התמלול המלא של Stop Trying to Feel Motivated – Episode #725

book. It was her first claim to fame, really, the five second rule. She has since come up with the brilliant let them theory. Really enjoy some of the work that Mel's doing. And in the five second rule, she points out... And this is not the five second rule, by the way, where if you drop something on the floor, you can count to five and still eat it. No. The five second rule is don't wait for the feeling of motivation. You take action, and you do it by counting down. So go back to that moment. In bed, the alarm goes off, And instead of asking, do I feel like exercising, you've already committed to do it. And true commitment is measured when you do the thing you said you'd do when the feeling you had when you said you'd do it has passed. You you don't necessarily feel motivated in this moment. So to use Mel's strategy, simply count it down. Five, four, three, two, one. Now notice what your brain is doing is... Even as I'm counting it down for you. Because at the end of a countdown, what happens? Blast off. Right? The launch action. And it doesn't work, by the way, psychologically, it doesn't work to count up to five. One, two, three, four, five. And then your brain just wants to go six, seven, eight. Right? It's just gonna keep, a different pattern going. But you count it down. Five, four, three, two, one. Action. And you take physical action. Sit up. Put your feet on the floor. Stand up. See, once you take action, now you've got momentum. Your commitment is depending on you to do this. So we like to imagine, well, when I feel motivated, then I'll take action and get my results. But more often than not, it works more like, I take action. I experience progress, which helps me to feel motivated, and I take more action. It's that momentum. Getting out of bed, getting off the couch, getting yourself in motion is probably the hardest part. One of my podcast guests years ago said, it's the start that stops us. But how are you gonna feel ten minutes later? You're gonna be glad you're moving or cleaning the garage or writing that chapter for your book or making that phone call or practicing the piano. The motivation often appears after we've begun, when we experience that momentum. In episode seven twenty four, I mentioned that taking action is part of the practice that begins strengthening a different pattern. We're reprogramming our neural pathways. Don't wait for motivation to create movement. Use movement to create motivation. So how can we do this from a practical standpoint? And I wanna help you out here because sometimes that first action needs to be ridiculously small. So you're not telling yourself, I'm going to write the book. You simply open the document and write one paragraph. Even if that paragraph says, I don't even know what to write. Write that. Don't fix the relationship. Initiate one meaningful connection or conversation. Don't become a positive person. Just catch one thought today that was negative and consciously reconsider it. Meaning is more powerful than motivation. Motivation asks, do I feel like doing this? Meaning asks, why does this matter? And that's a very different question. If the reason is strong enough, you'll find the energy to do the things that you don't particularly feel like doing. Who benefits when I do this? That's another question you can ask, and it's not just about you. Who am I becoming through this practice? What am I creating? See, meaning provides the why. And when we have a strong enough why, we'll do the how through repeated repetition. Motivation becomes a helpful part of that, but I think it's optional. And a lot of times we tell ourselves we have to have it. When the why matters enough, you don't have to wait for the feeling to show up. So as we come to the the close of this particular episode, I invite you to think of one thing you already know that matters. Something that you've been waiting to feel motivated to do. And then stop checking how you feel about it. Just do five minutes of it, and notice what happens to the feeling after you get moving. One of my friends posted on LinkedIn recently that you just need to take action, and then you can start to direct it. Think about a car, for example. You can steer a moving car. A parked one? Not so much. Get the thing moving and then notice what happens as you get the momentum in motion. We're building a place where people don't merely consume ideas about positivity. They practice them. You don't have to wake up feeling extraordinarily positive. You show up and practice anyway. Come check out this platform if you haven't already. We're still in the very opening phases of this new platform, and it is powerfully moving the needle for the members who are jumping in and taking action. Come over to positives, that's plural, positives.life,not.com. Positives.life and just see what we've put together. I've got a free positivity power pack for you there that will also just give you a nice sample of what it looks like to actually take action toward that that valuable goal that you've promised yourself you would move toward. You don't need motivation to get started. Sometimes getting started is exactly where motivation comes from. Did you get what you came for today? You've heard it. It's time to apply it. Let's go live on purpose. Did you get what you came for? Give yourself the gift of taking real action on what you realized today. Please share this episode with someone you know would value it, and leave us a rating too. It's time now to live on purpose.