Use This 5 Second Rule To Achieve Your Goals Right Now

If you're someone like me who constantly struggles with procrastination, self-doubt, or even overthinking, author and motivational speaker Mel Robbin’s 5-second rule will come to your rescue!

This rule is pretty simple to follow through as it restricts your thought process if these thoughts seem to turn negative and make us feel less productive in any way. Often such toxic thoughts are formed in the brain to limit our productivity and destroy self-confidence.

“The 5 Second Rule is simple. If you have the instinct to act on a goal, you must physically move within 5 seconds or your brain will kill it.” -Mel Robbins

1. Analyzing the instinct

This is the exact moment when you will feel the instinct to do a certain thing. Such a feeling can be described as a certain random thought in the brain that requires an action. However, it must not be destructive in nature. It should be well within the boundaries of law and order. I describe it as an urge to do or not do something because there is a certain feeling in your gut. Your heart must scream from inside when you feel it.

It must feel wise and correct. There must be positivity attached to this thought and the consequences of it must be righteous, providing benefits at the end of it. Then you must count backward 5…4…3…2…1. Five seconds are enough to make sure you really want to do something in terms of taking action. If after five seconds you feel the urge to do it, take immediate action.

2. Spring into action!

Suppose you thought of starting an exercise routine in order to achieve better health or lose weight, this is your time to take immediate action. Count again while getting up from your couch and changing into workout gear.

This way, you have already fought half the battle against procrastination by taking the first step towards progress. Usually, this first step plays a crucial part in underlining the rest of your journey towards achieving your goal which once seemed like a dream.

3. Push Yourself

Since you are now all geared up, do not let anything come in your way before you proceed towards the rest of your actions. Leave the house, sign up for a membership at your nearest fitness center, and look forward to slowly and gradually achieving small targets towards fitness.

The psychology behind this is that pushing yourself to the extent of fulfilling small and achievable goals will seem rather easier than thinking of the bigger picture and doubting yourself.

4. Affirmations

According to several research studies conducted on humans, affirmations can make or break your day. In order to keep making progress towards your goal, you must tell yourself, “ I absolutely can do this.”

“Self-affirmation activates brain systems associated with self-related processing and reward and is reinforced by future orientation” — National Institute of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Being your own motivation is the most effective way to trigger your brain to produce happy and encouraging thoughts. These affirmations can be either your inside voice or you can write it down on paper and place it around your surroundings. For instance, most people have posters of positive thoughts on their walls, on the work desk, or on the lock/home screen of their smartphone.

5. Stop your brain from killing it

Whenever you start feeling lazy or “not in the mood”, you must count 5…4…3…2…1 and then take action right away. The trick is to not allow your mind to give it enough time for generating alternative thoughts that may affect your initial thought.

Our brain is programmed to produce an array of self-sabotaging thoughts if we tend to overthink a certain situation. There would be endless ‘what if(s)…’ when a single toxic thought follows another. The idea is not to break this chain of toxicity but to not let it occur in the first place by taking immediate action and always following it with affirmations.

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My personal take from this 5-second rule is that it is highly effective especially for an introvert like me who tends to overthink the extent of forming imaginary situations in my head that is far from reality.

These days we as humans have become so self-conscious that our focus lies solely on the sheer judgment of the next person or the society as a whole. Our actions take place after a deep down careful analysis of the future reactions of other people and the possible consequences.

So if you're struggling, give the 5-second rule a try!