I Tried Mel Robbins’ 5 Second Rule For 30 Days
Here is what happened
When it comes to free advice on social media, be aware of anything that sounds ridiculously simple but loaded with a heavy promise.
Thumbnails that pack offers like “try this for 7 days and your life will change forever” often turn out to be rah-rah speeches that do nothing. Motivational speaker Mel Robbins puts forward the most seemingly unrealistic of all such offers. She says:
“If you can count 5–4–3–2–1… you can have everything you want.”
Now, that has to be far-fetched.
And yet, her aura, purpose in her eyes, confidence in her speech, and the simplicity of her explanation will have you hooked. It had me.
A week after listening to her interview on YouTube, I read her international bestseller ‘The 5 Second Rule’. I finished the book in a couple of days and started implementing her mantra: 5–4–3–2–1.
Did it work?
What is the 5 Second Rule?
When you are faced with a task that you should do, and yet not doing it, count backward from 5 and when you reach 1, just do it. This is the gist of the 5 second rule.
As you can see, the ‘just do it’ part at the end is critical here. One might wonder why start counting if you can just do it anyway. Also, what aid does counting provide in the ‘do it’ part?
The 5 Second Rule is for those held back from the things they know they should do but can’t do. Procrastination, fear, negative thoughts, or anything that stalls your progress, 5 Second Rule is your intervention-mantra to break the barrier of withholding thoughts.
When you wake up at 5 and think if you should run, the more you think, the less likely you will launch because our brain is a machine designed to put us through the least amount of stress.
So, to break this pattern of brain stopping our advance, we count 5–4–3–2–1, and when it’s 1, without a second thought, we get up and do whatever it takes.
Therefore, the 5 Second Rule is a willful intervention to break the brain’s familiar patterns, to stop us from being lulled into an easier yet fruitless zone.
You can also use this rule to stop negative thought patterns, overcome the fear of public speaking or any situation where you need to reassert the control of your thoughts.
Why I needed the 5 Seconds Rule
A few months ago, I read Robin Sharma’s 5 AM Club, and since then, I have been practicing his Victory hour rule. Mr. Sharma’s method has helped me control my morning routine, but the aspect I still wanted to mend was the many nervous breakdowns I faced throughout the day.
From talking in team meetings to attending functions, there were umpteen micro situations that forced me into a nervous zone. I often avoided such undesirable situations, but I wanted to face them with more resolve and confidence.
I adopted the 5 Seconds Rule and ran it for 30 days to see if it can make a difference.
Here is what I feel about it after doing it for a month.
#1 It works, but not how you think
The 5 Seconds rule works like a charm if you are trying to overcome procrastination or mild addictions. For instance, I could count from 5 to 1 and stop myself from finishing up the entire Nutella bottle, or ask myself to switch off the TV and get back to reading.
I could thank the rule for that, but the fact is even if I did not know the rule, I could have still made myself stop eating Nutella or turn off the TV. But would I have done it?
Possibly not, because so much dopamine would rush into my brain that I wouldn’t even think about snapping my favorite food or show.
But the very fact that I was on a 30-day test course of 5 Second Rule and that 5–4–3–2–1 was mostly running the show in my subconscious mind kept telling me that I had targets to cover.
So, the 5-second rule did not just work like a thought-interferer, but it also performed the role of a reminder about the occurrences that need to be interfered with.
Mel Robbins’ brainchild served as an alarm that runs every time I get carried away with an activity.
#2 What Mantra is that?
When it comes to medical laboratories and clinical examinations, I am a cat on a hot tin roof.
I hate the sight of the syringe, and even if injection or a blood sample collection doesn’t feel all that painful, my mind wanders off to visuals of blood spilling, bloody stabbing in movies, and whatnot. It just makes me nervous.
Ten days into the 5 Second Rule testing process, I had a series of tests to be done on my blood. I found the laboratory an excellent place to test the effectiveness of the 5 Second Rule. I wanted to find out if I could stop my mind from getting on a downward spiral of needless imageries.
So throughout my journey to the lab and during my short time waiting, I tried to ward off negative thoughts using 5–4–3–2–1. Did it help? Not quite.
Every time I shut the door on a negative thought, counted 5–4–3–2–1, and looked around, there was something that took me right back into the very same thoughts.
