Hello community,
My name is Yuri Ferris,
I'm a teacher here in SciTimer,
A life coach,
Behavior analyst,
And a full-time sustainability executive in a multinational company.
And today I wanted to share with you a tool that I use to hack my brain into action in order to avoid procrastination and make me take immediate action when it's needed.
On my journey to understand human behavior,
One of the topics that most intrigues me is procrastination.
The word is a little bit difficult,
But it's a constant part of our lives.
Have you ever found yourself in a meeting where you had a brilliant idea,
But thought about it,
Thought about it,
And in the end,
Missed the opportunity to present it to the group?
Or even more important,
Have you ever postponed to start a project or any activity you know you have to do it,
But you leave it to the last moment?
I'm pretty sure the answer is yes.
But the question you should be asking yourself is,
What separates a thought that you need to do something from actually starting to do it?
And the answer is simple,
Decision.
Yeah,
Right,
You start listening to this podcast that promises to change your life in 5 seconds and the guy tells you that you just need to decide to start acting.
If it was that easy,
Surely you would never miss any opportunity,
Right?
Well,
It's not that simple.
Our brain has several defense mechanisms that protects us from situations of danger and stress.
The so called fight or flight response that is part of our automatic nervous system.
It is not my intention to go deep into this topic,
But if you want to know more,
Let me know in the comments.
Anyhow,
Whenever you find yourself in a risky situation,
It's common to hear a little voice in your head telling you to stop,
Run,
Or take defensive action,
Right?
Interestingly,
The same defense mechanisms for extreme risk and panic also occurs in everyday situations that put us in some degree of stress or discomfort.
What I mean is that stepping out of our comfort zone triggers automatic defense mechanisms in our brains that will do anything to get you back into your safe zone.
As an example,
Going back to the case of that meeting where you didn't present your brilliant idea,
The main reason that leads us to take this attitude is our defense mechanism that,
The second you have an idea,
Start to raise reasons to prove that you are not right.
Oh yes,
But your idea may not be that good,
Well,
What others will think about your crazy idea?
My boss will kill me if I come up with this idea in this meeting.
All of this is part of the mechanisms built in your brain to protect us from any situation of discomfort.
I invite you to try to find in your experience a situation where you knew you needed to do something,
But because you thought again,
You ended up not doing it and regretting it later.
Can you find an example right now?
Okay,
But where is the off button?
How do you turn the voice in your head off?
Unfortunately,
There isn't any.
The secret is to start acting before those feelings take over you.
This is where the 5 seconds that can change your life comes into play.
The title is a bit dramatic,
I know,
But the solution may even seem a bit hilarious and simplistic.
You see,
The second you have an idea or a thought,
You have a maximum of 5 seconds to start putting it into practice or your brain will do absolutely everything to keep you from moving.
This concept is very well described by the best selling author Mel Robbins,
Writer of the book The 5 Second Rule.
I recommend reading it,
Of course,
Or if you want to know more,
You can also look at her TED Talk on the topic.
According to the author,
If you feel an urge to do something,
You have 5 seconds to physically move or your brain will kill your idea.
Note the physically part,
You have to move to make it happen.
Well,
But what do you need to know to change your mindset from thinker to a doer?
And I will summarize it in two rules.
The first one is to recognize that you are your biggest saboteur.
Knowing that you are consciously or unconsciously looking for ways to keep yourself in your comfort zone is the first step towards ending procrastination and starting to act.
The second rule is to apply the 5 second rule and I will tell you how you do it.
One way to apply this rule is to use a countdown.
It sounds a bit crazy,
But if you find yourself in a situation where you know what needs to be done and you feel like you have started to doubt yourself,
Do a 5 seconds countdown.
5,
4,
3,
2,
1 and start moving physically again,
Whether talking,
Standing up,
Raising your hand,
Whatever,
But use the countdown to launch on your idea into action and start moving.
It has to be a countdown though.
There are reasons for this but I won't explore it today.
But believe me,
I have tested and proven that the moment you hit 1 you will be ready to start acting.
Do you want to test it?
So tomorrow when your alarm goes off and you feel the urge to hit the snooze button on your alarm clock to enjoy another 15 minutes in bed,
Start your countdown.
5,
4,
3,
2,
1 and just get up.
Just get out of bed.
It worked for me,
Will it work for you too?
I want to know how your experience was.
Take advantage of the comments below and let me know if it worked for you.
And since you are already out of your bed,
I would also invite you to take the opportunity to start your day in a good pace by doing a morning meditation.
I have a practice to help you start your day in my profile here at Inside Timer and I would love to have you join me in this meditation.
Thank you very much and hope to see you soon.
