5 Shifts You Can Make in Under 5 Minutes (You Can Thank Me Later)

When I walk on stage and the room is flat (especially after lunch or after a dense technical session) I run a quick exercise before I begin.

It takes thirty seconds. Afterwards, people approach me about it almost as much as they approach me about something in the keynote itself.

Here's the exercise.

I ask the audience to first notice how they feel right now. Their mood. Their energy. Just take note of where they are.

Then:

Shoulders back. Deep breath in. Let it out. Smile - not like you have gas, a real one. Now turn to the person next to you and say, out loud: "I'm glad you're here."

Within seconds, the room is laughing, talking, alive. I then ask, "How do you feel now?"

They feel it. Energy, mood, engagement... all of it has moved in under a minute. Not because of me. Because of what they just did to themselves.

This is one example of what state management can look like in practice. It's small. It's repeatable. It's accessible wherever you are.

There are at least five things you can shift in under five minutes.

1. Shift your energy with movement.

If your energy is low, move your body for five minutes. A walk. Stretching. Stairs. I'm not asking you to work out... just motion. Your energy will respond.

2. Shift your clarity by writing.

If something is tangled in your head, write about it for five minutes. The page won't solve the problem, but it will reveal it. Spinning thoughts compress into language, and language compresses into clarity.

3. Shift your perspective by reading.

One essay. One chapter. One short piece of someone else's thinking. I recently completed Brianna Wiest's 101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think. I read one essay each morning. One is enough to seed the entire day.

4. Shift your mood with breath.

Slow, rhythmic, intentional breathing changes your physiology. Cause becomes effect; effect becomes cause. Your body shifts your mind, and your mind shifts your body. It runs in both directions.

5. Shift your state with conversation.

Five minutes of real contact with a real human moves your state more reliably than almost anything else. Not a feed. Not a podcast. A human. A soul.

Why we skip them anyway

All five of these are easy to do. That's the trap. Because they're easy, they're also easy not to do. We dismiss the small thing because it looks too small to work.

I hear the strongest pushback on this in workplaces that have rolled out wellness programs while cutting positions. The reaction goes: "They cut three jobs and now they want me to do breathing exercises. Fix the staffing! Then I'll have a better workday."

You might be right. The staffing probably is the real problem.

AND you will still walk into the next meeting. That next patient. That next client. That next colleague who needs you.

Five minutes of breath isn't going to fix staffing. But it does change who walks into the next conversation. The person who shows up after five minutes of slow breathing is different than the one who shows up after five minutes of doomscrolling.

That difference is yours.

It doesn't excuse broken conditions. It doesn't let leadership off the hook. But it is the part of the equation you actually control. And perhaps it allows you the space, and the words, and clarity to have a productive conversation with the decision-makers.

Before the next hard thing today... the meeting, the call, the difficult conversation... pick one of the five. Move, write, read, breathe, or talk. Just five minutes.

Then notice who walks in.