206.8 is an oddly specific number.
But that’s the figure that emerged from the research of socio-economist Randall Bell, who diligently studied the habits of more than 5,000 people from all walks of life.
Bell concluded that there is a particular daily practice that makes it 206.8% more likely that you will one day be a millionaire. In his book Me We Do Be, he insists that this habit “changes your frame of reference that carries on through the day, that when there’s a job to be done you’re going to get it done.”
And what is that unusually significant practice?
Making your bed.
Four-Star Admiral William H. McRaven said the same thing in his oft-cited commencement address at the University of Texas in 2014. "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, 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."
McRaven continued, “I have been a Navy SEAL for 36 years. Every morning in basic SEAL training, my instructors, who at the time were all Vietnam 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 (that’s Navy talk for bed).”
He concludes, "If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed."
The reason that McRaven’s speech continues to move people more than a decade later is that all of us know, from experience, that big things have small beginnings.
Even the smallest decisions – the simplest rituals that are worth doing – inspire a sense of hope.
Jesus says as much in his parable of the mustard seed: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches” (Matthew 13:31-32).
It's easy to fall in love with big steps. Monumental leaps. Breakthrough moments.
But Jesus is saying that the grandest thing in the universe – people beginning to live as if God’s reign matters more than anything else – starts with little steps, little decisions, and little acts of kindness to which you’d hardly pay attention.
The hope-filled action of beginning each day by bringing some order into our own little corner of the universe – by making our bed – prepares us for the drama of offering mustard seed blessings to others.
We are better equipped to encourage instead of tear down. Forgive instead of resent. Hug our kid instead of yell. Keep a promise instead of sighing, “whatever.”
Admiral McRaven wrapped up his commencement address with a challenge:
“Tonight there are almost 8,000 students graduating from the University of Texas. The average American will meet 10,000 people in their lifetime. That’s a lot of folks. But, if every one of you changed the lives of just 10 people — and each one of those folks changed the lives of another 10 people — just 10 — then in five generations — 125 years — the class of 2014 will have changed the lives of 800 million people.
“800 million people — think of it — over twice the population of the United States. Go one more generation and you can change the entire population of the world — eight billion people.
“If you think it’s hard to change the lives of 10 people — change their lives forever — you’re wrong. It’s the beginning of changing the world. It can happen anywhere and anyone can do it.”
On any given day, whether or not we ever become millionaires, every one of us is ideally positioned to live out one of life’s most important lessons:
The heaviest doors often turn on the smallest hinges.
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