The 24-Hour Turnaround to Get Your Life Back on Track

Today, I'm gonna show you how to turn things around in the next 24 hours. How you can go from having the kind of day where you just wanna pull the sheets up over your head, to having a day that energizes you, that helps you get things done, boosts your confidence, makes you happier and more present. You can get your life back on track in 24 hours. It is normal to have off days. You do not need to turn every low-energy day into a crisis. But if you've been feeling stuck, and that stuck feeling is now starting to stick, that right there is a sign. You begin with these five simple steps. So let's start with the first one right now. If you want to feel better, you have to move while you feel worse. Confidence doesn't come from just motivation or affirmations, it comes from evidence. So if you're feeling overwhelmed, if you're feeling behind, if you feel like you've blown it, good, you're in the right place. Hey, it's your friend Mel, and welcome to The Mel Robbins Podcast. I am so excited that you're here. It is such an honor to spend time together with you, and if you're a new listener or you're here because somebody shared this episode with you, I wanna personally welcome you to The Mel Robbins Podcast family. And boy, oh, boy, is today's conversation gonna be a good one! Because today you are getting the 24-hour turnaround to get back on track, and it's all backed by science. Because let's be honest with each other, when you're feeling off, or you're stuck, or life is so overwhelming that you're not sure how you're gonna dig out and feel like yourself again, a quick turnaround is exactly what you need. And before you and I get into it, 'cause I'm gonna explain how to do this quick turnaround, I wanna say something that you need to hear right at the top of our conversation. It is normal to have off days. It's normal to wake up and feel blah. It's normal to not feel like yourself. It's normal to wanna cancel plans, and order takeout, and binge a show in sweatpants. You know what that's called? Being human. You do not need to turn every low-energy day into a crisis. You don't need to, quote, "fix yourself" because you had a Tuesday where you didn't wanna do anything. But if you've been feeling stuck, and that stuck feeling is now starting to stick, or if you've noticed that you are avoiding things, you're procrastinating more than you used to, your place is just getting messier and messier, the laundry is piling up, up, up. If you're withdrawing and not getting back to people, that's not like you. You're making promises to yourself, and you're constantly breaking them. And here's the big one: if that voice in your head is getting louder, the voice that's saying, "Ugh! Oh, my God, what's the point? Who cares? I, I am so far behind, I am never gonna catch up. Boy, did I really screw up. I, I just, I just cannot... I can't fix this. I'm never gonna change," or maybe, "I don't even know where to begin," that's how overwhelmed I am. That's how much I've let things go. That right there is a sign, because it's so easy to let life overwhelm you. I mean, maybe you need this 24-hour turnaround 'cause you've been sick, and you feel all hazy and separated from the world. Oh, my gosh, everybody in my family has had the flu. I'm so happy I got the flu shot. But holy cow, when you're sick, it's amazing how life just stacks on top of you. Or maybe you've just been in a funk. You've gone through a breakup. You're feeling lonely. You lost somebody that you care about. You've been numb, and it's hard to feel like anything else matters or to get motivated to do all the little things that make you feel like yourself. Another reason why you might need this reset is you're coming off a deadline, and the deadline consumed every waking moment of your life lately. Or maybe like me, you've been traveling, whether it's for work, or you went on a cool trip, you're off your routine, your suitcase is still sitting next to your closet. You've been home for a week, you haven't even unpacked. I know what that's like. Or you know what else throws me off, and I need, like, a 24-hour reset? When you get in a fight with somebody in your family, and you know they're mad at you, somebody's giving you the silent treatment, or you said something stupid to somebody, and now you're re-going over it over and over, and you can't just let them and shake it off. I've been there. Or if you're taking care of somebody, like your mom, or your dad, or someone in your family, and now you've lost your rhythm of taking care of everything else because the focus has been on them, oh, my gosh! There's so many reasons to need a 24-hour reset. Here's another one: maybe you've just kinda got in that habit of doomscrolling, and then you wake up every morning with dread, and you're beating yourself up 'cause you're wasting your time, or you're worried about the state of the world, and you have no control over some of the things that you see online, or on TV, or in the headlines. Or perhaps, oh, my gosh, I was talking to somebody this morning. They have little ones, and they keep waking up three o'clock in the morning, which means you're waking up at three o'clock in the morning, and you're not sleeping well either. Or maybe you're so stressed out by life that you've been eating like a raccoon. Mm-hmm. Any of these, you're like, "Yep, that's me," or, "Nope, that's my sister. I gotta send this to her." Well, I'm gonna tell you something: you've already made an incredible decision by hitting play on this episode, because I created this episode for you. I created it for those moments where life feels so overwhelming, you don't know where to begin. And no matter what it is that you've been going through, here's what I'm gonna tell you: you can turn things around. And what I'm gonna share with you today is a simple five-step-... 