How to Unlock Your Everyday Courage to Do Amazing Things
Every day we make thousands of decisions.
Some small.
Some not so much.
We begin to falter.
We overthink.
We become anxious.
We give in to our fears.
What may have once started as a simple choice has become something else entirely.
So what do we do? We tell ourselves we’ll “do it tomorrow.”
Slowly those tomorrow things pile up
We become overwhelmed.
One day we may even find ourselves in bed, under the covers, pressing snooze until our fears and anxieties take care of themselves.
That’s where Mel Robbins found herself.
And that’s also where she found the tool to fight overthinking and restore her confidence.
The 5 Second Rule
Today, Mel Robbins is one of the most sought after public speakers in the world. She’s a multi-New York Times Best-Selling author and one of the most interesting interview guests I’ve ever listened to.
But it wasn’t always that way.
Many years ago, Mel was caught under the weight of financial uncertainty in her life. Unable to cope with the stress and fear, she languished and sulked.
One day, something changed.
She heard her alarm go off one morning and instead of hitting snooze for the hundredth time, she did something wildly different.
Remembering the countdown sequence of a recent space shuttle launch, she counted down to herself “5-4-3-2-1” and immediately sprung out of bed like a rocket.
That simple act changed her life. She used what she now calls the “5 Second Rule” to rewrite her behaviors one choice at a time.
The Tool for Everyday Courage
I recently had the pleasure of reading “The 5 Second Rule: Transform Your Life, Work, and Confidence with Everyday Courage.”
As you can imagine from the story above, using the Rule is fairly straightforward. When we’re faced with a decision like, “Should I go for a run today or go tomorrow?” we count down from five (5-4-3-2-1) and immediately push ourselves toward the action our future selves would be proud of.
The Rule is simply a tool to fight against overthinking.
It works because it’s easy to remember and quick to implement.
It works because it pushes us to act on behalf of ourselves and our goals.
It helps eliminate the doubt and replaces it with the courage to act.
Motivation is a Myth
As Mel writes in the book, “Motivation is a myth.”
I agree.
As humans, we have dreams to do great things in our lives. But in the everyday, motivation is fickle at best.
Instead, I lean on consistency.
Consistency will always win in the pursuit of our goals. But if we perpetually put things off to “tomorrow,” we’ll never realize the tomorrow we really dream of.
The Rule helps us create the positive consistency one rewired choice at a time. By using the Rule, we circumvent the opportunity for indecision to lead us astray.
The Rule gives us the courage to change and strive for better.
5 Lessons Learned from The 5 Second Rule
Here are a few of the critical takeaways from the book.
Lesson 1 — Hesitation sends a stress signal to your brain. The Rule circumvents this indecision and negates the stress signal.
Lesson 2 — Small acts of courage lead to self confidence. Over time, we will feel more in control of our lives. That feeling will grow like a snowball rolling down a hill, gathering more snow as it goes.
Lesson 3 — “The Rule doesn’t make things easy. It makes them happen.”
Lesson 4 — The Rule can be applied to almost any part of our lives (e.g. health, career, relationships, etc.) because it’s not tied to things. Rather, it’s tied to our behaviors.
Lesson 5 — The Rule works best when paired with physical movement. Performing a physical action at the end of “5-4-3-2-1” rewires your brain to associate action with the new behavior
The 5 Second Rule isn’t a one-stop-shop for getting the life you’ve always dreamed of. But it’s certainly the tool that could get you to the start line.
If you’re interested in learning more, I’d recommend checking out either the book itself or the TED Talk she gave in 2011 (currently sitting at almost 30 million views) that started it all.
In the game of life, getting started with real action is half the battle.
5-4-3-2-1
Go!
Until next week, here are links to what I’ve been working on and treasures I’ve found out in the creative wilderness.
Enjoy!
Recent Finds
Ness Labs — Servant leadership: why being a servant leader is worth the work (Blog) | This is a fantastic piece about leadership. As someone who finds himself in mid-career management roles, I can tell you that being a leader isn’t easy and it doesn’t come naturally to many people. In a world of overwhelm, overthinking, and burnout, this concept of “Servant Leadership” is gold. Inside you’ll find the key characteristics of a Servant Leader as well as the strategies to become one yourself.
Divya Robin — The Best Mental Health Advice I've Ever Heard (Instagram) | The title of this post isn’t hyperbole—these are some of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever seen on the topic of Mental Health. One of them that stopped me in my tracks was to “Treat your thoughts like something that can come and go.” You can’t stop the thought from happening, but you can make the choice to let it pass by without it ruining your day. This is just one of several ideas I’d recommend you take a closer look at.
Ali Abdaal — Thoughts on how to become a millionaire (Video) | A brief reminder of what it takes to create wealth in a short amount of time. Diversify how you get money so that you’re less reliant on any one source. Ali is clearly doing well with this mindset. I recommend checking out this and searching for some of his videos on YouTube like this one to help you understand just how he does it.
Quote of the Week
“We spend too much time trying to reach other people’s standards, and too little time defining our own. It’s better to disappoint another person than to lead a life that disappoints you. Success is not about meeting someone else’s expectations. It’s about living up to yours.”
— Adam Grant, Author
That's all for now.
Stay creative, my friends—and have a great week!
