Make Your Bed

I am a goal oriented person. I write my goals down every morning in a Moleskine notebook and my to do list for the day. I write the same goals every morning (long term/short term/pipe dreams), whatever. It’s my personal list that I don’t share with anyone. But, I write them no matter how simple or far out there they may be. When I complete a goal, it unceremoniously (yet with a feeling of quiet victory) gets crossed off the list and replaced by another goal.

 I’ve been doing this for about five years since I read about it in a book by a guy who swore by it. (Don’t ask me the name of the guy or the name of the book. There’s only so much information my brain can hold at once – and names of authors and books doesn’t make the cut of pertinent information that gets store up there). After some more informal research, I further learned there is scientific proof to back up the idea that the physical act of writing down your goals makes it statistically more probable you will achieve them. 

It seemed like a pretty painless task to incorporate into my daily regime, so I did. It may have been the same book that said to make your bed every day or the actual book called “Make Your Bed” by Admiral William H. McRaven. I also started doing that. It was amazing how one simple thing like making my bed started the day off on a path of productivity – even if that was the ONLY productive thing I did all day. It still felt like an accomplishment. Both very easy things to do, but two elements that became incredibly powerful in my life. 

 I have received a lot of messages – more so now that I’m training – with questions about diet and exercise and so on. While I am flattered people reach out, I need to let it be known that I worked through A LOT of trial and error for YEARS as to what did and did not work for me. And there are still days where I’m flabbergasted. I’m an expert of one thing – me. And even some days I completely baffle myself, so even THAT statement isn’t 100% correct. 

Some days I feel like I’m on top of the world. And some days, truth be told, I walk around feeling sorry for myself and feel like I’m just kicking the can further down the road. The human brain and all of the emotions that go with it are an enigma. I have learned to be still and sit with the less than pleasant feelings that come from time to time and just let them be and wash over me and go on their way. Because eventually, they do. 

When I read a book, I rarely take everything from that book as gospel. I tend to pick and choose one or two key takeaways and implement them into my life because I get overwhelmed easily. I find introducing just a couple of new things at a time is a lot more palatable than a completely different way of living. For me, adjusting a couple of things is manageable. And that goes with anything in life – work, fitness, nutrition, coping with stress, and so on. Implementing small changes until they’re not changes anymore and then adding another change and then another is what, for me, has led to crossing goals off that list.  

I don’t feel like I’m someone who can (or should) tell people what to do or not to do with their lives, their bodies, goals, jobs, and so on. I talk about my experiences and what has, seemingly, worked for me. It may work for others, it may not. I can’t say, because all I know is what has been my experience. I’m no different than any of you. We’re all such simple beings, yet so incredibly complicated. All of our unique personal experiences are intertwined with that basic simplicity of our “human being”. We’re all the same, yet different. And THAT is what makes life a cornucopia of joy, frustration, challenge, angst, and a multitude of other emotions. 
I have learned emotions are not static, but rather come in waves. While some days I wish the emotion of joy would stick around for the long haul, without the not so great emotions, I wouldn’t have as great of an appreciation for the good ones. I have also learned not fighting emotions and beating myself up, but rather just letting myself have an off day, makes the harder days easier to manage.

 And even on those days, I make my bed.