24-hour turnaround that you're gonna be able to come back to over and over and over again. It's just five small shifts, five simple actions, five things that you can do in the state that you're in right now, because that's how momentum works. It's not about the huge breakthroughs, it's the small moves that get you back on track. And here's a quick way to think about it. You know, when a giant cruise ship changes direction, it doesn't just spin on a dime and do something radical. The captain makes a small adjustment to the wheel, and over time, that one small shift changes the entire direction the ship is headed in. That's what today is. This episode is you placing your hand on the wheel, you making a decision to just tweak something in a small way, and these five small turns that you and I are gonna make together, they change where you're headed, they change how you feel, they change your sense of empowerment and confidence. You go from, "Oh, my God, where do I begin?" to, "Oh, I've already begun, and I feel like I got this." We're back moving in the right direction again. Now, you also might be wondering, "Mel, okay, this is a 24-hour reset. When exactly am I gonna do these five things? Do I have to do them today? Do I start tomorrow?" That's a great question. The 24 hours begin the second you do the first thing. So even if you're listening and it's 8:00 PM at night, wherever it is that you are in the world, and you're listening right now, these things are so simple, you can do them before you go to bed tonight. And if you're listening to this first thing in the morning, if you're listening to this during your workday, you can do this today. So the 24 hours begins the moment you do the first step, okay? Anytime you feel overwhelmed, anytime you're saying, "I don't even know where to begin," you now know the answer. You begin with these five simple steps. So let's start with the first one right now. Step number one is clear the mental clutter, and I'm gonna unpack this in detail. I'm gonna explain some research as to why this works and why it's super empowering. So let's talk about how you clear the clutter mentally, okay? First, we're going to do what I call a brain dump. If you've never heard the term brain dump, don't worry about it. It is so dead simple. It works like a charm in those moments when you're overwhelmed, and it is step one of your 24-hour turnaround. You are going to take everything that's up in your brain, and you are going to dump it on a piece of paper. I don't want you to think, because this is the equivalent of mental vomiting. This is how you take the garbage out. This is how you lighten the load, because if you're anything like me, in those moments when life is overwhelming you, it turns out that there's a lot of stuff that's been sitting on your mental to-do list, cluttering up your mind, for days, weeks, maybe even months. And you're holding onto this stuff upstairs in your brain, not because they're all hard to do, not because they're gonna take a lot of time, but because, for whatever reason, you just haven't been able to get to them, but your brain is holding on to them. And so when you're feeling off, when life feels like the demands are piling up, part of the problem might be that you've just got so much going on in your mind, that we need to clear the clutter in your mind in order to give you a much-needed reset and boost, okay? This is not pretty. This is not for you to show other people. This is for you to be able to just dump things down. One way I sometimes do it is I can divide the piece of paper up into three sections: work, home, personal, and then just start dumping things that come to your mind under each category. "Oh, I gotta book the vet appointment for the dog. I gotta call my friend back. I need to send my friend Robyn flowers 'cause she's doing something amazing today, and I meant to do it yesterday, and by God, I didn't do it yester- Well, I'm gonna do it today. I need to pick up the dry cleaning. I gotta buy birthday candles at the grocery store. I gotta read that article that my friend sent. I gotta return the package. I gotta respond to the text, respond to the email. I gotta figure out dinner for next week, cancel the subscription, fix the annoying broken doorknob. Oh, I gotta fill out that form for my kid's class and get them scheduled for their annual physical. I gotta donate that old pile of books or clothes that's sitting next to the door, get new batteries for the smoke detector or the remote, because I keep meaning to do it every time I go to watch, and the batteries are dying. I gotta vacuum under the couch cushion." I mean, on and on, and I'm just exhausted thinking about all the things that could be on the list. And I have one list here from our producer, Amy. I'm holding it up. I- What I love about this is she's written it in different color pens. This is not good-looking. I've got this one that I did in ten minutes this morning. Holy cow, are we carrying around a lot of stuff! This is how you clear out the mental clutter. And I can imagine you looking at what you write down and you getting, "Oh, my God, there's a lot of stuff on this list!" But hear me loud and clear, a brain dump is not a to-do list. See, I'm not asking you to do this because I'm asking you to make a plan. I'm asking you to do this so that we can get this clutter out of your head and give you space to breathe. We need to get you out of your head, so you can settle into your nervous system. Psychologists have known for a long time that unfinished tasks, all the crap we just vomited out on the page, the mental clutter we just got out of our heads and put down on paper, they stay mentally active. See, there's this well-established principle in psychology, a lot of experts have talked about it on this podcast, which is called the Zeigarnik effect, which shows that your brain holds on to incomplete tasks more strongly than completed ones. It's almost like it has these open loops that keep running. If you're thinking about something, but you don't check off the box and close the loop-... In other words, all the unfinished business is cluttering your mind. It's taking up space. It's open loops and tabs in your brain, and the thing that I notice every time I do one of these brain dumps is most of the stuff that's taking up mental space is not important. I don't want my brain remembering this stuff. That's just how your brain is wired, to hold onto incomplete tasks more strongly because it's keeping these loops open. But here's the key research point that makes this brain dump step so powerful, and this comes from research that was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and it shows something important. When you either complete an unfinished task, meaning you do the thing, or even make a clear, thought-out plan to deal with it, the mental drain on your mind drops. The intrusive thoughts quiet down. You feel relief simply for making a plan to deal with it or doing it, and that's what you're starting to do right now when you clear out the mental clutter by doing this brain dump. Now, this moment, this moment is what starts to change everything. So here's what we're gonna do with it. I want you to then look at what you wrote down, and here's what you're going to do. You're gonna cross off everything that's not happening today, okay? It, it doesn't mean it's not gonna happen in the future you're just gonna cross it off