I want to start this guide by telling you a personal story of mine about how order changed my life.

Back in 2020, we were locked up, so my days looked like this:

8 am - Wake up for school and get on the call immediately. All of this while being super tired from the day before from playing Fortnite until 2 am.

12 pm - Get off school and play more Fortnite (even though I played all class.)

1:30 pm - Help make lunch in my house and eat.

2:30 pm to 7 pm - Play more Fortnite.

7 pm - Have dinner.

8 pm to 1 am - Play more Fortnite.

All of this for 2 years straight.

Now that I look back on this we can agree on something: my life was sad as fuck.

No wonder I felt like shit, had eye problems, and couldn’t talk to people or look them in the eyes.

I was not doing anything with my life.

All I was doing was trying to become a Fortnite pro player (while playing on 90 ping, how dumb was I?)

I was in a rut, like no joke.

My life was so miserable that I can barely remember a good day from those 2 years. It’s like my mind deleted those experiences for my own good.

The only thing that got me out of that rut was order.

You see…

My dad has always been a great reader and every year he would go to a big book expo they make here in Medellín where you can meet the authors and buy books for a great price.

In 2019, my dad went to the expo and gifted my older brother a book, Make Your Bed by William McRaven.

My brother, the hard head he is, didn’t even read the book. He thought the book was “too easy” or “too dumb.”

After all, we all know making our bed is something we must do, so it makes no sense to read the book, right?

WRONG, and here’s why…

After recognizing that I was in a rut and that I was wasting my life, I wanted to change.

I started searching on YouTube: how to change my life?

And a bunch of blue-pilled videos started to come out.

Keep in mind this was way before I found Hamza, who was the first YouTuber I started watching consistently and following advice from.

All the advice in these videos? It was pretty generic ngl.

Have a routine, read books, exercise, and learn high-value skills. The shit you hear everybody saying. Even so, it got the job done.

Now, every day in the evening I was doing 2 things no matter what: exercising and reading.

I would do some shitty exercises I found on Google with some dumbbells that my dad had. I didn’t know about rep ranges, intensity, progressive overload, nothing, nada. I just got started and kept going.

With reading, same shit. Just grabbed any book I found in my home’s library and read it.

Most of it was fiction, Jules Verne mostly. Until I found the Make Your Bed book.

This was the first non-fiction book I ever read and it opened my eyes.

No wonder my life was so shit. It lacked structure and order.

It was thanks to this book that I created my first routine and started to clean my room every single day.

Not even kidding. Every single day I would clean the dust, sweep, etc.

Very manic of me, but it worked.

Slowly, I was able to start feeling better and stopped playing video games for so many hours.

My confidence increased and I was starting to like life a little bit more each day.

Why am I telling you all this?

I wanna show you why this book is good, despite everyone calling it dogshit.

The book is not bad per se, it just depends on where you are in your self-improvement journey.

If you’re pretty advanced, chances are you’d find it boring (even though I disagree with this since we can always learn something.)

But if you’re new to all of this, this book is truly a life changer, especially for those in a rut similar to where I was in lockdown.

Plus the book was written by the Navy Seal who orchestrated and commanded the military operation that led to the killing of Osama Bin Laden, so he’s a badass not gonna lie.

The book is pretty short, you can read it in one day or even one sitting, depending on how you read. So you can read it and then come to this guide. Or you can also just read this guide as I’m giving you all the main points from the book.

Enough talk, I’m not gonna waste more of your time, let’s get into it.

1. Start Your Day With An Accomplished Task

Lots of people struggle with just getting out of bed. They have no reason to do it.

That is where making your bed enters the equation. The simple act of making your bed every morning can give you the momentum you need to start your day.

But it goes way beyond that. It is also a sign of a disciplined, ordered, and trustworthy person.

Why do you think they force soldiers to make their beds every morning? Not only that but to do it perfectly.

Why do they put so much emphasis on such a small action?

Here is why:

1. Start your day correctly. Because making your bed is the first task of the day, doing it correctly is important. It shows how disciplined you are. At the end of the day, it is going to be a reminder that you did something well. No matter how small it is.

