5...4....3...2...1 What the hell is this counting thing?!

So, ya know how it is hard as hell to follow through on hard stuff or to even do anything sometimes? You get overwhelmed.  Your mind is going a million miles and hour and it is all just SO damn overwhelming.  Your focus seems to hamster wheel all your stresses all the time.  You just don't feel like getting up.  You're one step away from giving up.

No lie, this is a life changer.        It is the simplest thing in the world.      It won't make you motivated.

                                                         It will  make you do it though. 

                                                            And that is what you need. 

                                                                To. Get. Shit. Done.

Get out of bed.

Take care of yourself.

Choose the right foods.

Start the work.

Fold the clothes.

Take the kids out.

Handle finances.

Confront the bad boss.

Give your ideas to your company.

Get that book started. 

Go down the tall steep waterslide. 

The list can go on literally for pages. 

We are confronted with 5 second decisions dozens of times a day! 

Why does this work?

Neuroscience.  Amazing stuff right? I'll paraphrase the gist of this tool.

Counting backwards activates your prefrontal cortex and literally hijacks your thoughts.  You can have your thoughts hijacked in 5 seconds or less.... you can also hijack it back in that same time.   Now, add in movement and you activate another 3 parts of your brain which now equate the countdown with DOING. 

Try it.  On anything.  I have had moments every day that are substantial changes through this method. 

Another thing?  You'll hear Mel Robbins talk about how it allows you to push through just about anything.  And she's right.  But here is the even BIGGER thing about that:

Your instincts don't change.

Our instincts and our choices often don't match up.  We are so dominated by fears that we rarely follow our true instincts.

 

For instance I have spent years building my photography business, and I'm damn good.  It was working.  I finally had my brick and mortar location.  And I was utterly loosing my childrens childhoods.  I fought against the urge to close it and then the urge to be amazing at it etc etc etc. 

One day, in my best friends kitchen, I took 5 seconds and didn't allow myself to over think it. 

"This is costing far more than it's worth isn't it?" Yes. "ok.  I'm closing it" 54321 sent an email to my property manager that I needed to break my lease.  It was done. 

Could I have 54321 just kept working harder? Sure.  But that wasn't my deep down instinct or desire. 

No one wants to be 450lbs.  No one WANTS to eat like crap and feel like crap.  That is a craving, not instinct that drives it.  When they decide to change, the deep down instinct is "that is bad for me"  hence the guilt felt when they then eat it anyway.  So which is the real instinct?  If it were eating the bad stuff there would be no guilt or desire to change.  That's how you can tell your instinct.  It's that little voice deep down trying to help.  

Using the 5 second rule allows you to follow your real instincts for the best decisions. 

Thinking kills it.  

Our brains are wired to literally seek the easiest, least distressing IN THE MOMENT option.  Our brains don't like hard. They don't like pain.  And they don't live in a future tense.  It's all in the moment.  "If I eat the salad I'll be craving the burger the whole time and it's gonna be so hard.  I'm so angry I have to give up so much. It's not like one burger matters anyway"  See how quick the brain has derailed the ACTUAL instinctual good choice? You know deep down that every choice adds up.  Every action.  So you have to override that autopilot in your brain and take the harder path, BEFORE your brain gets in your way. 

54321, open your mouth "Ill take a caesar salad".  It's done. That's it. No chance to talk yourself out of it. 

54321, open your mouth "I have a great idea for marketing actually"  Done.  now you will do it because you have to.

54321, open your mouth "I need to cancel my subscription".  Done.  Money saved. 

I'm sure we can all come up with a hundred examples in ten minutes. 

So far, I have made it down a scary high waterslide and LOVED IT.  That single moment, going down, reignited the fun chasing, daring girl that I had buried for almost 12 years.  I then went on to wear a swimsuit with zero shame making memories with my kids.  A two piece.  I went down more waterslides the next week.  I have run through sprinklers and stopped a van during a rain storm to catch frogs.  And a lot of other things too.

Ya know what else it works well with? 

Keeping your temper. 

54321, I am walking away.

54321, I choose grace.

54321, I will CAMLY say what I need to.

and even bigger for me: 54321, this doesn't actually matter let it go.

Listen to the book if you can, it dives much deeper into this and Mel is great to listen to.  But even if this is the only contact you have with the 5 Second Rule, I hope you apply it.  It's amazing what it will change.