5 Seconds to Action
Countdown: 5, 4, 3, 2, I... GO!
Memory flashback. With that simple countdown, did you think back to standing on the 50 yard dash starting line in 2nd grade?
And, no matter what you were doing the moment before, as soon as you heard the countdown and “Go," you were running as fast as you could.
That count down cleared your head, enabled focus on the task at hand, and moved you forward. You didn’t have time to consider that you hate running … you hate losing … or that you really weren’t wearing the right shoes at the moment. It’s just time to run.
So turns out there’s some compelling science behind this 5 Second Rule… and the woman who branded it is named Mel Robbins. She is an interesting and funny go-getter type of woman … who is queen of career transformation, from lawyer to TV host to best selling author to the most in demand female motivational speaker in the world. And no, she is not Tony Robbins’ wife.
In the midst of her career transitions, she also tried out bankruptcy, finding herself in almost a million dollars in debt. The 5 Second Rule was born.
The 5 Second Rule got her out of bed in the morning. The 5 Second Rule stopped her from pouring another drink. The 5 Second Rule got her to stop feeling sorry for herself. Step by step, the 5 Second Rule got her life back on track.
The transformative impact of that transition, and the subsequent study of the consequential scientific evidence of why this works, enabled her to write a whole book about this one rule.
You see, our brains are designed to stop us from thinking about changing. Change is scary and uncomfortable. Our brain wants us to stay safe … and going back to our ancestral days (yes … it’s amazing how often we can go back to thinking about those original humans), it just wasn’t safe if you were changing up your routine.
There could be danger lurking around any new corner. Danger, Will Robinson, Danger.
As soon as we think about something that we should do … if we don’t take immediate action, our brain gets to work in talking us out of it.
It kills our ideas, throwing barriers in our path, like hesitation, doubt, or drudgery … and the spin cycle of over analyzing one simple thing to death begins … and continues … keeping us stuck in our ways.
Metacognition gives us the psychological awareness of how our brain works. And essentially, we just want to shift forward the anxiety or trepidation that starts in our amygdala, a region of the temporal lobe of the brain that detects emotions and fear.
By using the 5 Second Rule, you quickly switch the gear in your brain from the amygdala to the prefrontal cortex - the executive functioning area of the brain associated with planning and decision making.
So as an experiment this week, why don’t you try this rule out, and just see what you can do. Maybe it can help you with achieving those goals that you set for yourself, and foster the experimentation with more tiny habits.
When you hesitate, switch the gear into drive.
Push down the fear, quiet the chatter, say no to procrastination.
Embrace the opportunity. It typically changes your life for the better.
If you’re thinking about it a lot, taking action is obviously important.
Don’t let your brain get in the way of those great ideas.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Go! Get it done.