Hey, guys. Welcome to the podcast. Today is another solo episode by design and something I feel really passionate about. I read a book recently by Mel Robbins called The High 5 Habit. So the purpose of this episode is to share and invite you to take the high five challenge with me. It's a short episode. It's 11 minutes.
Give me 11 minutes of your life, and I'm hoping that I can make some really positive changes happen because I think that this is an amazing, amazing idea and concept, and I started using it. So I wanted to share it with you guys. I thought that it would be really helpful. So, so check it out, and don't forget to follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn and YouTube. And we do MSL talk live on Clubhouse, which is the 1st Tuesday of every month at 1:30 PM Eastern time. Please join us.
Welcome to MSL talk with Tom Caravella, a podcast specifically designed for MSLs and all things field medical. Welcome back, everyone. Thank you for joining me again for this special and kinda unique episode. So today, I wanna talk to you or share this concept that I've stumbled upon, and it's based upon a book written by Mel Robbins. So Mel Robbins, if you guys don't know who she is, is a lawyer and former talk show host, motivational speaker.
But I think she's probably most famous for, she's written a couple of books. 1 is the 5 second rule, and the other is her brand new book, which is called the high five habit, which I think is awesome. Awesome enough that I'm dedicating a whole podcast to it because I think it's something that it's too good to keep a secret, and I think it can be life changing for everyone.
So you don't have to be an MSL or in medical affairs or you don't really it this is something that everyone could benefit from. So I wanna invite you to if you like this, if this works for you, share this with your friends, your family. I really I've been using this technique, and already, I've noticed a difference. So what is it? What is the high five habit?
So Mel Robbins goes on to explain that, you know, how if you're going through a tough time or if you're having a bad week or a bad month or maybe you're having a bad year, maybe COVID is really, you know, taking its toll on you. And there's days when you wake up and you just want to roll over and go back to bed. You don't want to face the day. Well, she was describing that she was going through that exact type of period in her life.
And she was in the bathroom in the morning, and she just instinctively, for whatever reason, looked at herself in the mirror, raised her hand, and gave herself a high five. And at the time, she didn't think anything of it, but she started to make a habit out of it. Then she started to do research on it. And what happened next and what she found was just incredible.
There's actually research behind why this can be so effective in changing your day, changing your life, making you more a positive person, and and helping to influence outcomes in your life. So let me explain first what the High Five Challenge is because that's really what this podcast is about. I'm challenging all of you to do this. The high five challenge is every day, in the morning. You definitely have to do it in the morning.
At some point in time, maybe you pair it with brushing your teeth or shaving or putting makeup on, something that you do every day, and do it for 5 days. So you're literally don't overthink it. You're just gonna look at yourself in the mirror, you're gonna give yourself a high five, and then think of positive thought for the day. A positive outlook or a positive thought for the day.
To be honest with you, when you give yourself a high five, you instinctively are gonna think of something positive. And so and I'm gonna tell you why. We're gonna get into the research of it because there's real science behind this. So that's what the high five habit is. That's the high five challenge. I invite you all to take it. Why are you taking this? Why is this gonna change your life? And and what is the research?
So Mel Robbins says that it's impossible to have a negative thought when you're high fiving. It's a celebration, and we are programmed. Our minds are programmed to know what a high five means. We've been giving high fives to other people throughout our lives. We go to a sporting event, we're trying to encourage our kids, we're trying to pump people up, we're celebrating something, high five is always there. So we know what it means. We're our brains are programmed to know what it means.
When you give yourself a high five, there's a whole different level of result that comes of it. So for example, there's research that is shown that when you high 5 yourself, it's an unexpected physical action. You're used to high fiving somebody else. You're high 5 you're used to high fiving others. So when you high 5 yourself, the physical action, combined with the positive thoughts in your brain, are gonna create new neuro pathways that are gonna rewire how you think of yourself.
