May 14, 2013 by Dymphna

Performance Enhancement: Use RAS to Excel!

Today I want to return to our conversation on performance enhancement. I’ve talked about some wonderful performance enhancement techniques in earlier blogs, but I find that it’s very useful to have a reminder or a refresher as we go along because it helps to keep us on the right track. It also keeps you focused on getting done what needs to get done and reminds you of the importance of keeping your mind organized and your eye on your peg in the sand.

Focus is essential

You’ll notice I mentioned ‘focus’ in the above paragraph. That’s because focus, or rather learning to focus correctly, is a primary means of achieving any goal you may want to achieve or attaining the outcome that you desire. Too many people don’t understand that getting a desired outcome is a result of focused energy, specific activity, and thought directed at a problem or whatever it is they’re involved with. But not everyone knows how to really focus their mind and their energies effectively.

There are actual scientific studies –mostly done in America—that are designed to understand how the mind works and what the actual mental process of focus actually is. It turns out that there is a specific part of the brain that greatly determines how effective we are because it determine what just what our minds focus on! Believe it or not, there are ways you can help yourself focus more and channel it the way you need it to be. A big part of the process of effective focus is learning how to capture your thoughts.

Capturing your thoughts

Capturing your thoughts is a crucial part of the focus process. Whether it’s on a sticky note, your smartphone, some other recording device, or just a notepad and pen or pencil, capture your thoughts by writing them down! This applies to everyone, whether you want to write a book or improve your passive income. This activity alone has been scientifically proven to reduce mental stress and frees up your mind to increase your powers of focus.

The more you can capture your thoughts, put them in an order and get clarity, rather than having them in what I call a fuzzy muddle, the more effective you will be. The more you become articulate in your captured thoughts, the more defined those goals become and the more easily you are able to focus on achieving them. With greater focus, your performance in achieving your goals will increase, as will your personal power and mental energy.

Activate your reticular activating system

Capturing thoughts activates your reticular activating system (RAS). The reticular RAS is a finger-shaped part of the brain responsible for filtering all the information that comes into your brain and putting it into an organized order. Typically, you will have 50-60,000 thoughts each and every day. Amazingly, 90 per cent of your thoughts today are the same ones you had yesterday. These tend to deal with everyday things like eating, doing daily personal tasks, and things like that. Luckily, you can assist greatly in the thought filtering process that will allow your mind channel its power into the key thoughts and ideas you need.

Capturing thoughts, as I’ve just mentioned, activates your RAS. What you can do is tell your RAS to filter in, that is, to allow into your mind, those things that will help you achieve your goals. Focusing on positive outcomes begins the process toward changing your thought patterns– that which you actually take on board in your mind.

Now, to do this properly takes time; that is, it takes thinking time. This is so important and yet it annoys me how little time we actually do it. Spending time just by yourself, realizing who you are and how amazing you are, what you want to do and what you want to make happen, is crucially important. By this process you are able to clarify your thoughts and goals. By doing that, you are preprogramming your RAS on what to let in and what to filter out in order to maximize your performance. You are taking the time to arrange your thoughts and your brain toward your own fulfillment!

Once you start to conceive of what you want, your RAS will set about making it come about. But—and this is important—you have to re-focus your thoughts not only on what you want, but also, avoid the old thought habit of negative thinking. The habit of telling yourself, “I never win anything”, or I never get to do this or that” or whatever, needs to be broken. That negatively self-fulfilling thought pattern needs to be filtered out of your thoughts so that your RAS only let’s in affirmative ideas and your life direction begins to change.

Create your vision board

One very effective way to do this is to create your vision board. I always insist that you make one in my boot camps because it’s vitally important to redirect your mind’s power and focus. That’s because when you put up pictures of what you want to achieve, you actually see it before your eyes. You want see it every day, whether it’s in your bedroom, your bathroom or even on your computer screen. A vision board helps you to focus on your goals and programs your thoughts toward achieving them.

Because a vision board let’s you actually see your goals before you’ve reached them, they become more than ideas; they become real. This information, these goals and what they look like, are filtered into your mind by your RAS. Then, your mind on both a conscious and subconscious level goes to work to bring these things about. But you need to first prepare yourself, and your mind, to be able to focus clearly on your goals and eliminate the negativity and the unhelpful thoughts and ideas that block your mind from making your goals come alive.

By following this process, you will be putting time, thought, intention and energy into achieving your goals. You will reprogram yourself to shape a new reality and bring about your ideal situation in your life!