[8:51 AM, 1/22/2020] Jiten Patel: How Your Brain’s Reticular Activating System (RAS) Determines Your Success
How Your Brain’s Reticular Activating System (RAS) Determines Your Success
The reticular activating system is a bundle of neurons found in your brain, usually the size of your little finger. It acts as a filter and decides which information is important, and which isn’t, thus conserving a lot of energy. Some people think that the key to success lies in the reticular activating system. In short, utilizing its full potential can mean the difference between living the life you want and being stuck in a terrible routine.
1. How does the RAS work?
It helps to think of the reticular activating system (RAS) as a gatekeeper of your brain. Its job is to sort through the massive amounts of information delivered to you by your sensory organs. Some of these stimulations always get through, for example hearing your name called. However, there is information that your brain can do without and the RAS makes the decision to dismiss it. Basically, the RAS lets in information that you are already focused on. When you learn a new word, you keep hearing it everywhere. If you like a certain type of phone, you notice more and more people using it. This is due to the fact that when you first encountered these things, they left an impression, so now the RAS keeps alerting your brain every time you notice them.
2. The Power of Visualization
While some may think that daydreaming is wasted time that could have been used otherwise, it can actually help you train your RAS. The more you ‘daydream’ about your goals and the desired outcomes, the bigger your chances of reaching them. All of this is graphically explained in this video. Imagining your future means that you are gradually programming your RAS to focus on your goals and ways to achieve them. Clearly identifying your goals will signalize that this is something important and meaningful, so the RAS will begin to focus on it. Over time, it will learn to pick up on clues and hints in your environment that will help you accomplish your objective. Without the help of your RAS, this important sensory information may be discarded and never delivered to your brain. The RAS is not a superpower; it’s just a part of your body that will do what you incline it to do. If you think about a point in your life that you want to reach (employment, travel, marriage), your RAS will detect that this is essential to your life and do a better job at focusing on these things.
3. Visualization Techniques
Success rarely comes in a tangible form; it’s more of a concept. This is why some aspects of your future may be hard to imagine or play out in your mind, so basic visualization doesn’t cut it. The most effective method for practical visualization seems to be writing your goals down on a piece of paper. In this way, you are simplifying and conceptualizing your objectives. If you want to be more creative, here are some other daily techniques you can use:
send yourself an email with your goals or tasks
display your target on your phone or computer wallpaper
keep a journal outlining your plans
place sticky notes where you can see them
create a vision board with magazine cutouts and inspirational quotes
4. Start Working
Contrary to popular belief, the RAS will not attract success on its own. It’s only when you start moving in the right direction will the RAS show you the big opportunities. For example, if your goal is starting your own business, then make it a habit to spend one hour every day working on your business idea. And if you don’t have one, educate yourself about businesses. After sometime, you’ll learn how to attract small-level clients. And as you gain experience and remain focused on the big vision, the RAS will soon show you the “big opportunity” one day. You will suddenly find a high-paying client after toiling hard for months on. This client may help you establish your brand in the market and from there on, you’re set for success. So what’s the key here? The key is to realize that the opportunities RAS shows you are relative to your efforts. It won’t show you the big opportunity right away. You have to follow its trail. Follow the small ideas (self-education, learning through small-level clients) that need you to work on them. Then once you start working, the big opportunity (premium clients) will be revealed.
Conclusion
The reticular activating system is a powerful tool that nature has given us. While its function seems quite simple, there are many ways you can take advantage of it. If the RAS can help you focus on your desired smartphone or car then why not train it to focus on your education, job, family or house? It’s potential has no limits and it would be a shame to waste it.
[9:17 AM, 1/22/2020] Jiten Patel: Have you ever banged your head against an intractable problem, only to have it solved much later, usually in unrelated circumstances? Have you ever experienced l’esprit de l’escalier? This is your RAS at work… and it’s about time that you paid it a better salary and gave it some working conditions where it can work even more productively.
Your RAS is a powerful parallel processor, a relatively slow computer that can solve complex problems and arrive at novel insights, seemingly out of nowhere. The trick is to program it correctly and then give it the time and context that it needs to do that work… all while you get other stuff done.
Once your train your RAS to pay attention to something, you’ve effectively outsourced the task of thinking to your subconscious, which can work in parallel to your day-to-day (and night-to-night) activity (and dreaming).
Here’s how it works:
Decide on it. Choose the idea you want to embed into your subconscious– it could be a concept, a theme, a person, a narrative, a process, a problem, an entire project or relationship — so that your RAS can go to work on it, looking for solutions and insights.
Immerse in it. Consciously immerse yourself into the idea — mentally and emotionally. Start thinking about it a lot… vividly… attach strong feelings to it… do this for a while… repeatedly. The required number of hours and days of focus and repetition will vary by the quality and salience of the idea, as well as the quality of your brain and self-training efforts. You can even try a mini-immersion exercise: write or blog about something for a couple of hours, and then…
Sleep on it. Consolidate the memories. The deeper layers of your brain need time for it to soak in.
Walk away from it. Put yourself in a different, atypical environment — new sights, sounds, smells, tastes, feelings — new stimuli that (a) distract your conscious mind, and (b) give your RAS a new context to begin actively scanning for the presence of your idea.
Let the brain magic happen. This is usually where the lateral thinking process kicks in — at seemingly random moments, you’ll become aware of all sorts of comparisons and analogies between the thing you programmed your RAS to look for and the new things that are appearing in your changed environment. Every time you get one of these lateral connections, make sure to reward your RAS’s efforts by giving yourself a mental smile and pat on the back. Good RAS doggie.
If you’ve done this for a while you’re still not getting anywhere, repeat step 1.
[11:57 PM, 1/22/2020] Jiten Patel: The best thing you did today was you took a decision...... whether right or wrong that is debatable and you will know the results only in hindsight.....
But 98% of the people are living and dying in the same state of not taking a Decision and maintain the same status quo and live in their Comfort Zone..... most of the time people are afraid and are confused to take Decisions and to make choices and are apprehensive to move ahead in uncharted territory......but people who do not care about the results are the ones who eventually be successful in life......
it is also important to know that life is a challenge and always evolving...... Nothing comes easy in Life......but the best thing is do what you like the most and keep moving forward......
[11:57 PM, 1/22/2020] Jiten Patel: THINKING DIFFERENTLY AND TO HAVE IDIOSYNCRATIC THOUGHT PROCESS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WHICH YOU SHOULD BE WORKING ON ......REST IS ALL BY PRODUCTS.......
[11:57 PM, 1/22/2020] Jiten Patel: Mahatma Gandhi..... Nelson Mandela.....Abdul Kalam..... Sachin Tendulkar..... Thomas Edison..... Steve jobs.....Nikholas Tesla all had their ups and downs in life but they kept on moving forward.....
Don't and never worry about the results..... just keep on working and keep on moving forward......
Nobody in the real world cares about marks and grades.....
People just want to know how much passionate and creative you are about the things you know and Love to do......
