A Few Seconds Can Change Your Life
Our lives can change in just a few seconds. Let’s discuss how 5 seconds can set us on the road to achieving our dreams.
Everyday Examples of a Few Seconds
In today’s world, it’s never hard to know what time it is. And I mean exactly what time it is. Think about this for a minute. My iPad, iPhone and iMac all tell me the exact same time. To the second. It’s exactly the same time as the monitor in the airport terminal or the time displayed on the TV. If you have internet-connected home devices such as appliances, thermostats or alarm systems, literally everything will be to the exact same time. How is this possible? Suffice it to say, I could spend many words telling you how this happens, or just refer you to the link in Note 1 and let you read about it yourself.
If you enjoy sports, you are familiar with rules that take a few seconds. For example, in NFL football, there is the 40 second play clock. In Major League Baseball, the pitch clock can be 15, 18, or 30 seconds depending upon if runners are on base and the time between batters. In pro basketball, the three-second paint rule prevents players from dominating the most strategic location on the court. I used to wrestle in school. I never realized how long 30 seconds is until I wrestled. A top fuel drag race is over in about 5 seconds. There are other examples as well; pick your favorite sport.
When I worked at American Airlines, we initiated a new safety campaign that stated, “Think five seconds ahead.” This meant we should anticipate what consequences our actions could cause if we made an unsafe decision. This could be seeing that a guard was missing on a machine before using it, a guardrail not put up on a work stand, or being sure to put your safety harness on before going up in a bucket truck. We bought signs and talked about safety at weekly meetings. Interestingly, I’ve always inherently considered what could happen before I took action, but I just never really thought about it. The campaign was a great success; if people think in terms like this, it’s a real winner, and I thought it was a great idea. When my kids were teenagers going out on the weekend, I always told them to consider the consequences of their actions before they did something. Yeah, how about that one?
What other examples of rules do you know that involve just a few seconds? How about the three-second rule of dropping food on the floor? If you are a dog owner, you know that you can tell if the sidewalk is too hot for your dog to walk on by placing your hand on the sidewalk for seven seconds to determine if it’s painful. If you’ve ever been at a job where you had to punch a time clock or sign in on a computer, waiting until the exact second it is legal can seem like forever. You know what I mean, don’t you?
Negative Consequence Rules
Sometimes a few seconds can make the difference between life and death or have other negative consequences. Think of hurrying to beat a red stoplight or the two-second rule of following too closely when driving. While not really seconds, there is the golden hour for stroke victims, where time is critical to seek treatment. Check your blood pressure? It takes 60 seconds. Ever sit in a dentist chair while he filled a cavity? Yeah, that can feel like an eternity! I’m sure you can think of other examples where a few seconds can have negative consequences or otherwise not be a positive experience.
The 5 Second Rule
The point I really want to make in this discussion is what is called the 5 Second Rule. The 5 Second Rule can dramatically change your life for the better. This is another one of those things where I’ve mostly practiced the concept, but I had not heard it defined until recently. Mel Robbins is the author of the book The 5 Second Rule (Note 2) and has what I just learned today is the number one worldwide podcast. In her book, she describes how powerful the decision to make a decision to act within five seconds is. She is advocating that if you have something you want to do, stop and count down backwards…5-4-3-2-1-GO! Just do it immediately before your subconscious mind talks you out of it. If we think about this briefly, we know it to be true. Get up out of bed before you hit the snooze alarm. Go exercise because you know you need to. Pass on dessert. Volunteer when the boss asks for someone to take on an assignment. Make a suggestion at work. Write that book. Call a friend. Don’t worry about what others will say about you or your idea or plan, if you know it’s right, then take action! How many times, HOW MANY TIMES…have we failed to take action on something we knew to be right and later regretted acting? We already know the answer, and it’s too many.
Let me explain how this works so you can see the real value in it. As Mel describes in her book, acting on the decision to do something hard, such as get out of bed, exercise, or anything we know we should be doing but hesitate to do, requires using what is known as activation energy. Activation energy is energy above and beyond what is typically required to do something. That’s why it’s harder to get out of bed or go exercise when we don’t want to; it takes extra energy to begin the process. Here’s a practical example for you. Have you ever been at home and the air conditioner starts, and you see a momentary flickering of your lights? That is because of the huge energy draw required for the air conditioner to get going. It’s why you use more gas to accelerate your car than in cruise.
