Psychologist Mel Robbins was lazy and procrastinated in college. He even received warnings for dropping out of school several times because he defaulted on his subject papers. In order to graduate smoothly, Mel decided to go to the library at 6 o'clock every day to write up his thesis. However, every time the alarm clock rang, various reasons for not getting up would always come to her mind: insomnia last night, poor health, other things in the morning... Until one day, she saw the rocket launch. In the broadcast video, when the announcer counted from 5 to 1, the rocket immediately ignited and took off.
When the alarm sounded again the next morning, Mel also tried to count down 5 seconds in his mind and get up immediately when he counted to 1.
With this method, she successfully overcame the problem of staying in bed and successfully completed the paper within the specified time limit.
After graduation, she applied this method to all aspects of life. As a result, she was promoted to professor within 5 years and wrote 3 best-selling books around the world.
This is the origin of the "5-second rule".
As Mel said in his TED talk: "If you can decide to start in 5 seconds, you can become anyone you want to be."
When you meet what you want to do, Don't hesitate, act decisively after counting down for 5 seconds, you will find that your life will be very different.
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Writer Liu Run said: "Between thinking and getting, there is a gap of 'doing'."
And it is this gap The gap separates all living beings.
People who think but do not do it always subconsciously think that there is still a lot of time in the future.
As everyone knows, the best opportunity is lost in every minute of delay.
Gray, who invented the telephone on the same day as Bell, said "wait a little longer" when faced with the urging of friends in the patent office, and ultimately applied for a patent one day later than Bell, and "the greatest inventor of the 20th century" The title passed by.
After hearing the sound of the charge on the Waterloo battlefield, Grouchy said "wait a little longer" when facing his subordinates who urged to send troops for rescue. In the end, he ruined the entire battle led by Napoleon and became the sinner of France. .
Writer Li Shanglong said: "This moment is everything, and this moment is forever."
Those who can truly grasp the future must first grasp the present.
Jack Welch, CEO of General Motors, mentioned such a story in his autobiography.
Jack once heard two colleagues complaining about the company's accounting process in the corridor.
One of them said: "Such a big company doesn't even have an independent financial system. It's so bad."
The other person was just about to agree, but after seeing Jack, he was shocked. He was shocked and immediately bowed his head and apologized to him.
After asking for their names and departments, Jack returned to his office without saying a word.
A week later, just when the two employees were worried about being fired, they suddenly received an email from Jack personally:
"The financial system is online. Welcome to use it and submit your suggestions." Suggestions."
It turned out that after Jack heard the employees' complaints, he immediately convened the technical team for discussion and started the development of the financial system that afternoon.
Looking back on Jack's 20-year career, whether it is his reaction to the market or changes in technology, he can always take action almost on the same day after making correct judgments.
Thanks to this, GM once seized the market opportunity and counterattacked from the brink of bankruptcy to become an industry giant with a market value of over US$400 billion.
Musk once said:
“No matter how brilliant the idea is, among the billions of people in the world, tens of thousands of people can think of it. As long as you think of it, do it. Only then can you get ahead of them.”
Don’t underestimate the harm of waiting, and don’t overestimate the patience of time.
The less hesitation before taking action, the sooner you can get closer to the life you want.
There is a legendary story in the Bible.
People rushing to the Holy Land were blocked by a Dead Sea.
The blood-colored sea surface was filled with dead bodies, the sky was filled with black mist, and there were ghosts whispering from time to time. It seemed impossible to move forward at all.
When Moses stepped onto the sea, the sky suddenly became clear and the air was clear. The Dead Sea automatically parted to both sides, revealing a clear road.
Life is often like this: when you hesitate, you only feel that there are thorns; when you take steps, you find that everything is smooth.
Stanford University once found in research that the human brain likes to maintain a stable state.
When things become uncertain, the brain deliberately magnifies the risk of action and prevents us from making changes.
But as long as you take the first step, you will find that what was originally so difficult can actually be accomplished easily.
The former Soviet scientist Lyubishev once set a rule: time everything you do.
Every time the timer starts, the timer seems to remind him that time is passing by desperately, and you have not done anything yet.
So, Lyubishev had to force himself to abandon all distracting thoughts and take action immediately.
In his "time diary" that he has recorded for 56 years, even the time spent in a daze is clearly recorded.
Only the matter of "hesitation" never appeared.
Lyubishev always does things that seem extremely difficult first, and then encounters problems in action and solves them.
With such execution ability, Lyubishev made great achievements in many fields such as mathematics, biology, philosophy, etc. He published more than 70 monographs in his lifetime, with a cumulative word count of over 10 million.
There is a classic line in the Oscar-winning film "Green Book":
"Too many people who are disappointed in life dare not take the first step."
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Behind the failure of what you want is often not lack of ability, but hesitation about the beginning and worry about the ending.
Such emotions are not only unhelpful, but will also cause you to constantly consume yourself and fall into emotional internal friction.
The difference between people is nothing more than that some people hesitate to move forward in the face of the end of the road, while some people walk out of the darkness.
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In front of Westminster Abbey in England, there is a thought-provoking epitaph engraved:
"I was young When I was young, I dreamed of changing the world, but as I entered my twilight years, I couldn't even do anything about my own family.
Finally, I realized while lying on the hospital bed that if I started by changing myself, I could change my family;
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With the help of my family, I might be able to do something for the country and maybe really change the world.”
This reminds me of the famous wrestler Ya Kalonen.
In 1988, Jakaronen was seriously injured during a game and was paralyzed in bed.
After the injury, Jakaronen refused to receive treatment because he was afraid that an incomplete rehabilitation program would prevent him from ever returning to the game.
He consulted dozens of well-known doctors and collected nearly a hundred rehabilitation programs.
A month later, Ya Kalonen still did not start rehabilitation treatment. Instead, he was on the verge of collapse in the struggle.
Until the mother who was caring for him was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, Yakaronen no longer obsessed with returning to the game, but reduced his goal to quickly regaining the ability to take care of himself.
Through rehabilitation treatment, he was soon able to move freely with the help of crutches. At this time, he said to himself: Maybe I can go one step further and throw away the crutches.
In this way, every time he makes a little progress, he will set goals for the next stage and always keep himself on the road to recovery.
Three years later, Jakaronen participated in a wrestling match, nine months ahead of schedule compared to the estimated recovery time of the best plan.
Sometimes, we are too obsessed with the perfection of the results and are afraid of possible disappointment, so we refuse to start everything.
Really powerful people never wait until all conditions are ripe before taking action.
If you want to become a river or a sea, you must first join the small streams; if you want to reach a thousand miles, you must first accumulate steps.
As Bacon said to his students:
"If there is any so-called optimal solution, it is 'start now'! Start with what you can do, Don’t waste a moment.”
Thinking is a question; doing is the answer.
When you no longer worry about gains and losses, every glimmer of light you pick up in your actions will converge into the highlight of your life at an unexpected time.
Meier once explained the "5 Second Rule":
"Taking immediate action after counting down for 5 seconds means not giving time for emotions such as fear, hesitation, and inertia to react.
Only when we are freed from these negative emotions can we truly become our own masters.
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Click and watch, do what you want to do now, everything you want will come to you.