On the cover of Make the Move, the numbers tell the story: 5 · 4 · 3 · 2.
Blue for five, four, three, the window is open, time is passing. Orange for two, action.
The countdown isn't a motivational trick. It's a decision protocol. When you notice the window, you don't debate. You count. And at two, you move.
Why five seconds? Because that's roughly how long your committee needs to talk you out of it. The countdown interrupts the committee with a simpler instruction: move.
You don't control whether she says yes. You never did. But which story she tells was always yours.