A nurse moving around with a tray full of medicines, the odor of antiseptic, the pictures of human body pasted on the wall, something or the other, kept reminding me about what I am about to undergo. I was nervous as always.
Luckily I had the assistance of a good nurse who made me feel practically no pain, but as she pulled blood into the syringe and saw my mouth whispering 5–4–3–2–1, she asked, “what mantra is that”!
#3 The 5 Second Habit
As much as I love the 5 Second Rule, I don’t intend to keep doing this for the rest of my life. Like the nurse who discovered my mantra, I don’t want my kids to find out that I count 5–4–3–2–1 to get out of situations. The good news is I don’t have to.
After vehemently following the 5 Seconds Rule for 21 days, I realized that many processes became so automated that I was up and jumping off to action without counting. The very thought of the 5 Second Rule was enough to launch me, and by the 22nd day, I had stopped counting.
Just think about it, and off I went.
Post my 30 day test period, when I lowered my guard, I realized that it was easy to fall back into old habits.
Every good habit that needs your comfortable patterns to be broken takes enormous effort and virtually no effort to fall back into the pit.
Making the 5 Seconds Rule a part of your active lifestyle demands grit and practice, but a few off days would have you back to the starting point. It helped that I had written my daily analysis of the rule, and a light perusal of the document jogged my memory.
When I felt like stopping, I remembered why I started.
#4 The One thing about 5 Seconds Rule that didn’t Impress me
I love Mel Robbins, her speech, passion, and idea, but I am not sure I liked her book just as much. I hate to say this, but the book felt a little redundant, playing in on the same idea through numerous real-life accounts.
I wished she had given more weightage to the actual science that backed her innovation. The appreciation of people who made the rule work could have been confined to a single chapter or so.
Instead, the 248-page book felt like one long advertisement of her viral idea. Through tweets, emails demand Facebook posts of people who scripted success using the rule; she was perpetually showing that her vision can work. I don’t think it was needed.
The people who bought the book were the ones who were convinced about the 5 Seconds Rule, and they required no more preaching.
Also, I found the many interviews of Mel Robbins on YouTube pretty comprehensive. Everything felt doubly effective and poignant in her sharp voice.
Since Robbins’ entire game is centered around the core concept of counting 5–4–3–2–1, going through some of her most viewed videos will have you equipped with everything you need to start implementing the 5 SR.
I hope my words don’t serve as a negative advertisement for her book, but hey, it’s already an international bestseller.
#5 The Prerequisite for 5 Second Rule
Do not assume that the 5 Second Rule is a magic pill that will set your life on a path to glory. You won’t even get to the point where you can implement it unless you have ample willpower, the prerequisite for the 5 Seconds Rule.
Because even though chanting 5–4–3–2–1 sounds like something anybody can do, to do this in situations that matter, to stick to this process, and be patient to see the results, demands enormous resolve and determination.
Does that make you wonder why you need a rule like 5 Seconds if you already had those qualities(resolve and determination) in abundance? Let me tell you that those are qualities that most humans on this planet possess. 5–4–3–2–1 is a tool that might let you connect with them a little better.
When I ask myself to stop the TV and take the book, and my brain says, “I am asking you to stay put,” allowing more time to stay in that zone would help my brain to come up with 100 different thoughts on why it’s a better idea to continue watching TV.
5–4–3–2–1 won’t give that luxury to the brain. But you should have a constant interest to improve your life and the willpower to invoke the 5 Second Mantra in such situations. Will is the key here.
The Summary of Each point
- 5 Second Rule also works as a reminder that you have lofty ambitions in life.
- 5 Second Rule did not work for me in an agitated situation, especially in an environment that reminded me of my tension. It worked very well to overcome procrastination.
- You don’t have to chant 5–4–3–2–1 forever; after a while, the process gets automated.
- I wasn’t impressed by the book as much as Mel Robbins talks on YouTube.
- You need ample willpower to implement the 5 Second Rule.
I wish to finish by telling you that these are my subjective experiences, and to a different person, the 5 Second Rule would bring different results. Perhaps, some people successfully pulled this rule to get over their fear of medical examinations.
I hope more and more people try this elegant and straightforward method and find themselves more involved in life.