and go, "Not today!" Okay, the meeting with this team, not today. Oh, booking flights to Florida to see my parents, not today. Oh, uh, the care package to my son, not today. I'm making a plan to not do it today. Do you know how amazing that sounds? Just hear this. [pen scratching] That sounds like relief in your brain. Oh, my God, don't you love that? And then what we're gonna do is you're gonna circle one thing. [pen scratching] Boom! Just one thing, one thing on the list that feels the most important to you. Simply getting it out of your head, onto that paper, crossing everything else off, and then circling the thing that's the most important to you. You wanna know what I just circled? Are you ready? Can I have a drum roll, please, because this is really impressive. What Mel Robbins is gonna do today is gonna blow your mind. Are you ready? [ klik] I'm gonna make a grocery shopping list, and you wanna know why? Because we have nothing in the fridge, 'cause I've been gone for a week. And so it's the most important thing for me to make a grocery shopping list today. I will grocery shop tomorrow, but getting this done today means I am set up to do this tomorrow. I have taken one step forward toward taking control, and there's one other thing that I love about the crossing off [pen scratching] and the circle. You know what it does? It's helping me physically say, "Not important, and this is what matters," and when I cross it off physically, when I just make that big circle, it has this thing for me, and I'm curious if you're gonna feel it, too, where I feel in control. This is what matters, the grocery list. This is the number one thing. See, if everything's important, nothing is, and if everything's up in your mind, you got open loops weighing you down. This way of clearing out mental clutter, you just lost 100 pounds of mental weight, and you also said, "All this stuff doesn't matter. I'm actually in charge. I can stop torturing myself. I can circle the one thing that matters, and now I feel back in control." And suddenly, the fact that there's 100 other things on this page, on this brain dump, they don't really matter either, 'cause you're like, "I'm aware of this." Mind, you can stop worrying about it. It's down on the paper. You're gonna feel lighter. You're gonna feel the mental clutter clear, and you, my friend, have now taken the first step in this 24-hour reset. How cool is that? Just keep this brain dump near you, 'cause I promise you, as you move through all five of these simple things, more mental clutter is gonna pop into your mind. Just get it back down on a piece of paper. That's all you gotta do. Step number two is clear the physical clutter. Let me unpack that for you. So you just cleaned out your mental clutter. Feels so good, right? Now, let's ride that wave into tackling physical clutter, and this is a simple, powerful way to take back control when life feels overwhelming. And I really do mean simple, because when I say we're gonna clear out the physical clutter, I'm not asking you to cancel your plans for the week and rent out a dumpster, okay? We're not, we're not talking about that kind of clean out. I'm not asking you to tear apart your entire home. I'm just asking you, just pick one small space, and we're gonna tidy it up in a matter of five minutes. That's all we're gonna do. Maybe you've got clothes spread out all over your bedroom floor. Could you fold them and put them in your closet? You know, if they're dirty, could you just throw them in a laundry basket? Notice I'm not saying do the laundry. You can do that later. I'm saying one physical space, that in five minutes you can just tidy it up, okay? You know, you can get those clothes into the laundry basket, and you can give yourself a clean floor.... Just keep it simple. Clear the clutter. You can pull into your garage, or you could pull up to work in your car and be like, "I'm gonna take five minutes, and I'm gonna take the bag that has been blowing around in the backseat, and I'm going to use it as a trash bag, and I'm gonna gather everything in my car that does not belong in here and throw it out. And then I'm gonna pull out my mats, and I'm gonna shake them. I'm-a shake them out- outside, and then I'm gonna put them back in." Now, notice I didn't say give your car a detail. I said clear the clutter. Maybe it's your nightstand. Maybe your nightstand is a joke. Like, you can't even see the surface of the nightstand because there's a half-drunk bottle of water, crumpled-up receipts, there's a wrapper from the candy bar you ate before bed, there's 15 books that you haven't read, there's a sleeping mask, uh, like there's pens, there's jewelry that you've taken off. Like, I know, your nightstand probably looks like mine does at certain times. Can you take a minute and just pull all the stuff into the trash? Give your alarm clock some breathing room. Stack the tower of books you haven't read, you know, kind of a little bit more organized and nice. Move the lamp back. Run a little cloth over it, dust... Just clear the clutter. Or how about taking a few minutes to organize where you work? You know, y- you got stuff everywhere. It's piled up high, slips of paper, Post-It notes, pads with half-written stuff. You know, you got water rings all over your desk. You got half-drunk cups of coffee sitting there. How about you just clear out the physical clutter where you work? And if you want to spend a little bit more time, go for it, but it counts if you can do it in less than five minutes. I did this five-step, 24-hour turnaround a couple weeks ago. I was so overwhelmed. I had been traveling a lot for work. I had gotten home, and it had been a week that I had been home, and I hadn't unpacked yet. This drives my husband crazy because when I get home, I typically bring my suitcase into our bedroom, and I leave the suitcase outside my closet because there's not a whole lot of room in there to lay out a big suitcase and then unpack. It had sat there for a week. And so Chris had gone to bed, and I had done my brain dump, and it was, like, nine o'clock at night, and like, "You know what? I'm just gonna go for it." I not only unpacked, I spent two hours cleaning out my closet. It was so liberating. I got all the shirts hanging the right way, and I organized them from the shortest shirt to the longest shirt, so it looked like a nice line. I organized my work clothes in one section. I lined up all my shoes. I unpacked and put everything in the dirty laundry or in dry cleaning and then put my suitcase away. And I gotta tell you something, that little bit of time that I spent clearing the physical clutter that had been