My husband is not a big reader. He has a job where he’s on his feet from eight to ten hours a day, and once he gets home, it’s supper, maybe a quick errand with the kids, and family movie night. Yes, he participates, and, as I’ve mentioned a few times, it de-stresses all of us and has been deemed necessary. After that it’s YouTube clips until bed. My husband loves military history so once a short came up on his recommended list about a retired navy admiral encouraging everyone to start their day by making their bed. He showed me, and I was hooked. Granted, I do make my bed most days if the cats haven’t captured it, but this video motivated me to make my bed every time. Fast forward, Admiral McRaven wrote a recommendation on the back of James Patterson’s memoir that I just completed. I told my husband that by the way, Make Your Bed is now a book, and would he want to read it over our winter break trip. Answering in the affirmative, I picked it up from the library and couldn’t resist pre-reading it myself.
Admiral William McRaven served in the navy for thirty seven years and has picked up much life knowledge along the way. Make Your Bed was originally a commencement speech that he gave to his Alma mater the University of Texas in 2014. When he saw that his speech about making your bed went viral on YouTube, he was encourage to craft the twelve lessons he gave at the speech into a book. All of the lessons focus on his service in the navy and what he learned along the way. Civilians from all walks of life can learn from these lessons even if they are not fit or otherwise want to join the navy. The navy seals are among the most physically fit people in the world. They go through hell week as part of their basic training and many in the platoon quit. The average person, myself included, is not fit to join the navy seals, much less swim with sharks and walk up to their shoulders in mud. Not quitting when a task seems to be too much because the reward is that much greater is a universal lesson that can be taken to heart. I know it makes me pause when I complain about mundane tasks like balancing work and errands. I think I can withstand it.
Many of these lessons do include vignettes about the navy seals. Having been drawn into being obsessed with the navy thanks to Top Gun (story for another time, see family movie night reference), I found most of these stories to be engaging and eye opening. I can sleep safely at night due to the sacrifices that these brave men and women make every day. Yet, that is not the message that McRaven makes here. He says that if you make your bed in the morning, you can feel like you accomplished something that day. And even if your day turned out not so good, you can come home at night and lie down on a clean, well made bed that you made on your own. That was the gist of the viral YouTube video, commencement speech, and book. I gleaned much and left encouraged from it. Even though it is short, the message is large, and I have a feeling my husband will enjoy it as well.
3.5 stars