5 Seconds Rule: Are you feeling demotivated? Do you have a lot of work to do but you are procrastinating? We are here to give you some motivation. In this article, we are going to share with you the story of Mel Robbins. You might have heard about her, you might not. Today we are going to see her story and get inspired.
At the age of 41, Mel Robbins life was a mess. She was unemployed, her marriage was on the verge of ending, she was almost an alcoholic and all this with no money in her bank. It wasn’t like she didn’t want to change, she did want to change but she would make some excuse for herself. She bought books and journals and literally nothing helped her to get out of the mess she was in.
She would set early morning alarms and would tell herself every night, “From tomorrow all this is going to change”. But somehow in the morning, she would press the snooze button and again procrastinate.
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One night Mel Robbins had her eureka moment. She was alone in her room drinking down her sorrows when she saw a rocket on tv. She thought to herself that tomorrow when my alarm rings, I’m going to launch myself out of bed like a rocket.
The next morning when her alarm rang, instead of hitting snooze and procrastinating, she started counting backward.
She counted, “5,4,3,2,1”.
As soon as she counted to 1, she got out of bed. This is how she came up with the five-seconds rule. The five-seconds rule bridges the gap between thinking and doing. The change is instant.
Mel Robbins
“Your life is defined by the gap between what happens to you and your reaction to it.”
The 5 Seconds Rule closes the gap between thinking about what needs to be done and actually doing it.
Soon after Mel started practicing the 5 Seconds Rule, she gave a TEDx talk, she wrote a book that became a bestseller. She is one of the most highly paid and booked female speakers in the world and now the host of a talk show called ‘The Mel Robbins Show’.
Let us discuss the 5 seconds rule in detail,
When we have thought about doing something, we only have a few seconds to execute an idea before our minds interfere and sabotage our efforts to remain in our comfort zone.
Let’s say you are not happy with the way you look and you want to shed off some excess weight, you think to yourself, “I need to go to the gym.”. You have exactly 5 seconds to act upon it until your brain takes over you and decides, “I will start from tomorrow”.
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This isn’t just her theory. It’s actual science. Counting backward from 5 to 1 will help you activate your prefrontal cortex, which is the part of the brain that is in charge of decision making, strategic thinking, learning a new behavior, and working towards goals.
Researchers call the 5-seconds rule, nifty brain trick “Metacognition”.
Let us make a decision to change. We all know what we have to do and we are smart enough that we know what are the bad habits that are stopping us from changing but we don’t do it. We let our brains help us be in our comfort zone. We get used to the feeling of comfort.
Next time we have a life-changing thought, count backward from 5-1 and just get up and do. You’re going to feel so much better after actually doing it. You are at least moving forward not backward.
If you’re motivated after reading this and you are thinking to yourself, “Today I am going to get all this work done”. GO right now before your brain manipulates you into not doing it.
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