PART 10

There’s an important concept in psychology put forth by Julian Rotter in 1954. It’s called “locus of control.” The more that you believe that you are in control of your life, your actions and your future, the happier and more successful you’ll be.

There’s one thing that is guaranteed to increase your feelings of control over your life: a bias toward action. Forget motivation; it’s a myth. I don’t know when we all bought into the idea that in order to change you must “feel” eager or “feel” motivated to act.

It’s complete garbage. The moment it’s time to assert yourself, you will not feel motivated. In fact, you won’t feel like doing anything at all. If you want to improve your life, you’ll need to get off your rear end and kick your own butt. In my world, I call that the power of a push.

One of the reasons why the #5SecondRule is so empowering is because it turns you into the kind of person who operates with a bias toward action. If you tend to overthink every move, you’ll discover the energy and confidence to stop thinking and actually move. Using the Rule strengthens your belief that you do have the ability to control your own fate—because you are proving it to yourself one push at a time.

Jenney is finally taking control of her health. She realized that when she would eat a meal of “canned raviolis, a bag of chips, and a soda…then complain about being overweight,” she was sabotaging her efforts to lose weight. By committing to “5- 4- 3- 2- 1-HEALTHY,” Jenney was able to use the Rule to give herself the “kick in the arse” she needed.

When Donna first learned the Rule at an Aveda Institute Conference she thought, “Yeah, yeah I’ll use it, but it’s not going to be life changing…” That’s how I felt about the Rule too—that I’d just use it as a trick to beat the snooze alarm.

Boy, was I wrong! So was Donna; it changed just about everything in her life and business. As Donna found, “Only we can hold ourselves back. It’s amazing to see how horribly I held myself hostage out of fear and where I am today. More importantly, where I see myself in years to come.”

As you use the Rule more and more, you’ll begin to feel courage, confidence, pride, and a sense of control. The Rule has that effect. I often tell people “the Rule will haunt you,” and I mean it—just ask Darryl.

That’s because you’ll realize you’ve been sleepwalking through life for a long time. Something this simple, easy, and effective is also contagious. Crystal has already started using it with her son:

The first person I told about the Rule was my husband. Chris had definitely noticed the changes, in particular that my bitchy demeanor was melting and that I was actually being proactive. It didn’t take much to convince him that there was a

“secret weapon” mentality he was living without.

He adopted the Rule and used it to make some major changes. He quit drinking, started meditating daily, and exercising every morning. The Rule doesn’t make these things easy; it makes them happen. That’s why I describe it as a tool.

Instead of avoiding the creditor calls and bankruptcy letters, we 5- 4- 3- 2- 1 to hit it head on. I used 5- 4- 3- 2- 1 to push myself to reach out to old coaching clients to rev up the referral engine. I used 5- 4- 3- 2- 1 to propel myself to go on interviews for radio hosting gigs, despite the contract issues with FOX. Together we 5- 4- 3- 2- 1 to push ourselves to meet with accountants and financial advisors to restructured our debt and do the nauseating work to face the hole we had dug, and get disciplined about slowly crawling our way out of it...