FOCUS your RAS to follow your passion
“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new”
We quite often find ourselves not focused on what we wish to accomplish, but instead on what we do NOT want.
We focus on the past proof of failure, or fear of some yet unrealised future event.
We see what we don’t want, point to it, describe it, write about it, sing songs about it and seek more proof to validate it!
We take our past rejection for example, suffer it today and project it into the future.
This can be disastrous for those wanting a happy, successful or healthy life.
THERE IS SCIENCE BEHIND THIS!
The RAS, or Reticular Activating System is a filtering system located deep within the brain.
The brain, subconsciously, deals with 11 million bits of data within our environment.
Consciously however, we can only deal with 60 bits of information per second.
The RAS, filters this info so that we are not consciously bombarded with the massive amounts of info being thrown at us from all directions.
The RAS focuses initially on your survival:
1)It identifies threats in our environment and learns how to deal with them appropriately.
It seeks familiarity, and sees novel or new thoughts that question the STATUS QUO, as threatening.
2)Secondly, and more interestingly perhaps, it can be used to focus on ways to master our environment and work toward GOALS that are important to us, and will move us forward.
The way it knows what is important to us, is largely down to our CONSCIOUS FOCUS.
Those 60 bits of info we are seeing in our conscious mind.
You’ve all had proof of the RAS working.
If you focus on trying to spot red cars, they appear EVERYWHERE!
Even long after you’ve stopped playing the game.
My son said let’s look for copper coloured cars, and I thought to myself, “I’ve NEVER seen copper coloured cars before.”
Now I see them, not quite everywhere, but they are there.
I didn’t even realise they existed before!
- Pregnant woman see pregnant woman everywhere.
- If you work out, you see others who workout.
- If you see yourself as successful, you see successful people everywhere.
Unfortunately, we can also see the OPPOSITE of these positive images.
So, we tend to SEEK AND FIND what we mentally focus on, more primarily, what we identify with. IE, we seek things, people, places, situations, films, and images that support how we see ourselves!
How we feel about ourselves.
We seek everything that supports our current belief system about ourselves.
WE SEE ( and seek) THAT WHICH WE IDENTIFY WITH
We filter our 70 million bits of information through our BELIEF SYSTEMS, which are created through our direct past EXPERIENCES, or the subconscious programming we were hardwired with by our teachers, parents, priest or friends.
- So, if we’ve been abused we see abuse everywhere.
- If we are struggling financially, we see lack and poverty everywhere.
- Those who have a negative self image, see unfit people everywhere.
We will literally look for it in our environment, and with 70 million bits of info a second being streamed through us, it’s not hard to find what it is we are LOOKING for!
THOUGHTS FUEL ACTION
So how do we focus our thoughts on what we are DESIRING to see, be, do or have?
1)Write your goals down. Use a SMART goal format.
SPECIFIC- What is your goal?
MEASURABLE- How will you know when it is complete?
ACHIEVABLE- What Actions would help reach this goal?
REALISTIC- What Resources are in place to ensure this goal is met?
TIME- When will this goal be completed by?
2)TALK about your goals a lot, to everyone who supports you, with passion and excitement.
That focus instantly creates ideas and thought patterns you wouldn’t have had otherwise, helping to embed these ‘new’ thoughts into your brains circuitry.
Talking about it has great power. This is a massive subject within it self, but watch your words carefully.
Only speak words that support what you WANT to see in your life!
3)Have a vision board, or screen saver of your goal on your phone, so that its high visibility and you see it often. An image that represents your goal.
The focus instantly creates ideas and thought patterns that support the search, or materialisation of your goal.
Your brain works in IMAGES and does not know the difference between fantasy and reality!
Even your physiology ( your body),will respond to an image in your head as if it were reality.
4)Read, write, talk, research and look for things in your environment that SUPPORT your goals.
Your brains search function is even more powerful than a computers!
Current studies suggest that the brain is at least as agile and possibly up to 30 times faster than Sequoia Supercomputer at shifting data around!
If your goal exists- and it does- through time, focus and action your brain will find it!
5)Focus as well on what you have already that supports your goals.
An attitude of gratitude is what’s needed to focus your mind, feel good about what you do have, and your RAS will do the rest by seeking out the same or similar experiences.
Developing yourself isn’t the easiest thing but it is 100{00c9fc3b0c04b1c5d0a150e1e4af74c5798b192c7044c1cd852c32d3af5e6a7d} doable!
As a Personal Trainer I’ve found that I AM the product.
If I want people to ‘buy’ into me, it needs to be representative of what they are wanting themselves.
Self development then is crucial,and is the most powerful thing you can attend to, to create a successful business, relationship, body or mind.
1)Know what you want.
2)Focus ONLY on what you want.
3)Write down what you want.
4)Read about what you want.
5)Talk about what you want.
6)Don’t entertain anything, any thoughts, opinions, actions or contradictions to what you want!
“When you focus on what you want, everything else just falls away”.