Set good habits: make your bed

At the recent whole school assembly (delivered via webinar), School Captains Jack Clarkson (Secondary) and Kenneth Yeung (Junior) shared a story from U.S. Navy Admiral William McRaven’s book, Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...And Maybe the World.

It is a book that was given to all Prefects this year and is full of powerful lessons. As the title states, McRaven suggests that the habit of making your bed each morning is more than just a seemingly simple habit.

“If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter,” he writes.

In The Power of Habit, author Charles Duhigg calls daily bed-making a ‘keystone’ habit, which kick starts a chain of other good decisions throughout the day, and gives you a sense of taking charge.

Admiral McRaven continues: “If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right. And, if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made – that you made – and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.”

While bed-making may be not our top priority at this time, it could be a pertinent message to act on.

Christian Machar 
Head of Student Leadership (Years 7-12)