"Motivation is garbage. At some point, we all bought into this lie that you've got to feel ready in order to change. We bought into this falsehood that at some point you're going to have the courage to change, at some point you're going to have the confidence, and it's total bullshit, frankly. [...] What you think is missing is motivation and that's not true, because the way that our minds are wired, and the fact about human beings is that we are not “designed” to do things that are uncomfortable, or scary, or difficult. Our brains are “designed” to protect us from those things, because our brains are trying to keep us alive. In order to change, in order to build a business, in order to be the best [...], to do all those things that you know you wanna do — with your life, with your work, with your dreams — you're gonna have to do things that are difficult, uncertain or scary, which sets up this problem for all of us: You're never going to feel like it. Motivation's garbage! You're only “motivated” to do the things that are easy, right? It's never there when you need it. [...] Our minds are “designed” to stop you, at all costs, from doing anything that might hurt you. [...] Motivation is garbage. I'm never going to feel like doing the things that are tough or difficult or uncertain or scary or new, so I need to stop waiting until I feel like it."
 — Mel Robbins; Author of The Five Second Rule and motivational speaker, to Tom Bilyeu on Impact Theory

As someone with low to no motivation for doing the big and important things in my life (such as finding a job and actually doing the work required to keep it), I can confirm that. Most of my days are spent doing what I want to do, not what I have to do to live a productive life as a functional adult. I am highly unmotivated, so I need something else to fill the gap. (It used to be fear and anger that motivated me, but that stopped working for me.) Maybe the Five Second Rule is it, for lack of anything better. As it stands, it took me a few days to getting around to writing this, because I knew it would be a lot of work (but not as much as putting it off). No doubt, sifting through and reading the backlog of emails in my inbox will prove likewise, but I've got to get it done in case there's anything important therein.

• One will never "feel ready" to do difficult things, those that our minds perceive as dangerous, difficult or scary. To believe or think otherwise is to lie to oneself. Human brains will never be motivated to do those difficult or uncomfortable things.
• One isn't going to feel motivated/ready for anything other than what one likes to do.
• If you know what you need to do to succeed, don't hesitate or stay silent. Waiting until you feel motivated/ready doesn't work, so don't wait for the right moment; the right moment is within five seconds of having an idea.
• It's not motivation that's missing, but the courage and self-assurance to follow through.
• Hesitating and staying silent is a bad habit loop that we all have, one that we need to break because it is holding us back from achieving success.
• Hesitating "sends a stress signal to the brain", causing it to notice the hesitation as a sign of danger, which causes your brain to try to protect you from a threat. One of those is to magnify perceived risk and pull you away from the perceived danger.
• Every single difficulty/problem/complaint in your life can be traced to the micro-moments in which you made a decision to hesitate or not speak up when you had an idea.
• Pausing to examine stimulus and think about how to respond and act appropriately (rather than simply reacting based on feelings) can change your life for the better.

"Your life comes down to your decisions and if you change your decisions, you change your life."

"None of us wake up and say, “today is the day I destroy my life”. What we do is we kinda check out because it feels overwhelming, or we check out because we're afraid, or we check out because we start listening to self doubt. We make these teeny, tiny decisions, all day long: [...] A decision to not get up on time, a decision to not eat the right thing, a decision to snap at your kids, a decision to not speak in a meeting, a decision to not look for a job [...] Whatever it is; all day long these decisions that take you so far off track. [...]"

As someone with a huge amount of fear and self doubt, I can definitely vouch for that. One of my biggest problems is that in order to get things done (even the little things), I have to fight those two factors. That's anywhere from fifty to ninety percent of where my energy goes, so it's no wonder I don't have much energy left for tackling life's obstacles.

"How the hell did I get here and, more importantly, how do I get back over there? And you have no idea! [...] You knew there was more in store for you, but you couldn't figure out how you close that gap. How do you find the power that's in you? How do you discover your greatness? How do you solve these problems that feel so overwhelming?
"[...] You get trapped in what I call the “knowledge-action gap”: You know what to do, but you can't seem to make yourself do it, right?! [...] How do you get out of your head and stop thinking about what you need to do and actually do it? [...] All these little things that I was capable of, but I couldn't get out of here, could not get out of here ...!" [^Taps forehead.^]
"If you're stuck, that's the problem: You're in your head, you're thinking. That is the universal problem and it all starts with this knowledge of what to do, and then you hesitate and think about whether or not you feel like doing it."

