I have a few suggestions that may help you on your way to a better world

and while these lessons were learned during my time in the military,

I can assure you that it matters not, whether you ever served a day in uniform, it matters

not your gender your ethnic or religious background, your orientation or your social status.

Our struggles in this world are similar and the lessons to overcome those struggles and to move forward

Changing ourselves and changing the world around us will apply equally to all

So here are the ten lessons I learned from basic Seal training that hopefully will be of value to you as you move forward in life

Every morning in seal training my instructors who at the time were all Vietnam veterans

Would show up in my barracks room. And the first thing they'd do is inspect my bed if you did it right,

the corners would be square, the covers would be pulled tight,

the pillows centered just under the headboard and the extra blanket folded neatly at the foot of the rack.

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 light of the fact that we 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 and by the end of the day that one task completed will have turned into many task 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

You'll never be able to 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

So if you want to change the world

Start off by making your bed

[Music]

During seal training the students

During training the students are all broken down into boat crews

Each crew is seven students three on each side of a small rubber boat and one Coxon to help guide the dinghy

every day your boat crew forms up on the beach and

Is instructed to get through the surf zone and paddle several miles down the coast in the winter

The surf off San Diego can get to be eight to ten feet high and it is exceedingly difficult

The paddle hook through the plunging surf unless everyone digs in

Every paddle must be synchronized to the stroke count of the Coxon

Everyone must exert equal effort or the boat will turn against the wave and be unceremoniously dumped back on the beach

For the boat to make it to its destination

Everyone must paddle

You can't change the world alone

You will need some help and to truly get from your starting point to your destination takes friends colleagues

The good will of strangers and a strong Coxen to guide you if you want to change the world

Find someone to help you paddle over

A few weeks of difficult training my seal class which started with 150 men

Was down to just 42 there were now six boat crews of seven men each. I

Was in the boat with the tall guys

but the best boat crew we had

Was made up of little guys the Munchkin crew. We called them. No one was over five foot five

The Munchkin boat crew had one american-indian

One african-american one Polish American one Greek American one Italian American and two tough kids from the Midwest

They out paddled out ran and out swam all the other boat crews the big men and the other boat crews

will always make good-natured fun of

The tiny little flippers the munchkins put on their tiny little feet prior to every swim

But somehow these little guys from every corner of the nation in the world always had the last laugh

Swimming faster than everyone and reaching the shore long before the rest of us

SEAL training was a great equalizer

Nothing mattered, but your will to succeed not your color. Not your ethnic background, not your education, not your social status

If you want to change the world

measure a person by the size of their heart

not by the size of their flippers

Several times a week

The instructors would line up the class and do a uniform inspection

It was exceptionally thorough

Your hat had to be perfectly starched your uniform immaculately pressed your belt buckle shiny and void of any smudges

But it seemed that no matter how much effort you put into starching your hat or pressing your uniform or polishing your belt buckle

It just wasn't good enough

The instructors would find something wrong

For failing the uniform inspection the student had to run fully clothed into the surf zone

Then wet from head to toe roll around on the beach until every part of your body was covered with sand

the effect was known as

sugar-cookie

You stayed in the uniform the rest of the day cold wet and Sandy

There were many a student who just couldn't accept the fact that

All their efforts were in vain that no matter how hard they tried to get the uniform right,

It went unappreciated those students didn't make it through training those students didn't understand the purpose of the drill

You were never going to succeed you were never going to have a perfect uniform the instructors weren't going to allow it

Sometimes no matter how well you prepare

Or how well you perform you still end up as a sugar cookie

It's just the way life is sometimes

If you want to change the world

Get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward

Every day during training you were challenged with multiple physical events long runs long swims obstacle courses hours of calisthenics

Something designed to test your mettle every event had standards times you had to meet if you fail to meet those times

Those standards your name was posted on a list and at the end of the day

Those on the list

were invited to a circus a

Circus was two hours of additional calisthenics designed to wear you down to break your spirit to force you to quit

No one wanted a circus a circus meant that for that day

You didn't measure up a circus meant more fatigue and more fatigue

Meant that the following day would be more difficult and more circuses were likely

But at some time during seal training everyone

Everyone made the circus list

But an interesting thing happened to those who were constantly on the list

Over time those students who did two hours of extra calisthenics got stronger and stronger

The pain of the circuses built inner strength and physical resiliency

Life is filled with circuses

You will fail

You will likely fail often it will be painful. It will be discouraging at times. It will test you to your very core

but if you want to change the world

Don't be afraid of the circuses

At least twice a week, the trainees were required to run the obstacle course

the obstacle course contained 25 obstacles including the 10-foot wall a

30-foot cargo net a barbed wire crawl to name a few but the most challenging obstacle

