In this excellent speech given during the graduation ceremony at the Universityof Texas, Admiral William McRaven shares the lessons from his experience in the American Navy special forces.

Among these lessons, he decodes why “to change the world, you must start by making your bed in the morning”, telling the stress of the dorms’ inspection every morning. The extreme strictness of the special forces’ instructors could seem incongruous to young people who wanted to toughen up. How could an impeccably made bed help them achieve this? He finally came to understand the meaning of this apparently futile task. This first achievement in the morning encourages everyone to start another, more arduous task, which itself leads to another, etc. This is how we come to accomplish a lot in one day. Big successes start with small things, which should not be neglected. Without even considering the fact that if your day does not go as planned, you’ll still have the satisfaction of finding a well-made bed in the dorm!

An inspiring speech, whether you like the uniform or not.

Source: University of Texas at Austin 2014 Commencement Address, Admiral William H. McRaven,YouTube, May 2014.