If you’re like me, you will have heard throughout your life that “Motivation” is the key to achieving your goals and accomplishing your bucket list. “Motivation” is a key but if you have the mindset and use the 5 Second Rule you will find that your “Motivation” follows and it isn’t such a huge mountain to climb over.
I recently read an article by Mel Robbins and she states. “When approaching changing your life you must start thinking about the small changes you make, every day, that make life-altering positive differences over time.
That’s why the 5 Second Rule is essential to learn–it will be the push you need in the moments when you don’t feel like doing something but know you should do it.”
The Moment You Have
an instinct to act on a goal
you must physically move
within 5 seconds
or your brain will stop you
5-4-3-2-1-GO!
Mel states” It’s a remarkable Rule that has completely changed my life.”
“Here’s the thing. When I created the Rule, I didn’t know how or why it worked. I just knew that it did. As I shared the Rule with others and they started using it, people started reaching out to me, asking HOW and WHY the Rule worked so well.
Because of the way your brain is wired, when your thoughts and feelings are at war, when there is a discourse between what you know you should be doing and what you feel like doing, your feelings are always going to win. If you don’t feel like doing it, you won’t do it– that’s why you need the 5 Second Rule. It can literally change your life – if you let it.”
Whilst reading this I found that it is something I could relate to and I am sure most of you will as well. Do you ever find yourself making to-do lists and then not following through on them? Like every single day?
Or thinking to yourself, “What the heck is wrong with me? I know what I’m supposed to be doing, why can’t I just do it?”
- Knowing what to do will never be enough.
- Knowing why you need to do it will never be enough.
So, what we need is something that’s going to launch us into a state of action. Because if you’re sitting around waiting for motivation, I’m here to tell you it’s not coming.
If you don’t start doing the things you don’t feel like doing, you will wake up one year from today and be in exactly the same place.
If you have an impulse to act on a goal, you must physically move within 5 seconds or your brain will kill the idea.
If you have a goal of launching your own business, and you have no idea where to start, get on Google right now and research other companies in your field of interest, see what they’re doing and decide what you’ll do the same, and where you’ll differentiate yourself. Then google a free business plan template, and start to fill it out. Get serious about it and put your intentions in writing.
Whatever your goals are, show the world, and yourself, that you’re serious by taking action, however insignificant that action may seem, RIGHT NOW.
Because when you physically move, your brain starts to build new habits. When you do something you’re not used to doing, you are in the act of building new habits and erasing existing ones.
The 5 Second Rule allows you to beat your brain at its own game and distract it from the ways that it tries to sabotage you.
Most of us live our lives in autopilot mode. In fact, research has shown that 40% of your day is spent in autopilot. When you’re on autopilot, you’re operating solely out of habit.
And for almost all of us, our habits are not serving us. You see, your brain wants to protect you. It wants to keep you safe.
It does this by keeping you from doing anything that feels scary, hard, or uncertain.
So, our default habits are usually doing what feels safe and easy. Our default habits are doing the same old things over and over–in our default habits, in autopilot mode, we are not “living our greatness”. We are stuck. And we are not improving.
When you count down 5-4-3-2-1, you’re taking a deliberate action. The countdown pushes you out of autopilot. And when you act, you’re exercising control and you’re turning on your prefrontal cortex.
By taking actions that make you feel in control of your life, your life will literally begin to change in every single way.
That activation energy required to get you going is really hard to come by, but when you use the Rule, you can push past your feelings of resistance.
Once you’re using the Rule, it becomes much easier to keep making forward progress, thanks to the momentum which is propelling you forward. The 5 Second Rule is so simple to use that it’s easy to keep moving in the direction of your goals and dreams and keep the momentum going.
The 5 Second Rule allows you to make forward progress every single time that you use it, which in turn leads to a better mood and increased productivity–which makes you more likely to keep using the Rule!
You see, you will always have that urge to engage in a negative habit. You’re going to have the urge to smoke or skip a workout or procrastinate. And that’s okay. Don’t expect the urge to go away. You’re not a failure for feeling the urge.
Instead, when you feel triggered to engage in the negative behaviour, you can use the Rule, 5-4-3-2-1, to replace the negative action with something positive–and begin to create new behavioural patterns.
Soon, you will be creating new positive habits, which fosters increased self-confidence, leading to more positive behaviour.
As your habits change and using the Rule becomes natural, you are inclined to act. Soon, instead of hesitation and procrastination, your default mode becomes one of taking action. Counting Backwards activates the prefrontal cortex region of your brain because it requires focus and is the first action you take to replace a habit loop. It also distracts you from your worries, excuses, and thoughts And…the more you exercise this action, the more you will improve, and the easier it will become.
Hopefully this Newsletter will give you some insite and understanding of why your “Mindset and the 5 Second Rule” can become a very powerful and important tool to use. To find out more or explore the possibilities further, please call us – we can coach you through this change if you feel you are unable to take the necessary steps to get started.
