Risk & Business Magazine General Insurance Services Magazine | Page 17

THE FIVE SECOND RULE
I
n my speeches, I teach people about
a tool that has changed my life. I
first introduced this tool, The five
Second Rule, in a 2011 Tedx Talk,
and since then, I’ve heard from over
100,000 people have who have used the
Rule to push past fear, self-doubt, and
hesitation.
Looking back, it’s amazing to see how
much has changed over the past 8 years
– much of it thanks to The Rule. It also
turns out that the The Five Second
Rule is backed by science and works for
absolutely anyone.
I want to introduce you to this tool
because I believe that it has the power to
change your life. It changed mine, and
I’m going to tell you my story right now.
The story of how I discovered The Rule
is personal, but it also provides a ton of
context. I used it to change my life – and
I know that you can change your life too.
HOW I FOUND THE FIVE SECOND
RULE
In 2009, things weren’t going too well in
my life.
When the alarm went off each morning,
all I felt was dread.
I was so overwhelmed that I didn’t want
to wake up and face the day ahead of me.
So what did I do? I hit the snooze button
over and over and over again.
At this point in my life, I felt defeated. I
was facing serious problems related to
money, work, and my marriage.
I had changed careers so many times
that I felt like the jack of all trades and
the master of none. I got a big break to
host a show on TV and then the show
was cancelled, leaving me without work
and bound by a contract that wouldn’t
allow me to work in the media business
for a year.
At the same time, my family was in
financial free-fall after pouring our life
savings, home equity, and college tuition
savings into a pizza business that failed
– and left us in major debt.
“Tomorrow, I’ll wake up earlier.
I’ll have a better attitude. I’ll
be nice to my husband. I won’t
drink so much. I’ll go to the
gym.”
Our problems seemed way too big for me
to solve and I had no energy to change
things. I still felt the same feelings that I had
experienced for months: fear, dread, and
anxiety.
Sleep had become my escape – until the
alarm would go off in the morning and
pull me back to reality. In this moment, though, I noticed a tiny
window of time.
I felt trapped, so I started drinking too
much.
I would think and think about my
situation. The more I thought, the more
afraid I became.
All that I needed to do was wake up,
make breakfast, get my kids onto the bus,
and then look for a job.
It wasn’t earth shattering and it wasn’t
complicated. It was just a few simple
things. I didn’t need to end world hunger.
All I needed to do was wake up and face
the morning.
However, even the small things, like
getting up to make breakfast, felt so hard.
Every night, I would tell myself that the
next day would be different.
Tomorrow, I’ll wake up earlier. I’ll
have a better attitude. I’ll be nice to my
husband. I won’t drink so much. I’ll go to
the gym.
When the alarm would ring in the
morning, though, these empowering
thoughts were replaced by the same old
fears, and I would keep sleeping.
MY TRANSITION MOMENT
One morning, I decided to break the
habit.
I had a desire to change my life for the
better. There was a moment – a brief
window of time – before my m ind killed
this positive thought.
So, I did something I had never done
before. Instead of hitting snooze, I
started counting backwards.
5-4-3-2-1.
The night before, while watching a
commercial, I had seen a rocket launch
into the sky.
I decided, what the heck, why not to just
launch myself up like a rocket. Couldn’t
hurt.
5-4-3-2-1.
And then… I stood up. I launched myself
right out of bed, something I hadn’t been
able to do for months.
This was the exact moment that I
discovered The five Second Rule.
I used the same countdown the next day,
and it worked. In fact, it’s worked every
single time I’ve used it.
And you know what? I started to see
these moments all the time, these five
second windows.
So, I made a promise to myself: If I had
an instinct to do something that would >
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