Why you’re blocking your success

“There’s a massive gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it,” said motivational speaker and author Mel Robbins, and in that gap is where our dreams live.

If we do nothing we get nothing, so why do we still fail to act?

We know what to do to make our lives better, but it’s uncomfortable — and we hesitate. Then it’s the end of the day and to-do lists are not done, important conversations not had, and workouts never started.

“When you hesitate, you start to think. When you start to think, you hold yourself back. This is the trap. This is the gap,” Robbins said. We hold ourselves up to an imaginary measuring stick created from our own self-doubt, and we stop ourselves from what we should do to reach our goals and dreams.

Within five seconds of your hesitation, “your brain floods with cortisol, and you don’t feel like it. You don’t think you’re qualified. You say you can’t, not now. This is how it works every single time,” Robbins said.

Pushing past inertia

If you have an impulse to act on a goal, you must physically move within five seconds or your brain will kill it, Robbins said. For example, if you’re at a networking event and there’s someone you’d like to talk to there, start walking toward that person within five seconds of having that thought.

“If you don’t take physical action, you’ll hesitate and start thinking,” she said. “Your brain will tell you, ‘Oh, catch him later. Don’t do it now. This is crazy. He’s going to think you’re nuts. You don’t even know him. He’s talking to people.’ The moment’s gone.

This was excerpted from Mel Robbins MDRT’s 2016 Annual Meeting presentation, “5 seconds…go!”