Make Your Bed
Admiral William H. McRaven's Make Your Bed is a slim, practical motivational book built out of the 2014 commencement address he delivered at the University of Texas at Austin, which went viral the day it was posted online. McRaven, a thirty seven year career Navy SEAL who commanded the special operations raid that killed Osama bin Laden, organizes the book around the ten lessons of basic SEAL training that he believes apply to anyone trying to live a meaningful life. The first and most famous is to start every morning by making your bed: a small completed task that anchors discipline, signals respect for the day, and offers a measurable accomplishment to return to no matter how badly the rest of the day goes. From there he walks through paddling together, getting through the worst nights, never ringing the bell, and other Hell Week derived heuristics. McRaven illustrates each lesson with combat anecdotes drawn from his decades of service, and the result is a brief, sturdy, generationally beloved gift book.
Where Make Your Bed keeps showing up
One of our editors' lists features this novel.
What you might want to know about Make Your Bed
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A retired four-star admiral expands his short Navy SEAL graduation speech into ten lessons from BUD/S training: make your bed, find someone to paddle with, do not back down, and stand up after each soaking surf-torture session.
Make Your Bed is built around Admiral William H. McRaven's 2014 University of Texas commencement speech, which went viral. The book expands ten leadership lessons drawn from his Navy SEAL training, with each chapter centered on a single principle.
No. McRaven's lessons are framed through SEAL training but generalize to civilian leadership, parenting, and personal habits. The book is short and aphoristic, often given as a graduation gift.
Make Your Bed was written by William H. McRaven, published in 2017 by Penguin Books, Limited.
Make Your Bed is 144 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Make Your Bed takes most readers 2 to 3 hours to finish.
Make Your Bed is a standalone novel by William H. McRaven, not part of a series.
Make Your Bed is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
