How To Apply the 5 by 5 Rule Will Help You To Put Things in Perspective in Your Life
You must learn to sort out what is important in the long run, and what is not.
Knowing how to put things into perspective is an essential quality of life. Unfortunately, too few people can develop this quality and use it in their daily lives. Take me for example.
I'm writing this article to try to explain how to put things in perspective in your life using the 5 by 5 rule.
However, even though I know this rule, there are still times when I can't apply it. When you get caught up in the flow of life, you can't always control your emotions and take a step back.
It's the only thing you can do, but it's hard to remember that in difficult times.
The first step is to understand that nothing lasts forever in life
When something negative happens to you, you will probably feel that it will never pass. You may feel devastated. You think you'll never get over it. And yet, let me reassure you: after the rain comes the sunshine.
In these difficult moments, I always start by remembering this Persian adage:
This Too Shall Pass.
It may sound trivial, but simply repeating it out loud in a difficult moment will help you. It will break the vicious cycle you put yourself in. You have to realize that everything in life passes. Good things and bad things never last forever.
That's what makes life so exciting and thrilling in the end. You never know what will happen next.
The 5 by 5 rule comes next to help you sort out what matters in the long run and what doesn't
After repeating this sentence, you will be able to move on to the next phase: to apply the famous 5 by 5 rule that I must have intrigued you with since the beginning of this article. This rule is actually very simple, but it allows you to ask yourself the right questions, and therefore necessary to take a step back.
So, if it's not of major importance for your life in the next 5 years, you don't have the right to be upset about it for more than 5 minutes.
You just missed an important presentation to a potential new client. You are upset about this failure. As you know yourself, you may spend several days moping about this failure. The only question to ask yourself is this: Will this failure matter in five years?
You already know the answer: no!
So don't waste more than 5 minutes of your time beating yourself up over this failure. In 5 years, you will have had many other successes and you will have accomplished many other things.
There are some essential long-term things that you need to spend a lot of time on.
When you parked this morning, you made a mistake and scratched your new car. This is a very unpleasant thing of course. It can be a real hassle if you're a car freak. You may spend at least the whole day blaming yourself.
The questions will keep coming back to you: why didn't I pay more attention?
Again, consider whether that scratch will still matter in 5 years. The answer is no. In 5 years, you will even have another car. There's no need to waste your energy on something so basically meaningless. You have more important things to accomplish in life.
You've been with your partner for a while now, and you're wondering whether or not you should marry him. Is it the right time? Is it too soon? This question is upsetting to you. You spend a lot of time every day thinking about it. This is the kind of problem that typically requires more than 5 minutes of your time.
Indeed, the choice of a life partner is what separates those who will achieve great things from those who will not, as Warren Buffett frequently reminds us.
So it's clearly worth giving it some serious thought since in 5 years it will still be extremely important.
Final Thoughts
So you get the idea. In your life, some events are just painful moments to go through. Others will have a major impact on your life. You must learn to differentiate between these two types of events to allocate your time appropriately.
The 5 by 5 rule will help you ask yourself the only question that matters and thus optimize the use of your time. Using this rule will become second nature to you and you will be able to put things in perspective in your life at any time.