Earth below us, drifting, falling...
Tip #35 - 54321 - decrease the time between thought and action
This post is part of a series I’m writing from mid-June to the end of 2024 or whenever it ends, on things that helped me rebuild my confidence, sense of self, and increased my delight in my life after massive difficulty in multiple areas. For full details and post links to all 110 things, go to this post here.
TIP #35 - 54321 method - decrease the time between thought and action
Five years ago after my ex and I split, which was also in the fall - all my biggest heartbreaks have been in the fall…lol - I first started dabbling in the examination of what I was feeling…
… which was how the hell do people experience devastation and keep going because this is horribly hard.
One of the first people I had started listening to in any realm of self-improvement and self-help and that type of the genre of content was Mel Robbins.
I found her helpful.
It seemed she was able to say to me directly, yeah dude this blows and it fucking should hurt because you’re a human being, now gimme your hand and let’s get up we have things to do, really really helped me get up off the floor several times.
One of the most direct and specific things I learned from her, maybe her podcast, maybe one of the audiobooks idk, was the 5 second rule - that was a game changer for me.
And it’s so simple.
Just count down from 5 to 1 and then get to work.
The first winter I had as a single parent, newly employed, directly before the pandemic, was so hard and so good.
I was busy, full packed with things to work out literally and internally from the second my feet hit the floor in the morning till I got back in bed at the end of the day.
Some days, many days, I really didn’t want to get out of bed, knowing like a vortex I would then be swept into the day and not spit out again until 18 hrs or more later.
I started using the 5 second rule to get my ass up.
It helped.
It helped in that where I was going to always get up anyway, this method got me up faster, with less bullshitting myself, less trying to justify and weasel and wrestle and wallow (there’s time for wallowing and 6am on a school day is not it) with my thoughts stuck in the gorgeous covers that wanted to keep me.
It helped in that it started exposing me to the great way it feels to decrease the time between thought and action.
It helped in that it gave me practice at being efficient, being prepared, looking at my time as my time and thus at my disposal and for use in the ways that worked best, and now that I was up in 5 seconds after I knew I needed to get up I was better able to see if all the seconds that came after getting my feet out of bed were being used the way they should be.
Decreasing the time between thought and action is really the marrow of this idea.
The beefy center of life I think can often be like this.
Having great ideas, great thoughts, inspiring aha moments, awesome daydreams - which I’m great at by the way - that stuff’s great right?
It is.
But if it ends there??
If it ends there…if the idea I have for a novel ends there, as the half written story on my laptop (true) when it could become something real that would entertain and maybe even delight a reader for a while.
If the ideas I have from the daydream about my best life and what I could do to impact the trajectory of my current to better direct towards those specifics…if I don’t make those adjustments but just enjoy the daydream I’ll never make those things tangible.
What is there to sink one’s teeth into if it ends there??
Quickening the timeline between thought and action, as best we’re able - and as always you need to honestly bring your own internal intention to the assignment - is the best way to make the moves on your life, in your life, in and for your heart and the hearts and lives and joys of those you love.
One of my side gigs is to judge independently published writing contests.
Every time I’m about to start a new round I get almost overwhelmed by a couple things: how many people there are in the world, and the absolutely admirable dedication each person had to take their idea to even write a thing to the doing of the writing, the formatting to whatever degree of the thing, and then the turning the thing tangible in physical or digital format, and then submitting their work for review by a stranger.
To whatever degree of skill these works are, they each have that one.
They thought to do the thing and then they did it.
I love thinking.
I love thinking so much.
I think I’m good at thinking.
But a necessary thing to also know, to think about too (lol), to prepare and practice and plan for, is to act on the thought.
Act on the thought and do so before it loses it’s vibrance, like an awesome picture gets sunbleached hung in the direct light can.
The same way water evaporates, so can our best ideas.
To capture those takes en active engagement with the world outside our minds. I hate to admit it sometimes, even still, but it really does. It means we have to interract, we have to go out into the places and do the things and actually do things.
It is a massive value to explore the “what if I did this, tried this, I think this would be a cool way to live, a cool skill to know how to do, a fun and interesting thing to learn…” that is necessary and valuable.
BUT THEN THERE MUST COME THE NEXT STEP.
Action.
Action and as close to the idea as you can get it.
Sandwich that thought in a real attempt and you’ve got an experience. That gives you information, that gives you more thoughts, more responses, more knowledge, more ideas to act on and an understanding of how the life of your life works and could work.
Shorten the timeline between thought and action.
With everything, the practice builds the competence.
The competence removes the doubt.
Seeing proof that you can make an idea into a tangible reality builds strength in knowing you’re capable.
Seeing other people do this also inspires me.
Getting around people who are skilled and practiced at a quick timeline between thoughts and actions is fascinating and inspirational and will for sure improve your ability to do the same if you pay attention and are willing to get yourself to the tasks as well.
Right now I’m 54321-ing the mornings again because the bed is a cozy place. I’m 54321-ing the emails I don’t enjoy responding to but need to address. I’m 54321-ing getting my runs done and am always glad I did them afterwards.
To know there’s a hard thing in front of you, to know the only way through it is to go through it and then to do so, is strength and a skill and can be learned and can be practiced.
5-4-3-2-1 feet to the floor.
ilysm, Marian