mind would kill it with doubt, excuses, worry, or fear. I was the problem and in
five seconds, I could push myself and become the solution. The secret to
change had been right in front of my face the entire time—five seconds decisions.
Have you ever seen that famous commencement address David Foster Wallace
gave at Kenyon College in 2005? If you haven’t seen or read this speech, you can
find it on YouTube and it’s definitely worth the 20 minutes it takes to watch.
In it, Wallace steps up to the mic and starts off with this joke:
There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods
at them and says, “Morning, boys, how’s the water?”
And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What
the hell is water?”You can hear the audience laugh in the video, and then Wallace explains the
immediate point of the fish story is that “the most obvious, important realities are often the
ones that are the hardest to see and talk about.”
For me, the hardest thing to see and talk about was the very nature of change
itself. I had always wondered why it was so damn hard to make myself do the
things that I knew I should do in order to expand my career, enrich my
relationships, become healthier, and improve my life. Discovering the
#5SecondRule gave me the million-dollar answer—change comes down to the
courage you need every day to make five second decisions.
You Are One Decision Away from a Completely
Different Life
Inside this book, I’m going to share everything that I’ve learned about change
and the power of everyday courage. You’re going to love what you are about to
learn. The coolest part will be when you start to use the Rule and see the results for