Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...And Maybe the World Kindle Edition

Retired U.S. Navy Admiral McRaven does a wonderful job of relating his life lessons gleaned from thirty seven years’ of service as a U.S. Navy SEAL. He does so by focusing on his top ten stories of dealing with adversity, and how to apply those lessons toward life. Some stories are lessons he learned even as a higher-ranking officer. It reminds the reader to never stop growing.Although the stories come from a military perspective, it is not so jargon-laden that a non-military reader would get lost reading it. His stories paint the picture that applies to anyone: that life is full of physical pain, defeat, sorrow, and unfairness, but it is these experiences which harden ones’ character like steel in a fire. On the other side of that coin he relays that adversity inspires boldness and courage, and that these can give the reader access to greater reward and triumph.Further, Admiral McRaven’s tales are short and concise. Most are a 3-minute read, and the longest might be twice that. It is definitely a great book if you want something to digest easily for a long flight or within a few days of casual reading.

I purchased this book on audible and it puts a different perspective to life. I purchased the physical copy for my brother who recently retired from the military that’s having a hard time separating. Hearing it from someone else that’s gone through what you’re going through has helped him some.

I've been trying to get into reading more, and the length of this book really drew me in. It is divided into chapters in each chapter is a different story that gives a different lesson, he does a very good job of illustrating the story and the moral. While some ideas may seem rudimentary, It serves as a good reminder for all of us. I read very slowly and not very often, but the whole book only took me about a few hours to read.

The author is a great American.I wish he would run for president.Reading about his trials was inspiring

Adapted from a speech made to college graduates, simple lessons with short stories to demonstrate how Admiral McRaven utilized them in his own life. I would recommend to anyone needing a little “pick me up” in your own daily life.

This is the perfect graduation gift, but I have read it over and over.

Excellent book on making small changes over time yields positive results. Apprecuate all the lessons in the book and reminded me of leadership experiences learned from Plebe summer at USNA. thanks Admiral for your insights,VrMarsh

It’s a manual on how to succeed with focus, goals and with grace and humility. It is a must read for every one no matter where you are in life and hopefully will change the trajectory of your journey.

If you've seen the YouTube video, you'll get nothing extra from this book beyond an extra anecdote or two about some people he's met along the way that emphasise the point.

Make Your Bed: Small things that can change your life... and maybe the world is a short book but one that is engaging and packed with good advice. The author gives his ten top tips for overcoming challenges and being the best you that you can be.These self-help type books usually fall into the trap of coming across as preachy and holier than thou or being completely impractical for most people (I'm looking at you The 4-Hour Workweek). This book bucks that trend by being simple, practical and useful for almost everyone.Another downfall of these kinds of books that the author neatly swerves is feeling like they have to make the book a certain length. I've read lots of books that could, and should, have been half the length, but the author felt the need to keep adding extraneous fluff to make the book long enough. McRaven has ten pieces of advice, and each one has a couple of short anecdotes to illustrate it and then it is done. It never outstays it's welcome which makes the advice that much more powerful.So, overall a great book with some excellent advice that is simple but worth repeating. A book that we should give to everyone when they leave school, in my opinion.

I had just started reading Robert Greene's controversial book, The 48 Laws of Power, and was struggling with it's radical, amoral take on the world of business. I flicked through the Amazon best sellers and found Make Your Bed, so decided to do something I've not done before and read two books side by side. The two authors seem to be polar opposites, and Make Your Bed seemed like it would be a bit of light relief.As it turns out, I was only an hour into Make Your Bed, when I knew I had to dump Greene's book and never look at it again. Pitching real life experiences from a highly decorated long serving Navy SEAL admiral against an author selling the virtues of deception / deceit and turning everyone into Gordon Gekko, in my eyes is not a fair fight, although ironically they are neck and neck on Amazon reviews, both with approx 13,500! (enough on Greene's book now)As for Make Your Bed, I believe this should be given out to every school leaver as a matter of course. It is truly inspiring and I strongly urge you to both watch the speech and read the book. Some previous reviews have said there is little extra in the book however I found it really brought the stories to life. Each lesson was full of inspiration, humour and great sadness, and I literally covered my mouth in shock when the author recounted the story of his parachuting accident!!!It is a fairly short book. I am not a fast reader and I read it in a day, but I will be ordering more copies for good friends of mine. I strongly recommend that you read this book and use all the lessons within it. My deepest respect to the author who is clearly a genuine, real life hero (ps worth watching President Obama's video honouring Admiral McRaven)

We ordered a dozen + of these to give as gifts to friends. A wonderful book to give as a gift for graduation, new career, retirement - or just as encouragement for anyone. This book is based on the iconic speech Admiral McRaven gave at the University of Texas - Austin Commencement Address in 2014. If you haven't seen the Youtube video of the speech you need to watch and listen to it.One of the all time best speeches ever given. Do as we did and order a dozen or more and keep them tucked away for those occasions when you need a perfect gift for someone. You won't be sorry.

The first thing I saw was the 'making your bed' section on a YouTube video. Then I found out there was a whole speach. So now the good Admiral has expanded each of his 10 points and written them down for us and, to make it better, I've got him reading it to me as well. The points are simple, as the best truth is, but it's an iceberg with much more underneath. Your time could be spent on much worse.