We all have different purposes in this world—purposes that we must serve not only for personal gratification but to make the world a better place.
After all, no man is an island. A single decision can affect millions of lives. An action we take can have an ever-lasting impact from one generation to another. It’s like a domino effect.
But before we start thinking about changing the world, we must check within ourselves first. We should think of ways to improve ourselves to be better in order to execute that change on others. And this old sailor shares some words of wisdom to help the young generation.
An alumnus of the University of Texas at Austin imparts some life lessons during his speech at the 2014 Commencement Exercises.
He is William Henry McRaven, a retired United States Navy four-star admiral who served as the ninth commander of the United States Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014.
Using his experiences from the six-month basic SEAL training, McRaven bestows his wisdom on how we can achieve a better world.
McRaven gives his ten life-changing insights as he addresses the graduates. The video has now amassed over 13 million views on YouTube.
One of his pieces of advice is to make your bed, which later on became the title of one of his books.
Despite how mundane this task can be, it can be grueling to some of us (myself included).
But to McRaven, these little things in life matter. By starting our day accomplishing minuscule tasks, it will encourage us to accomplish more, even greater things.
The retired Navy SEAL also enlightens about how to deal with problems and failure.
As we all know, life isn’t fair.
It is full of challenges that one must overcome in order to survive. But remember, we are given this life because we are strong enough to live it. McRaven says face your problems head-on. Take risks if needed. As long as you have the will to succeed, you will achieve whatever your heart desires.
McRaven also mentions that no matter how well you prepare yourself for the obstacles that will come your way, sometimes the waves will be bigger and stronger than yourself that it will drown you and throw you off the track.
And during your darkest moments, you need to be calm and maintain your composure.
Don’t let the fear take control of yourself. You should continue to move forward until you see the light. You should never surrender just because you took a wrong step once, twice, or more because it is normal to fail, but never be a failure.
This veteran in the covert world was a Navy SEAL for 36 years.
McRaven is also credited for organizing and overseeing the execution of Operation Neptune Spear, the special ops raid that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011.
McRaven had worked almost exclusively on counter-terrorism operations and strategy since 2001. Hence, the CIA delegated operational and execution decisions on the raid to him.
After his retirement in 2014, he served as the chancellor of the University of Texas System from 2015 to 2018.
McRaven hopes that through his speech, he has encouraged everyone to help change the world for the better.
If you want to know the full list of his advice, check out this video to know more:
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