PART 11

Chris brought the Rule into his business to push himself through fear, guilt, and uncertainty. He and his partner met with dozens of advisors, crunched financial models, worked day and night until they closed the wholesale business, and grew their retail locations enabling them to sell off select locations and pay back as many investors and creditors that they could. It’s remarkable what Chris and Jonathan did.

Grit, hustle, and commitment. They pushed, pushed, and pushed some more. To this day, when Chris reflects on the restaurant days, his mind will sometimes drift toward feeling like a failure.

When he catches himself thinking those negative thoughts, he uses 5- 4- 3- 2- 1 to redirect his mind to think about what they did build: seven restaurants, an incredible employee culture, millions in revenue, and a remarkable brand. Did it end up how he had dreamt? No, it didn’t. But what he learned about business, partnership, and himself during the process is worth more than money can buy.

There’s nothing more powerful than the feeling of confidence and pride you gain when you keep trudging forward, face life’s challenges head on, and push yourself to change for the better. As Chris put it, “the Rule helped me process the experience of succeeding and failing—on so many levels. Ultimately, this awareness gave me power and control over my positive and negative thoughts.”

As we started to reconnect with friends, the Rule would often come up. You’ll find that too. Jennifer learned the Rule and told her nurse about it. Her nurse’s response? “You have no idea how many times I’ll need to do this a day.”

The Rule ignites something powerful in everyone who tries it. One of our friends had the courage to ask for a divorce and another left his consulting job for one that didn’t require travel. A work pal lost 73 pounds and my uncle stopped talking about giving up smoking and finally quit. A friend of Chris’s moved back to Maine and used the Rule to negotiate an awesome job working remotely.

The #5SecondRule gave them all what it had given me: the framework, the courage, and the method for HOW to push yourself to change.

The first time I shared the Rule in public was in 2011 during a TEDx Talk entitled “How to Stop Screwing Yourself Over.” The funny thing is that the talk was mostly about my dream (back then) of becoming a top talk radio show host and how I help people live the lives that they really want.

I only mention the #5SecondRule at the very end of the speech, and I barely even explain it. What happened next was crazy. The talk went viral. Millions of people watched it online.

And that’s not all. They started writing. Every single day, I hear from people around the world who are using the Rule, just like Mark. Mark is using it to create some pretty incredible changes in just 6 months:

It’s the coolest thing. More than 100,000 people in more than 80 countries, to date, have written to me about their experiences using it. As more and more people started to write with questions and requests for more information, I began to research the Rule in depth so that I could better explain the many ways you can use it and prove why it works. I’m a lawyer by profession, so I really went nuts on the research. I looked for precedent, evidence, and guidance as if I were going to have to prove my case about the #5SecondRule to a jury.

It took me almost three years. I read everything I could find on the subject of change, happiness, habits, motivation, and human behavior. I read social science experiments, happiness research, books on the brain, and neuroscience studies. I didn’t limit my research to the “experts;” I sent questionnaires to everyday people, like you and me, who were using the Rule. Then I got on the phone, Skype, and Google Chat, and dug into the step-by-step experiences of what someone faces the moment they choose to change.