A Navy SEAL Commander Tells Students To Make Their Beds

US Navy admiral and UT, Austin, alumnus William H. McRaven returned to his alma mater to give seniors 10 lessons from basic SEAL training when he spoke at the school’s 2014 commencement. It was widely considered to be the best graduation speech of the year. Former US Navy Admiral, William H. McRaven — a former commander of the US Special Operations Command, who organized the raid that killed Osama bin Laden — stressed the importance of making your bed every morning, taking on obstacles headfirst, and realizing that it’s OK to be a “sugar cookie.” In another lesson from his speech, McRaven stressed how everyone will likely fail at some point, and how to learn from those failures. The former Navy admiral described how SEALs would sometimes be ordered to do “circuses” — “two hours of additional calisthenics—designed to wear you down, to break your spirit, to force you to quit. The pain of the circuses built inner strength-built physical resiliency. McRaven’s personal stories from his many years as a Navy SEAL supported all of these lessons.
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