This concept was really brought home to me one day at work. I was working at American Airlines, and we were installing fall protection in the hangars. Fall protection consists of a personal harness attached to a lanyard, attached to an inertia reel (think of your car’s seat belt, it has an inertia reel that engages in a sudden stop or crash to prevent you from hitting the steering wheel and windshield but still allows normal movement when not needed), attached to the hangar ceiling, that would prevent someone from falling to the floor should they slip on the aircraft. It would slow down and arrest their fall in midair. Proper fall protection can save a person’s life or prevent serious injury or disability. But it’s not as simple as hooking a rope up to the ceiling. No, the engineer had to consider what is called a shock load. A shock load is a sudden, intense, and extreme load applied above and beyond normal. So, if a person weighs 200 pounds and were to fall, the shock load is many times the 200-pound weight of the individual. In fact, there is a standard calculation that considers several variables to determine the design characteristic of the equipment needed to prevent injury to a person. The engineer has to determine if the ceiling can support the shock load and not fail and cave in. In our case, since the hangars were designed in the 1930s, we had to install beams across several trusses to distribute the load evenly across the roof supports. To see what this is like, you can click on the link in Note 3, which displays an online calculator. Consideration of the shock load varies depending on the application. For example, a bungee cord used by someone jumping off a bridge is different from a nylon strap that could protect a worker from a fall. If you ever think, “Wow, this safety stuff is expensive!” it may be because of all the engineering and design considerations that go into keeping us safe. A notable example is the added cost of all the technology in a new car, specifically Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). It includes lane assist, automatic braking, blind spot alerts, cross-traffic alerts, forward collision warning, hands-free driving, lane departure warning, reverse brake assist, a 360-degree camera, and more. If you own an electric vehicle (EV), there may be even more technology. Yes, all this technology is outstanding and keeps us safe, but it’s pretty expensive. But worth every penny because nothing is too costly to save a life or prevent a disability.
The Takeaway
Here’s your takeaway from this post. If you have something you want or need to do, you know it’s right and is legal and moral, then act immediately. Don’t wait, don’t wonder what others will say, just, as Nike says “Just do it!” I can promise you that, as sure as the sun comes up, someone will say something negative about what you do or an idea you present. Do it anyway, because, frankly, who cares what others think or say? Why let someone hold you back from your dreams? It took me many years to not only understand but also accept and embrace this concept. I was a quiet, reserved, and shy person. Those traits limited me for many years. It took a lot of effort and courage to get up to the point where if I had a thought or idea, I just did it. That was the beginning of a life fulfilled and not one of regret.
And here is an excellent example of this concept. Do you see the little plaque in the picture? It’s actually a magnet, and I ran across it in a store in Alexandria, Virginia, when I was visiting my parents many years ago. As I recall, it was $8.95, and I thought, “Wow, that’s a lot of money for a little magnet,” and I turned around to walk away. But I really wanted it, so a few seconds later I turned back around and bought it. I am so happy I did, as I refer to it and draw inspiration from it quite often, and it’s displayed prominently in my office. Has this ever happened to you?
You know what you must do. Now, count with me 5-4-3-2-1-GO! That’s all for this week!
Today is the first day of the rest of your life
What’s in it for Me
Today is the beginning of the rest of your life. How do you want to live it? What do you want your legacy to be?
Call to Action
A year from now, what will you wish you had done today?
Recommended Resources
Buy and read The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins. Sign up for Jim Stovall’s Winner’s Wisdom email (Note 4). Visit his website at https://www.jimstovall.com Jim is a tireless advocate for taking action and you will see evidence of this throughout his writings.
Up Next
The problem with free stuff.
Notes
Please note that as an Amazon Affiliate, I may earn a small commission on the sale of any of these recommended resources.
https://www.nist.gov/atomic-clocks/how-does-atomic-time-get-your-phone
The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins: https://amzn.to/3YtmIoj
Jim Stovall email list: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/sl/sUPp0y6