How to get out of bed (even when you don’t feel like it)

by Holly

Lately I’ve been reading a lot of life advice and self-improvement books, and one of them was Mel Robbins’ “5 Second Rule.” The idea is that basically you count down from 5 to 1, and then as soon as you hit 1, you jump up and do whatever thing you know you need to do. This is so your brain doesn’t have a chance to  talk you out of it.

According to Mel and the million social media screenshots from raving fans in her book, this is a revolutionary system that can be used for anything from waking up at 5am to building your confidence speaking on stage. While I think the premise has some merit, I’m not sure she can claim to have created a well-known trick that parents have been using to get their kids to do things for generations.

Having said that, I haven’t had it used on me in decades, and I had never thought about trying it on myself, so I decided to give it a go. I’ve tried similar things in the past, based around just telling myself to do things without thinking about them (like going to the gym etc.), and to be honest it didn’t work out that well for me. This is because I’m an overachiever and it made me close to collapse trying to fit so many things into my day – I would sit down and fall asleep from sheer exhaustion.

This time I decided to be sensible and just start with one thing – getting out of bed earlier. Getting up earlier is hard for me as I’m typically a night owl; we work very late in our business, and usually got to bed around 2am, so getting up at 5am is unrealistic. But getting up a bit earlier than I normally do seems like a helpful place to start!

So for the past week I’ve been using the 5 second rule. And to be honest, it’s been okay. It definitely hasn’t been the earth-shattering change it’s hyped up to be in the book, but it’s definitely useful for those moments when you’re sitting or lying there thinking “I should do X, but…”

I did, however, end up giving the book a four star rating on GoodReads. Not because of the 5 Second Rule or the tiny screenshot social media testimonials that bulk the book out to its 258 pages, but because there’s a section on dealing with anxiety that really is useful.

So, in conclusion, don’t expect to be a new person from reading the 5 Second Rule, but do skim it if you get the chance. It’s an easy read, albeit pretty fluffy.