Was the slide for life

It had a three level 30-foot tower at one end and a one level Tower at the other in between was a 200-foot long rope

You had to climb the three tiered Tower and once at the top you grabbed the Rope

swung underneath the rope and

Pulled yourself hand over hand until you got to the other end

The record for the obstacle course had stood for years when my class began in 1977. The record seemed unbeatable

Until one day a student decided to go down the slide for life

headfirst

Instead of swinging his body underneath the rope and inching his way down. He bravely mounted the top of the rope and

Thrust himself forward it was a dangerous move

Seemingly foolish and fraught with risk

Failure could be an injury and being dropped from the course without hesitation

the students slid down the Rope perilously fast

Instead of several minutes. It only took him half that time and by the end of the course

He had broken the record

If you want to change the world

Sometimes you have to slide down the obstacles headfirst

During the land warfare phase of training the students are flown out to San Clemente Island which lies off the coast of San Diego

the waters off San Clemente are a breeding ground for the great white sharks to

Pass seal training. They're a series of long swims that must be completed

One is the night swim

Before the swim the instructors. Joyfully brief the students on all the species of sharks

That inhabit the waters off, San Clemente

They assure you however that no student has

Ever been eaten by a shark at least not that they can remember

But you are also taught that if a shark begins to circle your position

Stand your ground

Do not swim away

Do not act afraid

and if the shark hungry for a midnight snack darts towards you then summons up all your strength and

Punch him in the snout and he will turn and swim away

There are a lot of sharks in the world

If you hope to complete the swim you will have to deal with them

So if you want to change the world

Don't back down from the sharpest

As Navy SEALS, one of our jobs is to conduct underwater attacks against the enemy's shipping

we practice this technique extensively during training the

Ship attack mission is where a pair of SEAL divers is dropped off outside an enemy harbor and then swims well over two miles

Underwater using nothing, but a depth gauge and a compass to get to the target

During the entire swim even well below the surface. There is some light

That comes through

It is comforting to know that there is open water above you

But as you approach the ship which is tied to appear the light begins to fade

The steel structure of the ship blocks the moonlight. It blocks the surrounding streetlamps. It blocks all

ambient light

to be successful in your mission

You have to swim under the ship and find the keel the centerline and the deepest part of the ship. This is your objective

But the keel is also the darkest part of the show

where you cannot see your hand in front of your face where the noise from the ship's machinery is deafening and

Where it gets to be easily disoriented and you can fail

every SEAL knows

that under the keel at that darkest moment of the mission is a time when you need to be calm when

You must be called when you must be composed when all your tactical skills your physical power and your inner strength

Must be brought to bear

If you want to change the world

You must be your very best in the darkest moments

The ninth week of training is referred to as hell week

It is six days of no sleep

Constant physical and mental harassment and one special day at the mud flats

the mud flats are an area between San Diego and Tijuana where the rough water runs off and creates the Tijuana sloughs a

Swampy patch of terrain where the mud will engulf you

It is on Wednesday of hell week

that you paddle down in the mud flats and spend the next 15 hours trying to survive this freezing cold the

Howling wind and the incessant pressure to quit from the instructors

As the Sun began to set that Wednesday evening

My training class having committed some egregious infraction of the rules

Was ordered into the mud

The mud consumed each man till there was nothing visible but our heads

The instructors told us we could leave the mud if only five men would quit

Only five minutes just five men and we could get out of the oppressive cold

Looking around the mud flat it was apparent that some students were about to give up

it was still over eight hours till the Sun came up eight more hours of

Bone-chilling cold a chattering teeth and the shivering moans of the trainees were so loud

it was hard to hear anything and

Then one voice began to echo through the night

one voice raised in song

The song was terribly out of tune, but sung with great enthusiasm

One voice became two and two became three and before long everyone in the class was singing

the instructors threatened us with more time in the mud if we kept up the singing but the singing persisted and

Somehow the mud seemed a little warmer and the wind a little tamer and the dawn not so far away

if I have learned anything in my time traveling the world it is the power of

the power of one person

The Washington a Lincoln King Mandela and even a young girl from Pakistan Malala one person can change the world

By giving people hope so if you want to change the world

Start singing when you're up to your neck in mud

Finally a SEAL training there's a bell a

brass bell that hangs in the center of the compound for all the students to see

All you have to do quit. All you have to do to quit is ring the bell

ring the bell and you no longer have to wake up at 5 o'clock ring the bell and you