THE 3 SECOND RULE for success is how we learn to Make Better Decisions in realtime by practising a powerful pause just before we respond, loaded neurobiologically with emotion, neurology and purpose.

The 3 second rule for success helps us to get into the magical gap that as Mark says is the change that changes everything. Famous psychologist Rollo May said if you like at Olympic divers, just before they take the plunge, they PAUSE. This is the 3 second rule we can all follow to start to change our lives around.

More and more in our lives, we need to understand that the real magical strategy to changing our lives from the inside out is not knowing what to do but rather it is knowing how to do it for yourself. We need to know how to make change. It is not enough for us to listen endlessly to podcasts and motivational speakers who are telling us that it would be better for us to make some changes for greater happiness. The How is what we can practice everyday.

We all make around 35 000 decisions a day, so when we use the 3 second rule and practice it until we perfect it we become thousands of smaller decisions away from creating a better life! – Mark L Lockwood

When we respond rather than react, we change. Anytime an impulse hits and we jump directly from a thought into an action or a reaction, we don’t necessarily make the right decision or the best possible decision we could make. When we bring our EQ (emotions) to the party, when we think, feel, and act in that order and become faster and better at it, so the conscious action of using The 3-second rule for success becomes an automatic subconscious response of body, heart, and brain—not just the defensive, survival, or lizard brain reaction.

Taking 3 seconds before you answer or commit to something with a yes or a no can be the change that changes everything. Before I answer temporarily or impulsively, I give myself the opportunity to choose. Victor Frankl said, you know, in between stimulus and response there’s a gap, there’s a space, and in that space is something magic—the power to choose our response really deeply with a contemplative mind. So, that 3-second rule just allows us to step back for a second and ask the question: does this nourish my soul? Moments before every decision you make can rarely change everything.

When we make small changes every day, the whole starts to change, and we go beyond our personality, which really is the program of our mind that has created a personal reality—a personality that might not be working for us the way we want it to. So, The 3 second rule for success is a great way to step into your life and take your power back. When we’re running on the subconscious mind, we’re running really powerlessly and wondering why we get frustrated when our results are the same time and time again.

So, the The 3 second rule for success is about power, and power means action. If we can get into that contemplative gift, if we can take that time and then train the mind that we’re going to show up before each decision, you know we can understand that small decisions every day are going to create something wonderful and new for us.