“How a network of neutrons the size of a two inch long pencil can help you get what you want in life.”

How a network of neurons the size of a two inch long pencil can help you get what you want in life. 

Really.

The reticular activating system (RAS) located just above your spinal cord filters out unimportant information so the important stuff gets through. 

If you think about it, we can only focus on a number of things at any one time as we have so much thrown at us. We have to be selective about what we take in. 

It’s the reason that when you’re thinking about buying a new car you start seeing it everywhere. 

The brain brings to light what you’re looking for. 

It connects the subconscious part of the brain with the conscious

It’s why when I say ‘don’t think about your big toe’, you still think about your big toe. 

And this is essential - what you’re telling your brain is likely to happen whether that’s positive or negative. 

Your brain is continuously looking to prove you right. 

Even when I said don’t think about it, you still do as it focuses our attention on what matters to us. What we’re telling it. Whether that’s good or bad.

‘There’s this big presentation coming up. Don’t mess it up. I know I’m going to be really nervous as I stumble over my words. I always feel myself going red’. 

Sound familiar……then are you surprised about what happens next…when you go red and stumble?

The good thing however,  and this is something that I’ve been working with my coaching clients on - is that we can use this to work for us rather than against us. 

We can use our brains to get what we want.

In a really dramatic way. 

Firstly, You have to decide what that is and for many people they don’t know what they want. 

What you do have control of however is your own identity and the version of you that you do want to be. 

A lot of the time we’re very passive participants in our own lives. Research from Harvard University suggests that most people don’t imagine their future selves. 

We should be obsessing about and filling our thoughts with the best version of us - our best future selves. This is where the reticular activating system comes in. 

Secondly, use daydreaming and visualisation to work for you.

Starting his life long exploration into why we daydream in the 1950s, Jerome Singer coined three staples in which we mentally procrastinate: 

Poor attentional control which is our inability to remain focused on a task which is necessary but often undesirable. 

Guilty dysphoric day-dreaming which encompasses obsessive and anguishing thinning 

Positive constructive daydreaming (PCD) which refers to planning, playful and creative imagery that we engage in. 

Why does this matter? More recent research by Schooler and Smallwood explains that some procrastinating habits can actually serve us.

If you haven’t already, it’s time to capitalise on the benefits of orchestrating PCD to chase your own version of success. 

Studies using MRI scans show your brain cannot tell the difference between what’s real and imagined. As a result other systems within your brain start to direct your behaviour in response to what you see in your mind’s eye. 

When you direct your behaviour to ‘daydream’ or visualise the things you want to be, do experience and have you direct your brain to proactively work for you as opposed to against you. 

For decades, elite athletes have been well known the world over to use orchestrated visualisation - also known as imagery as a bread and butter skill to help them hone skills, techniques and their mindsets. 

Simply close your eyes and imagine yourself excelling and being the best you. Put yourself in situations where you shine, visualising the best possible outcome. Include as much detail in your visualisation as possible, using all of your senses. 

The purpose of all of this is to pass command from your conscious mind to your subconscious mind. 

You then need to have very specific goals that you want to be working towards. 

I want to start a podcast. Unless I outline exactly how i’m going to do this step by step, it’s not going to happen. I have also made this time bound so picked a date and I’ve worked backwards from there. 

I am giving my brain something to work towards

Finally we need to take deliberate action. 

It seems the RAS likes change more if it’s associated with physical action. 

Leonardo Da Vinci said ‘It has long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things’. 

So what are you waiting for?

Related blogs:

How to take back control of your life. Read here.