overwhelming me for more than a week in my closet, when I walked into my closet the next morning, I felt like Superwoman. I felt like that small move changed my entire life because the physical cleanliness signaled something to me, that I can handle it. I had been wanting to do this to my closet for months. I don't know why it was that night. I don't know why it happened at nine o'clock at night. But I gotta tell you something, those two hours were so... What is the right word? Cleansing. They were just transformative because I went from feeling so overwhelmed every time I walked into that closet to quietly resetting my mind and my life and my physical space while my husband was sleeping. It was incredible. And is there something you can do in the next 24 hours, that when you see that space tomorrow, it's gonna make you feel amazing? I want you to just think about what clutter you could clear out in your environment. Pick one spot. One spot. That's it. In five minutes, what can you do with one spot that's gonna give you a little relief, make you feel a little calmer, make you feel a little bit more in control? And then you look at it, and you're like, "Oh, my God! Oh, my gosh. Holy cow! I feel like I can breathe again." And I'm not just being dramatic. There's a reason why your body responds so quickly when you clear physical clutter from your car, your desk, your bag, your life, your closet. There's research that was done at Yale that was published in a study in the journal called Neuron, where they measured what happens in the brain when you're looking at clutter. See, when you see physical mess, that mess means your brain has to work harder to just process what it's seeing. Clutter physically creates extra mental clutter and noise up in your mind because your brain is burning energy sorting through all that junk instead of just being able to focus on what really matters. When your space is chaotic, it can make your brain feel chaotic. So when you start to clear the clutter in your physical space, this isn't just about making things look nice. We're taking five lousy minutes to give a gift to your brain, and your brain is working hard enough for you, okay? You're giving your brain less to have to sort through.... And there's some really interesting psychological research on this. I wanna tell you about a 2025 study, it's a recent study, in the Journal of Environmental Psychology. The study was led by Francis Quinn of Robert Gordon University. So in this study, researchers looked at 500-plus adults and asked two big questions: "How cluttered do you feel your home is? And how do you feel emotionally in your life?" And here's what they found in this study. People who lived in homes that they saw as cluttered reported more negative emotions. I want you to think about irritability, stress, a sour mood that follows you from room to room. And those same people that were living in physical clutter also reported lower satisfaction with their lives. When even one little part of your space feels chaotic, I'm telling you, your brain is keeping that open loop, that tab in the background, going, "Okay, there's another thing you need to do. There's another thing that's wrong. There's another thing you can't get to." Even if you're not conscious of it, it's taking a toll on you. When you clear the clutter, even just for five minutes, even in just one spot in your home or work or your car or whatever, you close the tab. You say, "My whole life isn't overwhelming." You say, "A nice, calm, organized space isn't something that I have to earn. It's something that I deserve." And when you're done, I want you to take a deep breath and look around, because your brain is gonna feel different. Your brain is gonna see the new space with the clutter cleared away, and it's gonna go, "Hey, I took care of something that I didn't even realize was bugging me." And that's exactly how this 24-hour turnaround starts. Now, let's talk about step number three: move your body. And before you turn this off 'cause you don't wanna exercise, we're not talking about exercise. We're talking about using the science of movement to change your emotional state, and here's why this matters so much. Movement does a few different amazing jobs for you when it comes to turning things around quickly. First of all, it helps you feel better right now. Second, it helps you function better for the rest of the day. And third, it's exactly what your body needs to thrive long-term, and it's a gift to the future you. It's a way for you to say, "Even though life is running me over, I'm still taking care of myself. And when I take care of myself, and I move my body, I know that I'm preparing myself for all the things that life's demanding of me." Now, here's the cool thing about this, 'cause I can feel some of you going, "Oh, my God, she's talking about exercise. I don't wanna hear this anymore." Do not turn this off, 'cause we're not talking about doing a full-on workout, okay? If you wanna go do a big workout, great! Go, go do it. But I'm not asking you to do that, because I promised you at the beginning, this 24-hour turnaround doesn't take a lot of effort. You can do each one of these things in five to ten minutes flat. You can get it done in the day that you have, no matter how much time that you have. And so let's just make this simple. I don't even need you to change clothes. I don't need you to track your steps. I don't need you to break a sweat. Don't you love this? We're just gonna move our body. I'm talking about movement so small it almost feels too easy. But here's the one thing about it: it's gotta be intentional. You've gotta move for the sake of movement. Walking to the fridge or walking to the mailbox or walking into work is fine, but I want you to move, not to get somewhere. I want you to move to change how you feel. That's right. That's why you're moving your body. 