Book 65 - A Year of Magical Learning

Reflection Title - Values are Forged in the Crucible of Life!

Book: Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...and Maybe the World by Admiral William H. McRaven

Book Description: If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed. On May 17, 2014, Admiral William H. McRaven addressed the graduating class of the University of Texas at Austin on their Commencement day. Taking inspiration from the university's slogan, "What starts here changes the world," he shared the ten principles he learned during Navy Seal training that helped him overcome challenges not only in his training and long Naval career, but also throughout his life; and he explained how anyone can use these basic lessons to change themselves - and the world - for the better. 

Reflection:

Values and principals are great in theory. We all want to live a life guided by principles we hold true at our core. We all want to have a compass to base or decisions and actions off of versus just winging it. We are inundated with messages and ideas of ways to live a value based life from philosophers, a business tycoon, or these "life expert" influencers out there pumping out inspirational content and memes like Tony Robbins, Simon Sinek, Adam Grant, Gary V, etc. We see these ideas cross our paths on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter all day everyday. I just did a search and found these quotes in the past few days posted by Simon Sinek - "Leadership is not about being in charge, it’s about taking care of those in your charge." "It is really vulnerable to play as an adult, but vulnerability is where transformation happens." "The primary ingredient for progress is optimism".

Those are all great thoughts to get the mind thinking and spark your imagination of living that way in your own life. You might see those and think to yourself, "Yeah, I really like those thoughts...Optimism, Play, and Leadership. Those are exactly who I want to be in my life. Those are the values I want to have my actions guided by". That is where values begin to take shape in our minds. When words become thoughts which could someday become a thing. However, these are just ideas at this point in time. They aren't your values.

You don't get to really call something your values until you've tested them out in the real world and outside of the friendly confines of your mind. Specifically, most values are truly discovered and hardened when you seemingly experience the most difficult trials in your life. When things haven't gone your way...what did you do? What thoughts did you turn to? What actions did you take? What lessons did you learn?

Maybe you remembered that Simon Sinek quote about optimism being the primary ingredient for progress and you then said, "I'm going to find a way to stay optimistic and turn the painful event into growth." Then you come up with some actions of how you will accomplish that. Finally, you live that optimistic plan everyday in as much as you can until it becomes second nature. It is at that point in time that you can officially claim optimism as a core value.

That is what Admiral William H McRaven wrote about in his book, Make Your Bed. These are the stories of how he forged his values in the trials of his life. We have to go out and live our one stories, learn our own lessons, and bring back our hard won treasures of our own values to share with the world. I feel like if the Admiral were reading this reflection he'd say, "Spot on...now get out there, live your life, learn your lessons...and you just might change the world".

Question - How do you plan to use your values to change the world?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Make Your Bed

YOML Bookstore - Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...and Maybe the World by William H. McRaven