book summary of “ Make Your Bed ” by William R.McRaven
Make Your Bed
A true student learns his lesson from everyone he sees. Sometimes this person is a thinker who has been dead for thousands of years or a veteran who has taken part in various battles. When we try to take lessons from the experience of others instead of judging or criticizing them, we become acquainted with interesting dimensions of our own existence. In fact, it invites us to an appointment with ourselves. In this article, we discuss about the book “Make Your Bed” by William R.McRaven and look at his experiences. Stay with us.
John C. Maxwell:
“Sometimes the smallest step in the right makes a huge difference in your life.”
Use the smallest things to change yourself
The point that is emphasized in this book is the hidden power in small things. Some of us are looking for big excuses to change. Since we think our lives will definitely change with them. For example, we spend a lot of money to attend a conference. Due to the fact that we think that the speaker has something new to change in his pocket. Unaware that the most important things that can slowly change our lives are very close to us. As a result, we do not have to go far or spend a lot of money to hear that important truth from someone else.
We need to go back to our first day job and change our reaction to that action. What is the first thing you do every day? Open your eyes? Thinking about what you need to do that day? Arrange yourself and your bed? The first task is the first fight in the first minutes of your day. This is very simple but very powerful and effective. Because it prepares your mind to continue a day full of motivation and hope. So do your first thing in the best way you can. Then let the energy of this morning success fill the rest of your day with beauty and strength.
The voice of a group is louder than the voice of one person
Insisting on doing things alone is a direct path to destruction and experiencing low efficiency. The greatest successes and joys that the history of the earth has seen have been the result of teamwork. Extinguishing the fires of world wars, the joy of watching World Cup matches, the change of corrupt and oppressive regimes, and the astonishing developments that changed the course of society are just a few small examples of the power of teamwork.
One of the reasons that people are led to do individual work is the fear of criticism. In the words of Napoleon Hill: “Do not worry about what others say, think or do. Rather suppress the fear of criticism.” When you enter a group, you are like a piece of rock that has just been placed along the river. If you persevere and stay where you are, the sharp corners of your being will become so intertwined with water and other stones that you will not have a sharp spot left. Of course, this does not mean that you are in the shape of others. It means your harmony with others and becoming me. The relationship that results from this coordination and harmony between you and the members of that team allows you to cope with the most difficult tasks and change the world even if you want to.
Martin Luther King:
“The true standard of man is not where he stands now. What matters is where it stands in times of challenge and in times of trouble.”
You will win as much as the your courage and braveness
The book “Make Your Bed” is a familiar yet new story of the courage of hearts. “The only criterion that determines our greatness is the size of our heart,” the book states. Of course, there are many small people who do not accept this. Most of them have not even thought about growing up, taking a step further and enduring difficult situations. I did not think about these cases either. Because I experienced each and every one of them during my years in the army with my skin, flesh and bones. After years and years of experience of good and bad, victory and defeat, I came to the conclusion that we humans do not succeed as much as money, equipment, facilities, and not even as much as political power, but as big and wide as our hearts. A brave and big heart is our only real asset in times of trouble. A big heart keeps the light of hope on in us, and this is the reason why some people do amazing things in their lives.
Do not seek a just life, fight!
Life is not a war, but sometimes it becomes a battlefield. In the meantime, your efforts to have a better life, more wealth, or a better position will be wasted in less than a moment. As if they did not exist from the beginning. Each of us has been in such situations at least once. However, only a handful can withstand these sudden storms.
You may think to yourself that these people must be strong human beings, yet the main issue is not being strong. What makes some people go through these crises well and their eyes light up on the beauty of the sun after a storm is the goal they are looking at. Most of us have a laid back attitude when it comes to painting a picture about ourselves.
The right response to these situations however, is to be patient and look forward to the next sunny morning. As someone who has survived more than thirty years in the worst storms of his life.
Let us tell you something:
“Never give up. No matter how hard the storm is, the sun rises again.”