'Cause life may be overwhelming, but if I move my body, that motion changes the emotions. Because here's what most people don't realize. If you feel overwhelmed or you feel anxious, your body is part of the problem, and, this is the cool part, your body is part of the solution. When you sit for too long, your nervous system stays stuck in the stress mode. This isn't my research. This is very well-researched. We've talked about it with Dr. Aditi Nurukar. Your brain, if you're stationary, just is gonna keep scanning for problems. Your emotions don't change because you're not moving. When you start to physically move, that physical movement changes your emotional state, period. See, a l- for a long time, I would always think, "Oh, you know, I gotta wait until my emotional mood changes. I gotta feel uplifted. I gotta feel motivated, then I'll go for a run." It's the opposite. If you want to feel better, you have to move while you feel worse. You gotta move when you're tired. You gotta move when you're feeling down. You gotta move when you're overwhelmed, and the movement shifts that emotional negative state into something more positive. So, for example, when you say, "Okay, today, here's what I'm gonna do. I gotta work all day, but I can move by standing at my desk and walking on that walking pad that I ordered and haven't unboxed yet. I can move by putting on something on YouTube and stretching intentionally. I'm moving my body. I'm shifting my energy and my muscles and shifting the chemistry. I'm gonna go walk around the block. I'm gonna go jog on a treadmill for a little bit." And I want you to say this: "I am gonna move. I'm gonna go for a walk in order to change how I feel." That's what I mean by intentional. Because when you do that, you're now sending a signal to your brain saying, "I'm okay. I'm okay, despite all this stuff going on, despite how much i- is, is piled up on my to-do list, despite how overwhelmed life may feel, I'm still okay."... because I'm making myself go for a walk in order to feel better. So here's the rule: Can you move your body for five minutes today? That's it. Just like clearing out the clutter, five minutes. We got a very low bar here, because I'm expecting big things, high things for you, okay? Set a timer, five minutes. Stand up, go walk around the block. Stand up, get outside, and go walk your dog. Stand up, and get out of that chair and get on the ground and play with your grandkids. Stand up, instead of sitting in your dorm room scrolling on social media, take a long walk across campus, and move your body in any way that feels natural to you. For just five minutes if you don't wanna go for a walk. Okay, it's raining, it's snowing, whatever. Stretch, dance, jump rope, shake your arms out, jump up and down. Do Dr. Vonda Wright's 11 pushup challenge. And if you have limited mobility, that's okay. That's okay. Your five minutes can be getting quiet and taking slow breaths. You could be doing arm raises from a wheelchair or from a chair. You could be doing a lot of things. It's the intentional movement that counts, because remember, this isn't about getting fit. This is about getting unstuck. This isn't about building muscles. This is about building resilience. This isn't about moving the, the weight down the scale. This is about moving through the emotions that are weighing you down. See, your life doesn't just turn around because you want it to, it turns around because you make it turn around, and the problems that felt huge inside the house, it's fascinating, isn't it, how they start to untangle themselves once you're walking? And you may be, you know, the kind of person that listens to this podcast while you walk. I love that. I love that. This is the perfect thing to listen to while you walk. It's the perfect reward to give yourself as you're moving your body, 'cause now you're doing two things at once. You're learning, you're getting inspiration and encouragement, and you're out there doing it. I love that for you, and even a few minutes of movement. Don't discount this. Don't roll your eyes, "Oh, what's five minutes gonna do?" The research on this is very clear. There's a major review published in 2025, so we're talking new research, and this is published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology. This was led by researcher Jose Mora Gonzalez. They pulled together dozens of studies on physical activity and mental health. This is what they call a meta-analysis study. They crunch all the data on a bunch of other research and then tell us what all this research is telling us, and what they found is incredibly consistent. Movement helps your brain regulate stress and emotion. So again, the emotions feel like your body's stuck, but your body and moving it is the key to getting all those emotions unstuck. When you move, it boosts your mood, lowers anxiety, it helps you feel steadier and more resilient, and so that's the first job movement does. It helps you feel better fast. But there's a second job that intentional movement, just five minutes, can do that's just as important. And this second thing that it does comes from another massive review published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, where they looked across hundreds of studies involving thousands of people, and here's what they found: that moving your body improves how your brain functions, things like focus, memory, planning, decision-making. In other words, movement doesn't just calm you down in the moment. It doesn't just break apart all the emotion that's keeping you feeling trapped and underwater right now. Movement helps you think better and function better all day. That's why this matters so much in the 24-hour turnaround. You're not just chasing a fleeting mood boost, although, God, we could use that. I'll take it, right? But you're getting a second thing. You're upgrading how your brain operates for whatever's gonna come next. And, of course, there's physical benefits, too, which you and I can't ignore. The American Heart Association says that 150 minutes a week of moderate physical activity for adults, things like taking a brisk walk, water aerobics, dancing, gardening... Ooh, I love that. Gardening counts. Doubles tennis, easy biking, pickleball, adds up to a healthier heart, better sleep, better balance, bone health, less weight gain, and a better quality of life overall. That's insane. That's about 20 minutes a day. All I'm asking for right now is five, and the American Heart Association says even five to 10 minutes at a time is a great place to start in order to start to have those same benefits. So when I say move your body, it's not because I want you to train for some race. This is how you train yourself to take advantage of a better life, and I'm asking you to take some of this most reliable medical research that I just explained to you to help you feel better and function better, and that's why it's part of this simple five-step, 24-hour turnaround. So go for a walk, step outside, move for a few minutes. If you're watching me on YouTube, how about you pick up this episode, and you put in your earbuds, and we go for a walk for the rest of it? And, you know, if you're listening to this and it's late at night, here's what you could do: Get down on your bathroom floor and do 11 pushups. On your knees, do them against the wall. 11 pushups will certainly move things around. You're gonna feel better. Do 10 