Have you ever been checking your phone … or vegging on the couch … and suddenly start thinking about a goal you want to work toward?
It’s a little push from deep within you – something you can feel in your gut. Almost everyone has felt this way at one point or another.
Maybe you finally want to clean up your eating to improve your health.
Maybe you want to start working out so you get your energy back and feel stronger.
Or maybe your home is still feeling a little too “lived-in” after the coronavirus situation and you get an urge to organize and clean. (I have done more home projects these past few months than the last few years!)
Whatever the exact push is, author and motivational speaker Mel Robbins calls it an instinct for change.
She also says that unless you do something about it within 5 seconds, that instinct will die. She came up with the 5-second Rule (based on real science) to help keep that instinct alive.
Basically, as soon as you have that instinct (as long as it’s one that supports your goals!), you count backwards …. 5,4,3,2,1 and then you DO IT! And guess what? It works.
Your brain wants to protect you and keep you safe and comfortable.
As a result, it sees change as a threat … so it will do whatever it can to shut down that change, including sending you a bunch of thoughts to keep you doing the same-old, same-old. (Thank you, prefrontal cortex!)
That’s why it’s so important to take action on those gut-level urges IMMEDIATELY … before your prefrontal cortex has a chance to take over.
This can apply to so many areas of your life. Here are just some examples of “instinct” urges you might feel:
The more direct action you take toward your goals, the more in-control you’ll be over your life.
This will lead you to bigger urges and bigger actions – and bigger success.
Pretty exciting, right?
Not sugar coating it: the first few times you implement the 5-second rule it may seem painful. You might be feeling really comfy on the couch, in the middle of a Netflix binge (Or just waiting for season 4 of Ozark like me!), when all of a sudden you think about a chore you’ve been putting off or that you really should be working out. The last thing you’re going to want to do is get up and actually DO it.
