Admiral William H. McRaven gave the commencement speech at the University of Texas in 2014 where he distilled down ten lessons he learned throughout his military career. This became a famous speech and he turned it into a short book, Make Your Bed, that I just finished reading and highly recommend.

In his speech and book, Admiral McRaven talks about largely his experience in SEAL training and the lessons learned there that proved significant in his illustrative but challenging time in the military. These lessons range from the importance of teamwork to never judging a man or woman by their size.

But, the first and most significant lesson comes from the name of the book, make your bed.

What does it mean to “make your bed”?

The gist here is that every morning, all of the SEAL trainees would have to make their beds impeccably. Hospital corners, no ruffles, pillow in the middle at the head, extra blanket folded perfectly at the foot of the bed. The whole nine yards.

Based on the book, I believe that there was even a bounce of a quarter involved.

Surely, this was an annoyingly tedious task. But the lesson herein is a profound one: no matter what happens the rest of the day, if you make your bed first thing in the morning, you will have accomplished something to hand your hat on.

And, while not explicitly brought up in the book, another equally valuable lesson here is that the way you do anything (even some minuscule, seemingly insignificant task), is the way you do everything.

What making your bed means to me?

I loved this anecdote. Because I am a bed maker.

I can't say that I've always done it for the reasons that the Admiral did. And I can definitely say that I did not make my bed as well or impeccably as he did. Mine would definitely fail inspection.

However, there is a sense of accomplishment (beyond the basic OCD gratification) that I experience making my bed in the morning. As well as a sense of circular completion upon coming home and getting into bed at night.

I do attribute my success in part due to my ability to “make my bed” in life. To adhere to the small details and do things well for the sake of doing them well. To live up to a high standard.

So, I did really like reading all about the value of making your bed in life. But, there was one thing that really struck with me and bothered me…

Selenid absolutely does not make the bed

Selenid and I are a great fit in many ways. And not because we are very similar in all ways. In fact, we differ in a lot of big ways, like even our initial money mindsets. But those differences only made us both better as we learned from each other.

However, one way that we are very different and that still challenges me is that she is a messy sleeper and does not like to make the bed.

In fact, any day in the Frey household, a stranger could go up to our room and very easily tell who slept on which side, just by which side of the king bed was tidied up and “made” as much as possible and which looked like the Tasmanian Devil has slept on it.

Now, I have reconciled the literal consequences of this personality difference, but one thing still bothers me…

Selenid is:

• Extraordinarily productive,
• Intrinsically motivated to a fault,
• Pays so much attention to detail that it hurts my brain most of the time (she will do hours of research just to pick out the best planner to use…I know!)

These are all traits of a classic bed maker! So what gives???

I honestly have no idea. I just throw my hands up in the air and have to accept that she is the exception to the “make your bed” rule.

Admiral McRaven, I hereby give you permission to come to my house and order us both to turn ourselves into sugar cookies (if you read the book it will make sense). In the meantime, the Frey bed will continue to be half made…

In the meantime, here is some more partner related content for you!

• Do Physician Couples Need to Share Finances?
• 3 Important Ways Family Impacts Physician Finances
• Sorta Random Sunday: Selenid’s Ultimate Intentional Spend
• 5 Important Money Lessons I Learned From My Wife

What do you think? Do you make your bed? Does that say something about you as a person? Should we all make our beds? Why or why not? Let me know in the comments below!