Why Is It Called the #5SecondRule?
I get this question a lot. And I wish I had a better answer. I called it the
“#5SecondRule” because that’s the first thing that popped into my mind the
morning I first used it, and this nam stuck. Remember, I had seen a rocket launch
the night before and thought to myself, “I’ll just launch myself out of bed—like a
rocket!” The next morning, I counted backwards 5- 4- 3- 2- 1—because that’s what
NASA does when it launches a spaceship. I started with 5 for no particular reason
other than it felt like the right amount of time to give myself.
I’ve come to learn that there are a lot of other “5 second rules” in the world,
like the one about eating food off the floor, the five-second shot clock in
basketball, the game Ellen DeGeneres plays on her talk show, and the five-second
test you can do to see if a sidewalk’s surface is too hot for your dog to walk on.
Had I known my Rule would spread around the world, I might have come up
with a more original name. But in hindsight, all these #5SecondRules have
something in common. They require you to physically move within a five-second
window.
Physical movement is the most important part of my Rule, too, because when
you move your physiology changes and your mind follows. Perhaps the name is not
only apropos—it’s actually perfect because it references other five-second windows
in life, and that makes the Rule feel that much more familiar, universal, and true.
The Rule Sounds Like Nike’s Tagline “Just Do It”...
The difference between “Just Do It” and the #5SecondRule is simple. “Just Do
It” is a concept—it’s what you need to do. The #5SecondRule is a tool—it’s how you
make yourself do it.