Coach’s Corner – Make Your Bed!

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Coach’s Corner – Make Your Bed!

18 Nov
2015

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Coach Giddeon / Coach's Corner

Coach’s Corner – Make Your Bed!

Have you ever grumbled about making your bed or just thought about skipping it altogether? Well, news flash – making your bed is about as mundane and thankless a task as any you’ll come across. It’s a task that either goes answered or unanswered every day we’re fortunate enough to throw two feet on the floor after our alarm sounds.

It’s a simple act – but as a Navy SEAL stated in recalling his time spent in BUD/S, “if done properly, you will have accomplished the first task of the day”. He goes on further to say, “it (making your bed) will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to accomplish another task, and then another, and another. By the end of the day that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that the little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right (or aren’t willing, I say), you’ll never be able to do the big things right.” He finishes by saying, “and, 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 believe there’s much to be leaned from that paragraph. For our purposes, let’s just focus on two points: 1) Attitude, and 2) Small Tasks.

The fact that making your bed is a dull task and very few people enjoy it, much less take 5 seconds after making a bed to step back and say “that’s a perfectly placed pillow”, doesn’t negate that you have a choice in the matter and it can set the stage for the rest of your day, in some senses.

There are and will always be many things in a training program that don’t sound fun and indeed aren’t fun. However, if done well and with the right attitude, they will give you a greater sense of satisfaction whether you achieve your goal or not. It’s through the small and common tasks that you will ultimately become the best athlete you can possibly be. That may carry over into how you approach family and work too.

Warming up, cooling down, stretching, nutrition, training logs, recovering when you’re meant to be recovering, and working hard when you’re meant to be working hard, etc. – even if no one is around – these things are bed making material. Things you have control over that can be done every single day with a poor attitude or an attitude of, “if done well, it will bring me closer to my goal”. If you believe it to be important enough and make the time to accomplish it, it may not seem so bad after all. You may even look forward to it.

I challenge you to add a mental check box to your training log that asks, “did I make my bed today”? I can assure you it’s the small unremarkable tasks that will never be shared as a list of accolades on the steps of the podium. But whether you make the top step or not, you’ll know that you’ve done those small tasks and be better for it in the end.

So what do you say, BPC team members? I’m confident you’ll greatly increase your chance of achieving your goals if you adjust your perspective toward the small tasks. And if you don’t achieve your goal, you’ll feel good about what you’ve accomplished as you figure out how to get a little closer to that goal the next time.

And yes, I make my bed…

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By andy / Administrator on Nov 18, 2015

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