Make Your Bed by William H. McRaven — book cover

Make Your Bed

William H. McRaven · 2017

Drawing on his commencement speech that went viral, Navy SEAL Admiral William H. McRaven distills four decades of training and combat into ten plain-spoken rules for living a disciplined, resilient life. Each lesson starts with one small act and builds toward the conviction that the way you handle the smallest things shapes the way you handle everything.

10 min read · 10 chapters · Motivation

Why it’s on the shelf

Short, punchy life lessons on discipline and resilience drawn from Navy SEAL training.

Three of the ideas you’ll keep

The Clif summary of Make Your Bed pulls out 8 insights. Here are the first three.

  1. Win the first hour: complete one small task the moment you wake (make your bed) so you start every day with momentum and a tangible sense of accomplishment.
  2. Stop trying to do everything alone. Find your 'boat crew' of people who will paddle when you're spent, and be willing to paddle for them.
  3. Judge yourself and others by the size of the heart, not the size of the resume, the body, or the title; grit and determination beat raw talent.

The other 5 — and the full 10-minute summary — are in the app.

What’s inside: 10 chapters

The whole summary runs about 10 minutes, read or listened to.

  1. Start Your Day With a Task Completed
  2. You Can't Go It Alone
  3. Only the Size of Your Heart Matters
  4. Life's Not Fair, Drive On
  5. Don't Be Afraid of the Circus
  6. You Must Dare Greatly
  7. Stand Up to the Bullies
  8. Rise to the Occasion in the Darkest Moment
  9. Give People Hope
  10. Never Ever Quit

Finish Make Your Bed tonight.

Read or listen to the full summary in about 10 minutes, then keep the ideas with a minute of review a day. Start with the 2-minute quiz — no card required.