2. It adds structure to your life. Life is tough. Search for something that offers you comfort, that motivates you to start the day, that can bring pride sensation in a dreadful world. Daily life needs that sense of structure and order. There isn’t a quicker and more accessible way to do this, than making your bed.

3. It shows you’re trustworthy. Making your bed the correct way is not something you should get praised for, it is something expected from you. Because of that, it makes people expect good stuff from you.

Bottom line: just do your bed, and do it correctly, every single day. Don’t be a loser.

2. You Will Not Make It Alone

Success comes from others.

You can go ask a really successful guy how he did it, and most likely at some point, he’s gonna mention how other people helped him.

Because we actually need other people to support us.

None of us is safe from hardship. But going through hardship with others on your side is way easier than by yourself.

We need a team of good elements to reach our destination in life. You can’t be a lone wolf, nor you can row alone.

When you work with others not only can you make more progress, but you’ll feel happier and more fulfilled when you can share that progress with somebody.

3. The Only Size That Matters Is Your Hearts Size

In this chapter, Almirant McRaven shares a really cool story from when he was in the Navy SEALS school.

One morning, they were preparing themselves for their morning two-mile swim in Coronado Base. So the instructor, six feet two, would inspect everyone’s life jacket. He would go through each of the SEAL aspirants and harass them like they always do there.

When going through each of the members, he stumbled upon a five-foot-four aspirant. After checking his life jacket, he started harassing him. Calling him “tiny little man” and defying his aptitudes. He then whispered something in his ear but McRaven couldn’t tell what it was the instructor told the guy.

They began swimming, and an hour later, McRaven arrived at the beach. But someone was already there, he beat everyone else. That someone was the “tiny little man.” He finished the swim before everyone else.

McRaven, out of curiosity couldn’t help himself and asked him what the instructor said to him. The guy smiled and said proudly: “Prove me wrong!”

Life is rarely about what you were born with. Whether that is mental, physical, or material. Sure, those things can give you an advantage, but they aren’t everything.

Of course, if you were born a millionaire, you would have lots of advantages over other people. Life would be “easier” for you in some ways.

But if you weren’t blessed in any of those ways, then grit and determination are the things that can truly make a difference.

The only size that matters is the size of your heart.

4. Life Is Not Fair, Keep Moving!

When shit hits the fan, it’s easy to hold accountable external factors for what you have to face in life. Right?

It’s easy to just say it’s someone else’s fault and that you can’t do anything about it.

It’s easy to just stop making any effort because you think that destiny is against you and that it isn’t worth it.

But you’re wrong because how you respond to that, is what separates winners from losers.

Life is not fair.

Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, no matter how good you are, you end up failing.

Don’t complain. Don’t blame your bad luck. Stand straight, look ahead, and keep moving!

5. Failure Can Make You Stronger

Failure is imperative if you want any kind of progress in anything.

Any adversity you face, you will face it until it has taught you all it had to teach you.

Failure is the best teacher there is.

You will fail to make money until poverty has taught you all the lessons you had to learn. The same applies to everything else, no matter what it is.

You will have to fail again, and again, and again.

But if you do persevere, and allow life to teach you through those failures and make you stronger, nothing will stop you later down the line.

Nobody is immune to failure. It’s just that winners learn from that failure, from those mistakes.

They use those lessons life gave them to motivate themselves, and they’re never afraid to try again and again, even if it means failing again.

A mental reframe about failure that has helped me a lot:

Instead of thinking that life is trying to bring you down and that everyone is against you, just think it is giving you the materials to build the ladder to get out of where you are, step by step.

6. Risk It Big

Life is all about risks.

Life is a contest, and those who take the best-calculated risks, win.

But people rarely take these risks, why? They don’t trust themselves.

They see themselves as not capable, and this brings a lot of anxiety about whether they can or cannot do something. They’re afraid of what will happen if they try.

But what they don’t understand is that the potential for failure is always present and being afraid of failure, difficulties, or shame, will never help them in whatever they want to achieve with their lives. They will never rise to their maximum potential.