squats. Do something, because movement isn't something you do once you feel better.... Movement is what helps you feel better. It helps you show up stronger for the rest of the day, and then just like that, one foot in front of the other, you, my friend, are turning things around. Go you! So let's talk about the fourth simple step in this 24-hour turnaround: make tomorrow easier. Yep, make tomorrow easier. And when you say, "I'll deal with it tomorrow," about the things you could handle today, you make things harder for the future you. And look, I get it. You're overwhelmed. I get the same way. When I feel run over by life, I do not feel motivated to set myself up to win tomorrow. We're gonna stop that with this 24-hour turnaround, okay? Because now that we've cleared out mental clutter and physical clutter, and you've just moved yourself for five minutes, and we did that first because I wanted you to feel a little bit of momentum. I want you to feel the benefit of intentionally moving your body to shift your emotions. Now ask yourself, "What could I do right now that would make tomorrow morning easier, and I remove a little friction that I normally wake up to?" Just one thing, and I'm gonna give you some examples, okay? 'Cause this is such a light lift. Could you lay out your clothes for work before you go to bed? And I'm gonna give you a tip from Erin Walsh. She's the stylist that I worked with for the Golden Globes. I love this tip. This is a method that she uses with all of her super famous clients. It's a method that she taught me. I love this method. S- It's called the Create method. I'm gonna teach you one aspect of it. You ready? Just ask yourself, "How do you wanna feel tomorrow?" Because your clothing is a tool that you can use to help you feel the way you wanna feel. So when you lay out your clothes for work tomorrow, ask yourself, "How do I wanna feel tomorrow? Do I wanna feel professional? Do you wanna feel confident? Do you wanna feel artistic? Do you wanna feel unique? Do you wanna feel stylish? Do you wanna have a little bit of pizzazz? Do you wanna feel comfy?" And isn't it interesting that when you ask yourself that, and then you lay it out, you're setting yourself up to feel that way? So big shout-out to Erin Walsh for that incredible tip. I love it. I've been using it ever since she taught it to me. Here's another example. How about you pack your bag for that trip that you're taking, so you don't feel rushed getting to the plane or getting in the Uber so that you're on time? That's the one that I'm doing, and I'm packing the bag, and I'm not leaving for three days. But if I were to pack that bag today, oh, my gosh, the pressure's off. That would be incredible. How about this? Set up the coffee maker, so you don't have to think too hard when you stumble out of bed. Put your sneakers by the door, so that you can go right out for the morning walk, and if you have a dog, put their harness and their leash and the poop bags and the treats right there, too, so you're ready to go. You know, if you have kids or you've got nieces and nephews, you know how you make the mornings easy? You pack lunches the night before. You get the backpacks ready to go. You can do that for yourself and make tomorrow a little easier. Here's another thing you could do. How about you just spend five minutes and look ahead at the calendar tomorrow, okay? Look at your day. What could you do for a workout tomorrow, or what do you wanna do when you get home from work instead of doomscrolling? Could you pick out a movie you wanna watch? Could you pick out a book to read, so it's ready to go? Could you, like, figure out the recipe you wanna cook and Instacart the things to your house so that you have the stuff ready to cook? What could you do tonight or today that would help you wake up and be ready to go tomorrow? And here's one that I love. This is something that's become a habit. I rarely even think about this. You know the dirty dishes in the sink? I used to be the queen of, "I'll take care of it in the morning. I'll put a little dish soap in there and let them soak overnight." Have you ever noticed soaking overnight doesn't really help the stuff that's cruded on the bottom to get off? It just leaves you with soapy, cold, disgusting, greasy water, and then what happens? Then the future you wakes up, and boom, you've got a sink full of dirty, disgusting, cold, greasy dishes that you now have to stick your hands into before you're starting your day. That's not a great way to wake up. How about you do the dishes before you go to bed? That way, the future you wakes up to an empty, sparkling sink, everything's put away, and you start the day feeling like you're already winning. How could you make tomorrow easier? You know, my good friend James Clear, who is the New York Times bestselling author of the global blockbuster Atomic Habits, talks about this as one of the top experts in the world on habit formation and behavior change, this idea of: How do you set yourself up for success? How can you make something easier? And what does his research show? His research shows that the single biggest predictor of whether you're gonna follow through is not discipline. It's not willpower. It's how easy the behavior is to start. See, when something is obvious and easy, you do it. When it has friction or complicated steps, or it requires you to push through the fact that you don't wanna do it, you're not gonna do it. In other words, behavior follows the path of least resistance. You know, I know somebody who bought this fantastic rowing machine, and they were all excited to row, but they put the machine in the back corner of their basement, and to get to that rowing machine, they had to go downstairs and maneuver this ridiculous obstacle course of bags and boxes and buckets and crates and storage bins to get to the cold, poorly lit corner in the back of the basement. You wanna know how often they went down there? Almost never. Why? 