"In order to seek the truth, it is necessary in the course of our life, to doubt, as far as possible all things" Rene Descartes.
In this special blog post, I'd like to question the concept of motivation, basing on Mel Robbins idea that motivation is garbage. This puts, even the name of my blog into the trash can. Wait! this can't be true. That was the first thing I said to myself when I saw the title of the video where Mel Robbins talks about the uselessness of motivation. Before clicking on the Play button, I tried to convince myself that She must be speaking about something else other than the motivation I try to fuel myself with. Or, that It must be another concept of motivation she is talking about. Then, I decided to watch that video from the Impact Theory show, where Tom Bilyeu in his super energetic introductions called her the master of motivation. But guess what! She immediately refuted his claim.
I had so much trouble grasping the idea of motivation being garbage. I watched the show for three or four times in a row. It means that I spent four hours or so doing nothing but trying to find a formula to combine the desire that drives us to do stuff, or to be what we are, being it named motivation; and the fact that this later is just garbage, unnecessary, and useless to achieve anything!
By the way, Mel Robbins is famous for her best-selling book: “The Five Seconds Rule”. You truly don’t get much of an idea about the book just from the title. I haven’t read it yet, but I am planning to do so after what I have learnt from the video. When hearing the story behind the “Five Seconds” idea, being it the countdown NASA uses when launching a rocket. It’s that robotic sound of 5 . 4 . 3 . 2 . 1 Launch!
She had had hard times getting out of bed and facing life troubles’ and hardships for months, because of the bankruptcy of her husband’s business. No matter how hard she tried to motivate herself to change her habits and assume her part of responsibility and get out, find a job, socialize with friends … The next day, she would do the same bullshit she did the day before.
Then that NASA countdown came from nowhere. She was watching a show on TV and hearing that robotic sound, she said that’s it. She just said to herself that when the alarm bell will ring she would just count from 5 to 1 and jump out of bed like a rocket. She did it the first day and it worked. She did it again the day after and it worked as well. And, this concept went into shaking her entire life.
What is amazing about Mel Robbins is that she backs up everything she speaks or writes about with science. And, science has proved that there’s a very short lapse of time between the moment an idea pops out and when the mind decides whether to execute it or not. It’s all about decision making. According to Tim Denning:
“If you wait longer than 5-seconds, you'll talk yourself out of making the decision. The 5-Second Rule is a bias towards action instead of overthinking and been taken over by fear. In that 5 seconds, you get the opportunity to be courageous. It's a small window of courage that you can access for free”.
You can outsmart your own brain! Yep, that’s a fact. It’s just that five seconds that let you be run on autopilot or to be a decision maker. Otherwise, why is it so hard to do the little things that will improve our lives. It’s because we hesitate, and once we hesitate, our minds come up with all the excuses and put in front of us all the bumps that are possible, thinking that it protects us. That’s how our minds are set. When you count 5.4.3.2.1, you are interrupting what researchers call Habit Loops. According to Habitica Wiki:
The Habit Loop is a neurological loop that governs any habit. The habit loop consists of three elements: a cue, a routine, and a reward. Understanding these elements can help in understanding how to change bad habits or form better ones. Which means that once you start counting, whenever you are about to do what has become a habit, you are interrupting that habit and bringing your mind to focus on what you are doing, or about to do. This allows you to move from a person that only thinks about doing something, into actually doing it.
In here, we come to the idea of motivation being garbage. And I understood Mel’s point of view, and I strongly adhere to her technique of five seconds rule. Since, no matter how motivated you are about going to the gym, getting up early, starting a course, or doing whatever you are motivated to do; if you don’t start right away, your motivation is useless. However, I believe strongly that there needs to be some kind of motivation for doing something, otherwise, even counting to a hundred won't do much! I’ve tried so many times to start blogging and doing what inspires me the most, which is writing on personal development, I always found whatever excuses I could come up with to postpone doing it. Until I found out about Mel Robbins’s Five Second Rule. But, there was always that motivation behind the technique that only made it possible to execute the will. This has changed my attitude towards, what I thought was out of the question to do. All in all, motivation is not garbage, it's just that it's not enough all by itself. Now, with the motivation and the right technique, I can 5.4.3.2.1 get up at 5 am easily and do all the morning routine I talked about in my previous article “How to attract the abundance you deserve in your life …” And, I bet it can do the same with your lives too.
I should mention, as a conclusion to this lesson from Mel Robbins, that this might seem easy, but it isn’t! It is simple indeed, but not easy! It requires discipline and perseverance. If you can’t do it today, don’t say “Oh it’s not gonna work” No! Try it again the next day, until it becomes a reality. Until what you thrive to do becomes a simple habit.
By: Nabil Es shaimi
