We recently enjoyed the Jewish Holiday of Passover, when God freed the Jews from the bonds of Egyptian slavery over 3,300 years ago. Passover is also called the Holiday of the Matzah, which is bread that is processed before the dough can rise. Think of a saltine cracker without the salt and moisture or taste.
The difference between Matzah and Bread (which we are not allowed to eat during the entire eight days of Passover) is 1 second. That one second when the dough starts to rise, makes bread and it becomes unsuitable to be consumed for those eight days.
The 1 Second Rule is the concept that it only takes a second that separates two opposites.
Bread vs. Matzah
Going left vs. Going Right
Doing vs. Quitting
Right vs. Wrong
Life is best led by creating the context where the 1 Second Rule rules.
Ex. You are going to take an 8 hour hike up a steep 4 mile hill. If you view your hike as 8 hours long, or 4 miles high there will be opportunities to quit the hike. If you view it as a continual set of 1 second decisions (the 1 second rule) you will complete the hike and never consider quitting.
If you look at your life, goals, aspirations, and challenges, and you frame the timeline in decades or years or months or weeks or days or even hours, you increase your ability to not achieve them. To quit. To give in. Especially if what you are doing is “voluntary”.
Frame them in a series of continual one seconds decisions and you will achieve everything you want to achieve.
Stated another way, less positively. If you are in an unhappy place, halfway up that hike, or one third the way through that organic chemistry class you need to complete and you are looking at another 2 miles up that hill or 2 months of studying the formation of complex carbon based molecules, it is easy to quit. You see all that pain and suffering in front of you, even though at the end of that journey the view will be amazing or you can then get into medical school. But the pain, so much pain and discomfort, it's just unbearable for that much longer – there is no way I can tolerate it.
Think about it in one second intervals, that only one more second of suffering – and you can withstand that. Anybody can do anything for one second. And then another second, and so on. But then the seconds turned into minutes, and then hours, and then days, and then weeks, and then months, and then years, and then decades.
And before you know it, you succeeded. You are enjoying the most amazing view of life possible. You will have accomplished all that you set out to. You will have won and not quit. And then you can take that win and build on it. And then you can show others how to do it. And then there will be others, lots of others who will join you at the top. And how great will that feel?
Wishes for a great day, with a great view [on life],
Hugs too,
David/
Ps. And the 1 Second rule applies to you both physically (that one second it takes to decide to down a gallon of ice cream before you go to bed or not), mentally and spiritually.
