I made a video a while back about my son and an incident he had. You can find it HERE if you’re interested in watching it. In that video I talked about how the small things and even some of the big things in your life don’t matter, especially when something that is important to you is being taken away. In this case, Beckham was having a febrile seizure (which is fairly benign) but at that present moment looked like he might die. It was terrifying. He turned blue, was unresponsive, and there was nothing I could do about it.

It was in this moment I realized that everything in my life up to that point didn’t really matter. The small nit picky fights or arguments, how much money I made or didn’t make last year, the person that flipped me off at the stop light…the small stuff. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “don’t sweat the small stuff”.

In the instance mentioned above I believe that to be true. In a different light though, one that’s not shadowed by a potential life changing event, the small stuff matters and it matters a whole hell of a lot. The small stuff is a separator from people that will do something great in their lives versus the ones that won’t. It’s the difference in losing 20 pounds vs 10 pounds. It’s the difference between having a happy relationship or a rocky one.

There is a principle that is directly in line with this thought set out by Admiral William McRaven. He states that “If you want to change the world, start out by making your bed”. It may not seem like that big of a deal but it is. And it’s also one of those small things that I’m talking about that can completely separate you from the pack.

So what’s the “small stuff” I speak of? It’s the details of your day to day life.

It’s things like making your bed in the morning. It’s folding the laundry when you don’t want to. It’s getting out in the cold to run instead of staying inside where it’s warm. It’s picking up a piece of trash that’s not yours, or putting your shopping cart back in the return. It’s not eating that piece of cake or drinking that beer because you’re on a strict diet. It’s still going to the gym after a long day when you’re tired. It’s actually listening to your spouse when they are talking to you. It’s not being offended when someone is trying to help you. It’s cleaning something when it’s dirty even though it may not be your turn or part of your job. This is a short list.

Now imagine you live a life where you do ALL those things mentioned above. What kind of life do you think that’s going to be? I can promise you this, no one is going to look at you and think you’re lazy or that you don’t have your shit together. Not only that, but your personal perception of who you are and your confidence will be through the roof.

And you know what’s crazy? When you begin to concern yourself with these things, shit starts happening. It’s not because you make my bed every day, but because you’ve started focusing on the small stuff for so long that it’s starts to equate to big things.

I don’t want you to think that I’ve been making my bed for the last 10 years. It honestly wasn’t until recently that I began doing it every single day. It was the focus on other things that led me to start doing this. After caring about the small stuff for so long and starting to implement strategies to capitalize on them I started picking up more and more on the minutiae of life’s details, like how my bed looked like a fucking mess not made. So I started to make it.

It’s not magic. It’s not going to happen tomorrow or even 2 months from now, but if you start today doing those things that everyone else is passing over, you’ll start seeing some change happening in your own life. Caring about the small stuff oozes into every other aspect of your life. It’s contagious. You won’t be able to stop it and people will start to notice.

So I challenge you TODAY, to do one thing that falls into this category. Now take that one thing and do it for 30 days straight. After that 30 days look back and see where it spilled into other areas of your life.

Fair warning though, sweating the small stuff is hard. It’s hard going through every day caring about every little detail. It’s really easy to not give a shit which is why so many people do it and why it’s going to slowly move you away from the herd to your own pack of badassness.

So go be a badass and start sweating those small things in life.