The 5 Second Rule to greatness!! Continuation of first article...
Article 1: 5-second-rule-greatness
The five-second rule can unlock your inner courageous side.
On a cold December night, in 1955, Rosa Parks was sitting on a city bus and refused to stand up and give her seat to a white man. This relatively small act of defiance was nevertheless a historic moment of great courage in the fight for civil rights; and it shows us that it doesn’t necessarily take grand gestures to spark significant change.
This is the same kind of philosophy that makes the five-second rule effective. Counting backward from five isn’t a dramatic lifestyle change, but it can push you toward being a more courageous person.
The actions of Rosa Parks led to another small decision that would change the course of history.
Four days after Parks was arrested, people began to organize a boycott of segregated buses, and they wanted a 26-year-old preacher to be the voice of their protest. This preacher would later write: “It happened so quickly that I did not have time to think it through. It is probable that if I had, I would have declined the nomination.” That preacher’s name was Martin Luther King, Jr.
Parks and King didn’t consider themselves courageous people in their everyday lives, so their instincts weren’t to fight against injustice. Yet that’s what they did. They both encountered a moment when their instincts collided with their beliefs and goals and they felt the power of the push.
Most of us have instincts that tell us to play it safe and not be courageous. But the five-second rule can give us just enough time to move in the direction that can open us up to life’s opportunities.
Each day presents a chance to move toward greatness or stick with a safe and mundane routine. If you want to live an exceptional life, you’ll have to make the choice of taking five seconds to push yourself out of your comfort zone.
There’s no reason to see the great people throughout history as any different than yourself. Rosa Parks was a shy and introverted woman and Dr. King struggled with self-doubt. They just pushed past these fears, and you can, too.
Stop waiting for the right time and start pursuing your dreams now.
If you want to change the perception your coworkers have of you, all you need to do is raise your hand during a meeting and speak your mind. If you want to add some joy to someone’s day, all you have to do is take a moment to compliment them.
All these acts require is for you to make a decision, which is something you can always put off by telling yourself that today isn’t the right day. Eventually, this can be your life’s story, forever waiting for the right moment to arrive.
So why not let this very moment be the one you’re waiting for? Let the five-second rule be the tool that allows you to make the choices you’ve always wanted to make.
No one dreams of being a person who didn’t do anything. But we tend to wait “for the right time” even though our perfect scenario may never arrive. According to a recent survey, 85 percent of professional service employees are keeping feedback from their managers because it isn’t the “right time.”
Even the most talented among us need a push to get on the right track.
Steve Wozniak, cofounder of Apple, was plagued with uncertainty after he and Steve Jobs were offered funding to start their own business in 1977. Wozniak wanted to hold off for a while and worried about quitting his day job until his friends convinced him to take the leap.
Wozniak certainly reaped the rewards the world has to offer to those who stop playing the waiting game.
The author E.L. James didn’t wait for a lucrative publishing deal before writing the overwhelmingly popular Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy. She was a working mother with a passion, and she created her own opportunity by self-publishing the book that she’d managed to write in her free time.
Fifty Shades of Grey went on to sell a million copies in just four days, but it never would’ve happened if she hadn’t taken the initiative.