Bass

Kyle C. Bass

Professor Leigh Moore

ENGL 1302

2 February 2019

Make Your Bed

The speech “Make Your Bed”, which later became a bestselling title, was written by

Admiral William McRaven who is a United States Navy Seal. His speech was given at the

University of Texas, for the Commencement Address of the newly graduating class of 2014. He

is persuasive in utilizing his life lessons, which he gained, during his time in the service.

According to Admiral Williams, these lessons can be applied to challenges individual’s face in

their day to day life scenarios. He approaches life, like the military, in a systematic way of

operating. This operating system runs on a specific set of rules that everyone should live by in

order to be successful. His system focuses on three distinct fundamental concepts. They all rely

on using his key relatable phrases, his credibility in a long-term successful career as admiral, and

setting the mood for receiving an important message. He grabs the student’s attention by using

their University school motto, “what starts here changes the world”, as an analogy to convey his

message.

Using simple phrases was particularly important because it reminded him of his personal

experiences as a newly graduated senior. He was driven by the fact that he had no memory of his

own commencement and realized later in life that he may have missed a very important message

that would have helped him achieve his goals much sooner in life. To ensure that his audience

would take away a meaningful message, he wanted to create a simple and easy way to express it.
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He did this by creating simple phrases people could easily remember. Phrases such as: “make

your bed” and “get over being a sugar cookie” are easy to remember, and will connect them with

a specific life idea that will enhance success. The phrase “make your bed” refers to practicing a

routine that will begin with a task that will give a sense of accomplishment, that will later lead to

more accomplished tasks. Life can sometimes be overwhelming to any individual. When this

happens, it can be difficult to prioritize which task to accomplish first. By always making your

bed first will help organize the mind and give every day an official starting point. This will create

a new positive habit and eventually lead to process of doing things. Even if you have a terrible

day, you can always come home to a bed that is made. After he told his story regarding “being a

sugar cookie”, it gave the graduates a sense that nothing is perfect and there will always be room

for improvement. By always instructing the soon to be frogmen to get wet and sandy with the

freshly made class b uniforms signifies that life is not perfect and when it gets messy to clean it

up.

It can be said that becoming an admiral in the navy is a major accomplishment.

This precedes his credibility as an individual, but even more so, it is the obstacles he overcame.

Transitioning from the college freelance atmosphere directly into the navy was meet with shock.

Yet it is this particular atmosphere where he learned the life lessons he expresses in his speech.

One simple phrase that was most valuable to him was, “don’t be afraid of the circus”. This

character attribute was introduced when he was training to become a Navy Seal. It taught him

that there will be points in his life that are extremely low, and that it was important not to get

caught up in the dram and to continue to work towards your goals. This was extremely helpful to

him when the United States was terrorized on 9/11. He did not dwell on the chaos and took

action and eventually lead the team who assassinated Osama Bin Laden, the individual behind
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the attacks. It is well known that capturing the perpetrator was a long process and at times it may

have been inclined to give up. His simple phrase, “lastly, never ring that bell” or in other words

never give up and never give in to defeat helped his success. It was after this he became a four-

star admiral in the Navy. His passion in helping others drove him to a career in education, and he

became Chancellor of the University of Texas education system.

Lastly, it is difficult to reach the ear of any audience, but even more challenging to reach

an audience that isn’t focused or willing to receive a message. This is why, he emphasized his

effort in creating an environment that would be inspiring to all. This is the purpose of the simple

phrases. To be able to connect simple phrases with life changing concepts so that the graduates

will have structure in overcoming any obstacle. He set the mood by his animated voice. His

voice was stern with a flare of excitement. For example, “don’t back down from the sharks”

there will be barriers in life that are sometimes frightening, but you can not let fear overcome

you. He was also mindful insuring that the audience knew that he was at one time where they are

sitting now. The word shark was analogous term to describe the emotion of fear. This emotion of

fear may be what the graduates are feeling moving onto this next chapter in their lives.

No one can say if the admiral’s speech had a sincere effect on the graduating class

of 2014. What can be said is that He strategically used his platform to convey his message of life

lessons by utilizing simple phrases, his credible long-term success, and the mood he set. It can

also be said that he certainly gave a memorable speech. One that was based on using language

that was simple to remember and creating an atmosphere in which individuals would absorb his

message. In this way the graduating class of 2014 of the University of Texas would be able to
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uphold their school’s legacy and slogan “change the world”. A motto that Admiral McRaven is

certainly living by.

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Work cited

“Adm. McRaven Urges Graduates to Find Courage to Change the World.” UT News | The

University of Texas at Austin, 16 May 2014, news.utexas.edu/2014/05/16/mcraven-urges-

graduates-to-find-courage-to-change-the-world/.

“William H. McRaven.” Council on Foreign Relations, Council on Foreign Relations,

www.cfr.org/bio/william-h-mcraven.