Brian Johnson on Admiral William McRaven's advice to start your day with a win: make your bed. McRaven noted that even Saddam Hussein didn't make his bed while detained. Johnson has hit the target 922 times and says it works, especially when traveling.
Questions this episode answers
3:21pm Central Time on Labor Day.
922 times.
Saddam Hussein.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic plus one. I was typing this one at 3:21pm Central Time on Labor Day. I just checked out of our hotel after dominating the final pre match protocol before Emerson's last game of the weekend. After last night's crazy win, he lost a close one. This morning we won 23 and celebrated the fact that he's 51 and tied for second. And if he wins this last game, he'll probably wind up in the top 100 for his age group. As Mommy said when I sent her the sweet picture of him at the board before the match, I'm excited and nervous. To which I said, me too. Now today I want to talk about making our beds. More specifically, I want to talk about making our hotel beds. As you know, if you've been closely following along and using the Big three practice part of the heroic app, make youe Bed is one of our recommended targets. In the app, the target is inspired by Admiral William McRaven, the former commander of the United States Special Operations Command, who gave a commencement address and then wrote a book appropriately called make youe Bet. Now, I've hit that target 922 times. It's the first thing I do after I hit a few other targets first thing in the morning. Now I start my day with these two targets hit. The moment my eyes open, I begin my day with a smile. Target's wife I appreciate my life. Target targets wide. Then I hit this guy. The moment my feet hit the floor, I make my bed. Now why would we want to do that? Well, Admiral McRaven tells us that in short, if you start your day with a win, at the very least at the end of even the worst of days, you can end it knowing you've got a made bed to get into. And as I like to say, if we can't start the day doing something as simple as making our beds, then good luck with the hard stuff. So I like to start my day with a micro make the bed win. Especially when I'm on the road and staying in a hotel. Whenever I'm out and about and tempted to leave the hotel bed undone, I always think of the example McRaven uses from one of the guys he knew who didn't make his bed. You know who that was? Saddam Hussein. As a senior Navy Seal commander before he took over SOCOM, McRaven was in charge of ensuring Saddam was securely detained after he was captured. And in his book he tells the story about how Saddam didn't make his bed while under his supervision. So that's one of the many reasons I make sure I do. It also gives me a micro opportunity to practice some mindful discipline and sets a good example for the big guy. And that's today's plus one. You make your bed this morning. Let's start strong everyday one.
