At Tuesday's Morning Meeting, I talked with the students regarding how one small thing can have a profound impact on their day. Naval Admiral William H. McRaven gave a commencement speech at the University of Texas where he imparted ten lessons he learned from basic SEAL training. Alone, each reason is important and essential for fostering success. The first piece of advice resonated with me to be the most important, and maybe that's why it was first on the admiral's list. Every morning in basic SEAL training, my instructors, who at the time were all Vietnam veterans, would show up in my barracks room and the first thing they would inspect was your bed. Mind blowing!
There are times you leave the bedroom with the intention of coming back to make the bed. Let's face it, it is easy to get side tracked. With getting out of the house in a timely fashion, over sleeping, and other emergencies, making the bed seems like such a small thing that's okay to be over looked. But, if you want to start your day with an immediate success, make your bed. I'd like to go a step further. Tell your child to make their bed, too. That way, it transfers into school. How would your child making their bed transfer into school? From the commencement speech, you read about the importance of accomplishing the first task of the day. In case you missed this sentence, "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." I say, if by chance, a particular student had a difficult day. Being prepared with 2 sharpened pencils and silent reading books gives encouragement that they got the little things right and tomorrow will be better. Finally, I'd like to leave with one last quote from Admiral McRaven, "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." Let's all start by accomplishing the first goal of the day, then the following task until we've built a path of success. Click for the complete speech.
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July 2016
A Noteworthy 4th Grade Bowman Blog
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