Five seconds. According to motivational speaker and all around firecracker, Mel Robbins, that’s all it takes to rev our engines and zoom away from old habits, laziness and stagnation and into a life filled with energy and purpose. This is our chance to stop pressing the snooze button on our lives! Let’s dive in.

Our thoughts are not just habit-forming, they are life-creating. Your life becomes what you focus on and think about, that is all there is to it. In this episode, Sheri and Nancy sit down with Mel, author of the best-selling book, The 5 Second Rule, to help us all banish the snooze button we are pushing every day, on a million different topics. The Rule is this: count backwards from five and when you hit one, GO! It’s a simple but profound trick to get yourself up out of your seat and doing the thing you’ve just been talking about doing.

As a perfect example of someone who is crushing it in her 50s, Mel shares how she came upon the now world-famous 5 Second Rule in her darkest hours, and she shares how applying it eventually led her to understand the true nature of procrastination: that it is a massive cover up for root problems, stresses and issues that must be solved in order to live the life you deserve. She gives us excellent tips and tools for overriding procrastination so that we can embrace who we are meant to be.

Mel is the most booked female speaker in the world these days. Check out her TED Talk (14 million views and counting), and stay tuned for her new TV show — Kick Ass with Mel Robbins.

Takeaways:

[4:39] Today’s guest is motivational speaker and best-selling author Mel Robbins. Mel’s TED Talk “How To Stop Screwing Yourself Over” has 14 million views, and she gets over two million visits each week to her YouTube channel. As a procrastinator who dealt with anxiety and self-doubt first hand, she came up with the 5 Second Rule to take her away from the negative thoughts and patterns that kept her stuck for years from living her best life. The first step in the 5 Second Rule is knowing what to do and actually making yourself do it.

[10:59] Sheri and Nancy get real about what they are putting off most in life — Sheri could use more yoga and meditation, and Nancy has always wanted to be an early riser but finds it much easier to continually hit the snooze button.

[14:25] It’s important to be very clear with yourself about whether or not you actually want to do something, or just feel like you should. Are you bullying yourself into trying to do hot yoga when the truth is, you hate hot yoga? Be honest and make room in your life for the things you really want.

[17:34] Procrastination has nothing to do with what you actually need to do. It is a form of stress relief and a way for our brain to divert us from overwhelm-ment and potential threat.

[25:20] Even nine years after her 5 Second epiphany, Mel uses the 5-Second Rule every morning to get out of bed early.

[45:56] Mel calls her TED Talk “How to Stop Screwing Yourself Over” which was viewed by 14 million people, a “21-minute panic attack.” She happened to mention the 5 Second Rule at the end when she went off topic, and this resulted in changing the mindsets and life course for over 20 million people every month! Amazing.

Mentioned in This Episode:

1440 Multiversity

Mel Robbins

5-Second Rule

Mel’s TED Talk

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