True Confession Tuesday: I Am Living Life 5 Seconds at a Time
Where every Tuesday: I confess.
Confession: I have been trying to live life 5 seconds at a time.
You know that feeling in your stomach when you’re nervous about doing something and you hesitate, and you hesitate, and you hesitate? And then after enough hesitation you say “I can’t do that.”
Here’s an example. For years I would walk up to the monkey bars at Tough Mudder, be so nervous, and wait and stare at the bars. Then one of two things would happen. I would eventually start and maybe make it across and maybe not. Or I wouldn’t even try because I had talked myself out of the possibility of completing them (mainly because I had waited so long)
In my business I often have grandiose ideas and thoughts. Sometimes I write them down and sometimes I don’t. But then when I think about starting one of them, writing a brave email or making a cold call, I talk myself out of it. I wait too long.
Do you do this???
The good news is that it’s not entirely our fault. Haha. But in all seriousness -science has shown that you have 5 seconds – 5 seconds! to do something before your brain will talk you out of it. Your brain will actually turn on you and convince you that you shouldn’t do it, you can’t do it, and that you won’t do it.
5 MEASLY SECONDS
“It’s not as simple as, “Just do it.” If it were that simple, we would all have everything we want. There’s something really foundational that has to happen before we can take action, and that is that we must learn to conquer our own feelings.” – Mel Robbins
Do you have everything you want in life? Are there things that seem out of your reach? Maybe you’re like me and you dream about them all the time, but when the moment comes to take action, you freeze.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Mel Robbins is the author of the 5 Second Rule. I heard her interviewed on the Lewis Howes podcast. It is an INCREDIBLE interview – I highly, highly recommend you listen. She went from bankruptcy to 7 figure international speaker with learning how to control her brain with the 5 second rule.
From Mel Robbins:
But this is what I’ve found:
- Knowing what to do will never be enough.
- Knowing why you need to do it will never be enough.
So what we need is something that’s going to launch us into a state of action. Because if you’re sitting around waiting for motivation, I’m here to tell you it’s not coming.
And this next quote hit me like a ton of bricks.
“If you don’t start doing the things you don’t feel like doing, you will wake up one year from today and be in exactly the same place.”
Uff da. That one stings. We will never have the motivation to do it. We are not going to jump out of bed and say things like:
- I will eat a salad instead of a cheeseburger today
- I will start exercising for the first time today
- I will not yell at my kids at all today
- I will call that guy or that girl for a job interview
- I will say what I’m really feeling to my significant other
- I will clean my house top to bottom
- I will find another job to support my family
- I will go to bed before 10am
- I will
- I will
- I will
- I will
Not only is Mel inspiring but she is hysterical. I hope you’ll watch this 5 minute clip of one of her talks where she goes through why our brain does that and how we can conquer it with the 5 second rule.
And then EMAIL ME and tell me what you think and if you’re going to start living your life 5 seconds at a time.
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