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WillowOne's Positions

Make Your Bed

Overview

Subtitled Little Things That Can Change Your Life... And Maybe the World, expanded from the commencement address McRaven, a retired admiral and former head of US Special Operations Command, gave at the University of Texas in 2014. Ten short chapters, each a lesson from Navy SEAL training paired with a story from his career: start the day by making your bed, find someone to help you paddle, measure a person by the size of their heart, get over being a sugar cookie, do not be afraid of the circuses, sometimes go head first, do not back down from the sharks, be your very best in the darkest moment, start singing when you are up to your neck in mud, and never ring the bell.

Notes

I am suspicious of the self-help genre and this is the exception I make. It is an hour long, it makes no claims it cannot back, and the advice is sound: do the small thing properly, expect to fail and carry on, and your position in a group is decided by what you do for it. The chapter on sugar cookies, about being punished for nothing and getting on with it anyway, is a useful antidote to the belief that the world owes you consistency. The speech is on YouTube and is, honestly, the better version.

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