The 5 Second Rule

The 5 Second Rule is a simple tool that undercuts most of the psychological weapons your brain employs to keep you from taking action, which will allow you to procrastinate less, live happier and reach your goals.

When we read stories about our heroes or biographies of historical figures, we tend to see people of extraordinary courage and bravery. That’s not the case. They were just as shy, anxious and afraid as you and I. It just so happened that throughout their life, they made a lot of small, courageous choices, which added up and now they’re all we remember.

Mel uses Rosa Parks as an example. On December 1st, 1955, she refused to give up her “seat for colored people” for a white person on the bus. She was arrested and four days later, recruited a young preacher to help organize a protest. Swept away by the momentum he didn’t think much and agreed to take the lead. The name of that preacher was Martin Luther King Jr.

Neither of the two knew what their actions would lead to. Their gut just told them to act a certain way in a particular moment and instead of overriding it, they went with the impulse. A while back, I told the story of how I finally approached my crush thanks to “20 seconds of courage” from We Bought A Zoo, which essentially works just like the 5 Second Rule.

I can confirm that from each small act of courage, more courage follows. It compounds and hopefully, when you’re old, you can look back on a courageous life.

Here are two universal facts: One, we all want to change our lives one way or the other and two, we spend most of our time waiting for that change to magically occur. Our excuse is always the same: “I’m waiting for the right moment.” Yeah, right. Of course deep down we know that moment will never come. But Mel actually tells us why that is. She names three reasons: Change is always new. It always comes with uncertainty. It’s always scary. Whether you want to lose weight, make more money or start dating, those three factors are always there. They’re no less true tomorrow, next week or six months from now. Yes, you have to do something new, like signing up for the gym. And you’re not guaranteed to make $10,000 from your side hustle. Showing up to a blind date will always make you nervous. Whatever you want that you don’t have, it’ll always require doing new, scary and uncertain things, which makes waiting even a day longer nothing but a cop-out and a waste of time. That’s why the 5 Second…