How does a mini mart decide what to stock for groceries?
It decides to stock and keep on hand what customers keep asking for over and over again.
The same happens for you.
Your mind zooms in on whatever you focus on over and over again.
Your mind says,
- “That must be what’s important to you if you keep focusing on it!”
- “That must be what you want if you keep visualizing it.”
What are you focusing on the most?
What you want? or What you don’t want?
If you truly believed that you get what you focus on, which one would you focus on?
We can’t possibly focus on everything or we’d definitely go into overload.
Therefore our mind has to reduce, filter and narrow it down so the conscious mind can handle it.
That’s where the RAS or reticular activation system comes into play.
The RAS is a bundle of nerves at our brain stem that filters out unnecessary information so the important stuff gets through.
- It’s the reason you learn a new word and then start hearing it everywhere.
- It’s why you can tune out a crowd full of talking people, yet immediately snap to attention when someone says your name.
- It’s the reason why you suddenly start seeing black Chevy impalas everywhere after you buy one.
- It’s the reason you start seeing a commercial after someone tells you about it.
Your RAS is like a filter that sifts through all the data and presents only the pieces that are important to you. (this all happens beneath your awareness)
The RAS seeks information that validates your beliefs, experiences and newly gathered information in your life.
If you believe you are bad at giving speeches, your RAS will filter in the data that shows you are bad at giving speeches and filter out the data that shows you’re good at giving speeches.
If your experience is that you can’t lost weight, it will present the data that proves you can’t lose weight, and filter out the data that shows you can.
If you just read new information on how to prevent heart disease, you’ll start seeing and noticing more information on preventing heart disease.
Your RAS is like the grocery store in that it will keep supplying you with the things your mind is focusing on.
If you continually focus on why your partner, mother-in-law or co-worker is such a nasty, terrible person—then your RAS will keep bringing that information to your attention.
Our beliefs ultimately determine what our RAS filters in and out.
If you believe that a change you want in your life can’t happen, (you’ll never be able to take that trip, you’ll never have any extra money, you’ll never have a job you enjoy, etc) your RAS will filter in all the reasons you are absolutely right and you will have a really hard time seeing any of the ways the change you want can happen. (it will be almost impossible for you to see ways you can take that trip, ways you can get extra money, or believing that you can have a job you enjoy)
It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
If people want to change what the gas station keeps in stock for groceries, they’ll have to change what they keep purchasing and asking for over and over.
If you want to change something in your life, you need to change what you continually keep focusing on and visualizing in your mind over and over, thus allowing your RAS to change the information that is filtered in.
What might your RAS be filtering out that’s preventing you from having what you want in your life?
If you focus on, visualize and believe that being in a relationship is too difficult and too much work, your RAS won’t even let you see all the reasons it could be easy, wonderful or great. (which isn’t going to motivate or help you with having a great relationship)
If you focus on, visualize and believe that your relationship could be fun, fulfilling and rewarding, your RAS will filter in those experiences (thus giving you more motivation to develop great relationships)
When you focus on what you want. (a great relationship, a job you love, going on a vacation or whatever it is you’d really like)
Your RAS will help reveal the people, the opportunities, and the actions needed to help you achieve those goals.
In life, It’s easy to quit and think that something just isn’t possible.
On the contrary, it’s POSSIBLE for you to train your brain to focus on what you really want. Then your RAS will go to work and help you see ways in which you can make it happen. It will filter in data and information that gives you creative ideas and thoughts you wouldn’t have had otherwise.
Start with these three steps to get your RAS working for you.
STEP ONE:
Pick one area of your life and think of a goal or situation you want–If I could do or have anything I want in that area of my life, what would it be?
STEP TWO
Envision a detailed outcome of what you want. (so clear that if your fairy Godmother came—she’d know exactly what you wanted.)
STEP THREE
Create a mental movie with sounds, conversations, visuals. Replay it often in your mind.
(The more you ‘daydream’ about your goals and the desired outcomes, the bigger your chances of reaching them, as this helps your RAS stay focused on your desired outcome.)
STEP FOUR
Pay attention, follow through and take action on the hints, clues and creative ideas that you receive. (That’s your intuition providing you with a plan of action to get you to where you want to go.)
Once you start paying attention and following through, more ideas for action steps will be provided for you. You’ll start to gain momentum towards reaching your goals!
Remember–The picture you hold the most in your mind is always the one that wins. It’s the picture that you focus on over and over that you are asking for the most. That’s the one that will get stocked or show up in your life.
