A Book that can change your mind quickly: Mel Robbins’s The 5 Second Rule

 by Mariana Bustillos, Y11

Have you ever thought about how differently and close you would be to approaching your goals if you treated every moment as a five-second countdown to action? 

Before I opened the virtual library, I was looking for a book that is motivational and interesting at the same time, not a book that contains a really long intro and a slow plot that takes so much to develop a story. Then, in my book research I found The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins. I must say that the gold colour letters in the cover captured my attention. The genre was motivational. I thought it was also capturing the way it says the number “5” as the title, because it gives an idea that in five seconds maybe you can make up different things or something different will happen to you in a matter of five seconds. When I first started reading the book, I always checked how long it was, it wasn't that long. However, I didn’t read and advance as much as I should have done to finish the book sadly. About the book, it’s important to also take into account it doesn’t take a long way to advance through the pages as the letter size isn’t too small and it includes many big pictures that sometimes take up space on a whole page. So, that made a remarkable difference. 

The book excels the idea on how to help people on being courageous and bold by describing that Mel, the author, faced a lot of personal issues that helped her to become the person she is now and what she wanted to do but wasn’t able to because of her mental barriers, laziness, lack of motivation, disposal and mental fog. So, she uses her own personal experience for readers to contrast it with their life in so many ways. In one chapter, Mel describes her life before using the rule as full of excuses, with a lot of stress, debts, 2 children, as she wasn’t able to manage and organise them. She invented this tool to help her in the worst moment in her life and it definitely did. It was difficult as hell for her as she also had a lot of things to worry about, but the rule skyrocketed her life, feelings and her personal gains. 

I have to clarify, I read the book until the middle, as the reading time during class wasn't enough to finish it. I expected that I would be able to read another book after this but it didn’t happen. The first part of the book is the introduction where Mel explains the explaining all her situation and how the Second Five Rule helped her to overcome her difficulties and personal life issues, with some screenshots of many people writing her on Twitter telling that the rule was a life-saviour and it helped them so much. Hesitation and self-doubt on doing things she wanted to do but was afraid of doing by her intrusive thoughts and her brain being against her. She also explains how 5-4-3-2-1 helped her to overcome laziness, procrastination and zero motivation to even without motivation, wake up, face her deals and make her life better. Through all the chapters of the book, Mel knows and explains and knows this topic and rule as well as Albert Einstein’s explaining his general relativity theory. Throughout the story she takes out common issues that people face every single day. For example, she uses simple things such as not getting out of the bed, not finishing a task, overthinking something, being scared of speaking more at work because these things that many people call “ easy” can really change your habits progressively. 

I think a red flag on this 5 Second tool of the book, it’s that it also contains some negative influences that can affect some readers as well. The pressure of constantly having to make a quick decision and take immediate action can lead to a path of stress or anxiety, especially for people with impulsive behaviour as they may struggle with decision-making, and the pressure of having to make rapid decisions can lead to suboptimal decisions , even knowing that these rule is fully used is for overthinking. So it’s important to not forget the importance of balancing thoughtfulness. 

In general, I found that 5-4-3-2-1 tool works for getting out of your “ comfort zone” and making different things that maybe you would consider “difficult” “ not for me”. Just in 5 seconds, it can decrease all the mental fears or excuses for you to get up and get you things done. sim