The large achievements of a lifetime depend on
many small daily accomplishments. That is the first lesson in this collection
of insightful advice from a Navy SEAL admiral. Of course, there is a lot of
good advice floating around. It is the flotsam and jetsam of philosophers and
various “great men” who are sometimes, perhaps oftentimes, misquoted. (See “Fools, Cowards, and Thucydides” on this blog.) This book is straight from the
original author. The ten lessons are easy to understand and apply.
Making your bed is Rule #1: “Start the day with a task
completed.” The admiral points out
that if nothing at all goes well for the rest of the day, at least when you
come home, your bed will be nicely made and waiting for you. Allow me to add
that we all really must achieve many small tasks to start the day. But making
your bed is optional. So, if you set that as your daily task, you will have
begun the day by doing more than the minimum to get by.
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| Grand Central Publishing, April 2017 |
Rule #4: “Life is not fair—drive on!” This ties in to Lesson
#5: “Failure can make you stronger.” In SEAL school, the instructors pick on
you. They harass you. You can do everything right and for no reason whatever,
you will be ordered to do punishment duty. Most often, you become a “sugar
cookie.” You run into the surf fully clothed, get completely soaked, and then
roll around in the sand until you are completely covered and look like a sugar
cookie. You stay like that the rest of the day. It is unarguably unfair because
it is meted out to anyone at all for absolutely no reason. The purpose is to
teach the best warriors that life is not fair. You can fail for no fault of
your own. And you have to carry on anyway.
The book is easily available and affordable. Amazon and
Barnes & Noble have identical pricing for print and electronic versions. I
borrowed it from the city library. At 130 pages, widely set on 5-1/4 x 7-inch
pages, it cannot take one hour to read aloud. The commencement address that
launched this runs about 20 minutes on You Tube here. William H. McRaven currently serves as the chancellor of the University of
Texas system.
PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS
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