Counting Down to Action and Living.

When I meet people and we talk about life, working out, etc., my favourite and go-to line is, “Gym is life.” I say this because there are so many things that I have personally learned and practised at the gym that have translated into my life and made my life a little less difficult. One such practice is the idea of counting down instead of counting up.

The idea is incredibly simple and the practice may even seem silly if you think about it. Instead of counting from the bottom and up, you count from the top to the bottom. It is that simple but the results as I’ve noticed with myself are profound. It has not only helped me overcome procrastination and propelled me into taking the necessary action when I need to take them, but also helped me endure and tolerate the pain of exercise as well as changed my perspective on time and the idea of dying.

5,4,3,2,1… action!

Firstly, taking action on your own and for yourself is extremely difficult. Like most people, I struggled a lot to take the necessary actions on the little disciplines in my life. I struggled to get out of bed and to lay, to clean after myself, as well as do anything productive that needed to be done. In other words, I felt lazy and undisciplined. And like most people who embark on the personal development journey, I read a ton of books. One such book is “The 5 Seconds Rule” by Mel Robbins.

In the book, she focused on that period of indecision and hesitation that keeps us stuck, and unable to take action. The period where you question your motivations and intentions to do anything great yet painful. Her advice? Count down from 5 and when you get to 1, get up and do it. Don’t think. Just count and act.

So, I did just that and without realising it, I completely changed my attitude. After tons of repetition, it’s relatively easier for me now to quickly get out of distractions as well as take the necessary actions even though I hate the idea, sometimes.

Don’t think. Just count, and then take action.

No pain, No gain.

The second reason this idea of counting down is powerful is how it tricks your mind into enduring the pain of physical exercise. Whether you exercise alone or in a group, the fact is, that performing the action is painful. It’s already incredibly difficult to go from inaction to action, but when you finally get to taking action, your mind plays little games with you. It feeds you distractions and tells you you’ve done enough just by showing up. It’s incredibly easy to not push yourself when you perform an activity alone.

I find that there’s a stark contrast between what you think you can do alone and on your own, and what you can do when you perform the same activity with someone or a group of people. Because I exercise alone most of the time, the only way I have found to help me push myself is, 1.) count down to push myself to take the action (5,4,3,2,1, action), and 2.) count down on my reps when I’m actively engaged and doing the exercise. It’s almost always easier for me to perform difficult and yet painful exercises when I count down. I don’t know why but the mind, in my opinion, finds it easy to focus when you count down. And when you focus on what you’re doing, it eliminates distractions and calms all the noise up in your head.

This is probably the same reasoning behind the advice of counting down from a target number whenever you are angry and feel the urge to say something – something you might end up regretting. Same advice I got from my college roommate; count down from 100 when you’re struggling to sleep. Counting down seems to have a calming effect on your mind and lets you focus on what you’re doing. When you focus and your mind is calm, nothing else matters more than the action that needs to be taken and endured.

You die each day…

The third and final reason I think counting down is so powerful, at least in my opinion, is how it changed my perspective on time, ageing, and death. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates the average life expectancy globally to be around 73.4 years. Now, you and I both know that you can live beyond the expected age or die before it. But for my argument’s sake, let’s pretend we all have 70 years to live. That is a long time if you focus on the number and how long it’ll take to get there (our mind tends to exaggerate huge numbers). But what if we flip it the other way around, and instead of seeing it as growing until 70, we see it from the perspective of a burning candle?

You see, from the moment we are born, we’re automatically assigned a number. And each day we chip away a piece of it until we finally exhaust it. As a candle that is lit will eventually burn out, the Stoics talk about how the passage of time belongs to death. Every second, minute, hour, and day that passes gets us closer to our death. The time that passes us unnoticed belongs to death. The time is dead and gone, and so are you a little each day.

Just as counting up exaggerates the length and duration of things, counting down, especially on your age puts a lot of focus on what you do each day because that is all you have. It’s so easy to think growing to 70 years is a long time. This perspective makes it easy for you to procrastinate on important tasks. It makes it easy for you to put off doing the things that you want to do for yourself. But counting down and seeing each day as a step closer to zero, the day you die? Now that sure puts the wasted time into the spotlight. When you see it from this perspective, it forces you to put more focus on the present moment and makes you conscious of the time that passes by unnoticed. It makes it easier for you to want to take action now.

Remember that “time waits for no man.” It doesn’t care if you’re thinking about taking action. It doesn’t care if you take action. And it sure as heck does not care if you decide on taking no action. It will do its thing regardless. What can you do about the time that ticks by? Nothing. Respect your time and honour it.

So, I say to you, whatever you know you have to do, have planned to do, and somehow find difficult to do – a habit, a project, anything… say it with me, 5,4,3,2,1 action! However small the action; take it. Just do it. Don’t wait for the candle to burn bright enough. You might wait too long.