A new school year signals other new things... new teachers, new activities, new friends and usually new home rules. Along with new bedtime and screen time rules, unless it's already a rule at your house, you might want to consider adding this one:
Everyone must make their bed every morning before leaving for school.
Why is this important? According to The Happiness Project, “Make the bed” is one of the most popular happiness-project resolutions, and in fact, the habit of bed-making is correlated with a sense of greater well-being and higher productivity.
In the commencement address at the University of Texas at Austin, Naval Admiral William McRaven, ninth commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, told why even Navy SEALS are required to make their beds every morning. I think these are also great reasons to instill this habit in our kids.
Recalling his own days in basic Navy Seal training he said, "every morning my instructors, who at the time were all Viet Nam veterans, would show up in my barracks room and the first thing they would inspect was your bed.
If you did it right, the corners would be square, the covers pulled tight, the pillow centered just under the headboard and the extra blanket folded neatly at the foot of the rack—rack—that’s Navy talk for bed.
It was a simple task—mundane at best. But every morning we were required to make our bed to perfection. It seemed a little ridiculous at the time, particularly in light of the fact that were aspiring to be real warriors, tough battle hardened SEALs—but the wisdom of this simple act has been proven to me many times over.
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. 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 little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right.
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.
If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed!"
