The 5 Second Rule: Transform Your Life, Work, and Confidence with Everyday Courage

by Mel Robbins

Your values and your instincts will tell you what you should do. And your feelings will scream “NO.” That is the push moment.

You don’t have to have all the answers. You just have to make a decision in the next five seconds.

“a different part of our brains is activated when we think about what’s possible rather than what’s required.”

the difference between focusing on the solution rather than the problem,

courage is just a push.

Whatever reason you use to hold yourself back—you are wrong. It’s not safer to stay quiet. It’s not better to keep the peace. It’s not futile to try. It’s not risky.

All your excuses and reasons are wrong.

There is no “right time” to improve your life. The moment you move you’ll ...

the best time to do it, is right now when your heart tells you to move.

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

Life is already hard, yet we make it so much harder when we listen to our fears, we convince ourselves to wait, and we hold our greatest selves back.

We hold ourselves back at work, at home, and in our relationships.

You can call it a fear of rejection, or a fear of failure, or a fear of looking bad. The reality is, we hide because we are afraid even to try.

The fear of sucking, of not being good enough, of feeling like a loser—none of us wants to face that reality. So we avoid it like the plague.

So what if you suck? At least you tried.

You’ll never stop yourself from starting to worry about something. But you can stop yourself from letting those worries drag you into a parade of worries that take control of your mind.

You can assert yourself and push yourself to think about something empowering.

In the moment, neither one of them stopped to think. They didn’t wait to feel ready.

It is our feelings and fears that convince us now is not the right time and keep us from achieving greatness.

Sometimes there is no next time, no second chance, or no time out. Stop waiting. It’s now or never.

You may think you’re protecting yourself from judgment, rejection, or upsetting someone, but when you make excuses and talk yourself into waiting, you are limiting your ability to make your dreams come true.

I’m amazed by how much time I’ve wasted in my life waiting for the right time, waiting until I’m sure, waiting until I think my work is perfect, or waiting until I feel like it.

Let me tell you what really sucks: being older and regretting that you never went for it.

There is no right time. There is only right now. You get one life. This is it. And it’s not going to begin again. It’s up to you to push yourself to make the most of it and the time to do it is right now.

waiting for validation will be the death of your dreams.

waiting until I felt motivated to wake up and get out of bed. Waiting until you are ready will not make it happen. The world doesn’t work that way.

The world rewards those who are courageous enough to stop waiting and start.

The person who has the courage to start, create, and put themselves and their ideas out there is the one who will win.

she didn’t wait for permission, the right time, or to feel ready.

That’s how you do it. You push yourself to get out of your comfort zone and you begin.

You stop waiting for “the right time” and you start.

Waiting, thinking, and “almost doing it” don’t count.

to change anything you actually have to do it.

The difference between people who make their dreams come true and those of us who don’t is just one thing: the courage to start and the discipline to keep going.

We think about what could go wrong or how awkward it will feel if no one welcomes us, instead of all the possibilities.

You can feel uncertain and be ready. You can be afraid and do it anyway. You can fear rejection and still go for it.

The ending of the story is irrelevant—the only thing that matters is the beginning of the story,

Life isn’t a Nicholas Sparks novel. Life is gritty and hard and then suddenly it is brilliant and amazing.

The treasure in your life is buried within you.

you are the source of power in yours.

“that nobody was going to come and get me to live the life that I want to live and that taking action is the only way to create my own space into the world.”

everybody could bring something new and original to the world we live in.”

The way that you activate the power of you is by finding the courage you need every single day to push yourself forward.

you really are just one decision away from a completely different life.

We are all so afraid of uncertainty that we want a guarantee before we even try.

If you want to make your dreams come true, get ready for the long game.

Life is not a one-and-done sort of deal. You’ve got to work for what you want.

you’re not going to win it if you keep telling yourself to wait.

you’ll discover the power inside of you.

our feelings in the moment are almost never aligned with what’s best for us.