It is commencement season, so there are lots of life lessons to be shared. Here are some lessons learned from two very different lives: Admiral William H. McRaven at his alma mater the University of Texas-Austin and Academy Award winning actress, Sandra Bullock at a high school in New Orleans. The first takes his lessons from his training to become a Navy Seal and the latter realizes the things she tells her four year old are as good of lessons as any others she wished she had learned as a teenager.
I saw a snippet of this speech by Admiral William H. McRaven at his alma mater the University of Texas-Austin on the Today Show. I watched the whole thing on You Tube and I am so glad that I did. McRaven encourages students to change the lives of people they encounter for the better. He reminds students that one decision can change the world. He then offers suggestions on how to change lives and persevere based on lessons he learned as a Navy Seal:
1. “Start each day with a task completed.” He says, “make your bed.” Why? Well, watch this clip from the Today Show for all of the reasons, but the first is good enough to make this small change if you are not already doing it. “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 and by the end of the day that one task completed will turn into many tasks completed. It will also reinforce that the little things in life matter…”
2. “Find someone to help you.” He gives the example of paddling as a crew. To succeed, “everyone must paddle.” Do your part and find others to help you to make your way.
3. “Respect everyone.” Measure a person by the size of their heart not by the size “of their flippers.”
4. “Know that life is not fair.” “You will never be perfect. No matter how well you prepare or how well you perform, you may be a ‘sugar cookie’ [a punishment that involves being covered in sand for the entire day].” You need to accept this and move on.
5. “You will fail often.” “Life is filled with ‘circuses’ [what they called extra exercises for making mistakes]. You will fail, you will fail often… if you want to change the world, don’t be afraid of circuses.”
6. “Take some risks and step up.” “Sometimes, you have to slide down the obstacles head first.” You may have to change the way you do things to get ahead/make change.
7. “Face down the bullies.” “There are a lot of sharks in the world… don’t back down from the sharks.”
8. “If you want to change the world, you must be your very best in the darkest moment.”
9. “Lift up the downtrodden.” “The power of one person can change the world by giving people home… start singing when you are up to your neck in mud.”
10. “Don’t ever, ever give up!” He mentions a bell that Seal trainees could ring to quit. He said, “don’t ever, ever ‘ring the bell’.”
Here is the whole, inspirational speech from U of T (20 minutes):
Academy Award-winning actress, Sandra Bullock surprised the graduating class at Warren Easton Charter High School in New Orleans Monday with a commencement speech. Bullock opened her speech by saying that someone recently asked her, “If you could go back and talk to your younger self, what would you say?” She said that she realized, “What I tell my 4-year-old son is what I wish someone would have told me before I stepped out in the world.” She then shared a few key lessons with the graduating class.
Here are Sandra Bullock’s tips for leading a happy life:
“Stop worrying so much. Stop being scared of the unknown because anything I worried about didn’t happen. Other stuff happened but not what I worried about. The unknown we can’t do anything about.
Raise the bar higher. For some reason, people out there want to see you fail but that’s not your problem — that’s their problem. I only remember the moments when I tried beyond what I thought I could do, and I do not remember the failures because I didn’t. Nothing is a failure. It’s just not supposed to work out that way because something better is supposed to come along.
You have to dance a little bit in the morning before you leave the house because it changes the way you walk.
Eat something green every day, with every meal.
Do not pick your nose in public. How about we just go get a tissue?
When someone you care about hugs you, hug them back with two arms. When you hug someone with two arms, it allows you to lean on somebody and you always need someone to lean on.
If someone doesn’t want to play with you, it’s OK. Not everyone is going to love us. Go find someone who is going to want to play with you and appreciates what you have to offer.
Go find your joy. Whatever that is, go find your joy. Are you going to have a good day or are you going to have a great day? Because it’s completely up to you. It’s what you’re going to remember in the end. You’re not going to remember how you worried, the what-ifs, the whys, or who wronged you. It’s the joy that stays with you.”
I ran into a neighbor while I was working on this post. He asked about my next marathon. As we were chatting about health and exercise, he said, “A moving target is harder to hit.” Wisdom is everywhere. You just have to keep an eye out for it!
What is the best advice you have seen or heard lately?
PS. Don’t forget to check out and enter my 3 active giveaways!