Mel Robbins won’t claim to have invented a simple but potentially life-changing exercise. She simply had the good fortune of recognizing its existence.

“I noticed something that’s right underneath everybody’s nose—a fundamental fact about life,” the entrepreneur, leadership coach, author, and CNN legal analyst tells CUNA News Podcast.

“And it’s this: Your inner wisdom is always talking to you. Always,” she adds. “It’s telling you to speak from a place of power, rather than a place of anger. It’s telling you to take control and lean into joy. The problem is, if you don’t listen to that instinct within five seconds, your brain will tell you not to do it. It’s part of your hardwiring.”

Robbins, who will deliver a keynote address at CUNA’s America’s Credit Union Conference in June, stumbled into the phenomenon she detailed in her book, “The 5-Second Rule,” at a low point in her own life. By literally counting down 5-4-3-2-1 before taking action, you trigger a manual override of bad habits and excuses, she says.

“Confidence is a skill. It’s a skill that you build by trying,” she says. “The 5-Second Rule became a tool that helped me hear my inner wisdom and pushed me to take action when normally my habits of self-doubt, overthinking, or procrastination would kick in.”

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