• Overthinking, particularly negatively, kills you slowly. Negative thoughts, influenced by negative feelings, lead to negative reactive behaviours, in a vicious downward spiral.
• If you can take time (even briefly) to examine your thoughts and feelings, to allay your fears, you can change your course of action.
• Bravery and courage come not from an absence of danger and fear, but the determination to act despite them.

"See, motivation's garbage; it's never there when you need it. Never ever, ever!"

That thinking of, "tomorrow, I'm going to start working on the new me, tomorrow ...", doesn't work, because when you wake up tomorrow, it's all too easy to laugh it off as a stupid idea. It seems to be too much to take on in one go. That's why you don't do it.

"Now here's a really interesting point: Actually, when you set goals, when you have an intention, on something that you want to change about your life, your brain helps you. What it does is it opens up a checklist and then your brain goes to work trying to remind you of that intention that you set. And it's really important to develop the skill — and I say that word purposefully — the skill of knowing how to hear that inner wisdom and that intention kicking in and leaning into it quickly."

The Five Second Rule

"[...] I started to notice something really interesting: There were moments all day long, all day long, just like that five second moment in bed [(before starting the day)] where I knew (knowledge) what I should do and if I didn't move within five seconds, my brain would step in and talk me out of it.
" Every human being has a five second window; it might even be shorter for you. You have about a five second window, in which you can move from ideas to action before your brain kicks into full gear and sabotages any change in behaviour. Because, remember, your brain is wired to stop you from doing things that are uncomfortable or uncertain or scary. It's your job to learn how to move from ideas that could change everything to acting on them in the smallest moment."

• Strike while the iron is hot. Don't let yourself hesitate between thought and action. That way, fear and self-doubt don't have time to kick in and stop you.
• When you have a thought that requires action to get going, count down from five and then do it. This stops the negative habit loops of fear and self-doubt from kicking in, because it moveds the brain's focus from the emotional centre (basal ganglia) to the prefrontal cortex, where memory, concentration and logical thinking activity happens.

"I'm going to be honest with you: It [(the five second rule)] is stupid. Had I ever thought that I would find myself, eight years after discovering it, spending my days telling people about the five second rule [...] It was my secret weapon. This was something I did. I never intended to tell anybody! Because I went from getting up on time (and waking up on time) to shaking up my entire life! Because when you understand the power of a five second decision, and you understand that you always have a choice to go from autopilot to decision-maker, everything in your life will change! [...] Because you will realise the amount of garbage that you put in the way of your hopes, of your dreams, of your potential, of your confidence, of your courage. Everything comes down to the decisions that you make! We all know what to do; none of us know how to make ourselves do it. So I started researching it. Why does something so stupid work? Why does something so silly create such powerful and profound change?"
"[...] You can outsmart your own brain in furtherance of goals. There are tricks that you can use that actually outsmart the tricks your brain plays on you, in furtherance of a higher purpose. [...] You can direct yourself in ways, if it's important to you. And so the rule, what it does is something remarkable. When you count backwards, five, four, three, two, one, what you're actually doing is you're interrupting what researchers call habit loops that get encoded as closed loop patterns in your basal ganglia — that's the part of the brain where your emotions, your feelings, every habit that you have is nothing more than behaviour that you repeat that you don't even think about. [...] When you go, “five, four, three, two, one”, it interrupts what's going on here ... [^Robbins makes a circling motion by her head.^] ... that's spinning without you thinking and it moves and awakens your prefrontal cortex. So when you hit “one”, your habit has been interrupted. So you've interrupted self-doubt, you've interrupted [...] procrastination. You've also, by counting backwards, done an action. It's awakened your prefrontal cortex. That is the part of the brain that you need awake when you're changing behaviour, when you're learning new things. When you hit “one”, it's also a prompt."
"[...] The five second rule, when you repeat it, becomes a starting ritual that triggers you to act with confidence, that triggers you that this is a moment for courage [...] It requires you to focus, because it's not a habit. It will become a habit that prompts you to have confidence and courage. In the beginning, it helps you interrupt patterns that you do on autopilot. It helps you assert control and it teaches you how to become the kind of person whom moves from thinking about something to actually doing it."

Practice the Five Second Rule every time you have to make a decision, especially ones that are difficult or scary. Over time, it will become a habit that will change your brain and your life for the better in multiple ways.

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