Failure is not a monster
A part of the book talks about the story of fear of failure. Fear of failure turns it into a monster, but if we approach it, instead of a scary creature, we find a kind friend and a compassionate teacher. I agree that failure is a painful adventure, but no failure is unreasonable. If you are a curious traveler, you can penetrate the heart of failure and get your own hidden reward.
The world’s largest businessmen and the most successful people living on this planet have the record for the most and the biggest failures. Their common denominator is to fail as much as you can in life. Because it is the fractures that show you the right path. After all, your failure is a sign of your superiority over others. Because compared to those who just talk, you have entered the field and fought hard. As a result, your least common goal is to become familiar with the battlefield. do not be scared. What you do not kill will make you stronger.
American poet Edgar Guest:
“Thousands of people tell you it can’t be done. Thousands predict failure. Thousands of people point at you one by one and point out the dangers that they like to surround you with. But all you have to do is take off your coat and put it on again. All you have to do is start reading and say, “It may not be possible, but I can do it!”
Hope keeps you alive
Sometimes anger, sadness and a lot of problems fall on a person at once. This is the time when your eyes do not struggle to find the blind side of the light. Because you are in absolute darkness. At this time, nothing but hope can save you; Hope for the problems to end, for enlightenment, for a comfortable breath, and for freedom.
Hope is a force that keeps human beings alive and awakens the power of action in them by showing them beautiful visions of the future. This is a topic that the author has mentioned many times in his book “Make Your Bed”. After all, it is not difficult to turn on the light of hope in the hearts of others. One person alone can give hope to thousands. Because hope is as contagious as a smile. Perhaps the reason for its power is that it communicates directly with the human heart.
Be hopeful. A hopeful person keeps his mind clear and does not allow negative forces to block his eyes and make the future the fate of the present. The fate of hard days is nothing but the end. So victory is with those who live in hope.
John C. Maxwell:
“If there is hope in the future, there will be power in the present.”
It is easy to give up; but not every easy task is right
There are many situations in life that you want with all your being to give up everything and give up. In fact, giving up is always the easiest thing to do. Yet, will all those who surrender have a good life? Surrender is a great inner failure. When you give up, you show in practice that you have no confidence in your abilities. It destroys the trust of self-esteem and lowers you several degrees below what you were.
On the other hand, it is very difficult not to give up and fight. Maybe during the moments when you are struggling with problems, difficult situations and sometimes even yourself, you are in pain, crying and wishing that everything would end sooner. However, you are actually building yourself. With each passing moment, you remove more impurities from the gold of your being and become acquainted with new gems from within you.
Maybe I should teach you a little trick from the book “Make Your Bed“. Whenever the situation becomes so difficult that you have only one or two seconds left before you surrender, say to yourself, “I will surrender tomorrow; I will stop doing this tomorrow, I will not practice anymore, I will not be in pain, I will not be crushed. But today, I just do not give up today. “Only today will I continue to fight and prove to the whole world that I can.” When you fight day by day, do not give up and keep fighting, you will win.
Simon Sink:
“Do not give up. Never give up on building a world you can see, even if others cannot see it.”
You can change the world
Every move you make in your life affects this world. For example, when you do not pass by a banana peel indifferently and remove it from the middle of the street, you change the world. Because by doing so, you save the life of the driver who is going to move in this direction. The driver who owes his life to you will have a child. His son becomes a doctor and saves thousands of lives throughout his life. Each of the saved human beings saves others in their own way or invites hope into the lives of millions. Do you see how powerful you are?
We humans think we are separated by a big misunderstanding. While each one of us is connected like chains and affect each other. In fact, you are changing the world as much as you do and beyond what you think.
What is the author’s main message?
William R.McRaven is a retired commander of the United States Navy. He, who now chairs the University of Texas, began his work with a special talk to students at the same university. He aimed to share with the students what he had learned during the difficult training courses and in the days of the various wars.
Later, when he realized how much ordinary people were influenced by his experiences, he turned to pen and turned his lecture into a small book. The lessons William wrote in this book were the result of his personal experiences that made his mental endurance and strength difficult to steel. He wanted ordinary people to gain new hope by enduring adversity by reading his experiences.
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