'Cause it's not very appealing, not so easy to get to that machine.... First of all, it's down in the basement. It's out of sight, it's out of mind. Then there is all this basement junk in the way. That's friction that I'm talking about. But this story has a happy ending, because guess what they did when they did this five-step, twenty-four-hour turnaround? The one thing they changed is they just moved the rowing machine upstairs to a new space, where they could see it every day in front of a window, and boom! They just made it easier to start using it. Now, notice I didn't say you had to row today. Notice I said I didn't say you had to meal prep today. I'm just asking you, what's one thing you could do to make tomorrow easier? And you know what my one thing is that I did in my twenty-four-hour reset today? You already know it, because I circled it. I'm making a grocery list, so doing the grocery shopping tomorrow is easier. Isn't that cool? This is you taking control of how tomorrow is going to go. This one step is helping you close one thing that's running in your mind that you don't even realize. Your mind is already worried about tomorrow. And so when you lay out your clothes, or you set up the coffee, or you block the time in your calendar, or you figure out what your workout is gonna be, or you write an outline for the email, or you go through your day and you create, next to your brain dump, just a list of, "I'm waking up at six, and then I'm doing this, and then I'm doing this, and then I'm doing this," you're telling your brain, "Everything's fine. I got this. We got this." And that's why this step might just help you sleep better. It's gonna help you wake up with less dread. It's why tomorrow doesn't feel like some big monster before your feet hit the floor. Think of this as making tomorrow easier as an act of kindness to yourself, a form of mental hygiene, because you're now closing the day cleanly, so tomorrow can start with ease. And look at where you are right now, and just ask yourself... Here's what I want you to do: think about this, "What's one thing I can do tonight that will to make tomorrow just ten% easier for me?" I mean, you deserve that. And then do that, because when tomorrow starts smoother, you won't have to fight your way into momentum. You'll wake up with it. And that brings you and me to the final step in the twenty-four-hour turnaround, and this one's my favorite. You ready? Claim one win. Before the day is over, give yourself some credit for something that you did. That's it. That's all I want you to do. And I already know what you may be thinking: "Really, Mel? Just thinking about something that I'm gonna win, that, that's supposed to help me turn things around?" Just stay with me, because this step, claiming a win, might seem really small and insignificant, but it's doing a very powerful thing. Have you noticed that it's so easy to move through the day without really stopping to think at all? You get out of bed, you brush your teeth, you eat your breakfast, you get the kids fed, you get them on the bus, you go to work, you run errands, you pay the bills, you help with homework, you eat something, you do the dishes, maybe you squeezed in a workout, you watch TV, you solve one problem, you answer fifty-five thousand emails, you attend all these meetings, then another, then another, then a next thing, and then you fall into bed, and what happens? What does your brain do? Your brain immediately starts reviewing all the things you didn't do. It starts to think about all the things you wish you had done differently. It starts to pull open all the things that you didn't get to. And you wanna know the truth? Do you know how much you're doing? You are doing so much. You're showing up. You're making it to work, or you're making it to class. You're managing your emotions. You're managing your mood. You're doing the best you can. You're trying to be great with the people that you're caring about. You're handling what's in front of you. You're responding to the texts. You're responding to the emails. You're making progress. If you don't stop to acknowledge what you're doing right, your brain doesn't register it at all. It's just gonna keep on moving the goalpost without giving you any credit for how far you've come, and that's why this step matters probably more than any other. It's one part giving yourself credit. It's another part training your brain to start scanning the day for the things that went well, instead of constantly bashing you for all the things you didn't get done. Claiming one win at the end of the day is about stopping just for a moment. Give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back. If you didn't lose your temper, even though something at work today really upset you, that's a win. If you rested when you needed to today, rather than pushing yourself and burning yourself out yet again, that's a win. If you ate a healthy lunch, great job! If you read a few pages of that book that's been sitting on your bedside table for a few months, great job! If you called your mom or dad, and you had a conversation, great job. The win could be that you reached out to a friend, and it was long overdue, or that you caught yourself as you were wasting time on social, and you put the phone down. Did you have a good laugh today with a friend? That's a win. Did you wear an outfit that made you feel more confident and stylish? That's a win. Maybe your win is that you got out of bed when the alarm rang. Maybe your win is that you got out of bed for the first time in a week. You know, there was a time in my life where that was a massive win. Maybe you asked for help, instead of just pretending that you had it all figured out. That's a huge win in my book. Or you started something that was important-... Even if you didn't finish it, you just got it started. You're filling out an application that is for nursing school or for an AI certification or an application for a grant. No, you didn't finish it, but you printed it out. That's a win. One small step forward, one box checked, one thing circled on that brain dump. You saying this is important, these are all wins, and here's what you're gonna notice: they happen all day long. You're just not counting them, and when you don't count the wins, your brain assumes they don't matter, and I'm here to tell you they do. So I want you to do this at the end of the day, right before you go to sleep. Just ask yourself one simple question: What am I proud of today? And there's a lot of research and it, and science related to this little cue, but I wanna highlight one famous body of research called What Went Well? or Three Good Things. This is a foundational study led by Dr. Martin Seligman. He's a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and here's the thing about Dr. Seligman: he's widely considered the father of positive psychology, which is the science that explains what makes life worth living. Positive psychology is about how you build wellbeing, happiness, meaning, purpose, emotional resilience, and strong relationships. So Dr. Seligman and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania said to a group of 100-plus participants, "For one week, every single night, just write down a few things that went well, and then write down why they went well." What happened? More