Again, you're interrupting that unexpected action is interrupting your brain and saying, hey. What is this? And now because you're rewiring your brain, showing this form of celebration and acceptance of yourself in that one simple action, you're changing the whole paradigm for yourself, for that day, and for all the days that follow.
There's other research that recently came out of Harvard that says that if you take one minute of intentional reflection about who you were going to be that day, it completely changes the level of productivity, how you show up as a leader, how you impact people, and how effective you are that day. So one minute of setting an intention on who you're going to be that day is going to have a profound effect on how that day winds up.
So when you stand in the mirror and you high five yourself and think positively about yourself and about the day, you're sealing that intention. Again, research has proven how effective this is. Now there was actually more research done, and this is really interesting. So there was a study done with NBA teams that were trying to predict who will make the championship at the end of the year.
They actually found that the team that had the most high fives high fives, fist bumps, and back pats in the preseason were most likely to be in the championship versus the ones that had the least. And the reason is because they found that those teams established trust and true partnership with each other. So if you are high fiving yourself every day, you're essentially establishing trust and partnership with yourself. And then there was another study done.
So Mel Robbins goes on in her book, and she describes another study that was done on kids. They separated kids into 3 groups, and they had them do certain tasks. Group 1, they came over and encouraged and gave them a, hey. You got this, etcetera. Group 2, they went over and said, you're smart, and you're a hard worker. And then group 3, they said nothing. They just came over, and they gave everyone a high five.
Well, don't you know group 3 drastically outperformed their tasks better than group 1 and 2? So I know that when I probably first started describing this to you, you're probably all like, this sounds really silly. I gotta admit, I was like, she wrote a whole book about this until I really started reading. And I'm a big, big, big you guys.
You guys have heard me say this many times before I'm a big proponent of the small habits that and activities and strategies that you put in place every day are what's gonna get you to your goal. So this tiny habit can have a profound effect. So what can you expect? And and this is this is interesting. So Mel Robbins goes on to say that she's has spoken to doctors and researchers, and she's done this herself.
First off, you you might feel a little awkward when you start this, because you're like, this is kinda weird, and I'm, like, high fiving myself. Don't overthink it. Just do it. Just every morning, when you're brushing your teeth, after you brush your teeth, before you leave the bathroom, just raise your hand, give yourself a high five, and think positive thoughts. By day 3, you should experience 1 of 2 things.
Either a noticeable boost in your mood or a sense of calm that should result in less stress. So, again, I want to invite everyone to every morning for 5 days straight, do this high five high five in the mirror. This is the the high five challenge. Have a positive thought. Have a positive outlook. And then I want you to share after you're done with that, I want you to share your experience with me on LinkedIn. I'm gonna be doing this with you. You're not gonna be doing this by yourself.
I'm definitely doing this with you. So I'm gonna chart what I'm feeling and and how this is working for me. I definitely wanna hear from you. If we're not connected on LinkedIn yet, please send me a connection request. I promise I'll accept it. Or if you're following me and and you you have access to send me a message, please reach out. I wanna hear I really want to see because I read the book, and I and I think it's awesome. And and I I believe her, and I I I do trust her.
I just wanna see the real life applications of it, and I want and believe me, I if I didn't think so, I wouldn't dedicate a podcast to it. But I want to see how this works in your life. I hope it's effective for you. I hope that this puts your life onto a new course or maybe is a small change that at the very least is just gonna bring more positive into your day, into your life, into your week. Maybe it helps you with your job search.
Maybe it helps you with trying to get that promotion, or maybe it just helps you every day as if just to be a better person. Let me know what that is. Let's hear about it. I love to hear from you guys. I wanna thank you for listening and invite you to do this, and good luck. I hope it works. Thank you so much for listening to the show. And if you enjoyed it, please subscribe so that you don't miss an episode in the future and feel free to leave a rating or a review or a comment.
Thanks again, and we look forward to seeing you soon.