Musings from the CU Suite

Written by Anthony Demangone

It is that time of year again, when the high schools and universities scattered across America hold their graduations.  Each graduation has a commencement speech, and some are simply fantastic.

The University of Texas had a good one this year, given by U.S. Navy Admiral and University of Texas, Austin, alumnus William H. McRaven.  He is the man who organized the Osama bin Laden raid. 

Drawing on his experience as a Seal, he gave some thought to what you must do if you want to change the world. He started with...making your bed.

Every morning in basic SEAL training, my instructors, who at the time were all Viet Nam veterans, would show up in my barracks room and the first thing they would inspect was your bed.

If you did it right, the corners would be square, the covers pulled tight, the pillow centered just under the headboard and the extra blanket folded neatly at the foot of the rack—rack—that's Navy talk for bed.

It was a simple task—mundane at best. But every morning we were required to make our bed to perfection. It seemed a little ridiculous at the time, particularly in light of the fact that were aspiring to be real warriors, tough battle hardened SEALs—but the wisdom of this simple act has been proven to me many times over.

If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another.

By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter.

If you can't do the little things right, you will never do the big things right.

And, if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made—that you made—and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.

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

I'll leave you to read the rest of his speech (and link also gives you the video as well) , but I really liked the portion of his talk noted above. 

So, faithful readers, what would be your advice to the class of 2014? 

***

Related content

• Graduation, Advice, Golden Rules and More. (Musings.)
• Friday Bonus: Graduation Advice (Musings.)

***

Tomorrow is the last day to take advantage of the early-bird rate for NAFCU's annual conference! I hope to see you in Las Vegas this July!