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#3 Feed Your RAS

You ever notice how once you decide what kind of car you want to buy, it seems like every other car on the road is the one you want!?!

Why is that? Your reticular activating system (RAS) is activated.

Scientific research has established the fact that the RAS, a group of cells at the base of your brain stem (about the size of a little finger) serves as a little control center--sorting and evaluating incoming data. It's responsible for filtering out the urgent stuff from the unimportant so that you can function properly.

Imagine yourself at a party. You're in a packed room and you can barely hear the person with whom you are engaged in a conversation. Then, someone on the other side of the room says your name and that one word cuts through the noise and your ears immediately perk up. Again, that's the RAS at work.

Now, here’s the deal:

The RAS is going to filter stimuli no matter what—giving us data to support whatever we’ve “told it” is important.

If you’re constantly worried about getting screwed/let down/[insert negative thing here], guess what? Your RAS will help you see all that evidence.

On the other hand, if you’re consciously impressing your consciousness with your dreams and goals and all that goodness, your RAS will hook you up with all the wonderful evidence you need to see you’re on track.

So. Make sure you’re feeding your RAS the right stuff, eh?