Learning to find the motivation to “never ring the bell”

Clichés become clichés for a reason: they present ideas that remain important, time and time again. This is true for the famous axiom, never give up.

In his book, Make Your Bed, Admiral William H. McRaven (U.S. Navy Retired) conveys to readers 10 lessons that he learned in Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training that can be applied to positively change readers’ lives.

Among his lessons, which include “get over being a sugar cookie” and “make your bed”, McRaven emphasized, “If you want to change the world… don’t ever, ever ring the bell.”

“Ringing the bell” during BUD/S training is symbolic for giving up. There is a brass bell at the Naval Special Warfare Training Center in Coronado, California, where BUD/S takes place.

Instructors use it to test the motivations of SEAL trainees, promising an easy way out of the suffering.

If trainees make the decision to quit, all they have to do is ring the bell three times, alerting everyone of their decision.

McRaven recalls the message that his instructors impressed upon him on the first day of training, “Ring the bell and you won’t have to get up early. Ring the bell and you won’t have to do the long runs, the cold swims, or the obstacle course. Ring the bell and you can avoid all this pain.”

“But let me tell you something,” his instructors added. “If you quit, you will regret it for the rest of your life. Quitting never makes anything easier.”

“Of all the lessons I learned in SEAL training,” McRaven explained, “this was the most important. Never quit.”

“It doesn’t sound particularly profound,” he continued, “but life constantly puts you in situations where quitting seems so much easier than continuing on.”

While the situations that students face are not physically arduous, there are still plenty of temptations to quit; rather than “ringing the bell,” many LRHS students find unique motivations to help them carry on.

Brinley Moore finds motivation internally, as she explained; “The thing that motivates me in school and life is working hard to achieve goals that I have set for myself [while] learning new things along the way.”

Some students are driven by mentors.

“The main thing that motivates me is my mom,” explained Alisha Baker. “I’ve watched all the incredible thing she’s done throughout my life and I know that I wouldn’t be where I am today if I didn’t have the motivation to be just like her.”

Paradoxically, Emily Rosen is motivated by others’ lack of motivation: “In school, I see other people who were given the opportunity to succeed but didn’t take advantage of it.”

“It makes me think I can do better,” she added.

Another student admitted, “The only thing that motivates me in school is my sports and not disappointing my team or coaches.”

Although most people have some sense of purpose or desire to not give up, motivation is not always consistent. Sometimes, taking the easy way out seems the better option.

“Do I lack motivation at times?” asked Baker, answering, “Well of course I do, but what teenager doesn’t?”

She accredits the ebbs and flows of motivation to “stress or not getting enough sleep,” but she is quick to add, “Honestly, I don’t think giving up is really an option.”

On the other hand, one student believed, “I lack motivation because in my opinion, half of the things we learn are useless… We need to learn things, sure, but at some point it becomes unnecessary.”

When asked why some students fail, Rosen explained, “I think it has a lot to do with students’ home lives… Or, they see others who have been able to have a job and money without an education.”

Regardless of the cause of failure or waning motivation, it is critical to never use it as an excuse to surrender.

High school is a notably different experience than BUD/S training, although finding motivation to persevere when it would be easier to quit makes them more alike than not.

McRaven wrote, “Life is full of difficult times. But someone out there always has it worse than you do.”

Driving home his lesson’s potential to change readers’ lives for the better, he continued, “(If) you refuse to give up your dreams, stand tall and strong against the odds – then life will be what you make of it – and you can make it great.”

“Never, ever, ring the bell!” McRaven concluded.