How to get self-motivation and destroy doubt in five seconds

After watching this video on the secret of self-motivation, I learned about the five-second rule and the theory behind our instincts and subsequent actions.

People have great ideas but they believe the reason they don’t act on them is due to a lack of self-motivation. Mel claims the real reason comes down to the way we are built. Our brains are designed to keep us safe and when you act on an idea that represents risk and danger that is the very thing our brain will try to avoid.

Unfortunately, we all have to do difficult things in order to achieve anything.

Key messages I took from this video:

Motivation is garbage – you’re only motivated to do things that are easy.

Motivation is never there when you need it.

Your mind is designed to stop you doing anything that could hurt you.

We all have a habit of hesitating.

We are all one decision away from changing our lives.

Your life is made up of countless, little decisions, everyday.

Many people have a moment where they experience feeling shame, thinking their life didn’t work out the way they thought it would.

Your brain magnifies risk to pull you away from something that it perceives to be a problem.

So if you’re stuck or have doubts about what you know you must do but can’t bring yourself to do, then try the five-second rule. It’s free, backed by science and it's used by eight million people around the world.

The rule is simple.

Every brain has a five-second window that moves from idea to action. If you do a countdown starting from five, you will beat your brain before it has time for self-doubt that stops you taking your action. For Mel, this was a profound discovery and one that proved to be so simple and stupid…but it works!

She was in bed one night watching TV when she saw the NASA rocket launch. That’s when it hit her. ‘Tomorrow instead of hitting the snooze button again, I’m going to launch myself out of bed like that rocket, so fast!’ Her approach worked so well, she got up everyday after that and realised this five-second window exists all throughout our day, not just in the morning when we are waking up.

To date it has had a massive response and even saved lives.

When I tried this after failing to get up and exercise in the mornings like I promised myself I would for months, it also worked. I felt instant gratification too for achieving what I set out to do but most importantly, it worked in getting me out of bed when I really didn’t want to.  

The science behind it

Metacognition – being aware of your thought process means you can outsmart your brain. Knowing that it will try to stop you doing anything that is scary, uncomfortable or difficult is the first step to getting ahead.

Habit loops get encoded in your brain. In other words, it’s behavior you repeat without knowing it. These are made up of three things: cue, routine and reward. The great thing about the five-second rule is it will interrupt the habit, no matter what its instigators are.

Awakens your prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain you need when you’re learning new things). When you do the countdown from five you are taking action and using your prefrontal cortex to take control.

I really believe in this method and if you want to go from autopilot to decision-maker and interrupt self-doubt, i recommend giving this a try.