The Rule of 5: How to Turn Your Dreams into Reality with This Simple Rule
I want to share a powerful rule that will transform your life if you are to follow the rule and stick to it.
It is called the Rule of 5. And this rule can help you achieve anything you want in your life if you are willing to work on it.
I learned this rule from Jack Canfield, the best-selling author for Chicken Soup for the Soul series and Success Principles. Canfield is also a motivational speaker and a success coach.
You may have heard about the phenomenal success of the book, Chicken Soup for the Soul, but do you know how Sir Jack Canfield and his co-author, Mark Victor Hansen, made the book a best-seller?
Well, it has something to do with the Rule of 5.
What is The Rule of 5?
When both Canfield and Hansen started with the book, they both decided that they want their book to be impactful and listed on the best-seller list.
So, they interviewed and asked many successful authors such as John Gray, Barbar DeAngelis, and Ken Blanchard for advice. And they even bought and read a book from John Kremer called 1001 Ways to Market Your Book.
And like most people, they were then overwhelmed with too many ideas and confused about where to begin selling the book.
That was when both Canfield and Hansen got the advice from Ron Scolastico. Ron told them something insightful that changed their lives forever:
“If you would go every day to a very large tree and take five swings at it with a very sharp ax, eventually, no matter how large the tree, it would have to come down.”
And that was how the Rule of 5 was born.
Canfield and Hansen both developed an idea called The Rule of 5 — where they both needed to take 5 specific actions that will lead them to their goal, which is to make their book into the best-selling list.
And they did. They are committed and they decided to stick to The Rule of 5. Below is an excerpt from Success Principles, the life-transforming book written by Jack Canfield. In the book, he told this story to inspire readers to take actions:
They can send 5 review copies to editors who are keen; they can call 5 network marketing companies and ask them to buy their books as a motivational tool for their salespeople; they can give a seminar to at least 5 people and sell the book; and on someday, they can just send 5 copies of the book to celebrities like Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg, and Sidney Poitier; and they did all of that.
They made phone calls to people who could review the book; they wrote press releases; they called talk shows and give away their books for free, some of the shows were at 3am; they gave talks using stories from the book in churches; they even got gas station, restaurant, and bakeries to sell the book; all in all, they did a lot of things and put in a lot of consistent effort.
Eventually, the book went on to sell millions of copies. However, it did not happen overnight. The book hit the best-seller list after a year.
That was how The Rule of 5 helped Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen achieved their goals of publishing a best-selling book.
So, how can you apply this rule to your life?
How can you use this rule to help you achieve your goals and materialize your dreams?
Start with Taking 5 Small Actions Every Day
You have to understand that The Rule of 5 will work for you if you are willing to work on it.
And you don’t need to work on big actions. The key to success with this rule is consistency.
Imagine if you are to take 5 little actions that will move you toward your goal every day.
In a week, you will have created 35 small wins. And in a month, you will have accomplished 150 small victories.
And in a year, you will have accumulated 1,825 wins that will completely transform your life.
“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” — Confucius
You don’t have to take big and bold steps to begin. You just need to start small and keep your dream and your goal in your mind all the time.
Remember, every big success was first achieved through small successes. You don’t get to build a successful business on day one. You can’t lose weight by hitting the gym only once. And you can’t write a book in just one sitting.
The key is to start small with consistency.
Commit to taking small consistent actions every day, and eventually, you will make big progress in achieving what you want in your life.
So, identify all the necessary action steps you can take each day and list them down.
And then commit to executing just 5 of them every day.
That’s how success is created.
