I remember when I was a kid and my parents used to try to get me to make my bed – I hated it. They’d say that I needed to make my bed and clean my room when people were coming over which didn’t make much sense to me because.. why would these people be coming in my room, ya know? I think this resonates with a lot of people, and a lot of people to this day hate making their bed because they see it as more of a ‘neat’ and ‘clean’ thing and they don’t care for it to be ‘neat’ and ‘clean’ – so they don’t do it. But I think making your bed goes a lot deeper than just making your room look nice.
I don’t make my bed every morning just because I want the room to look clean and tidy (although that is one reason). I make my bed every morning to start my day off with a win. The first unwanted task completed. Think about it – no one wants to make their bed the first thing in the morning. However, if you can wake up and make the conscious decision and effort to do something that you don’t want to do because you know it needs to be done, then that sets the tone for the rest of your day. Do you know how many times during the day where there is something that needs to be done whether it be around the house, at work, in the gym, etc and it doesn’t seem like much so you just kind of shrug it off to another day? Imagine if instead of shrugging off these seemingly meaningless tasks, you just bite the bullet and knock it out real quick – similar to what you did to your bed that morning. These things may seem small at the time, but all big changes are just the summation of smaller, incremental changes. If you wake up and let that first unwanted task (making your bed) defeat you, then oh well – what’s the matter if the next unwanted task doesn’t get done, right? And then if that one doesn’t get done, what’s one more? I’ll just do all of these things tomorrow and start fresh. Until.. you wake up tomorrow, you don’t make the bed again, and the cycle continues until ‘tomorrow’ becomes ‘next year’ and so-on. On the other hand, if you win that first battle of the day, you realize it wasn’t that hard – and you’re glad you did it. Then the next unwanted task arises… but you’ve already knocked out one task that day, might as well knock out the next one while you’re at it, right? That’s called setting the tone for the day.
I want to take this idea of making your bed the first thing in the morning one step further – and I am writing this post on January 1st for a reason. Similar to making your bed first thing in the morning to set the tone for the rest of the day, why don’t you try to metaphorically ‘make your bed’ first thing this year to set your tone for the year? This time of the year everyone has all of these New Year’s resolutions, all of these things they want to do the upcoming year, all these changes they want to make – but very few see these things through. Most people have these big changes they want to make, but they get overwhelmed thinking about what all it will take to get there that they don’t start it. They don’t get that first incremental win. And then their tone is set. Like I mentioned before – all big changes are just the summation of smaller, incremental changes. You don’t get the big changes without starting off focused on the smaller changes – the seemingly minuscule efforts that tend to get shrugged off to the ‘next day’. Just like biting the bullet and taking a moment to make your bed in the morning, bite the bullet and take a moment to get these changes and resolutions started – today. Not tomorrow, not next week, not February, but today. You just ‘woke up’ in this new year… Make your bed – get your first win – set the tone for the upcoming year.
In the words of Admiral William H. McRaven – ‘If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed’.
Make your bed in 2023.
Make your bed for 2023.
