Reticular Activating System

Your " RETICULAR ACTIVATION SYSTEM " is your own personal high speed internet search engine. It acts on your behalf as a navigational system, taking into account where you are and where you want to go every time you choose a goal.

Your RAS will plot the perfect course for you to follow that will take you directly to your exact goal of choice.

Whatever you focus on automatically activates your Reticular Activation System which starts seeking out all things you need to achieve.

Your Reticular Activating system searches constantly and tirelessly for opportunities that will enable you to accomplish whatever you focus on.

You must tell your brain’s search engine what you want over and over again. Be consistent and clear with your instructions and use the symbolic language or code that it understands.

Your Reticular Activation Mechanism RECOGNIZES and ACTS on IMAGERY and INCANTATIONS in the same way a computer recognizes HTML code.

When you recognize that you are sabotaging yourself by running inconsistent messages you will be able to change the direction of your life by using you RAS to bring new results.

With an understanding of how your RAS  delivers what you want your ability to achieve your goals will multiply exponentially.

Your Reticular Activating System is constantly asking you questions like “Does what i'm thinking about myself match my version of the truth?”

Your version of ‘the truth’ is what you think about yourself – your self-image – what you think you deserve or don’t deserve, your strengths, your weaknesses, your skills or lack thereof, who you think you are and what you think you are capable of, what you can have and do in this life and what you do or shouldn't do. All of this is filed away in your subconscious mind.

There is a famous quote that says, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”  This is where cognitive dissonance comes into play. To maintain your beliefs, you must behave consistently with what you believe. The easiest way to behave consistently is to reject anything that is outside what you believe.

The problem with that is you get stuck in the repetitious pattern of mediocrity so you don't grow.

How often have you said " he/she only hears what he/she wants to hear.”? Plenty of times.

The Reticular Activating System will only allow those things into your conscious mind that are consistent with what you believe to be true.

If it doesn’t match your version of ‘the truth’, it will filter it out – you will not even be aware of information, data, circumstances or opportunities that are not consistent with what you believe. We can literally be blind to what is around us.

If we are bombarded with too much information that is different than what we believe, one of three things has to happen: 1. We will go crazy, 2. We must subconsciously block the information, or 3. We have to change our belief system. If we really do want to change our lives, which option do you think would be the best? It should be pretty obvious that we need to change our belief system – especially since we know that we have a lot of limiting beliefs. Which option do you think most people choose most of the time? #2 – block the information so that they don’t have to ‘deal with it’.

If you don’t think you are a ‘salesperson’ or you have negative feelings about selling, your Reticular Activating System won't reveal  buying signals the prospect  might be giving you, and will only allow you to register anything that you could construe as an objection.

They may be asking a simple question for clarification, but you will perceive it as something negative, indicating to you (falsely) that they don’t want to buy.

If they get too close to buying, you will even say things that will turn them off so that they don’t follow through with the purchase – even if they really want to.

You do this totally on the subconscious level.

You never intentionally and consciously plan to stuff yourself up, but you sabotage the interaction so you can be sure to prove one more time to yourself that you really are not a ‘salesperson’. Our performance will never exceed our self-image for very long.

In summary, the RAS will only allow you to perceive accurately those things that satisfy ALL THREE criteria:

1. “Is it my responsibility?”

2. “Is it important?”

3. “Does it match my version of the truth?”

If you really  want to move ahead in your life, then how do you change your version of ‘the truth’?

Until you do that your self-defeating behaviors will repeat themselves over and over, so you will continue to get what you have always had.

The only way we can break out of these patterns is to replace your current self-image – our version of ‘the truth’ — of who we are and what we desire to have in life.