So have more faith and confidence in who you are, and take risks. Only those who do this, get whatever they want.

7. Face Up Bullies

Courage is an extraordinary quality everyone should strive to have.

It is one of the qualities that has allowed civilizations to prosper and get bigger.

It is one of the qualities that has allowed people to achieve incredible things.

When you don’t have it, others can define your destiny and you are at the mercy of the temptations of life.

But when you do have it, nothing nor nobody can get in your way.

You can achieve whatever you want. To be successful, it takes a lot of courage.

The good thing?

No matter who you are, there is courage inside of you. Just make the effort to look for it and you will find it in abundance.

8. Rise To The Occasion

Let’s be honest.

At some point, something bad will happen to you.

Someone you love will die.

Your business is going to fail.

You’re going to get rejected for an opportunity you were hoping to get.

Something is gonna destroy your spirit and make you doubt the future.

That’s just how the universe works. It happens to EVERYONE.

What makes you different from everyone else is not what happens to you, but how you react to it. The response to those adversities is what separates winners from losers.

So whenever this bad thing happens to you, look deep inside yourself, look for the courage that is inside of you, and become the best version of yourself.

This is what makes you a winner.

9. Give People Hope

Yes, this quote is from Shawshank Redemption. I liked the quote so much that it stuck and I figured out that I may as well use it here. (Best movie in cinema history, so go watch it if you haven’t mofo.)

Hope is the universe’s most powerful force. This powerful force made it possible for nations to aspire to greatness.

Just one person, along with the power of hope, can join a group and inspire those around him. Sometimes, the only thing needed is a person to make that difference.

What would be the world without hope?

If whenever something bad happened, like the world wars, what would be the world today if they just said:

“Well bro, we can do nothing about it! That’s just how life is. The world is ruined forever, let’s just give up.”

(Lots of people think like this btw, pathetic.)

But they didn’t do this, did they?

They grew some balls, grabbed life by the horns, and rebuilt the modern world (at least modern Europe but you get the point.)

The same idea applies to Japan.

They got nuked not once, BUT TWICE.

Yet, they got their economy back to normal levels in 9 years (1945-1954.)

And then grew exponentially in the next 18 years (1954-1972.)

Obviously, all of this comes down to work ethic, culture, and all of that other stuff.

But hope sets the precedent. Without hope, they would’ve never gotten started rebuilding the country and the economy.

They thought something was possible (hope,) and they knew it was their responsibility to do it themselves.

So remember, at some point in your life, you’ll be with your back against the wall.

You will feel like life hates you, and you will want to quit.

But you have to keep hope alive because tomorrow will always be better.

10. Never Give Up!

Life is hard.

Life will always throw shit at you.

And the worst part of all of this? It is your fault. Or at least, you have to see it that way.

Because if you always outsource responsibility for stuff that happens to you to others, you’re in for a long and painful ride my friend.

Doing this, taking the blame for everything that happens to you, gives you immense power. It gives you the chance to actually take control of your life and change it.

If all you do is cry like a baby and fill your days with self-pity for how luck has treated you and you put someone or something accountable for your circumstances, your life is going to be shit.

But if you take the blame, refuse to give up on your dreams, and stay strong against adversity, life will become what you decide and you can make it wonderful. The earlier you learn this, the less you will suffer in life.

Conclusion

This guide was a little bit shorter than other book guides I’ve made, mainly because the book itself is short.

Still, doesn’t matter how short the book is, I found it to be a good one.

I think that no matter who you are, you can learn something from it, or at least get reminded of stuff you knew, but weren’t really applying to your life.

So if that was you, make sure you put into practice at least one of the things I touched briefly, and if the book catches your eye, by all means, read it. It has some other cool stories that illustrate each point better.

If you liked this guide and learned something, make sure you let me know so I can keep doing content like this.

If you didn’t like it, please tell me what you didn’t like so I can improve it for you.

In both cases, thank you for reading this guide. You’re a G.

PS - If you liked this guide, you’ll probably like the rest of my stuff, go check it out here.

That is all from me.

Tu amigo,
- Manuel