happiness, less sadness, and the key part is the benefits lasted for months, months after the exercise stopped. Here's why this works. When you deliberately focus on what went right, you're training your brain to notice progress instead of scanning for problems, and this is where your brain's reticular activating system comes in. We talked about this a lot on the podcast. I've written about this in our books. We- we've had lots of experts come in. The reticular activating system, it's basically a filter in your brain. It's like, I think about it like a giant electrical hair net over your brain, and it decides in real time, what is your brain noticing consciously, and what is it ignoring? And it's shaped by what you repeatedly pay attention to, and by ending every single day by claiming a win or asking yourself, "What went well today and why? What was good today and why?" That is how you can intentionally shape what your brain pays attention to. And there's another important piece to this. See, when you force yourself to claim a win, to look for what went well today, to see the good, you're building self-trust. Confidence doesn't come from just motivation or affirmations. It comes from evidence, and when you name something that you followed through on, when you label something that went well today, your brain logs it as proof. "Hey, I keep promises to myself. Hey, I do a lot of hard things. Hey, I actually am doing a lot of good. Hey, I'm getting a lot done. Hey, I deserve more credit than I'm getting." And if you don't do this, if you don't intentionally start to see the wins and see the good and give yourself credit for all the effort, your effort feels invisible, and that makes you feel invisible. That makes you feel like nothing you do matters, and the fact is, you're doing a lot that matters, and it's time to wake up and recognize it. And that's why this is such an essential part of the 24-hour turnaround, claiming the win. Just ask yourself, "What was one thing that was good today? What's one win? What's a second one? What's a third one?" Claim as many as you can. Let your brain register it. Feel good about it. Give yourself credit, and if you can't think of something, let your friend Mel give you some. You spent time listening to The Mel Robbins Podcast. You chose to listen to something that you knew would make you feel better, that you knew would make you do better in life. That's a win. You saw the title. You saw that it was about the 24-hour turnaround, which means subconsciously, you knew you deserved a 24-hour turnaround, and just giving yourself credit for knowing that you needed this, that's a huge win because the turnaround isn't just about what you do. It's about what you believe and how you feel about what you're doing. That's the added oomph that we're getting from the research, and that's how the fifth piece of this, the claiming the win, ties it all together. Whenever you feel like life is just too much, and you don't know where to begin, all your brain needs is a little evidence that you can move forward. That's it. That's why these five simple steps matter. That's why clearing up the mental clutter, doing a brain dump, crossing it off, circling the one thing that's important, that's... It matters. That's evidence that you can move forward. That's why clearing up the clutter in one space matters. It's evidence that you can move forward. That's why moving your body and feeling the way it shifts your emotional state matters because it's evidence that you can move forward. That's why taking five minutes tonight and going, "Okay, how do I make tomorrow easier for myself? What's the one thing I could do tonight that allows me to wake up and already feel like the wind is at my back?"... you've just proven that you can move yourself forward. And that's why ending every day with your brain dump next to you, and writing down a little to-do list, and then asking yourself, "Okay, what went well today? What's my win? What's another? What's good?" And then closing your eyes, and putting the pen down, and laying your head on the pillow, knowing that you did good today. You did good! That proves that you're moving forward. See, every time you do one of these five small things on purpose, you're sending your brain a very important message. You're saying, "I'm the kind of person who follows through. I'm the kind of person that focuses on what's important. I'm the kind of person who takes care of myself and takes care of my space. I'm the kind of person who can turn things around. I'm the kind of person who can make progress little by little, and I know how important it is." And now, you're also the kind of person that knows that you can come back to this conversation over, and over, and over again. You can remind yourself of these five simple things and the research that proves why it matters. If you have a bad week, do a 24-hour turnaround. If you feel off with your habits, just 24-hour turnaround. That's all you need to do. You don't need to wait for Monday. You don't need to wait for tomorrow. You don't need a new month, or a new year, or a birthday. You don't even need to wait until you feel ready. You just need one day where you say, "I'm not gonna stay here. I'm not gonna stay overwhelmed, 'cause I don't need to. In the next 24 hours, I can turn this around." And so here's what I want you to do after you finish this episode: pick your first little turnaround and do it, and when you do, I want you to feel proud. I want you to say to yourself, "I'm back." Maybe even say it out loud, alone in your room, or your car, or your closet, or the kitchen while the coffee's brewing, or out in public. God, it feels good to be back. Not back to perfect, back in motion, back in control, back with your hand on the wheel. Because remember what I said to you in the very beginning? A huge ship doesn't just whip around in an instant. It turns because of one small adjustment, and then another, and then another. And right now, you and I, I'm turning that wheel with you, and I want you to know, as your friend, I'm gonna be right here cheering you on every step of the way. And in case no one else tells you today, I wanted to be sure to tell you, as your friend, that I love you, and I believe in you, and I believe in your ability to turn things around any time from now on, when you decide to. All righty, I'll see you in the very next episode. I'm gonna be waiting there for you to welcome you in the moment you hit play. I'll see you there. And thank you for watching all the way to the end, and you're gonna love this next video, and I'll be waiting to welcome you in the moment you hit play. [upbeat music]