short, one part of its message rings especially true today.

While there are many things that are completely out of my control right now, one thing that I can control is my small corner of space. My room and my bed. I can make sure that they are in order and that gives me a small sense of satisfaction and ownership over my life.

Would I recommend?

I did gain a small bit of affirmation for my “making my bed” practice from reading the book. But, given that it’s now selling for $11.48 on Amazon, I have to say it’s not worth the price.

Instead, I recommend watching a video of the commencement speech or reading a transcript of Admiral McRaven’s words of wisdom. It’ll have the same if not greater impact, plus it’s free!