Book Club || The 5 Second Rule

Candace

6 years ago

Image c/o Mel Robbins

5 of my favorite Mel Robbins quotes below!

As a momma of two littles, reading is so sadly impossible for me. If I actually get the undivided time to sit down and read, I fall asleep in about 3 pages. But then I found Audible. If somehow you aren’t an Amazon Prime mom like me, Audible is Amazon’s audio book app. It’s $14.95/month if you have Prime and gives you 1 book credit included per month, plus discounts of other books once you’ve used your credit.

And even better then that? If you pick a book and get partially in and feel like the book just isn’t for you or the reader is driving you nuts… You can return it! Yup! You just login in to your Amazon Audible site and click return to get your credit back. Don’t abuse it! We don’t want to loose that feature!

I was once shamed on Facebook with a GIF for listening to books instead of reading them. To that woman I say – I do what I can. Because done is better than perfect. And while in a perfect world, I’m flipping through the luxurious physical pages of a great book, sipping a glass of wine from the Russian River Valley, and staring out onto a serene lake with birds chipping… I’m not there yet.

I’m here. In my PJs with questionable stains and dirty hair.

So here’s a round of applause that I took in any information at all.

ANY WHO! Audible has allowed me to “read” multiple books this year. #grateful While washing clothes or driving or during nap times, I can digest information that helps me grow instead of mindless noise of the TV in the background. There’s a place for The Kardashians and it’s Monday nap time.

Through out the year, I have found a few books that have been completely life changing for me. And I’ve been dying to share about them. I’m going to start with the one that really shook me out of my boots.

The 5 Second Rule was written by Mel Robbins. She came up with this #54321GO idea while going through a rough patch. She was depressed and lost on the hamster wheel of life, making excuse after excuse, sleeping in and wallowing away. One day she decided that, like a rocket ship, she was no longer doing to procrastinate into her day. She was going to count backwards from 5 and wake up. Every time she needed to do little things that added up – 5.4.3.2.1. Like getting out of bed without hitting the snooze button. 5.4.3.2.1. Or deciding to approach someone. 5.4.3.2.1. Or pressing send that email. Or pressing record on the podcast. Or writing the first word of a book. Or going to the gym.

5.4.3.2.1.

The reasoning, she soon learned, that counting down was helping instead of just counting up – is that it’s finite. After 5.4.3.2.1. there is only launch or don’t launch. And if you want something bad enough in the long run, you are going to need to start launching. You are going to need to start beating the habit of hesitation.

“Our minds are designed, to at all costs, stop you from doing something that might hurt you… We all have a habit of hesitating.”

-Mel Robbins

Sounds simple, right? It is. In theory at least. Turns out forcing yourself to get past hesitation or your minds quick tricks, is incredibly difficult. Habits crush us. Change is hard. And there’s a great deal of pushing yourself through the noise. But listening to Mel herself passionately convey this idea on Audible pushed me daily to make the little changes. If I thought “ugh this floor is always so sticky.” I would just mop it. It would take me 5 minutes instead of saying “Oh I need to do that later” and turning it into an ordeal and never getting done.

I started getting up before the kids and taking walks. I started to prioritize my personal mental health. I started diving deeper into my business. I started to approach each decision in my life a little differently. Launch or don’t. But don’t complain. Go for that run or feel gross. Put up that post or allow myself to worry what others would think.

Move with action or cripple myself.

Let’s get honest. Being a mom has left me in a lot of moments where excuses can be plentiful. I have a 3 month old and a 2.5 year old. I can pull them out as excuses for laziness all day long.

No one would stop me.

Some might even encourage the excuses because it allows their excuses to be validated as well. But that’s not fair to any of us.

I am in control of my life. I’m in control of my moments.

I had a conversation with a friend once, about a week before starting The 5 Second Rule and I was telling her how I “wished I was one of those moms that got up and went for a run at 6am.” “Ugh. Why am I not like that?!” I wallowed. Allowing excuse after excuse to flood into the conversation. But then I realized that there is no type of person that does that. There’s just people deciding to get up and go.

Because motivation is garbage.

If I wanted to be “that person” the only thing stopping me was me telling myself that I wasn’t. I’m an abled bodied human, and if I get up before the kids and before my husband goes to work, I can workout. I can shower, I can write posts, I can write a book… I CAN do whatever I decide to do if I simply decide to start.

As I listened to this book, and her follow up Audible Kick Ass With Mel Robbins, I saw my conversations with others differently, as well. There wasn’t going to be anything I could say to force someone else to change. I could only choose to launch myself or be a bad example. I could either show them the mountain is climbable by doing it myself, or I could show them how to make excuses as to why that mountain is too hard.

If you need a swift kick in the butt, you need Mel Robbins.

I’m ordering the hardcopy to take notes in. It’s that good.

_____

I made a little youtube video here to express how much I love this book.

It’s not perfect… pretty sure I say resignate (?) instead of resonate… but 5.4.3.2.1… I did it.