When did you realize small things matter?
Sean Kernan
, Son of Quora
Answered 15h ago · Upvoted by Michelle Callard-Stone, Behavioral Psychologist. PhD.
86k Vie
ws · 7.5k Upvotes
My dad is a retired
SEAL
.
Making the bed in the morning was a huge deal in our household.
If I made the bed all
sloppy
or,
god forbid
, forgot to make the bed, I
never heard the end of
it. I used to wonder why it was such a big deal. After all, doesn’t it seem irrational to
flip out
over making a bed?
I learned why as I got older.
In SEAL training they inspect trainee’s bedrooms to ensure beds are made perfectly. If there is even one tiny fold in the wrong place they make them run and jump into the cold ocean and then do push-ups and pull-ups.
Pain turns the slowest of us into quick learners.
The
mentality
is that, if you can’t be trusted to make a bed right, how can you be trusted in battle by your teammates, whose lives will depend on you?
That same mentality can be applied to your career.
As you are just starting out, many of you won’t have an attractive job description. Just focus on doing the little things right, no matter how boring or
mundane
the task is.
It isn’t so much about doing the task right as it is about reflecting yourself as reliable to your superiors.
Vocabularies：
SEAL
：海豹特战队；
sloppy
：
-
(of a person) careless and untidy in dress, or in the wayhe does things （指人）衣着不整的、做事马虎的: a sloppyworker, writer, etc 做事马虎的工人、作者等；look sloppy 看上去不整洁
-
done in a careless and untidy way 草率的、粗心的: sloppy typing 粗心大意打出的字；
god forbid
：但愿不会发生这样的事；
